Blue-News

The Future Economy of Blue Mars

// October 5th, 2009 // Rumors

We’ve been seeing more and more hints around the internet that the costs associated with rental of land and sales in Blue Mars are going to follow a favorable path for all those involved.  Though some tools for development cost in the thousands (3DS Max, Maya, etc…), there are alternatives that are relatively cheap and free.  However, the topic of content creation tools is something for a more in-depth post.

Back to prices and such.  It’s been said in a couple of places that land use fees are going to be either free or “a fraction of the cost of a SL region”, which points to the idea that land prices are going to be flexible for different users’ needs and will be up to the City Developers.  Also discussed is that Avatar Reality will be taking a 25% cut of all sales transactions (hopefully not gifts and donations!), and the City Developers will be tacking on their own tax on top of that, which will probably be up to their discretion as well.

Our feelings about this are somewhat positive.  Though it may seem to some that this rather hefty “tax” will hurt the economy, you have to take the whole picture into consideration.  For one, land fees are going to be cheap; Second Life on the other hand, (where many people are expected to come from) charges rather high costs for spaces that are quite small compared to the Cities of Blue Mars.  Also, we don’t see any indications of upload fees (something that eat away at your budget in Second Life if you aren’t paying attention).  The idea that there will be no cost to upload content makes sense, considering the tax that will be levied on every sale, which still may irritate people out there who feel they should be fully rewarded for their efforts. This is understandable, but the simple response to the tax is to simply mark up for it.

Of course, marking things up may cause the economy to initially be stagnant because people won’t know quite yet what people will be willing to pay for their items, but we believe that the market will eventually (and quickly!) even out to promote a healthy and robust ecosystem.  Also, there may be an initial amount of BLU’s given to each player to help jump start the economy (Taking cues from Obama, AR?), and perhaps a limited stipend similar to that given to early users of Second Life.

Whatever the case may be, we feel that Blue Mars is going to have a great business model, and it’s nice to see an alternative to Second Life in every aspect (content creation, economy, community, and capability).