When starting a blog back in 2008, the hardest part was coming up with a name. But I only really had one criteria – it must not contain the word “Second”. This was before the Lab got all anal and declared they owned the word – it was when every Joe Avatar was bandying around their blogs with the word “Second”. It had fast become a cliché.

And then, of course, the Lab hired a lawyer who decided that they could (and would) own the rights to the word “Second” as well as a bunch of other words. Co-incidently (Actually, it really wasn’t) my blog immediately lost the by-line “News, Thoughts and Humour from Second Life”. Which now I’ve written that out, I need to add in a Registered symbol, but I can’t remember the shortcut key for that.

So as not to suffer the wrath of the Overlords, I’ll refrain from mentioning their brands. Instead, I’ll simply refer to them as They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (Yes, I have already put that on my Copy+Paste) say you can’t use their name as a generic noun or verb, and never use it in the plural or possessive form. I’m guessing most people are completely ignoring that, but if someone (i.e. Me) were to write something that They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named does not like, then they can release the lawyers, who’ll scream foul of possessive plurals and “doing words”.

They-Wh0-Must-Not-Be-Named are no longer alone in General Linden’s (Possessive! Kill him!) censorship policy, as this week, They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named joined them by announcing their own set of restrictions.

My favourite part of They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s policy refers to Messaging. Maybe I’ve missed a trick or something, but are they seriously restricting They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s brand name from being used in user-to-user chat? That does seem to be overkill..

CEO: Hey, what are you guys working on at the moment?

Legal Dept: Ummm.. *ruffles papers*. We’re looking at the brand protection at the moment, sir.

CEO: Oh? Is the brand under threat?

Legal Dept: Well… yes, sir. A music group has stolen part of our brand, and we’re drafting wording to..

CEO: THEY’VE WHAT?! WHO?!

Legal Dept: A band in England are calling themselves “Blue”..

CEO: Didn’t they split up years ago?

Legal Dept: You’re missing the point.. we’ll draft a 200 page memo for y..

CEO: Never mind.. just do what you need to.

Oh didn’t I mention that? They-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named now own the word “Blue”. It’s like virtual world companies actually want to make it as hard as possible for blog authors to write about them.

Here’s an idea – stop being so pathetically worried over your brands when all you’ve done is stick together two commonly used words.

There’s been a lot of hype about OnLive – a gaming platform which is promising to revolutionise the gaming industry in much the same way as Spotify has done for music.

The technology behind it is pretty fascinating, so excuse my while I put my geek hat on and try not to drool too much.

The graphics are all rendered server side in five data centres located across North America. You need to live within 1,000 miles of one to receive optimal service to play several game titles that are released for gaming platforms.

Because the graphics are rendered on the server’s side (similar concept to Cloud Computing), it basically compresses, then streams that information to your computer in a sort of video feed, albeit one which responds to your controls. This means that high end games can be played on lower-end PCs and Macs, games consoles such as Xbox, Playstation and Wii, and even smartphones like the iPhone.

Which is all peachy and dandy for OnLive, which is due to launch this June, and all eyes will be on them to see if it works.

But guess who else has invested in this new, shiny (and freakin expensive) tech toy?

Blue Mars!

If all goes to Avatar Reality’s plan, soon the days of 1 gigabyte viewer downloads will be gone. And no more crippling performance as your computer struggles to render the high quality graphics. It’ll all be done on their end and then streamed into your browser, making the whole experience much, much more seamless, lag-free and pleasant than at the moment.

They’re not the only ones who are looking at AMD’s Fusion Render Cloud technology, but in the virtual worlds market, they seem to be the first major player who look set to make the leap.

Could Blue Mars’ foray into Cloud Computing technology allow them to take on Second Life? My gut tells me that this is their stage, and they need to make sure they play it right. Avatar Reality, the makers of Blue Mars, have already slashed the entry level “city” hosting plans for a limited time, and offering a 30 day free promotion.

On top of the fact that content in Blue Mars is encrypted throughout the distribution of assets, and that you can create complex and detailed structures thanks to integration with 3D software, it’s becoming a compelling platform.

Except for that snag where they take 25% of everything you make – that still bugs me. I guess, seeing as it’s a new virtual world, that that is incorporated into the price of everything right from the start?

It’s still a high figure, in my opinion. Nevertheless, things look like they might be coming together for Blue Mars, and they may be set to take on the virtual worlds market in the coming years.

Blue Mars is always going to get compared to Second Life – it’s in direct competition for the same markets, which is why so many SL residents are watching it carefully.

The primary factor that will determine Blue Mars’ future is going to be the cost. So do their sums add up?

Blue Mars has four tiers of land hosting on their grid – Outpost, Village, City and Metropolis.

Village is comparable to a standard Second Life sim, in that it will concurrently hold 50 avatars. The prices undercut that of a new SL sim, with the setup cost being USD750 with a monthly hosting fee of USD275. This compares with Second Life’s setup cost of USD1,000 and monthly tier of USD300.

The sim is also 16km by 16km, which is much larger than what Second Life will offer you. So on paper, it seems Blue Mars is ticking all the right boxes?

Not quite.

Blue Mars operate a system they call “Revenue Sharing”. In this system, Avatar Reality – the makers of Blue Mars – will take a quarter, that’s 25%, of all the money you make from sales. That’s a huge chunk of change.

Additionally, you can only cash out once a month without incurring their USD50 fee.  Suddenly, all these hidden costs are starting to add up and Blue Mars, despite its prettyfully rendered world, doesn’t quite look so appealing anymore.

Do Blue Mars’ sums add up? Not from where I’m golfing.