so, what's this about. can this ava be auctioning stuff like this? let the next stage of the brou-ha-ha begin
The problem with this whole situation is that NEVERDIE (the avatar) appears to have been given his own server, containing a LOT of assets. If the proceeds from the server go to NEVERDIE (the person), that would not be acceptable unless NEVERDIE (the person) paid for rights to the server, and developed it with his own money. If proceeds instead go to NEVERDIE Studios, as some sort of payment for developing Next Island, that would be much more acceptable.
Well, he (sort of) explained the business idea on his forum. No matter how hard I try I just don't get it because making deals with such terms is a commercial suicide unless you are extremely lucky. Here's full quote and link to thread in case you missed it.
Thanks Krrk for digging that up, I missed it. Guess I'd rather the whole thing was owned by an NDS avatar, but this is far from a worst case arrangement.
So, as extra cash is need one can just create some new apartments or whatever on somebody elses planet where you've baked in some personal land and sell them off? NDS wasn't a planet partner when the arrangement was made? So what, Next Island Inc was. So many more items to cover but typing on iPad sux... Anyway, thanks for pasting that in.
Two things I find very alarming are these: 1. According to Meet The Man Who Just Made A Half Million From The Sale Of Virtual Property - Oliver Chiang - SelectStart - Forbes 2. By ND himself
Desparate times require desperate measures? Let's see, $10 / player / month. (first, that's pretty good considering it's 5-10 x what MA publishes). 5k players ya think? So say $50k. 10% to Lemmy leaves $45k to pay da bills. Not much for a company with employees and fancy Hollywood rent and all. So what we got here? CND money all gone and need more? Hmm where to get the money? Maybe try to get the cut of the decay up? What happens when the rent and employees can't be paid? I guess it don't cost MA much to just leave the planet running. They ain't gonna grow it tho. Best case I see is ND need to find a buyer and fast. I've always hoped for some big game company like EA or Blizzard or something. At least they'd have the capital to make it happen.
forget about another game company coming along. as i explain in another thread, the business model just doesn't make much sence beyond a niche curiosity. ND already has his backer, the guys behind Next Island (cant remeber their name). i do wonder how long they will allow him to deteriorate their image and reputation, either going with another developer or asking him to step aside.
The number of players on Rocktropia and NI is much closer to 5 than 5k, except for this week and the week they launched. NDS must be haemorrhaging cash at an astonishing rate. If they are still in business by the end of the year I will be amazed. Rule 1 in running a business is getting paid for the work you do. The NDS business plan (judging from the ND announcement quoted above) is unbelievably stupid.
I know about the planet population. I over-exaggerated plenty so there'd be some sort of a number that just wouldn't look completely stupid on the other side of the equal sign, you know, something that could be realistic for a company that had liabilities and such as companies always do.
Planet Partner Avatars - "PROHIBITED" To me, it seems that both the auction and the bank are "End User Game Play activities"... I suspect many other will see it that way too. That's a major problem. The bank might be a "pre-exisiting assets" but the new estate deeds on auction are not... and I'd assume with a statement like that that he'd have to sell the bank off ASAP, and it does not seem he's making any plans to ever sell the bank... What's even worse, since he's keeping the bank, he's running two avatars on two different planets, which allows him to avoid paying any tp fees in doing these "end user game play activities"
