Rezzable Introduces a Pay-to-Use Service

Gosh, this is the longest I've gone without posting to this blog - and on this occasion, you don't even get any pictures. Instead you get a long rambling prose piece - so good luck getting through it. Here we go....

Thanks to my chum Xantherus Halberd for letting me know via Twitter of this interesting blog post, concerning those inscrutable souls at Rezzable. Who? Oh come on... where have you been for the last year? Rezzable is a UK-based virtual world design and build company, who have brought us - or perhaps "have curated" would be more accurate - some of the most interesting sims on the Second Life grid. Their best-known sim remains Greenies, with its brilliant concept of a truly immense room infested by aliens. In fact, the company owns a large number of imaginative sims, many of which I have featured in this blog.

Anyway, it seems that they have grown tired of providing us ramblers, tourists and other freeloaders with free access to another of their great sims: Black Swan. Henceforth, visitors will need to stump up nearly 200L$ (about 40p or 80 cents) to acquire a HUD that will grant them entry. Anyone refusing to buy and wear the HUD will be ejected forthwith.

So why are they doing this? Their blog offers the following explanation:

"We are still exploring the right revenue model for virtual world content. We have merchandise that contributes some revenues. However,we have seen the interest in corporate sponsors (like L'Oreal Paris) evaporate. We think the best way to go forward is to charge for an object that can then be used many times for admissions. We realize that this may limit the number of visitors to the sim, but hope that high-quality areas are considered worth paying a little to see, explore and hang-out with friends."

(Thinks: But doesn't Kzero usually reference L'Oreal Paris as a success?)

When Rezzable first appeared there was a lot of conjecture about their business plan. There were making a significant investment in virtual real estate - and undertaking a lot of high quality (read: expensive) construction. Yet they didn't seem to be promoting or selling anything. My thought at the time - and I still think it valid now - is that they were looking to make A Big Splash and establish themselves, almost overnight, as a viable alternative to the established Big Boys of Second Life like, say, Electric Sheep and Millions of Us. But the L'Oreal Paris campaign aside (and that was never intended as a long term commitment, or so I understood), they have not exactly grabbed the corporate world by the lapels, spun it upside-down, and shaken the change from its collective pockets.

I am curious to know why not. At one time, say around 6 to 9 months ago, it looked like they might be getting into some commercial building work. But latterly Rezzable has resembled more of a "vanity project" than anything else. A harsh view perhaps, given that there are people whose livelihoods depend on it. But it seems Rezzable has not capitalised on that first eruption into Second Life, and has instead continued to spawn many interesting and arty sims that do nothing apart from (hopefully) putting the word "Rezzable" in people's minds.

So what about this new "money-maker"? If the sole reason for doing this was to try and get some money back to cover the outlay then I'd be inclined to question the sanity of the decision. But then, I'm a rambler and general freeloader, so I am bound to think that. There are so many amazing sims in SL that I'd sooner not pay for Rezzable ones, thanks, when I can enter the others Free Of Charge. I can get the gist of their exclusive, deluxe sims from Flickr and other bloggers, so I am struggling to see why I might then want to part with hard currency just to walk around them. This is not like RL, where I might spend half a day or more, wandering around a museum, gallery or historic site. In SL I am looking to be there for perhaps 15 minutes... and probably less.

But I don't think this is the sole reason why the HUD has been rolled out. I wonder if it is also a way of introducing a new pay-to-use solution that other SL entrepreneurs can buy off the virtual shelf. It's not a marketplace I've looked at, so I don't know if there is already a welter of such tools out there. But while the Rezzable HUD is currently set to be pay-to-use, based on a one-off payment, it would not take much further development to convert it to a one-off pay-per-use device instead. And there are many opportunities for such pay-per-use services.

Forgive my grubby mind, but for example a concept like this could work admirably for the... ahem... "Adult" market - a sizeable market in Second Life, let's face it. You can figure out how that might work, I'm sure. Similarly, you could use it as the basis for any ticketed event in Second Life - where the HUD = the ticket. Then you might have something...

But no doubt I've got it all wrong, and it's something totally different again. Let's see, eh?

Ebuddy Metro Rezzable

In rambling around Second Life I would far rather explore scuzzy, grimy, gritty places than the clean, bland and rather antiseptic places that seem so prevalent, while sweet-sickly sentimental sites make me feel positively nauseous. Rezzable sims, at least those given over to design showcases, can usually be relied upon to deliver up something interesting, and often with a great grime quotient. This one, Ebuddy Metro Rezzable, hits the spot nicely.

This sim, which lies just to the South of the controversial Cannery Art Gallery, is the work of Second Lifer, Paulo Cassell. As he describes it in his profile: "4 Weeks, 8k prims, two muddy hands and a pile of freebies = The Dump... probably the most complex build I've done so far it made my eyes want to bleed... now if only I could remember where I left my keys."

It is basically a wasteland. A Battersea-like power station, belching smoke into the putrid air, sits at the end of a derelict street. A hole in the street leads down into the sewer system which runs under the sim. Half-wrecked trucks and buses sit, decaying, on a fenced off patch of bare earth. The bulk of the sim is taken up with The Dump... great mounds of rubbish and rusting vehicles, including a cargo ship that will never see the sea again, and an airliner now broken up and going nowhere. I set my Windlight viewer for cold & foggy, and here's how the pictures turned out:


As with other Rezzable "showcase" sims, this seems to serve no particular function, other than "something to be seen". There are several ebuddy sims, and one might expect these to have been built on behalf of the web and mobile messaging company of the same name. However, there is no sign that this is the case. No freebies here... or links... just mounds of detritus & rubbish - and I love it.

One point: maybe this is a Windlight effect, but the smoke from the power station and the burning tyres rises unnaturally fast. I'd be inclined to tweak the particle script to throttle it back slightly.

Al at Arrival01 Rezzable

Just a quickie to round off the weekend. While exploring the Rezzable islands, I found myself in Arrival01 Rezzable. Expecting some sort of orientation island, I was somewhat surprised to find it full of a rich clutter of steampunk-style, Jules Vernian creations - submarines, robots and even an automated orchestra. It all appears to be the work of Madcow Cosmos, leavened with some giant insects and the odd bizarre dinosaur (more usually found on the Stratos Legend Rezzable sim).

This is what you get when you have too much blue cheese before bedtime. The first picture, of the greenie alien was actually taken at Cannery.





Incidentally, a word of caution if you are looking to exhibit at The Cannery. Please make sure you read and inwardly digest the contract before handing over any artwork. This analysis is worth considering carefully.

Mars Areas01 Rezzable

If you are a fan of Rezzable here's another sim to add to your collection: Mars Areas01 Rezzable. I am not sure if it's officially open yet, but there seems to be a fair amount of traffic already. This sim, like a number of others in the Rezzable family, seems to be best described as an art installation. You arrive in a vast space, filled with translucent balls that gradually change colour as you watch. Bursts of plasma (or something) zip between the balls (ooh, sounds painful). A teleport lifts you to a big tubular affair that seems to serve no purpose other than to be a big tubular affair. And there's some stuff you can discover, like the "space seats" illustrated below.

Aside from that, there's not a lot else I can tell you. It's cleverly done - but left me feeling a bit "so-what-ish." God, what a jaded palate I must have. Anyway, despite this rather lacklustre report of mine, I would urge you to pop along and form your own opinion. For those who can't make it, won't make it or simply want a quick look-see, here are some pictures:





Finally, thank-you to my top informer - you know who you are - for tipping me off to this build.

+++

UPDATE: Lem informs me (see comments) that this is something of a "hack" build, done in a short space of time, and could be zapped at any time. So if you want to check it out, you better get your teleporting skates on.

UPDATE 2 on 21-10-07: There is a more on this at Not Possible IRL.

Rezzable Hallucinogen

I'm always keen to see what the latest thing that the creative team at Rezzable have cooked up, but it was quite by chance that I happened upon this, their latest build(?), Rezzable Hallucinogen. There isn't a great deal to say about it really - the pictures tell you must of what you need to know.

It is modelled as a sort of atoll, or maybe a circlet of basalt outcrops. A pathway of sorts leads you around these outcrops in almost a full circle. I say "of sorts" as the path has a number of breaks in it, so I don't think there's any way of actually walking it, should you choose to do so. In the centre of the circle a huge statue rise up. There are numerous dreamlike particle effects, and to add to the hallunicatory nature of the place, you will find that all of the basalt outcrops are "phantom" - that is, you can walk (or fall) through them - although the path itself is solid enough. It had a feel of Myst or Riven about it. There is no information, and no obvious thing to do, other than go "Wow! Impressive!" - because it is!

Anyway, take a look and judge for yourself:







If you have visited the Greenies sim, you might recognise the statue in the last picture. If you haven't - then you really should!

I can't help but notice that Rezzable often leave it to the curious ramblers of SL to unearth their builds, so that word spreads virally.

Al's Cannery-Opener

I've already covered a number of arty places in Second Life in previous posts, but it seems no sooner do I get to one than another one opens. Last night I popped along to the opening of another arty place: The Cannery, the latest sim from those intriguingly creative folks at Rezzable.

The art, or SLart (their term, not mine - reminds me too much that it needs the suffix "ibartfast"), takes the form of Second Life "photos". Here's the notecard to tell you more: "An exhibition bringing together six top Second Life photographers and 40 cream of the crop SL photographs by various Second Life artists or SLartists. Opening the 29th of August 2007 at 15:00 SLT. The exhibition will run until November. Shoshana Epsilon and Vint Falken, both accomplished SL photographers and artists, brought together Collin Savon, Melodious Source, Kean Kelly, Nephie Eerie, Rob Danton and Stephen Venkman along with other very talented SL photographers. Vote for your favorite piece! See the results on the web at http://slart.rezzable.com."

The exhibition is housed in and around a deserted, run-down wreck of building - The Cannery - situated in a deserted, run-down wreck of a dockland. The sim seems to be set permanently to midnight, in order to maximise the atmospherics. But even in other day modes the textures and construction are impressive: crumbling walls; rusting containers; broken fences and general dereliction, all lovingly rendered! They have made brilliant use of "lighting", to create a little gem of a place. Not with the same bizarre and brilliant energy of the Greenies sim - but a mini-masterpiece all the same.




And now for the bits I am not so keen on. Working on the classic Art definition "I know what I like", I would describe the bulk of the photos on display as falling into one of two categories: Athena Poster or Comic Book. In both cases, graphically well executed, even attractive to look at, but not Art (using my strict definition above). There are some exceptions which are genuinely more than just sleekly toned bodies, cutesy expressions, or swords'n'sorcery mockups. And I would strong suggest you look for yourself. Who knows, you might even agree with me?


Interestingly, the adjacent sim, Rezzable07, was open. It, too, features a scene of not-so-genteel dilapidation. This time it appears to be an oil or gas platform. Beyond that I have no further information. Oh... and Ebuddy Sandbox 1 was also open. Maybe all the sims are...