Dear Staff,
Dear Players,
Dear NEVERDIE,

I've been thinking a lot lately about ROCKtropia and I would like to share
some feedback with you. First of all I'd like to say THANK YOU to the design crew, because I think that many areas of RT are just amazingly cool, novel and beautiful. Contrary to the doubters I'd like to praise this land as a great success.

However I'd like to waive my finger at some - especially the promoters.
We need more people to come to ROCKtropia ... if we have a big audience, the artists will come along as well. So it needs to be quite well synchronised. Get in a lot of people in about 2-3 weeks and let some more artist come in as well!
My request would be: The Poets Of The Fall.
They have some great music and I think they would be interested in this concept of VR music promotion. Also they are fairly well known in the scandinavian part of the world especially.

Now to my initial question:
When do you think will be the next opportunity to purchase a shop in RT ?

I would be very much interested in owning one.
I think - however - that it would be a good idea to make some nice prices for everyone to be able to afford some kind of business.

I don't own 1000ths of peds in game. Just a couple of 100ths so it sure would be nice to have a promotion at the begining, to allow "middlewealthy" people to have a place in Rocktropia too.

That way I think we will see some migration to Rocktropia by players that have been in the game for a while, but not long enough yet to be able to throw around 100ths of dollars.

So what do I think would be a reasonable price ? 100 PED for a small shop and 10 PED/month would do the trick. Once I get my business going, I would be willing to pay 50 or even 100 PED a month for my shop, but just to start up I think a nice price would be good.

Also this would stimulate the economy and make things easier for newcomers. Right now it is hard to buy stuff, because of the auction fee and the transport cost on auction, so shops would make things MUCH easier.

And at last - Who can I contact to ask a personal question about in-game design ? Who can answer me a question about what would be possible in terms of a personalized TT ?

Thanks,
Tom - "Jay TheDon Faystone"

start-up promotion

We most definitely need some other way to sell our goods on Rocktropia. It's nice being part of a new planet but I see many people moving to calypso because of the lack of opportunity to buy and sell stuff on rocktropia.
If it's not possible to give a timeframe when we can expect shops or something similar. It would be nice to know if they are even coming to rocktropia. Are we going to get shops?

I am unsure about what kind of startup price would be best, but I would prefer to not have any monthly fee at all.
Without a fee even shops who have no margins at all could be open and sell stuff.

I think a monthly fee is just the right thing for shops. Think of it as having a actual brick and mortar store front. You have to pay rent each month to keep the locations. Should be the same in the game.

I wish I could say I knew more about shops and stuff, but i'm affraid I don't.

Maybe not the best place for this, but the thread seems to be close enough to topic in point.

I definitely think that the TP fountain river stuff in front of Club Neverdie would be the perfect place for those cheap 100PED stalls. They've already got what is it, three or four kicked way off out of the way? Make it about 20 stalls surrounding that little area at a good startup price and it not only helps the new shop owners by wonderful upfront placement to advertise their goods to newcomers, but it also would be very useful for flea market days - cause if the flea market keeps growing, which it is going to do, it will soon be out of control for the mingle and gaggle that it has been so far (not that that isn't rediculously awesome!!! hehe).

Anyway, that's my 2pecs.

Oh yeah, and I do agree with the 100PED start and 10PED monthly rent. I think that's pretty reasonable.
(Insert epic-ly fantabulous Mnom Mnom Spartan smiley here)

While having 20 or so there would be awesome, I think it would start to crowd that area a tad to much... but we will have to wait and see what designers plan and stuff..

Can't wait for the opportunity in August to find out what it will all be!

Just a quickie ... and a reply on Laban about location ... but personaly I thought Skull Market was suppose to be a place for stalls or 'market booths' ?? It's just ... the name 'market' implies something which has to do with trading?

That's far from Dream city of course - and one would expect shops, booths to be placed in more than one location

Dunno

Sadly I think you should take a good close think about what you are asking for. Sounds to me like an open invitation to Investers and Traders to come along and force the prices of such things out of reachability of Rocktopian Residents. As it is when shops and stalls are implemented you are going to have this problem if they are just put on the open market no matter what the costs are. Those who have the PED will try to buy up everything they can and resell it at a profit or leave it sit vacant till they can make a profit.

Booths / Stalls:
As on Calypso, cheap and nasty. Minimul purchase price. No rental fee. Minimul item points. Out of the way place, ie: Skull Market.

Shops:
Again, I feel these should be comparable to Calypso.

If you are going to own and run a shop you need to show you are capable of stocking and running the shop in a profesional manner. How this can be done is beyond me. I have seen many shops on Calypso that are beyond a joke. Shops closed because the owner has not paid the rent. Items with MUs beyond reason. I even have to question my own shop in PA Mall, at times it needs a little sorting and improvements. No, sorry, it needs a great deal of improvement.The difficuly with me lies with me being frivolous when I have the PED and not being sure on how to go about the changes I need to make and do the things I need to do.

My suggestion to the developers would be to sell shops to those who place written applications with at least a basic business plan of what your intentions are. A contractual lease that can be terminated after a set period of time if you do not follow through with your intentions. This type of lease would help keep the Ubers out who wish to control markets. It may also cause dificulty to those just starting out.

All this can create hard questions which may need difficult solutions. I don't know the answer, but I do know that shops of some sort are sadly needed on the Rock. I am sure they will get to it eventually, developement is a slow process and must be done in a way that creates economic stability. Perhaps, when they are released a competition will be held to give away one or two of them as a starting point.

Sakuba

edit:
Darn just noticed that the poll was closed and I never had a chance to vote. Guess you can't guess that mine would have been "Other - I have posted..."