State of There Address

by ZachC

 

The state of There, what is it? Steve Victorino, the President and C.O.O. of There, or Forterra Systems as the company is now known, came into There last night to provide us with his insight on where There is now, and where it is headed.

Was it successful? Was it worth listening to? I believe it was. It laid to rest several rumors that have been touted by some as fact, such as that the company had been bought out, that There would be closing, and that There has no marketing plan.

I hesitate to do a transcript of the entire speech since it’s readily available for people to download and listen to for themselves. It can be found at:  There_Movies club site at: www.backblast.com/there/movies_mirror/SOTA-2005.mp3

Here is a not so abbreviated presentation of Steve’s speech.

To start at the top, Alex Community began the event by welcoming the various media organizations. In attendance were representatives from The Voice, Life in There, and The Caldera Sun Times. The entire event was broadcast live by WOTR, Radio There, Rush Hour Radio, and Extreme Radio. The event was filmed my Miracle Pictures, and Indigo Dragon. Nep was the technical advisor.

The format was a presentation by Steve, and then he would answer questions submitted by the community over the previous two weeks. I will only be hitting on the highlights here.

Steve began by explaining that financial conditions have forced the company to emphasize marketing opportunities for the company. Those opportunities are mainly licensing the platform to entities looking to use Forterra’s state of the art virtual world functionality for real world applications. The first customer, who signed a multi-million dollar contract, is the United States Army. Since then there have been others, including the Department of Homeland Security, and Medical First Response. The most visible result of this has been the name change from There to Forterra. He noted that this is significant to There because the technology be developed for real world applications, can be used to improve the consumers’ service. Also the contracts have allowed There to keep the consumer service open, operating, and thriving.

He noted that just building There is not sufficient. He acknowledged that There would not be operating today without the support of the members. He is amazed what people do with the technology that the company provides. He thanked the members for their ongoing support in helping to build the virtual world of There.

Steve moved on to the state of There. He was quite clear, and stated unequivocally that it is confident and strong. In fact, stronger than it has ever been in it’s history. His intention in this speech was to highlight some of There’s major accomplishments, and plans for the future.

He began by making it very clear, that it is his intention, the intention of the board of directors, and the entire executive team, to continue to operate the There service in such a way as to give it the best chance of success, not just for today, but for many years into the future.

Several projects have improved the functionality of the world substantially. First was There Light. This was a project that significantly expanded the number of consumers who could run There on their computers. With the release of this technology, basically any PC shipped after January 2003 is capable of running There. This was a significant expansion of the total addressable market.

Second was There Care. This brought answers to questions one step closer to the consumer. Members can now easily find answers to questions by simply browsing a catalog of issues.

The third is pricing. The price threshold for entering the world has been significantly reduced. No longer does it take $50.00 to become a member for one year. The new pricing of $4.95 is so low, that anyone who wants to, can now easily become a member.

The fourth area of improvement is the developers’ program. The pricing structure has been completely rebuilt to support a resource based pricing model. This provides the structural foundation on which can be built a very robust, full featured, developers program. In addition the functionality has been increased by adding new sizes and resolutions to many of the object categories. Animation options have been added to several builder and painter kits.

The last area is the new releases. In spite of reduced staff, several new releases have been pushed through over the past several months. These releases have included, countless new bug fixes, most of which have been bubbled up and prioritized through the community. New terrain has been added, and new objects including the monster truck, the groovy buggy, skirts, new portazone sizes, portahomes, and Bacios for example.

We heard the community say very clearly, “Get it right, don’t just push it out.” Because of this, there has been a much higher emphasis on total quality. Because of community feedback, we’ve had several smooth releases which in turn had been a relief to the staff at There.

All of this has allowed There to establish a solid foundation that it is the company’s intention to build upon. In fact, these changes along with others, have put There in a much stronger position than it has ever been in before.

Steve provided some data to back up the statement. New content has been transitioned from the small internal team, to the vast array of external developers. Easily 97% of all new content now comes from the developers. The wealth and diversity of this content is more representative of many creative minds instead of just a mere dozen or so.

There Care has created a zero tier self help system to put answers to simple questions at the finger tips of members. This reduces the customer support costs.

The popularity of this space has resulted in an increase in the registered member base. It’s now four times the size it was the last time Steve spoke with the membership. The rate of acquiring new members is now twice as high as at the low point last summer. This rate continues to grow every month. If it continues, it will surpass the high point when there were multiple marketing programs in place.

Finally There has added several new staff to the team. These people include, engineering, multiple new personnel to support the new developers program, one of which is an artist. Just as important, additional team members are being added. There are currently a number of job openings posted across the internet.

The business concept behind There is capitalizing on a trend that has been in existence for well over a decade. The trend is that people are starting to do everything on line. What There is targeting is the trend of hanging out. One of the most important attributes of the internet is the ability to connect with others. Steve believes that There does this better than anything else in existence today. There is no other product that incites the passionate, insightful response that a There user experiences.

So what is Forterra trying to do? The answer according to Steve is quite simple. They are trying to build a better world for the members. Here’s how that is planned in 2005.

There are three key areas of focus, the economy, the developers program, and real estate. For each of these areas he provided tangible examples of things we might expect this year and provide some vision with an “imagine section” to provide a more futuristic view and allow each of us to dream about what There can become in the future.

First, he hit on the economy. There learned many things in 2004. One of the most important lessons was how critical the economy is for the success of the service. There’s economy is unique in that it has its own currency which is tied to a real world currency, the U.S. dollar. It’s one of the few games that relies so heavily on member created content. This content is the driving force behind our virtual world. In 2005 we can expect to see There continue to focus on the importance of the economy. As a business providing the enabling tools for the economy, There needs to continue to be good stewards of the economy. The economy needs to be made more flexible, more innovative, and more competitive.

To make the economy stronger and more dynamic, There must add additional programs that allow talented individuals to add value to the world. Today there are a number of tools to facilitate members that are talented in 3d art and with 3d tools. In the future, There is looking into ways for other members to use their talents to add value to the world.

Some examples would be, for instance, in the area of neighborhoods, a neighborhood design that allows a mayor to recruit and organize members together to build a new themed area of the world. Imagine tools that help that mayor organize and protect those members and their creation. Imagine a system that allows a mayor to set rents or dues or admission fees to fund that neighborhood’s development. Such a system might allow a highly productive mayor to profit from their unique efforts and talents.

In the area of commerce, imagine a retail system that allows shop owners to create a unique array of products from a variety of developers and arrange them in a way that isn’t possible today. Imagine tools that help wholesalers and retailers manage prices. Distribution, sales, product displays, customer communication, and unique added services such as rentals and returns. Such a system might allow a highly intuitive shop owner to profit their unique skills and talent.

In the area of interior design or architecture, imagine an exterior or interior design system that allows people the ability to create custom landscapes or room layouts and market them. Imagine tools that help these designers create layouts, set layout options such as different colors, display those layouts and sell them to all who are interested. Such a system might allow a highly creative designer to profit from their individual skill and effort.

In the area of media or communication, imagine a broadcasting system that allows media groups and event host to broadcast content to a wide variety of members in their own homes. Imagine tools that facilitate the production, transmission and sale of advertising for those broadcasts. Such a system might allow highly connected media groups to profit from their unique efforts and talents.

These are a few examples of the types of talents that There hopes to someday leverage and facilitate in growing the world. He emphasized that these are also not commitments that such systems will be built this year, but that they are a few concepts to allow you to dream about what There might be in the future.

There will continue to expand and improve the developer program. As indicate before, the developer program is now responsible for 97% of all new content in the world. There have been many improvements, yet there is still a long way to go. The developer program will continue to expand in two dimensions, more breadth and more depth. For breadth, There will add to the clothing, the vehicle, and the house dimension. One example which will provide increased leverage is the concept of custom scripting.

To provide more depth, There is looking to provide additional tools, or add new features to existing tools. There wants to provide more training tools to help more members create their own items. They want to provide more tools so that developers have a better way to manage their goods. Currently some of the top developers have well over 1,000 items for sale. There needs to provide better tools for the developers to market their goods such as through their own stores or store fronts. The auction system needs to be improved to make it easier for members to find specific items.

On the imagine side of the fence in the developers program, imagine a developer submission process that is faster and more flexible than it is today. Imagine being able to create your own pets, your own card games, your own games of chance.

Next, the real estate system needs to be upgraded. The first of many project to upgrade the real estate system is already in development. There are many things in the zones that need to be redesigned and There is starting with the portazone redesign project.

Imagine being able to assign a name to a portazone. Imagine teleporting directly to a portazone. Imagine being able to control all foreign objects in your portazone. Imagine being able to save a layout in a portazone. Imagine a simpler payment system. In this case, the imagine is not all that futuristic. Some of these things are in development today and Steve hopes to release all of these redesign imagine items in the next few releases.

The imagine I the real estate system is about deploying a complete land management system that enable private places, that allows individuals to create their own land masses, that allows them to set the rules that govern their land.

In parallel to these three main objectives There must continue to improve the product. Each one of the releases included a number of bug fixes. The priority of these fixes came from the community. There will continue to fix bugs and remove the hurdles that limit members’ ability to enjoy the world.

What else is on the roadmap? In addition to fixing bugs, there are two main areas that There is focused on improving.

With There, we need a better way for members to invite friends and family into There so that they too can enjoy this virtual world. It isn’t simply about getting friends into the world, it’s about facilitating their membership as well. Imagine being able to send your friend a post card of you riding on a hoverboard in your favorite village. Imagine sending a short video showing off your newly decorated interior. There clearly recognizes the need for a better way for members to spread the word about our world.

The second area There is focusing on in improving the product, is in adding more fun. This is critically important to expanding of the product for new comers. To this end, There has several things on the roadmap. They have a paint gun kit and a race kit which today can only be utilized in fun zones, but which they are looking to add in terms of functionality to portazones. There is looking to improve the event host system, fixing the rating system, looking to open the card API to allow members to create their own card games. They are looking to implement the concept of dice, a random number generator that will enable games of chance. Though some of these items are futuristic, you will also see some of these fun items in the next release or two.

Steve said that he hoped this address provided some context to some of the things they have focused on over the past several months. He hopes the imagine portions of the address, if only a little, has inspired people to dream about what this world, There, can become in the future, but more than anything he hopes that this address showed each of us that the entire team at Forterra is wholly committed to making this service a success. Within the bounds of rational decision making, There will continue to increase, yes INCREASE the investment in this business doing everything they can to ensure that it not only stays open and operates, but thrives and prospers.