who is ur client base?

[Lighterthief]

heya peeps

i know CND is in a kinda transitional phase atm

but i am interested to know what market the asteroid will be aimed at and what income streams u are looking at

noobs? mid lvls (like myself) or the ubers?

obviously there has been a lot said over the prices ppl are talking about for propertys, so if its cool, i'd like to know what plans u have before i think about parting with $

its a catch 22 tho, a real tough situation, the storage issue is a biggie (without a appt) and the travel costs are also pretty big, but the costs talked about for appts are just silly, maybe once my money tree has grown a bit lolz

pls dont get me wrong, i am all for the pilots being able to make some peds out of travel, that how economys work (regrets not buying a hanger)

so if possible pls let me know who this land will be aimed at?

obviously if u are targeting another group apart from myslef then i and others like me should go else where.

there is so much said in different forums and ingame its hard to know fact from fiction, i'm sure u understand

also can u pls clarify the income situation as well?

as a potential customer of urs i'd like to know that area i am investing in has been built on sound planning, obviously if things go bad, and we hope they dont, but we all need to look ut for ourselves

i know the prices u have mentioned for appts, but i am still a bit confused over what money goes where, i have a list of how i think it works, pls correct me if i am wrong, or complete if i have missed bits

appts ND
appt rent MA
market stalls ND (how many are there?)
stall rent MA
dome/tax income ND
Advertising boards (not sure, ND i think)
is there a advertising rent? i guess we dont know yet - MA i guess lol

also the streaming audio side is very interesting, i know here in london a pirate radio station can make £5k approx $9usd per week in charging new talent to play, so this could be a real money spiner if u approach it in the right way

so can u let us in on ur ideas pls, a sneak peek if u will i guess all this is in the future, but i know u must have plans

will there be a entry charge to see/listen ?
will u be charging ppl to play? or will u be hiring more establshed artists? (some namedropping would be cool, just so we know what genre ur into, i guess the metal heads wont be as interested in a house club)

thx, srry to pester but i am soooo excited about the idea of CND, but really wanna know the plan before i invest
thx

oh also re-reading this is is obvious that u have 2 sides to this venture, the LA side and the musical side, have u had any thoughts on how u will break down ur income, eg will u look to have a 50-50 split? or will ur property sales cover ur inital investement and then use music/streaming income to maintain domes or hire artists etc)

i hope i am not asking questions that are too personal, but as most of the community i am excited and nervous at the same time

thx peeps)

[EagletonNova]

go here

http://www.realityport.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48 (Found this.)

Click on the second link on the first post. It show you frequently ask questions. Well i think it tells you everything.

[Lighterthief]

thx bro

a very nice news article, but it doesnt answer any of my questions at all.

First of all this was published in nov, a month before CND was released and i am sure since the asteroid has been available the dynamics have changed, eg in nov we thought it had 10 domes not 20 etc

dont get me wrong this is a very nice interview aimed to promote neveridie and pe, but it doenst tell me anything about the future plans for the resort or anything about who is the target audience or anything about the business model being used

it is a very nice advert and advertising is very imp of course

[Epictetus]

Nice post. I think part of the difficulty ND might have in answering a few questions is, like Treasure Island, MA will be developing CND over time, adding features like a battle dome and streaming music.

So he knows as little as we do about some features.

The most exciting thing to me is the download client.

[Lighterthief]

thx epic)

i am sooooo curious about how the streaming side will turn out

i myself worked in clubs/festivals, dj'd a bit (but i am really crap lol) have built and toured with soundsystems, so i guess that side of me is coming out a bit

the potential for revenue there is huge, i mean like really massive

but i guess atm i/we are like investors in ND's dream
thats way cool, and i wanna get on board.... but .... i dont know what the dream is

as with any investment u need to know the background and make a decision based on those facts, but facts are hard to find, as many other forums have taught me hehe

so i just wanna know who CND is aimed at

i know ND has been trying to get good mob balance for mid lvl players, so i guess thats the target audience atm, but theres a small paradox here too, those are the same players that are being frozen out with current appt prices....

but i dont wanna get onto appt prices, the market will decide whats what there

if ND's vision is a success i can see a new breed of pe player, who doesnt like hunting/mining/crafting/skills but is here as a regular at CND, as u have club regulars, thos would be a massive boom for the tailoring industry, lol, unless we have orange only clubbing hehe

this would be a great benefit to all of pe, and would help to establish the virtual world as opposed to the game

but we are not just trusting MA in this, the vision is ND's, and we need to know what that vision is if we are to get on board


btw... download client?

[Epictetus]

Originally Posted by Lighterthief

btw... download client?

Yeah, one of the selling points of the space resort was a unique download client. One example I've heard is that you buy a magazine, and it includes the CD or DVD with PE for installation.

The new player would open an account and begin their experience in Club Neverdie, learning to sweat and hunt and finding friends. Maybe someday they'd see what the surface was like but they will be "born" in CND.

This is why I personally feel there needs to be one or two easy domes for the newbies to hunt and sweat in.

[ViagraFalls]

I hope Jon doesn't mind me sorta answering for him, but here goes. I just had a lengthy convo with him, and asked some similar questions.

Originally Posted by Lighterthief

but i am interested to know what market the asteroid will be aimed at and what income streams u are looking at. noobs? mid lvls (like myself) or the ubers?

Jon mentioned keeping at least 2 domes catered to Noobs. The others are being experimented with as we speak. DNA is being aquired and inserted, tweaking will be done. The revenue CND produced so far has mostly flown straight back into setting up all the domes.

MA has been contacted about bugged domes, to which a server reset was done. There also was some missing (unique) DNA, which ought to be put back as soon as MA figures out where it went. This means there will be three unique spawns at CND, catered to all levels of players, from the wee noob to the Skalmans and Starmans.

obviously there has been a lot said over the prices ppl are talking about for propertys, so if its cool, i'd like to know what plans u have before i think about parting with $

The costs at the moment are market price mostly. People have shown to be willing to pay that, and they kept buying days in a row. Since the majority of the apartments will be held to be prizes in contests and events, the supply available is quite limited. Combine hat with lack of storage, and there's where the high prices come from.

Travel costs are a thing we are working on. we are hoping (with the current oil prices) that we can guarantee trips for 20-25 PEDs single-way. However, this is not something that is directly controled by anyone in particular, so shifts might happen.

also can u pls clarify the income situation as well?

as a potential customer of urs i'd like to know that area i am investing in has been built on sound planning, obviously if things go bad, and we hope they dont, but we all need to look ut for ourselves

At this very moment, CND is heavily depending on MA's creativity. That makes it kind of hard to come up with sound planning, more so since a lot of content has yet to be added. From the talk we had though, I think both of us had some awesome ideas.

The only thing I can really tell you is that Jon has a vision that the boundaries between real life and virtual reality start fading, and the two become fully interlaced. Seeing as a bunch of my own ideas involved the same thing, I think you can expect great things happening in the (near) future, and we hope that once the little pebble starts rolling, you'll be proud to have been part of the world it happened in.

appts ND
appt rent MA
market stalls ND (how many are there?)
stall rent MA
dome/tax income ND
Advertising boards (not sure, ND i think)
is there a advertising rent? i guess we dont know yet - MA i guess lol

This is a thing I don't know a thing about. I do believe your list to be rather accurate though, but the one best able to comment here is jon himself.

or will u be hiring more establshed artists? (some namedropping would be cool, just so we know what genre ur into, i guess the metal heads wont be as interested in a house club)

No clue about fees.

Expect to see some of the world's top DJs, but also bands/names from other genres of music. This will be something MA will mostly decide by the way they implement the streaming video, but a little creativity on our side might go a long way.

have u had any thoughts on how u will break down ur income, eg will u look to have a 50-50 split?

From my understanding, Jon is not in a hurry to get his investment back. Obviously he has a lot riding on this, but the fact the revenue so far was pumped straight back into the PE economy in order to get the domes fixed proves as much. Marketing and music etc will be covered by the income.

Jon compared his investment as a business. CND will be an actual business with actual staff working for him in order to keep things running smoothly. The first steps have been set in VR. Maybe some day in the future, CND will step out of that and get into the real world in order to promote the VR version

HTH to clarify a few things.

Jon, if I misworded anything, or misquoted stuff, please do correct me.

[MindStar9]

Thx for that input VF ... it helps give more understanding to several things, but as we know, it takes time and effort to accomplish the goals that have been set forth. I know that ND is coordinating his efforts with great assistance from you and others, and it's appreciated.

I think the support this community has given as a whole so far indicates that we have nowhere to go but up. Coordinating through MA as well is key, and I know that ND can do only so much with regard to the time factor.

We'll do the best we can and experience this along with everyone else. I have every confidence that 2006 is going to be an incredible year for this VR environment.

[Lighterthief]

VF big thx bro

u have cleared my mind of worries and helped me understand a bit more)

ofc i understand that these things take time, but with all the rumor i thought it best to ask here and u have answered most of my concerns ty

it just makes me more excited about the project generaly

i'm sure many of teh comunity have a background of music/club work and i guess they are all as excited about this as i am i will be trying to join u up there soon, just so i can use my terrible "spaced out" jokes lol

VF i hope u dont mind if i grab u ingame sometime to have a chat about this as u seem to know some solid facts

thx all pls keep us updated

(10 smileys) hehehe

[NEVERDIE]

Thanks ViagraFalls and everyone else, i think you all have a good handle on it.

Maybe we can use some of the answers to these questions in a Faq in the future.

Hi Lighterthief, I'll go over everything again.

1) CND is defiantely in its early stages.

2) What Market? 15-50 age range Pro Gamers/music Lovers/the VR Generation.

3) Noobs, two domes will be plenty for peeps in Orange Jump suits,
if not I can lower maturity in another currently #3 and #5 are Noob orientated... The remaining Domes all the way to #15 are Very low to high Mid level Domes.. Domes 16 -20 are geared to the ubers low - High. The domes will laways be changing, with new mobs , maturities etc... Believe me I am not an Expert in Mob management, but I am in one of the Top societies in PE and I consult with them on my every move, in addition I have an assistant at CND Xzion, who routinely surveys the domes and consults with the hunters for feedback... My ear is to the ground... Of course its impossible to please everyone... I dont have enough Domes, but CND's gonna have a good cross section of mobs wityh unique DNA's and also Unique maturity levels.. Mining from what i can gather is very good.

4) i think its interesting there is no free storage, its a space resort, why would storage be free? Also, the lack of storage will encourage very brisk trade in the resort. Obviously this is not possible until the market stalls and shops are in business. The Demand for apartments for storage puroses will be great, later on if CND is a bustling community.. With a bit of luck there will be a lot of shipping going on in the future. Also when space is added CND will be visited by Space Miners and Hunters, it may become a Major Trade Route.

"The costs talked about for apartments are just silly"

Hangars are currently 25k Ped+ , Nice houses on the planet range from 5-10k their only practical function at the moment is they can host outdoor shopkeepers. Small houses on the planet in obscure places sell for 3-5k... Apartments on calypso, which currently can only be used privately, sell for their orginal 250-350 ped asking price,,, there are a few thousand of them.

The apartments at CND are limited - their primary function is Storage atm, possibly good for social reasons later...They are critical to anyone who wants to make CND their Base.... They are also going to be critical to shop owners and market stall owners as extra storage space.

Since CND is geared toward a more social style of play, apartments maybe very integral in the experience.

How long does $200 last in a night club in the Real World. One night?
Two Nights? - at CND right now it will buy you a residence. you can log in everynight for the rest of your life at no cost and chill, chat be with people decorate it, store stuff, maybe even rent it in the future...... In my experience anything in PE with this kind of intrinsic value very quickly goes up in value as the population grows.

Do you know I was buying land areas in the summer for 11k, I sold one for 9k - now you'd be lucky to buy one for 50k - people hadnt yet realized their value - People havent yet realized the potential value of CND apartments.

I guarantee nothing. I don't even claim to be a good businessman.
Infact theres nothing in my past to suggest that I have a clue how to run a business. I am accomplished however and also productive and successful in some respects... I have never started any business to just make money, I have always started projects I have been passionate about and hoped they would make money.

CND has had a positive cash flow from day 1 even unfinished and with the bugs. I have re-invested everything thus far to make the hunting more appealing to the existing community. MA are now aware of the problem and are working to stabalize it.

Land will be aimed at??? existing PE community looking for events, opportunities to make money in space, Specialized hunters, specialized miners, Social players, Ubers, crafters and traders looking for a good retail enviroment, shoppers, Champions...And finally whomever It can appeal to in the outside world.

A lot of people are critical in the forums, lots of people have their own ideas of how they would operate it. You are not sure if investing in an apartment is right for you.... When in doubt leave it out! If u dont know what your going to do with an apartment if u get one to make the investment worthwhile, then dont buy one, you dont need one... If u are wondering if it's a good speculative investment, well theres a rule for that and that is don't gamble what you can't afford to lose.

I'm not looking for people to buy apartments to have them invest in me. I want the people who buy apartments to have thier own ideas about how they are going to use them to make money or to play with... I need to sell apartments to people who are going to contribute to the economy and to the community and I need them to pay a fair price and I need to get a good price...

u ask where does the money go?

appt sales ND
appt rent MA
market stalls/shops ND (100/100 appx)
stall/shop rent (none i dont think)
dome/tax income ND
Advertising boards ( ND )
is there a advertising rent? i guess we dont know yet - MA i guess lol

I dont aspire to charge new talent to play. I aspire to pay talent to play or at least provide an opportunity for new comers.

Currently there is no plan to charge people to see and listen.
that may change, if the place becomes too packed.

will u be charging ppl to play? NO
I might charge record lables who want to hire the venue.

or will u be hiring more establshed artists? established and underground.

my plan is to bring in lots of genres. I may start with House, because I have some good contacts with famous DJ's.


oh also re-reading this is is obvious that u have 2 sides to this venture, the LA side and the musical side, have u had any thoughts on how u will break down ur income, eg will u look to have a 50-50 split? or will ur property sales cover ur inital investement and then use music/streaming income to maintain domes or hire artists etc

Primary income will be from the Domes, events, advertising and perhaps merchandising