Flatland

[pow]

I've been getting more and more involved with them. The builders are quite impressive (including our own M@gician). I have no doubt that at the point where 3D in Flash is widespread and speedy that this will all convert up.

Check out this home!
http://www.myminilife.com/homes/3810526-a-gray-chalet

Also check out their holiday contest
http://www.myminilife.com/neighborhoods/16234-myminilife-2008-holiday-contest-neighborhood
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[M@gician]

Hi Pow,
What do you mean by this

[pow]

he's building great things - really showing what can be done

i meant that over time the items and then the homes would get higher resolution and then move into full 3D (just as youtube moved to higher quality and now to HD)

i feel like i am using everything we learned here at flatland and my time at slide and youtube to expand myminilife - its fascinating to see the growth - i do wish it was full 3D but that is not scalable given the state of flash rendering at the moment

m@gician, how are you finding it over there?
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[M@gician]

OK, i get you now. And yes i agree, it needs time, patience and for the tech to catch up.

I found it fun over there at fisrst, and would probably missed it all together if it wasn't for your good report about it at the begining.
Now though!!! I find that i am visiting once a week and am no longer playing the game. I have become bored with the regular daily minibuck hunt, and item creation isn't challenging enough, yes amusing at first, but because of the actual rating system and the way they have got things set up, i am less inclined to build.
After lots of reactions, from lots of people, the only thing i can think of is that MML change their policy on building. Yes give every one the right to build but make people pay for an editor if people want to sell "real" items.
If real cash was brought into the equation then it may solve a whole lot of problems.
Apart from the extra programming for MML, its no skin of their nose! They just have to loose a couple of weeks (working) and wait and see if the money starts coming in. If they get it right they can take a %age of real sale made by those who have bought the editor. Free editor, no sales.

I feel they are on the right track, but need a good kick up the arse to get things working right, its almost as if they have got some slap happy attitude towards the whole thing and towards taking note so as to work on the important issues.

Maybe sometime in the new year i will get back to it!!! I had so many ideas and projects, but got sidetracked. I am right into truespace at the moment, free now, and playing with a green screen for video.

And you Pow, your involvement there. How do you see them developing, what do they think to 3dml, have you discussed eventual changes.
Is it worth while continuing?
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* M@gician *
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[pow]

I'm curious about your experiences M@gician. MML has 1m uniques per months and is working to scale it up. Whatever boundaries you have hit will be present as it scales for others.

I imagine you made quite a bit from item sales, yet you found yourself hunting for minibucks? It is true that the money is a bit too restricted and that is going to be opened more. There also are not enough money sinks for the high earners.

You wanted more features in items? which ones? Also, how did the rating system work (or not work) - its still open how to have the community separate the really good items from the poor ones.

Bringing real money in is a major change from an "attention economy" and also has implications with the IRS and European governments. Any system that lets you take money out becomes prone to taxes, fraud and a host of real economic forces.

I'm heavily involved as you can see and intend to grow MML into something truly spectacular.
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[M@gician]

My experiences at MML have been reasonably good as a whole, and minibucks have never been a problem. It was fun hunting them down at first but, i just can't be bothered anymore.
I built myself a reasonable reputation within a very short space of time, thanks to my previous 3D experience here at flatland, and have made over 2,000,000 in minibucks with less than 50 items.

The editor itself is or was a little odd though. Actually making items isn't as easy as that if you have no or very little skills with the internet and certain programs.
Example: If you take an image that is 256x256 px it will scale and fill a 1x1 space perfectly, that same image will also scale and fit a 4x4 space. Try and get that same image to fill a 2x2 or 3x3 space and its impossible. Months later i still can't figure it out.

The rating system is just a mess! There are so many kids that use MML and have absolutely no idea how to make an item correctly, that they just send 1 image and use it four times. They will put it up for sale, but at stupid prices. They will sell a badly made car for almost nothing and then go and rate someone else who has made a perfectly rotatable item and priced it correctly, giving them a poor note.
It just isn't working. The best creators are getting bad ratings and their quality items are just getting lost amongst a sea of crap.

If as you say, real cash is too complicated, then, there has to be another way of seperating the idiots who try to create and sell crap for stupid prices from those that build well and price correctly.

I know that what i have done so far is appreciated as i have already received real cash donations to help with the upkeep of the forum, but even those people are starting to get a little peed off with MML.

In a nutshell the real problem at MML is finding a way so that only real item builders have access to the tools. I, as others, realy don't think that everyone should have the right to build items unless they proove that they are good at what they do.
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[pow]

Sounds like the editor needs an update.

You are right about ratings. The challenge faced is that this is a user generated play so the idea is not to limit item creating to just an elite few. Just as its possible to upload really bad videos to youtube. You hope that views, ratings, comments help bubble the quality items to the top - the awful ones get neglected. Pricing is another issue - it is a free market in a sense - you can create bad items and charge very little for them but will people want them?

I think rating needs to be revisited. Buying activity may be a much better measure of quality.

The marketplace is going to take some more effort to tune it right and reward great item creators.

Lets keep talking - I'll keep talking through the features with the guys
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[pow]

A 3d modeler came up with this sample home for MML

http://www.myminilife.com/homes/4121515-urban-home

Its starting to look more familiar!
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[Kira Scurro]

well, that house is pretty nice for what it is. I made a disparaging remark over in another thread about mml, but it still holds that these worlds are not compelling because they're 2d.

is that the problem with the state of flash, pow? that we are not yet able to use flash in a 3d format on websites like mml? that would be the ticket, cause none of these hold a candle to rover's realism. Also, why do you have to look down on them? i see they're all like that. why can't you be inside of them? or is that part of the 3d effect?

i haven't been here in quite awhile, but i read an article on 2 more 2d based virtual worlds that have sprung up. i wanted to save them for prosterity here, so we can see which one of these programs win out.

i'll post the info on them in another after hours thread.

for some reason i missed the house in pow's first post. now that one is spectacular! course it's not a whole world, but the house took a lot of time and effort and i can respect that. i tried to click to go to the inside, but couldn't find the link.

i wondered who could possibly be looking at the matrix 3dr, magic. i've had a coupla hits recently. maybe it was your friend.

i take that back. it's not even working anymore. i wonder why...

i found out why. i hadn't looked at a 3dml world since i wiped my hard drive back in june. for shame! flatland wasn't even installed! i can hardly believe it.

what a joy it was to find that after install everything worked perfectly! all those rooms in the 3dr were just like they used to be. nary a code error. it was amazing how quickly what used to be huge bsets d'l'd in an instant. i have gotten an upgrade on my ram, tho, so that probably helped. gosh, it makes me want to start building again. if i even remember how...
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[pow]

Not sure if anyone caught the news but we sold MyMiniLife to Zynga back in June. The guys quickly crafted FarmVille on top of their world class platform once they joined Zynga's crew. FarmVille is now the #1 game on Facebook and quite possible the largest social game ever created. I'm incredibly proud of what they created!

Meanwhile, personally, I am wrapping up my time at YouTube and about to go on a leave of absence to do a little travel and get some R&R
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[Kira Scurro]

i keep seeing that game on facebook. i guess i'll have to check it out.

search for me on facebook, pow, and we can hook up. i looked for you, but there's about a thousand entries. of course there's only 1 of me.

enjoy your r&r!
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[M@gician]

Yeap, they sold it and all the things we created, basicly making cash from our work.
Since then the site bugs out non stop, nobody is giving feedback and the whole communtiy has been left in the dark.

I am disgusted with the whole attitude. I feel as though i have been ripped off and i can't even remove my own stuff from the server.

In fact i never gave them the power to sell what belongs to me.

I am struggling here trying to make a living and stay faithfull while people are clearly making a profit my stuff.

Years i have followed you POW, I just don't get it!
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[M@gician]

And now the whole site has gone, so have all my creations.
I no longer have access to anything.

No for warning, nothing. No info since and no way of getting a reply from Zynga.

I see all over the net that you weren't just helping them POW, you actually invested in them (ANGEL). You could have warned me that i was being used and that i was going to loose everything. I would have found something else to do.

Kira you were right to hold back and not get involved, it would have been a waste of your time and effort to discover that someone is making money from your stuff.

I guess i am too gullable, and believe too much in people.
LOL, my wife is forever telling me that i am to trusting. She says its my biggest default.
Time to change from the magician to the evil sorcerer. Sick of being the gullable nice guy.
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[M@gician]

Its back again!

Just need to find a way of removing everything ive done.

Not falling for it again and no way i'm following them anymore.
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[M@gician]

There must be someone backstage at MML who has blocked my posts, i can no longer even send a message, (IP block).

Nice to know who your friends are, well thought they were!

Strange how money brings out the best in people, and shows how they just use people to get to what they want and then discard them like an old rag.

I guess being blocked here is the next logical step.
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