Thursday, July 10, 2008

Rezzable HUD Announcement

Saw Crap's post and, of course, had to go search to see what the heck s/he was talking about. Found it on Avastar. Good thing everybody really really really wants to go there - or this might seem a trifle arrogant and put people off. I mean, if they weren't irreplaceable people might go looking for alternative things to do or visit. eh?

GOOD MORNING SL!
Rezzable with a price
By: Coyne Nagy

ONE of the most popular development companies involved with Second Life is demanding payment for access to sims.


POPULAR: The Greenies by Rezzable are much loved
Rezzable has announced that residents will only be able to visit
Black Swan if they have purchased and are wearing a special HUD which is worn as a watch.
The UK developer sparked a frenzy across the grid with the introduction of the '
Greenies' concept in 2007 but now access to their creations will be controlled.
Initially only the one sim will require payment but that could change.
The HUD will be priced at L$199 and reaction to the decision on the
Rezzable blog was mixed. One anonymous user said: "I think it's presumptive and in bad faith to require paid admission to your sims across the board."
But 'Sulumor' offered a different perspective and backed the move: "I know the creator in the Black Swan and he should command that much Lindens or even more for his wonderful creations."

PS I have to wonder - if this works and they decide to require the HUD for others of their sims - will the resident have to update their HUD at further cost? Will new HUD's be required? Can you buy access to the sims one at a time - or do you have to purchase the package? Will you get a discount for purchasing access to multiple sims? The possibilities are endless. Imagine what your ARC would be if you're covered in Rezzable HUD's. Have to come up with a new word - wouldn't be bling. Maybe Rezzling? Rezzabling?

Update: Peter Stindberg has a much better description - think piece - about the annoucement. And Peter has linked to a discussion on SL Universe as well.

You'll note that the Rezzable mouthpiece has a comment on Peter's blog. One thing that isn't included in the equation, I think, is that it's the people who love it at Black Swan or the Greenies who might be tempted to pay in advance. Newbies won't have any idea what's there - why would they pay? And if you've already been there once or more, you might decide you need to find somewhere else to go.

6 comments:

Jeff said...

I wonder what the HUD does? I'll have to go read more about it. Doesn't seem necessary...

I know someone who owned an island that ran trivia games, and you had to buy a 24-hour pass to get in. Heck, any land owner can turn that charge-per-entry feature on for their parcel, and no HUD is required.

I am surprised more places don't charge you to get in, actually. It could be one way to beat lagging sims, make some property owners income, or make some place super exclusive, etc.

Honour McMillan said...

You're right - as always my friend. I don't know what the motive is. I've updated the blog with a link to Peter Stindberg's blog entry.

Anonymous said...

Wrath, the Rezzable blogpost can be found here: The End of the World as We Know It (Honour links to avastar here.)

The difference between a HUD and a 24h pass is that a HUD allows you full time access (return many times without paying) as with the passes you can set in estate, that is less likely to work. Also, HUD allows addition of scripted features. (So you could say you need a HUD with feature 'X' to be able to activate content related to 'X'.) And excellent example of that is the Melodious Source exhibition in the Dagger Eye Gallery. You can freely stroll, but the art only rezzes when there is someone wearing the heart around. (If you want to check that system out, go to Rezzable Cannery and click the little tornado.)

Honour McMillan said...

Thank you Vint! :)

Anonymous said...

actually it's not a HUD...it's a wearable object and doesn't add more clutter to the screen. The watch btw can be set to any time zone you want. hmmm...I suppose you could wear on the screen though.

parcel charging feature actually does not work on a full sim basis. Why?...no idea.

mouthpiece? wtf, we like the State Department or somethin??

and btw...what is really worse--charging a small admission price for the highest quality stuff or luring people to malls filled with old merch by paying for campers and using bots to spoof the popular places?

Honour McMillan said...

lol Sorry about the "mouthpiece" :) Meant to say "spokesperson" cause I couldn't remember your name - had a senior moment and couldn't think of the word. Didn't mean any harm - honest.
And I agree with you about the campers and stuff - ridiculous way to get people to visit your site.
I was just pondering what paying in advance would mean to people who hadn't been there before. And your sims are certainly high quality. :)