Interactive Training Blog

I was excited to finally receive the much anticipated Blue Mars beta registration notification in my email inbox. Not only had I heard a lot about it, I had watched the YouTube teasers, and anxiously awaited my call to test it out. So I began by completing my registration- It was like opening a Christmas present- you have been staring at the beautifully wrapped box under the Christmas tree for weeks and now you finally get to rip the bow and peel the paper off to find the present inside. Well, that was until I began downloading the app. and saw the projected 3 hour, 41 minute download time which had me a little concerned….and yes, it did nearly eat up all of that time.

Finally downloaded, my avatar and I enter Blue Mars for the first time- I spend a little time trying to customize my avatar. Finally settling for the generic tall, slender, younger looking female (Hey I can even put on cosmetics or add a beard… not sure how the whole beard thing would look). Although the avatars seem a little limited- they are in fact very realistic. My avatar enters Blue Mars and I immediately feel like I am modeling on a catwalk and I just saw another avatar that has the same exact look as I do (except for different hair color). Somehow my avatar does a little pose and has a seductive model walk- my computer then becomes bogged down enough that I can’t even open a small Word document. I am standing on top of water, other avatars are running into me, and the navigation doesn’t come to me as intuitively as expected.

Ok- so where is the instruction manual? Come to find out W, A, S, and D are the keys to move around or you can click with the mouse and your avatar will move- oh so many options!
So once getting the navigation pinned down a little bit better (I finally resorted to reviewing the tutorial something I probably should have done in the first place); I proceed to the Royal Aloha Golf Club- once there I decide to play 1 hole (which probably took longer than it takes most people to play 3 holes real life). Ok enough golf- let’s go explore some more.

I then opt to enter ‘Beach City’ of which I am very impressed with the overall graphic quality. I begin to explore some more, walking over to a water-like feature and then all of the sudden I am in the middle of the dance party-maybe these are the intelligent NPC’s that Blue Mars touts as one of the features?! Hum, not sure. But they’re not looking so intelligent dancing around in their short shorts and leopard print mini-skirts.

To me Blue Mars is an eye candy type of virtual world. Guess it may be time to begin creating things in Blue Mars- since that is the professed main appeal of the VW. So the jury is still out- will Blue Mars be the next big thing next to Second Life? Do I dare address a comparison and contrast model of Second Life to Blue Mars… I don’t think I will go there this time around. Some potential for corporate use? Maybe, I guess time will tell. I realize that Blue Mars is only currently in Public Beta and I believe that it could have big potential down the line if the technical cards are played right.

So after all of my rambling you may ask what is Blue Mars? “Blue Mars is a free to play massively multiplayer virtual world featuring stunning graphics, realistic characters, and endless social bonding activities. The Blue Mars virtual world is made up of an expanding set of independently operated cities that feature unique themes, activities, and attractions such as shopping, avatar customization, unique personal spaces, and games like dancing, racing, and golf. Cites on Blue Mars are tied together with a unified login system, persistent global Avatar ID, and platform wide participation based reward system that encourages users to explore, play, and make new friends.”

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