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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Become a Martian Robot This Friday!

This Friday the Blue Martians will entertain our new members at the I AM Robot Dance. All members are invited to join the Avatar Reality staff and volunteers as we put our best electronic feet forward.

DavyRocket is going to help us with that by providing a Robot Dance animation, free to the party goers. Arzach will add to the festivities as well, with a hand-held laser pistol for the party favor list.

Those pistols will look fabulous with Arzach's cool robot costumes (available at Beach City). And for those new members who haven't found their BLU$ yet, we will offer a robotic tee to help you join in the fun.

There will be opportunities to win BLU$ prizes and one of Arzach's cool costumes, too! You can win in the following categories:
  • --Best robot face paint
  • --Best robot personna (costume, face, dancing, dialogue)

The robot population will be represented as well. You can dance with the Blue Mars Dancing Bots, and Fortune Teller Rosie will join us to answer questions about your chances of winning fame and fortune as a dancer. Hope to see you there for the fun on Friday!

Friday, February 18, 2011

Developers Bring Exciting Features to Blue Mars!

Just take a look at what our developers are doing to create fun in Blue Mars. Don't blink, though! As hard as they are working, the landscape will change quicker than you can turn your head around. The shot above is one of two developer fields found in Beach City. This multitude of blocks is meant to be a collaborative effort of developers to create something exciting and immediate for our new members. Over 19 blocks have been claimed, and while only a few have new content live at this time, more will be visible soon. Estelle Parnall has her shop up and going, and Soeda-San has created an interactive game, Reversi. Two players take turns to dominate the board with chips of their own color. It's quite engaging! AshasekayiRa wants to set up a flash game room. Mako Magellan will share his line of fine clothing, furniture, and accessories. Hypatiaa hints that she has very ambitious plans with a Victorian/Edwardian theme. Jamt plans to point people to fun events and activities in Misty Hollow. Ynaga and VR-Hacks have claimed blocks as well. So far they have not revealed their plans, but we have seen the wizardry of these two with scripts including quests, vehicles, hunts, and time trials. It's a safe bet that their blocks will be awesome! DanielleEber has a block which she will combine with another fun project in Sandbox City. Dani and Rachael (Traveller) are planning a massive role playing area called Cold Harbor. The terrain is only roughed out so far, with default buildings in place, but imagine this turned into a Stephen King-like area where all sorts of intriguing stories can take place with Blue Martians as the role-players.

We can't leave out Arzach either! This week he's added a platoon of robots to his menagerie of fantasy creatures. We'll make robots the focus of the new member party next Friday, and we're trying hard to think of a game to play with the robots as well.

Arzach and others, including DavyRocket, JadeZuma, and Anon often create prizes for us to use at our parties and events. That truly adds to the fun of the events and makes the new members feel especially welcomed.

Another contribution that developers are making to Blue Mars is to create some default clothing and make up choices for our new Blue Mars Mobile members.

This is open to all Blue Mars developers, and we're looking for submissions until the end of February. There's still about ten days left, so if you are interested, please join us! For full details, please visit this developer forum thread.

There are also a few unclaimed Blocks left in Beach City. If you have a project that you are interested in working on, please read this developer forum thread, and send a Private Message to Rosh for further deails.

This project is bringing us lots of new members, and all the fun things created for us helps to keep them. Thanks again to our Blue Mars Developers.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Looks Like Love in Blue Mars

Looking for a spot to dance in the moonlight? Try Blue Mars, after all, Mars has two moons and plenty of romantic places to choose from. Beaches and palm trees abound in Digital DNA and Pavonis. Stroll through lush forests in Wildwood and Turkish Island. Find a table for two in Caledonia, Tharsis, or Misty Hollow.
What to wear? Gentlemen have choices in Tharsis and Caledonia. Fashions for ladies include elegant gowns and cute tees in Fashion Esplanade, chic dresses in Shade City, versatile separates in Misty Hollow and Tharsis. We have a selection of hand-held items now as well. Select a beverage in Misty Hollow. While you are there, pick up the animations to hold and sip it. DavyRocket also has a red rose for the ladies. Accent your wardrobe with jewelry from Anon's shops, GridRock City, Caledonia, and Fashion Esplanade. You can find customized skins and eye colors in Caledonia and Port Town as well.
What to do? Blue Mars offers on-going opportunities for quests, bowling, snowboarding, and golf and our weekly schedule of games and events. We hope you will join us for two events specific to Valentine's Day. On Friday, Feb. 11 (4pm PST) we're hosting a Heart-to-Heart Dance to celebrate Valentines and to welcome our new members. On Feb. 14th, we're hosting a party at the Welcome Area bar with romantic trivia and games. At both of these events, we are offering special Valentine's gifts including "Be Mine" tees and hand-held items for both men and women.
Let Blue Mars share a little love with you!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Avatar Reality Releases Blue Mars iOS App

We are excited to announce the release of our first Blue Mars application for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, now available for download from the App Store!
Said our President & Co-Founder, Kazuyuki Hashimoto, “The launch of the Blue Mars application is a huge step forward in helping us reach our number one goal – growing the user community – by making the platform easier to access by more people. Additionally, since all of the in-world content is developer created, there will be a big opportunity for developers to grow their businesses and brand exposure.”
“Our company is now focused on not only enhancing the app with future updates, but also on improving the Blue Mars platform and the integrated experience between the two,” added Kaz.
This first version of the application allows users to view and rate avatars and fashions from Blue Mars, which populates the results on the "Top-Rated". They can also use the "Recents" option to track avatar updates and see the latest fashions. Future updates will include such enhancements as avatar customization, interaction with other social networking platforms, the ability to chat with other Blue Mars users, and integrated shopping of clothing and other items via Apple's in-App purchase feature.
The free Blue Mars app can be downloaded from the App Store,or can be accessed from the Blue Mars website (http://www.bluemars.com/).
Come celebrate the launch of the app with us at today's Chinese New Year Celebration!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Happy Year of the Rabbit!

Blue Mars welcomes our new members this week with a special party on Friday, Feb. 4. The celebration of Chinese New Year gives us all an opportunity to start new in Blue Mars!
All members are invited to mix and mingle with Kaz, Rosh, and Jamie who will be part of the party, too! The volunteers will be on hand to help the new members learn how to dance and experience the fun of Blue Mars. And thanks to the creative talents of Arzach and DavyRocket, we'll have some party favors as well. Party goers will receive a dragon hat to use in their lucky dances and we have some hand held surprises too!
In addition to the music and dancing, there will be prizes for the following:
  • Chinese festival trivia
  • Best party-themed outfit
  • Best dragon face paint
  • Best rabbit face paint (after all, it is the Year of the Rabbit!)

Join us in the Welcome Area at 4pm PST (7pm EST, midnight GMT)