In this episode, we recap the latest news of Star Atlas from the past week.
We are looking for guests to be on our podcast. The podcast is a discussion of the past week’s news about Star Atlas. If you are interested in being on the podcast, please contact us.
We are launching a Star Atlas merch store. Please check it out at Intergalactic Gear.
We are creating a “non-guild” guild. If you are interested in learning more, please go to Intergalactic Coalition.
If you would like to support our efforts, donations can be sent to intergalacticherald.sol
Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Listen on Google Podcasts
Podcast Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, this is Matt with the Intergalactic Herald, just doing my weekly star OS week in review podcasts. This is podcast number 38. If you’re interested in any of the videos or articles I mentioned, you can go to intergalactic herald. com and look for the newsletter there. That will be news recap number 87.
[00:00:19] That’ll have any links to any of the other Star Atlas creators. Real quick before I get into content, just want to mention my two Star Atlas projects I’m slowly, and I mean slowly, working on. First one is called Intergalactic Gear. It’s a merch store I’m hoping to launch. Doing a whole bunch of behind the scenes things right now.
[00:00:37] Just getting the business structure set up. Yeah, business structure, bank account. taxes, all that kind of stuff. But if you go to intergalacticgear. com actually have a merch survey. A few people have recently submitted. So I really appreciate that. I’m going to hope would like to get more information for that survey and that’ll help kind of define what kind of products and Also kind of where you’re located.
[00:00:57] Since Star Atlas is a, a global community it’s good to know where people are located so I can look to try to find different suppliers in different countries. Second project I’m working on is called the Intergalactic Coalition, intergalacticcoalition. com. That is my, what I’m calling a non guild guild, but really it’s more of just a community for Star Allies Gamers to hang out that may not want to join the guild system.
[00:01:20] It will be a paid community partly two fold for the reason for paid. One is support me doing it. And the platform itself actually costs some money. So those are the kind of the two reasons. But really I’m just looking for a different experience than Discord the platform will allow for a threaded discussions as the primary method.
[00:01:41] So hopefully easier to follow things. And if you like a discussion, you want to keep getting updates, it’ll actually send you an email. So, excuse me. So go to intergalactic coalition. com for that. So bulk of the podcast is different things to talk about first one. Just kind of in the new section start list did release a new ship, the Opal Rayfan it is a data runner ship, um, Which again, we’re still don’t know what all these ships do.
[00:02:09] But anyways, the cool thing is as it was mentioned, I forget by somebody that this is the first ship that is directly has a gameplay mechanic in the sense that as a data runner ship, it can do the scanning inside of Sage labs, but it doesn’t require any toolkits. So that’s the first kind of, Hey, here’s a thing has a purpose and there’s a benefit of having it.
[00:02:33] Potentially the downside, at least for me it definitely is a downside, is it costs 860. But they’re running some sort of special right now that if you buy in the next how many days you get an extra ship for free or something like that. So if if you’re interested in that kind of mechanic and you have that kind of budget yeah.
[00:02:49] There’s a, there’s a new ship available. So the next thing Star Atlas this past week did their first what they’re calling a developer chat. So, and again, to clarify developer means developing Star Atlas. So this isn’t really game design or economics, but the two people that were there were more dealing with the actual.
[00:03:11] Development and I guess we’ll just call it programmers. So I decided to go ahead and listen. They were upfront that this was definitely a non entertainment prog or what do you call it? Event. And so for people who are actually building upon the Star Atlas code and things like that.
[00:03:28] But actually, I admit, I still did find it kind of interesting even though, again, it was way over my head. I’m not a programmer, but I’ve dabbled a little in web programming a little dot net. So, I’m I know enough to know I don’t know anything so, but it was still interesting to hear, and, and I think it’s a great form a great methods to give a verbal real time interaction with the Star Atlas developers not just the Discord channel.
[00:03:53] One thing I did take away that I thought was really interesting, and again, I’m going to continue to give the Star Atlas team a great credit for being very upfront about being open and sharing things. So for the other people who want to build programs or code on top of what Star Atlas is doing, they, again, they are opening Most of their code as part of the build program.
[00:04:12] So the build program is not just access the IP for things like I want to do for the merch store, but again, it’s access to a lot of their software development. What do they call them? SDK software development kits and documentation there. But it was interesting. So that’s really cool. They’re, they’re opening that.
[00:04:27] So if people want to try to build something again. On Star Atlas, but of course on the Solana blockchain, it is great that the team is sharing a lot of things, including their code, but it was also interesting when people had some questions, well, we just really don’t have time to document that better because, of course, we’re trying to actually build the product.
[00:04:45] So I think the outcome of the staffing reductions, whatever month that was now. Yeah, I mean, they’re still open, which is great. They’re still helping the community to enhance things. But again, they have to do their job and get the product shipped. So so it was very great. They talked about maybe having it once a month or something like that.
[00:05:02] So again a lot of Positives to say to the team to make employees available and out there and talking about different things. Again, if I was your programmer, I mean, totally over my head, but you know, it wasn’t too bad to listen to. tHe next topic, this latest, this past week, the Atlas Brew topic was about actually eSports.
[00:05:24] Most of the conversation was led by Dom Dominic, one of the community managers who I did not know this because… Why would I? Until he told me, until he tells the people that prior to coming to Star Atlas, he was actually into eSports, working at some company with eSports’s name, and had been in the eSports scene doing, even competing before, so definitely you could tell from his back, or from his talk, he had a lot of background in it, so I think a lot of his things that he mentioned were incredibly on target, made a lot of sense, and Again, I think just in general, the cool thing about the whole concept of eSports is it’s another aspect of Star Atlas, and again, that’s what I think was so interesting currently, and what got me originally thinking this could be something cool to be involved with is the scope of what it is.
[00:06:13] I mean, again, we’ve talked before, you know, there’s a a UE5 game, there’s a web game, there may be the… soon to be hopefully the mobile companion app. You can build your tools, you could sell merch based on their IP. You could different gameplay styles, but again, there is even the chance of e sports.
[00:06:33] So I just took some quick notes on that because I admit for myself, I’ve always been very intrigued by the e sports what do you call it? The watching of esports. I, I’m past my prime. I can’t do what they do to what times I’ve seen documentaries, you know, eight hours of practice playing whatever game.
[00:06:53] I went to a couple I shouldn’t say a couple, but at least, yeah, I guess a couple, I’ve been exposed to a couple of esports tournaments, live tournaments through either a gaming conference or something. And there’s definitely a vibe. That’s pretty cool. Personally, I’m I enjoy watching quote unquote traditional sports, whether that be football, American football.
[00:07:14] Got into the World Cup at times because my kids were kind of more interested in soccer. Yeah, I know, I’m not going to get into the football thing. But I always remember going to baseball games professional baseball games as a kid with my family. So, I mean, I don’t want to say I’m a typical American male, but yeah, I watch sports on the weekend.
[00:07:32] Root for the home team, things like that. But I’ve always actually been interested in eSports, and I have to admit the biggest problem has been things that are popular in eSports, like League of Legends or Dota. I don’t, I don’t play the game, so it’s, it’d be like, I’m sorry, I just used this funny analogy that a couple, Winter Olympics back the big thing to do was watching curling and I turned it on like I don’t get it.
[00:08:00] Is it bowling? I don’t know. But then once I learned the rules and watched like a documentary I was like actually it’s kind of cool and only because I think it was so accessible It was like hit this stone and this does that and points happen and it’s like hey I could roll a stone across ice and I guess that’s again where I was going back to the other eSports without knowing the game the video game It was foreign.
[00:08:23] It would be no different than watching a sport I know. Don’t even know the rules or something. Again, sorry, pick on British sports, but cricket or rugby. I don’t know what’s going on It’s baseball. It’s football. I don’t get it. Anyways, but again, just because I don’t know the rules I wasn’t raised on those sports I mean it took a lot of time to figure out hockey and it took a long time to figure out soccer Anyway, not a sports show But Dominic brought up some really great points that I realized Might also have a factor and why I never got into it one He was mentioning, it’s got to be fun to watch.
[00:08:56] And again, I think that’s true. Any sport that’s boring, if you’re watching one of the summer or winter Olympics, I mean, you just turn it off because I’m like, I don’t get fencing. But he also mentioned it has to be fun to the players. And I was like, yeah, duh. I mean, again, a lot of the stuff he said was pretty obvious once he said it, but I just had not thought about it before.
[00:09:14] Yeah. But I think the really key point he brought up, and I had never, again, thought of it this way, is that the game, the sport, whatever, needs to be fair, and it needs to be about your skill. So, in a sense, all players have to have access to the same things. And I had never even thought about that, but it’s like, yeah, if you’re playing basketball.
[00:09:39] You know, there’s a rule, you dribble the ball, you don’t dribble, you shoot, same bucket. Everybody plays with the same ball, same two sides of the court. If, if one team got three points every time they shot, and another team got two, well, that’s not fair. And, and, so again, they have to have access to the same thing.
[00:09:55] But in video games, there’s so many abilities to customize and, and, and change things. And again, we know in Star Atlas, it’s sort of all about, hey, I got a bigger ship, or maybe I’ll upgrade my ship, or I’ll upgrade my player. And I think, again, that was a very, very key point, that it has to be fair, and it has to be based upon the skill of the player.
[00:10:14] hE also mentioned again about maybe deciding how, just one aspect of Star Atlas that could be great for esports. I think he made up a good point is if you have too many of them, you just split the player base and not that eventually it can occur. But again, we want to try to really you know, get stuff and get interest.
[00:10:30] The other interesting thing he mentioned about eSports and how some of the current places you think of that are really in eSports is it’s also a marketing tool. That people even though there’s prize money and all that, they don’t make money on it. Again, I thought that was really interesting.
[00:10:44] So one thing you mentioned that could be unique within Star Atlas is the idea that maybe the winner could get a unique skin or something like that, because again, there’s been a lot of discussion within Star Atlas about skins and how you build them and things like that. So again, I think it was a great conversation.
[00:10:58] It was more of the, I guess, old school Atlas brews where they’re just sort of… Talking about things and not necessarily doing a news announcements or something. So on a related note Pathfinder one of the other content creators actually brought up this what was talked about the Atlas Brew.
[00:11:12] And his point was it was, could be really great for the existing community. And I totally agree with it. He also said, well, but it might not be that good for recruiting new people. And I think it’s a fair point. Especially when so much. you know, barrier to entry. But again, the key is also to keep the community happy.
[00:11:28] And so I think again, the, the thoughts of you know, watching these ones again, some people thought, you know, maybe we can bet on the races or something like that. So. Again great analysis, great thoughts on how esports can maybe be integrated within Star Allies. So and I admit the idea of an existing community member and a reason to log in and realize I’m never gonna be that good but just watch.
[00:11:50] Yeah. I’m, I’m, I’m. Very intrigued by it. So we’ll see where it goes. neXt topic star path. So is people may know star path is the for, for, or, or affiliate link that start out was published that if someone uses your link, they’ll get 10 percent off, uh, their sale and you’ll get 30 percent off.
[00:12:13] Well, there was some discussion within the discord. And again, I can’t really follow the conversation sometime and. Who’s saying what, or even who the people are. But sounds like there might have been somebody doing some, I’ll just call it stealth linking, way to websites. Again, I’m not 100 percent sure.
[00:12:28] And then at some point somebody says, well, can’t you just self link to yourself and buy it yourself from like, I assume, like a different wallet. I, I don’t know. I, again, I was really hard to follow. But, again, it sounds like that people are potentially abusing the StarPath system. Again. I, I didn’t, I didn’t follow the conversation, but again, it was something that was going on.
[00:12:51] I am involved in some of my side businesses that definitely are all about affiliate marketing. And it’s a very broad term that sorry, it’s a big. Industry within the online marketing, you know, make money on the internet type of thing. So I have multiple affiliate links on some of my websites. I got money from promoting things.
[00:13:15] Just to give a perfect, or just to give a real example. I have an affiliate link to start a website hosting account. So if you click on my link, I get a commission off of that. I have no problems with this. It’s a great passive income source. So again, I think affiliate links are great. I think they’re awesome.
[00:13:33] Companies give them. Again, Amazon has an affiliate marketing program called Amazon Associates. So, I mean, again, some of my side businesses hope to be completely money driven by these affiliate links. So, I have no problems with affiliate marketing. But again, whatever the… Thing that happened. People were talking about, Oh, well, Star Atlas has to enforce it and they have to do things.
[00:13:58] And I’m like do they? I mean, they’re providing the service. How you you do things is up to the people applying it. Plus, I think affiliate marketing is a great way to grow a community, bring new people in, again, who doesn’t like 10 percent off, who doesn’t like getting compensated, commissioned, whatever you want to call it, for their work.
[00:14:21] So again, I don’t have any problems. But, I think the bigger issue, and it was brought up by a great video by Atlas Theory You need to disclose that these are advertising. These are sponsorships. There are rules. The United States, the federal. Trade Commission, FTC, I think. Yeah, FTC has rules about it. So you need to follow those rules and let people know and be transparent about it.
[00:14:47] So he wrote a very, or he put out a great YouTube video kind of explaining to people how to do it and some of the comments I noticed in Discord was that people didn’t know that you’re supposed to do this. And so again, shouldn’t take anything for granted, but yeah, I think better understanding of the requirements showing resources.
[00:15:09] I know everybody always says that phrase. This isn’t financial advice, but again, this isn’t legal advice, but there are legal ramifications to using or being a member of an affiliate program referral program. Again, the same term, I mean, different terms, same concept. You’re receiving money compensation for your promotion.
[00:15:28] So it was interesting that kind of, Maybe some people are trying to take advantage of it, but also people didn’t even know there was something so Definitely think needs to be more knowledge about this so that everybody is one doing things correctly Potentially ethically, but for sure legally so Reference and again, it’s in this week’s My news recap you can go see Alice theories video.
[00:15:55] I didn’t Published a quick, or not even a quick article, just a couple of links for sources that I look at to understand how to properly disclose affiliate relationships. So if you have a StarPath account, definitely recommend making sure you feel you’ve done your due diligence to be legal. Again, stuff you can say you didn’t know of any better, but again.
[00:16:23] There are stuff related to this. So again not whatever, but definitely need to disclose if you’re out there promoting your star path link. So, and then the final topic, just a small little, I guess we’ll go on the pet peeve side. Announcements. Again, I think I’ve said this before. Again, there’s announcements, there’s a, I can’t remember what to call it.
[00:16:43] Something other, other announcements in the, in the stylus discord, but I was skimming the what was it? The Never Alone campaign. My, my quest had been reviewed. So I saw people say, Oh, just submit a ticket. So I did. And anyways, long story. I was back looking at it for some reason and somebody said, Oh, well, the, the Never Alone campaigns ending in November.
[00:17:08] And I’m like it is. I, I didn’t heard of that. And the comment was, Oh, we’ll announce it. Well, wait, you just announced it. So, is it ending in November or is it not? And, again, I’m going to give the Star Atlas team a great break. They’re communicating, they’re in there. But, again, as an entity, for lack of a better term communication sometimes falls through the cracks.
[00:17:37] Not everything can just be a post on Discord that maybe nobody sees. Again, it may be something that’s coming, so then they’ll announce it, but It’s I’m recording this on November 18th don’t know how many days, I don’t know what this month is computer tell me, 2030, so less than two weeks, there’s a major U.
[00:17:56] S. holiday in there. So, if you hadn’t been putting your time into Never Alone, and again, the dates had totally shifted because Sage was delayed and all this other stuff. If you say it’s the end of November and you post it in an off handed one reply in Discord, then it should be an announcement. And again, I’m not, I’m not trying to be too picky, but again, this just kind of seems like an ongoing thing.
[00:18:23] I know they’re short, or they have less staff, so there’s not as many people. You know, again, I think they had a communication department before. I mean, there were posts on all the social media channels. Now it’s pretty much a couple tweet sorry, posts on X. I guess we’re just going to have to accept it’s not Twitter anymore, whatever.
[00:18:41] But again. If I hadn’t noticed that comment, I might not have pushed as hard to finish up my Never Alone campaigns, which, again, do take time. And so you know, not everybody can listen to every one of the Atlas Brews. Discord is not the greatest communication platform. I don’t know, just a little more communication when you guys decide you’re going to stop something that has been open ended.
[00:19:06] Anyways, I know, it’s a small, small pet peeve, but I’m just, hey, it’s my platform, I get to. Ramble on if I want to anyways, that’s pretty much it. It was overall kind of a another quiet week with a starless team Again, there wasn’t much content creators didn’t do many videos. The the the Ray fam was Covered but again, it’s just an issue.
[00:19:29] It’s just one ship So I don’t know if we’re getting into that slow period for them. Maybe they’re really cranking hard on things, but definitely it seemed like brink point was was definitely a peak and now we’re definitely in the, in the lows of of new things and stuff like that, which again, it’s the end of the year, it’s completely understandable.
[00:19:47] Even if they were pushing hard you know, most games come out prior to. Black Friday so they can do the sales. So I don’t know if, again, something’s coming in December. We know that the golden tickets are running through the end of December. So that might be the big promotion. Oh, and again, there was there was another rough drawing.
[00:20:06] Again, it, it, cool for people who win. But, I don’t know. I’m putting my ten tickets in each week. Yeah, it’s out of sight, out of mind. Anyway, sorry. But yeah, let’s just see where the rest of the year ends up. I was actually toying with because I think the Stardust team usually takes a good break for the holidays, which I plan to also for my business.
[00:20:27] So kind of toying with maybe doing a year review. Podcast or something like that. But again, I got many weeks, so that’s a bit just again wrapping it up. So if you want to follow any of the content creators that I follow, they got all this information, please go to intergalacticherald. com. Look for the, the new section sign up by your email, you’ll get my.
[00:20:45] Email, or sorry, my list of all the other content, creator content sent out once a week on Sunday nights, pacific time. And, oh, just my two projects again. If you’re interested in giving me some feedback for a future merch store, please go to intergalacticgear. com. And if you’re looking for possibly hanging out with some other Star Atlas…
[00:21:06] Gamers, maybe not interested in the Guild experience, want to stay kind of unaffiliated, but yet still kind of hang out but not yet all lost in the Discord channel, please go to intergalacticcoalition. com and sign up there. And that’s it for people in the United States that are celebrating Thanksgiving this upcoming week.
[00:21:24] Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Hope you have a good break if you’re one of those fortunate enough not to have to work and assuming there’s some news I’ll have my public podcast again next week Beyond that have a great week ahead again. This is Matt with the Intergalactic Herald