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.
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Podcast Transcript
[00:00:00] Hi, this is Matt with Intergalactic Herald, just doing my weekly Star Atlas Week in Review podcast. This is podcast number 45. All links or videos mentioned here will be available at intergalacticherald. com. Look for news recap number 94. So, just a quick summary of things we’ll talk about. It was actually a very quiet week, partly because the Star Atlas team is still on their winter break.
[00:00:26] So just, we’ll actually look at some content that came out a week previous which was a checkpoint video from some Star Us community members. So, but before we get to that, just a couple of quick things going on in the world of Intergalactic Herald. Just again, if anybody’s interested in being a podcast guest definitely interested in having people on.
[00:00:48] So if you’re a community member. Content creator or even a Star Atlas team member. Definitely I’d like to get you on and love to chat with you and ramble on too. So please go to intergalacticherald. com and you can just go to the contact form and fill that out. tWo things one sorry, I have two projects I’m working on within the Star Atlas metaverse.
[00:01:08] One is a merch store called intergalactic gear, intergalacticgear. com. If you go to that website, you can fill out a merch survey. Actually made some great progress over my winter break doing a lot of back end things from setting up the e commerce store to setting up the print on demand service finished up my business structure things a lot of things, unfortunately still nothing to release yet, but And then the other project I’m working on is called Intergalactic Coalition.
[00:01:36] This is a what I’m calling a non guild guild that I’m putting together. It will be a paid community for Star Atlas gamers who want to hang out and chat and things like that. It is a paid community Partly due to the software that I like to use for that it is a paid service. So it’s a little different than Discord in the sense that it has threaded discussions as its main thing, not kind of a chat interface.
[00:02:00] And if you want to follow discussions Monoxio will send you emails when they’re updated. So you don’t have to always check the website. So. So let’s get into the main context section. This might be a one of the shorter recent podcasts, but again, that’s due to the fact that the Star Atlas team is on their two week winter break.
[00:02:17] So actually I’m trying to think, even felt like the content creators Star Atlas content creators kind of took a break too, which is Perfectly fine. It’s the holidays and things like that. So but I did want to reference one. So actually if you are looking for the link for this one, it will be in the news recap previous to this one.
[00:02:33] So that would be number 93. So the it was a YouTube video. It was a round table discussion called Check Point. It was number two. It was hosted or I should say, I’m not sure if it was hosted, but definitely moderated by Metaverse Explorer. And add a few Stardust community members.
[00:02:50] Not sure if it was the same panel as the one they did the year previous, but it was a kind of year in review one. So it was Wittekis from Metamberish Nomads Funcracker from Aphia Whitmere, I think from Unseen. I apologize if I forgot your name. And Sante, the community director from Star Alice.
[00:03:11] So it was the five of them. I think they had five windows up. So first of all, I, I found it an awesome chat. I was kind of tempted to go back and listen to the one previous, but then I decided, well, it was a year ago. So you know, I, you know, history, I guess, is interesting, but not a lot. But again, it was a great round table discussion.
[00:03:31] I think it was awesome. I’m glad they all got together. It sounded like they might have had some multiple time zones. I think Some people were South America, Europe, Australia so yeah, so there’s lots of people different time zones. So it was just cool to see every, er, that everybody was on there.
[00:03:47] So I would strongly encourage you to listen to its entirety. It’s a two hour thing, but they went over a lot of things. And I’m just gonna hit a few things that just stood out to me just to comment on. But it was a great discussion from other Star Wars community members. Again I’m just going off of the list they kind of had, but one of the topics they did talk about and it was also, I guess one thing that was really fascinating about it is again, we had some community members and then we had Santi who is obviously a employee of Star Atlas.
[00:04:14] So getting those kinds of different perspectives was, was really interesting. So that, that also was great. So the first top, one of the topics they did talk about where the previous layoffs, and I’m trying to remember again. That was spring or summer can’t remember the dates, but one interesting thing I hadn’t really thought about before, and I’ve commented on it on some other people’s things because the team start list team recently mentioned they were profitable is all the discussion or all the worry about quote unquote, the runway, i.
[00:04:43] e. cashflow and things like that. That has all gone away. So It was definitely, from a business standpoint, the layoffs appear to have really helped in that regards. And, again nothing to take away, and Santi mentioned this, I mean, they were people they worked with colleagues, friends, things like that.
[00:05:02] Layoffs are tough. I mean, there’s, there’s no denying the effect. I’m sure a lot of people personally for their families and things like that, but again, from a strictly a business point of view to remove the need for a capital infusion and all the other things we were talking about after that. In retrospect, those layoffs seems like a very good thing to have occurred.
[00:05:23] The other thing that’s come up at a couple of times it relates to that is that with a smaller team, they seem to be quote unquote more nimble or able to focus, a lot less middle management for lack of a better term. I’m not sure really, I wouldn’t expect the team to kind of really give us the day to day things, but it does feel like they’re able to, you know, do more things quicker maybe.
[00:05:43] Though someone did mention that the layoffs might have just been also good timing in the sense that some of the projects were already near the end and so maybe some of those resources weren’t needed anymore. Again, all this stuff just kind of review, the other thing that came up was a kind of a discussion that That they wanted Michael Wagner, the CEO, to quote, to act like a CEO and do what was tough and Many of the people on the panel mentioned again about quote unquote armchair quarterback or Monday morning quarterback And I I totally agree with them.
[00:06:14] We don’t have outside the team outside the employees We don’t really know one way or another and you know Was that a good CEO decision or bad CEO decision or if he hadn’t done that or? Again, that’s what’s kind of cool to look at these things as a year in review, but I think you can only judge actions in future type of thing.
[00:06:33] So we’ll see where it goes. tHey did have a discussion about the past breakpoint conference. And again they mentioned that it was really a great opportunity for Star Atlas to raise awareness with others within the Solana community. So it felt like it was, or it was mentioned because a few of them actually attended.
[00:06:49] That this was a great place for Starless really to show themselves. Their presentation was well received, and again, lots of connections were made with other people. And again, I’m not sure we’re seeing that with some of the collaborations like the, the Honeyland and things like that, so. And then because some of the people did meet in real life there they mentioned again how the community meetup aspect that occurred at Breakpoint was really great, and it was also mentioned the team enjoyed meeting in person.
[00:07:15] So you know, seems like that was all over a great experience. Another topic was Sage Labs again coming out, and what was interesting hearing again other community members talk was they said it was the first chance for the guild to really collaborate. So even though the game itself didn’t have collaboration, the guilds kind of took as an opportunity to divvy up some tasks like, you know, some people were asked to use scanning or some were mining specific resources that then could be given together.
[00:07:43] So the guild could, you know, redeem a ship or something like that. Again, it was mentioned that AFIA did Did quote unquote build the first ship even though it was redeemed. So again, it was a chance first chance again for the guilds to kind of collaborate and I think again many people there were kind of guild leaders.
[00:07:59] So, and it was also mentioned that this was the first repeatable gameplay aspect of Star Atlas. And so even though I have been On previous podcasts mentioning it just isn’t the gameplay that I like, I will definitely give credit where credit is due that the repeatability is part of why games are fun because you can do them again and again.
[00:08:19] So even though this aspect wasn’t as fun to me again, that is I think one of the good things the team did do in the year past, which was releasing that. AnOther topic, many of the participants mentioned again, they are looking forward to more on chain collaboration options specifically within their guild structure, but also potentially with other things kind of like the Honeyland.
[00:08:40] So again, I think that’s a, it was a good kind of looking forward to the thing. There was a great segment where they were talking about maybe some sentiment within the community about changes to game play, and, you know, recently we’ve had the reduction in score, faction, fleet admissions, and You know, that maybe people don’t want the change or whatever, but most of the participants of this panel mentioned that again change is going to happen, it would be odd that the team releases something and doesn’t change it, and it was mentioned that we, the community, the gamers, are getting very, very early access to game development, and I think Those were all very on point topics.
[00:09:25] And I think something for us to always continue to remember that to say that the game’s not going to change, then we really shouldn’t be involved right now. Because, it has to change. I mean, there is no way what we’re seeing today will be anything what the final game was, from graphics to strategy to, you know, everything.
[00:09:48] And so, again, not to tell some people that they’re just wrong, but, it, you do, I think, have to be completely honest with your health. This is not a finished game. This isn’t a been worked on for three or four years, and fine tuned, and game tested, and beta tested, and all that. So, you know, when something changes, and unfortunately isn’t what you had hoped, yeah, I concur with a lot of the panel members, then maybe you shouldn’t be involved at this time.
[00:10:21] And again, I’ve been upfront. Played it for a few minutes, didn’t like something, and I’m stopping. That’s fine. I’m not saying the game is terrible I’m gonna sell my ships, but again if I wanted to I could come back in a couple years, but anyways another topic they did talk about was the Star Atlas IP program and how that kind of works, and the general consensus seemed to be that, again, it was a very win win situation for everyone involved from Star Atlas, the team, because, again, they’re potentially going to get a revenue stream if some people can make over a million dollars Content creators and builders can build with using the starless intellectual property and no threat of lawsuits and things like that.
[00:11:01] So I, of course, since I’m trying to set up a merch store, I totally like this. So I agree with everyone that, yeah, this. Given again the early access to the game, it’s in development to bring the community along and give an option for a for profit enterprise again, seems great. oNe thing they were near the They did switch to kind of doing a little bit of what what everybody thought on the panel for the future.
[00:11:28] And one was, again, just wanting to raise more awareness in the mainstream that Star Atlas is doing these things and stuff like that. I think it was Funcracker was mentioning like, you know, where, where, why haven’t we gotten any write ups in gaming magazines and things like that. And he admitted he kind of dated himself and I’ll date myself too because I still get PC Gamer printed magazine.
[00:11:48] I think it’s still printed. Yeah, it’s still printed. The other magazine I get Maximum PC, they went to digital only. But anyways, so yeah, I too read those and, and I, I would love to see some stuff in there. And I think again, it’s, it’s regardless of printed press or not, just any press would be there. And I think, again, that just comes with the fact that the crypto web three gaming space is so new and definitely not looked at as a, well, I mean, it’s so new that I think quote unquote, traditional game journalism is still focused on the latest PC game or console game or something like that.
[00:12:28] But again I would hope that as people, as these games mature and become real things, you know, like everything, when you say mainstream, you are not looking at the fringe. And again I can recall a time when everyone was talking about indie games and all these big games. And here are these couple of people in their garage making this little game.
[00:12:46] So, I think, again, this is the natural progression as, as These become much more mainstream and become there. So I do think again, or do you think this is a great place again for future growth? And as mentioned by the team that they haven’t been doing a lot of marketing because, well, again, there’s really nothing there for people to play with.
[00:13:04] But now with the latest experimental mode showing the racing module and the Shoot three yeah, third, third person shooter. Those are much more mainstream games quote unquote. And again, we got potentially the mobile app and the crew and all that stuff. So yeah, there’s definitely plenty of opportunity for future growth.
[00:13:24] And some of the future things that they did kind of wrap up with was one which had already been mentioned that Star Atlas hopes to have a quote unquote a community week coming up or some of the Past programs, whether it was the COPA or the Joanie awards, maybe all coming out. So again, still early.
[00:13:39] Don’t want to, I guess my new year’s resolution for Star Atlas is not to get my hopes up about anything when it gets announced. And again, not trying to say the team is, is being disingenuous, but again fool me once, fool me twice type of thing. So I think those would be great when they come.
[00:13:55] Awesome. And it feels like again. That at some point there will be much more community involvement as there was in the past. And again, part of it I think is just, honestly, just lack of staff. I’m sure they were able to have people dedicated to that before that just don’t have the staff now, so. tHat was all I had to talk about the next version of the showroom.
[00:14:16] The, the, I guess we’re calling it 2. 2 version. Yeah, 2. 2 with the idea that this will not have a game key. So anyone who can go in the Epic store can just download it and start playing. So I agree that does feel like the crossover point for mainstream awareness and things like that. UE5 BC game.
[00:14:36] Yeah, I mean, hopefully again, they get all the crypto onboarding worked out. But again, it’s not. It’s not there yet because they haven’t done it yet, so it’s totally fine. So yeah, I do believe that one. Because there are a lot of a few guild leaders on the video. Again, the desire for the DAC platform.
[00:14:55] And I do hope Starla starts prioritizing that. That one has been talked about quite a bit. And if you had to pick between a few things that could go releasing the DAC platform could go a long way to giving something to the guilds that have been around Star Atlas for the longest time. And then interesting at the end someone mentioned that it would be really cool to have a, a physical meetup, and I’ve heard a couple times talk of like, yeah, why isn’t there a Star Atlas convention con?
[00:15:22] And as much as breakpoints sound like a great opportunity, people are already talking about the next breakpoint, but it’s supposed to be in Singapore, so I think, well, oh, I can’t afford a plane ticket there, so but I think that maybe the key going forward for physical meetups are, are regional ones, you know, one in the United States, one in Europe, one in Asia, South America, things like that.
[00:15:42] Those Those sound like, I mean, just for, again, pure travel conditions, trying to fly everyone around the world is, is probably a little difficult. And actually, as I thought about that, you know, if you tied it right maybe with some virtual presentations or team members strategically, Position throughout the world.
[00:16:00] I mean, you could almost have a 24 by 7, or sorry, 20, or that’s not what I’m trying to say. You could have a round the clock convention with, like, video uplinks and stuff like that and, and yet still have kind of satellite, you know, regional ones and, you know, the U. S. kicks on at a certain time and then Asia and then Europe.
[00:16:22] Sorry, I’m spacing on my time zones, but you know what I mean? You know, you could do like three of them kind of for major daylight hours as it goes around the road again, sort of got the New Year’s Eve celebrations in my mind, how, you know. I could just be waking up and Australia is already doing their celebration on the, on the Sydney Bridge.
[00:16:40] So anyways, yeah, I think that would be great and it would give some opportunities for some real world interactions and things like that. And then the last topic that came up near the end, it was kind of out of sequence, but it was still kind of interesting. Because it goes to the team’s communication strategy.
[00:16:56] So there was a note about kind of both the lack of town halls and the announcement of them being too short. And I definitely agree a couple hours or days notice, especially if they’re during the day. People have jobs they can’t make. You know, on the spur of things for that, but actually it was really interesting that Santi brought up was that the team the past year wanted to actually be more transparent and not wait to release things.
[00:17:24] So in previous years, the town halls were major events and with major announcements because they planned for that. And now and I definitely would say from my perspective after the layoffs, when they had that town hall announced and the three remaining co founders were all there. Yeah, since that point, definitely the need for announcements you know, major.
[00:17:47] Announcement events has, yeah, I mean, the teams have been apparently announcing almost everything in there. So but what was really fascinating was from Santi’s perspective was how, well, you can’t have it both ways. Either we’re going to release stuff immediately, or we’re going to hold it back and have bigger events.
[00:18:04] They, they, they don’t actually work together. And I really think that is a. completely fair point. And the last little thing was again, we asked in the community, they wanted more. Now we’re asking the community, they want less. So I think it is a very large juggling act. And again, now we know. So I think it’s completely fair and it makes perfect sense why there hasn’t been a lot of towels.
[00:18:26] So so that wraps up everything that came out that I wrote down in my notes. But again, I do encourage if you really want to listen to a great conversation between starless community members Insight from a team member. It was a great two hour lesson. So highly encourage you. And now that it’s in the second time I do hope, like they said, this becomes the tradition going forward.
[00:18:48] They always kind of have this year in review video, so. That wraps up the content. Again if you want to check out any of the, my weekly newsrecap, please go to intergalacticherald. com and look for the newsletter recap or you’ll get the little pop up. Please fill it out and you’ll get my I’ll see you next time.
[00:19:05] Weekly email of all the other Stardust content creators so you can just go to one place to get all all your Stardust content curated for you And also if you are interested in sharing some information with me again, I’m trying to create a merch store at intergalacticgear. com Please go to that website and fill out the merch survey.
[00:19:22] Glad to have some feedback Plus, you’ll if you leave your email, be able to give you announcements as I move forward with launching that. And then, if you’re a Starless gamer and not maybe interested in joining a guild, but nevertheless want to get together a smaller group of Star Atlas gamers, then the official Starless Discord, please go to Intergalactic Coalition and fill out my interest survey.
[00:19:41] Again. Do need to leave your email there and once I can get a good number of people, I’ll try to launch that new community for everyone. So it’s already new year 2024. Star Atlas team supposedly be back in the office. I guess they don’t really have an office, but back back to work on Monday.
[00:19:58] Hopefully we get a lot of bug fixes for some of the on chain things that I have been seeing and definitely I’m sure the showroom people have been reporting stuff have been playing it. So. Here’s to a, another new year and see where Starless goes this way. So again thanks for listening. This is Matt with the Intergalactic Herald.