Depending on who you listen to, virtual worlds are the new black. Second Life needs no introduction and yesterday rumors surfaced that Sony was in talks to acquire Club Penguin for $500+ million.
To date there are two leading online spaces. World of Warcraft has been an unrivaled success, bringing Dungeon and Dragons style fantasy role playing to an audience in excess of 8 million. At the opposing end is Second Life with its embrace of capitalism and intellectual property rights.
What happened if you combined both?
Enter Entropia Universe.
Set in a Sci-Fi future players assume the roles of colonists who must develop the untamed planet of Calypso. Game play is open across a number of different fields. Players who prefer a World of Warcraft style experience can undertake quests and join in groups to hunt and fight monsters. Mining is an option for those who don’t like swinging a sword. Moving towards a more Second Life experience, players are able to own and run shops, manufacture goods, own land and build on that land, as well as being able to trade, buy, sell and create goods and services.
The addition that makes Entropia Universe a direct competitor to Second Life though is money. Like Second Life, the in-world currency in Entropia Universe can be converted to US dollars. Unlike the Linden dollar that continues to decline in value, the Entropia Universe PED can be traded at a fixed exchange rate of 10 PED to $1 USD.
Players are able to buy PED’s to use in-world or can transfer PED’s made in-world, out.
But there’s more to Entropia Universe than just the ability to transfer cash in and out. A MasterCard branded ATM Cash Card is available to players which allow direct withdrawal of funds earned in-world. Banking is also taken seriously, unlike the unregulated wild west of Second Life with it’s various in-world ponzi schemes. Entropia Universe recently sold 5 banking licenses for the amazing sum of $404,000 USD.
It all sounds great on paper, but how does it actually play?
Signing up is free, though personal details are not optional. Whilst you could probably enter false information, Entropia Universe does want to know who you are.
If Entropia Universe was to be judged alone on its installation procedures, there would be a lot less than the over 500,000 registered users. It’s awful. The Windows only client is over 1GB in size and can only be downloaded from the one server using FTP. If you eventually mange to connect to the server, and it took me a several hours, you then have to wait an awfully long time for the download. Best I could get initially on a 2mb Cable connection was 20kbs download speed with an estimated time to download of 17 hours! In part it could have been a timing issue. I tried to download during the middle of the day European time (where the company is located). TechCrunch writer Nick Gonzalez reported a 4 hour download from the US during the European night.
A full sleep later I finally had it.
Login is simple although settings should be watched. I had regular issues staying connected until I dropped by internet speed settings to a much lower figure than my actual internet speed.
Users/ players must setup an avatar with a bewildering array of options. Entropia Universe claims that they have the best avatars in the business and it’s a fair claim. Much nicer looking than Second Life with more customization options than you’ll probably ever want to use.
In-world is good. I wouldn’t call it excellent but it’s definitely a slicker look and feel than Second Life. Moving around is easy enough, and once short-cuts and mouse options are learnt it’s a pleasurable interface to use.
I took a tour of Calypso Island and teleported to a number of other locations as well. The non-user created areas look professional, but in some ways, compared to Second Life, it felt a little boring. Second Life would have to be 99% ugly but it’s the raw passion of the user generated buildings that give it appeal.
The graphics engine behind Entropia Universe purrs. Even with relatively low settings the experience was seamless, and despite entering areas with large gatherings of people there were zero lag issues, a constant negative in Second Life.
I’d need to spend more time in-world to get a better feeling for all the possibilities Entropia Universe provides. You can’t fly around and teleport at will in Entropia Universe like you can in Second Life so things do take a bit longer, and yet flying is not a feature you come to expect in virtual worlds if you’re not an existing Second Life user.
Is Entropia Universe a better Second Life?
It depends on what you like. With a retention rate of 16% for Second Life amongst US users, it’s clear that many don’t enjoy what Second Life has to offer, despite the hype. One criticism I hear regularly about Second Life is that it’s aimless; it’s not a game so there is nothing really to do other than enjoy virtual sex and play Tringo. Now before I am shouted down by a legion of Second Life groupies, I do see Second Life’s appeal as a creative and social space, but not everyone wants to get online and build virtual strip clubs or interrupt interviews with flying penises.
Entropia Universe offers the best of both Second Life and World of Warcraft style virtual worlds. The creativity and capitalism of Second Life can be experienced along with solid game play and decent graphics. If they can fix the issues with downloading the client (hint: bittorrent) and you don’t mind downloading a 1gb file it’s definitely worth a look. If it builds members so the social aspect becomes stronger, we could well be looking at a better Second Life, and already one that will appeal to a much more broader audience.
See all
Post
I can see why there are so many entries, if the going rate is in the $1000/user range when you sell. Seems pretty steep to me, but I don’t use any of them either.
Entropia looks good, it’s just not for me. Definitely looks better than SL.
It’s in German. How do they expect to make it international? With a 1gig download and reading German. I’ll pass.
Entropia has been around for quite sometime now, hasn’t it? I will have to check them out these days. I think the future of these online worlds, however, is going to be in letting people customize them though. Graphics are important, but the value of 3D is increasing the feel that you are truly interacting with another entity, not necessarily providing eye candy (at least in the space where you are calling yourself a world and now a game)
I want to see how Entropia contains elements of WOW, does it have any or all of the following things?
PVP
Quests
raids/ instances
None of those are explained in the article yet, maybe in the follow up, I understand.
German can be very nice for Germans :-)…
Not every website has to start in the US or with English language…
- Looks like a great competitor; then again - …. This thing is only for so many people -
- they should offer the CD / for free shipping …
Not sure where the German side came in, it was all English for me.
pallet jack, I saw mention of a CD somewhere, no idea where they offer it.
What’s flying penises?
Lol…. You can’t stop war, violence, drugs, gun, spread STD, forrest fires, iceberg melting. you can’t save the world. This planet went out of control. It is all thanks to people’s violent Grandma, Granddad, ancestors and lameduck government for inventing such violence and money interests.
Newton predict Apocalypse and 2060. He told us to stop the violence. No one believe it him. How close is 2060?
Very close. And this web 2.0 flying penis is facinating story to tell.
Never mind I see the language option. For some reason the default was German for me. Still a 1 gig download. I’ll wait till this evening to give it a whirl.
Well, this sums it up: “The Windows only client”
The next gen internet cannot be platform specific. Period.
About language: For me is in spanish, and Im in Argentina
One cool thing about Entropia is it’s commodity exchange, check out http://www.mytwopecs.com. These guys have built a site that tracks the current market value of various items in the world.
Michael: I agree with you. Also, they don’t plan to fix that:
Good concept. I don’t know how long it will for them to convince people to use their service.
I have been playing EU for some time now and I thought I would add a users perspective to it. I also played Second Life but for me that was kind of a boring game, not my type of challenge.
In EU they provide PVP (player vs player) areas in different areas around the continents, or in designated “rings” that you can enter and match skills against others. You can go on “beacon” raids where robot spaceships are pulled down and bots galore to kill and loot.
There are mobs (monters) of all types from exasours (think small plant eating dinosaur) to atrox stalkers (think t-Rex) to Aerontrox (big spiders that kill me with one hit) to hunt.
You can mine for ores and enmatter that you can use to craft tools, armor and weapons to sell to others or just sell to people who do craft.
This game is not for everyone, and it takes a while before you can count yourself skilled. But in 6 months of playing part time I’ve managed to pass the noob (new user) stage and function quite well in the game.
If you want social aspects then join a society (Users set up their own societies and as users join you get some really good friends from around the world). A few good societies (there are many) are Pyrates of Calypso, Supremacy Reign, N.B.K. Legion.
You can be in game and watch chat windows with German, French, Spanish, Sweedish, English, etc. based on who’s on.
This is a game based on a “real” life experience as a settler on the new frontier planet of “Calypso”. This means no flying around, no magic, etc. It also means there are idiots, scammers and general fools in addition to some awesome and helpful people in this game, just like in real life.
Will you enjoy the game? No idea, but if you like a challenge, enjoy a game where you can advance as far as your own skills will let you then you just might. Just be careful and approach it carefully, make sure you know what you want to get out of it, and you probably will.
Just my Two Pecs (as they say in game)!
DO NOT PLAY EU IT IS A TRAP! I have played for 4 years wasting a lot of money and time. It is not worth it. I voiced my dissaproval and got banned for it. It is no place for people without the money to play. It is a richmans game. Mindark only wants big time investors and favor those inside their virtual world.
The chances for a non big time investor to make it inside is Nihil. Today I have removed the software and the goldcard with reader is in the trash. For the rest of my life I shall hold it against Mindark for luring me in and my time and money wasted inside a hell hole. The more you lose inside the more unpleasant it becomes.
Yes it is like a casino but it is a fixed casino only favoring some. When voicing your dissaproval at Mindark support department your avatar is flagged/tagged to lose constantly and permanently. So I advice players to stay away from support for whatever reasons they want to use it. Mindark hides behind their word ‘it is dynamic” lol. A multinational gaming company driven by greed for prifit do NOT leave it up to chance they have full and total control regarding their loot distributions in-game. Fact is their are people behind desktops functioning as loot distributors and this does not happen honestly at all. Besides the big investors being favoured there are a select few who are favored and mindark staff family members also involved, (Robin gripper Planet), is one example of this.
esto es una mierda de primera es una estupidez para vastardos con demasiado tiempo son unos vastardos hijos de perras xao cuidence los quiero..
pero muertos cabrones.
If only they’d implement PVP in Second Life…
When users create things in EU is it user-generated?
It seems the appeal in Second Life is that you can actually design and code your objects. which makes it whatever anyone wants it to be. (Even if thats 90% strip clubs, ha) People creating their own mini-games and creating their own rules.
Second Life is more like VR meets the net then just online-game. You can turn ‘damage’ in second life and create your own little PVP game. I don’t think it can even remotely compete with WOW game-wise but that it has the potential is what makes it interesting to me.
Whatever comes after Second life should be interesting.
“There are currently no plans to make the Entropia Universe available on other platforms than the Microsoft compatible PC.”
The rest of the world is finally starting to distance itself from the Windows monopoly and these guys have locked themselves in to Windows (and locked out me and a growing number of others).
So obnoxious I am surprised this wasn’t higher up in the article. What bozos.
Did he really say “much more broader”? Time to hire (or fire) an editor.
Entropa Universe delivers the goods with an actual guaranteed you can make a small fortune and actually port it outside the universe into the real world and use it at the given exchange rate to buy those important things like Starbucks.
Jason
Chicago IL
Will have to check Entropia out, I wasn’t a fan of Second Life.
SL is not a game, EU looks like it is (quests, a imposed story setup, skill building, etc.) so comparing SL and EU is like comparing apples and oranges. The only similarity between them is that both run on a computer and look 3D.
If one enjoys playing games, EU or WoW or hundreds or others are what he should look at. SL will extremely disappoint him. However if one wants to chat, apply his real-world skills to build in-world objects and trade them, then SL is a better choice. I like SL for that, but when I want to play videgames I usually switch on my PS and play some racing games.
What really puzzles me is: can I create content inside EU or just mine or buy what MindArk created for me? Does it really want me to invest time and maybe money to build up fictionous skills instead of using the real skills I already developed in many years of real life? That’s will really qualify it as a game, but do I want to invest in this kind of stuff?
Ops, the EU download completed just now, it’s time to find it out myself
Well EU is a nice RCE game and there are not many other options available if you fancy to play for Real cash… there is another project in the Pipeline though called Afterworld which seems a bit like a copy of EU.
EU is a nice game but recently the game has seen a massive price inflation. These days you need to invest several thousands of dollars if you want to play with decent gear. In the old days prices were moderate and one could just improve gameplay by purchasing better gear.
EU is worth a try but be prepared to strain your Credit Card. If you can not afford it… don’t touch it.
Re Wiz and inflation in Entropia. The inflation in Entropia is quite moderate regarding normal everyday items. The skewed discussion currently found about inflation revolves around more high-end items, which by the normal supply-demand theories of any free market, should have a high value. Not everyone can afford the luxury of driving an Aston Martin or a Ferrari. Or even a BMW or a Mercedes.
Like in real life, scarce and prestigious items will cost you money. But normal items have decent cost levels, ranging from a few US cents to a couple of bucks. Claims that “one have to invest thousands of Dollars” are based on the assumption that everyone should have a Ferrari. Some people will never have one. And Entropia mimics this.
I play Entropia Universe for about 1.5 years now and I love it. I also played Second Life, for about an hour, before I got bored there. The combination of a RCE with real gaming is what interests me.
MindArk, the creators of the Entropia Universe, bring out a VU (version update) every 5-6 weeks with exciting new features each time. Recently they have started to develop the User Generated Content area and we are expecting more features to follow soon on this area. Currently you can create and upload your own images and movies and display them on various screens ingame. There are already several people who have turned their apartments and shops into virtual art galleries and are selling their paintings both ingame and IRL.
There are many more things you can do or become ingame then just a hunter, miner or crafter. There are also tailorers, hair dressers and event organisers, to name a few.
You can start this game for free as the article said. One of the activities for ‘newbe’s’ is called ’sweating’. This is a MindForce action which takes about 10 seconds per attempt and if succesful you will receive a number of bottles of sweat. You can then sell this sweat to other players, who use it to power their MindForce chips to Teleport, Heal, Hunt, etc.
Sweating won’t make you rich, but it is a good way to try the game out before putting some money in. And ofcourse you can get lucky, to hit the jackpot after you kill your first monster with your ’sweat-money’
interesting name, btw. entropy is the tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity–an inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society. hm.
There are no quests, but there are skills (which you can chip in and out and sell for money) and PVP.
I was going to compare EU to SL but I am still waiting for SL to “rez.” Oh cool, after 10 minutes in Second Life I see someone’s face! Now, I’ll just go play Entropia Universe for an hour and maybe after that I’ll be able to see everyone “rezzed” in whatever casino/pron shop I happen to be trapped in.
I’ve experimented with Second Life enough to:
1) Appreciate the OS X and Linux versions of it actually existing and being functional. (I don’t own a PC capable of running windows, and don’t want to. ever.)
2) Realize that there’s really no “goal” to the game other than making linden dollars and it being a gigantic IRC-like social experiment. Yes, it’s aimless. But… heh… compare and contrast that to REAL life… It’s called “Second Life” for a reason. If people want a “Quest mode” or something - couldn’t a group of people within Second Life set that up, and roll with it? I mean, yeah, PvP is kindof impossible there, but some intellectual goals could always be developed. Kinda like WoW’s collection quests, etc..
3) Realize by reading and watching someone use Entropia Universe that it’s just… BETTER technically than Second Life. By far. It doesn’t fuck up as much, at all. After seeing this, I went to check it out myself, and found that I had to download an .exe file, and there’s no Mac version. Or Linux version. I had no idea what to do with an .exe file, just like my Mac, other than delete it. Which is always fun. I think that’s what .exe files are for - deleting. They serve me no other purpose and usually just generate popups on the computers at work. I think we should start a movement similar to the “Burn All Gifs” movement back in the day, except orient it toward .exe files. (kidding, i know what they’re for. I’m just always miffed when people leave out Mac users, even now as numbers are increasing so dramatically).
In short, I’ve been bored each and every time I fire up Second Life within just a few minutes. About the only part I like about it is that you can fly. Everything else is… well.. BORING. Great. Nice virtual house there, Bet you spent hours on it. Very pretty.
I was really excited about checking out Entropia Universe. Guess I’m let down again. I’ll just have to listen to people about how cool it is now. And watch when I’m at friends houses playing it on their windows machines. After they’re done fixing them and removing spyware and viruses.
-jre
I kinda liked Entropia Universe over Second Life maybe because Entropia has a more mmorpg feel to it than Second Life.
I don’t understand this assertion:
“Users/ players must setup an avatar with a bewildering array of options. Entropia Universe claims that they have the best avatars in the business and it’s a fair claim. Much nicer looking than Second Life with more customization options than you’ll probably ever want to use.”
Have you seen the avatars in Secondlife? I just downloaded Entropia, used their avatar tools and I look like a slug.
Plus, the entire UI is sloppy and it screams “old school.” I’ll stay with Secondlife thank you.
second life rules!
Hello
I have been Entropia Universe (ex Project Entropia) player for ~4 years now, and still have days that i cant wait the moment i can login
Updates and new features in every version update has kept up my intrest towards Entropia.
And i allso like the fact that only under 10% of players are under 18 years of age. So Entropia Universe is world for adults. Maby reason for this is that you need to learn a lot and build up your skills… You can not learn all of Entropia in a day or week, you need to spend some time and be dedicated to success
-Zap
P.S. Here is direct link to full installation package: ftp://ftp.project-entropia.com.....8.11.1.exe so you can use some download application if you wish.
Tried second life, lasted about 10 minutes (been a gamer for 20 years). Entropia looks v. interesting…..
The comparison is apple and oranges.
EU is a game with some social network elements.
SL is a social network with some game elements.
Neither one is “better” then the other. The preference is completely dependent on the priority of an individuals interests.
Addressing some points:
* “Unlike the Linden dollar that continues to decline in value”
The Linden dollar has continually increased in value since May last year…stabilizing when Supply Linden controversially began to control the Lindex by pouring in $Ls around last August/September.
* Entropia Universe claims that they have the best avatars in the business and it’s a fair claim. Much nicer looking than Second Life with more customization options than you’ll probably ever want to use.
I don’t understand this at all. Sure the default newbie avatars in SL are crap, but the avatar mesh is infinitely more customizable than its EU counterpart (so many appearance sliders in SL, so few in EU), photorealism can be attained if you’re a good skin designer (or just have plenty of money) and there’s little more mortifying than being dropped into a virtual world in a Guantanemo chic jumpsuit. Gee, thanks for that EU. Here is my avatar in SL and I doubt I’d get anything as realistic as that in EU.
* It depends on what you like. With a retention rate of 16% for Second Life amongst US users, it’s clear that many don’t enjoy what Second Life has to offer, despite the hype.
Unfortunately you didn’t compare this to EU’s retention rate. Consider it like this:
* EU has approx 500,000 registered users with a maximum of 600 online at any one time.
* When I joined SL (May 2006), it had 140,000 registered users with a maximum of 8,000 online at any one time.
One year later that’s more like 6.6 million users with 42,000 online at any one time. Compare the registration differences (unlike EU, SL allows alt accounts so it’s understandable why many aren’t online) and retention/concurrency rates in EU look pretty disturbing by comparison.
* One criticism I hear regularly about Second Life is that it’s aimless; it’s not a game so there is nothing really to do other than enjoy virtual sex and play Tringo.
…and indulge in combat (as in EU), roleplay in themed sims, create your own business, buy sell shares on the world stock exchange, open an art gallery, make machinima, perform for people if you have certain RL skills (if you’re a musician for example). The problem with restricted RP environments like EU is that you are very limited by comparison and the world is really only the creator’s oyster. In open ended worlds like Second Life, EU’s RP concept can actually be emulated to an extent by the content creation and scripting tools available.
For the record, I’m not a SL fanboy. For the past seven/eight months I’ve felt increasingly marginalized the decisions of Linden Lab and am desperately seeking an alternative. I thought I’d struck gold with EU but after a few hours on it this morning, I’m still struggling to come to terms with what must be the most unintuitive interface I’ve come across, and having tied myself to a mentor who isn’t really making things clear for me, and being unable to create an alt account, I feel utterly restricted and unable to start again without hurting somebody’s feelings.
Never had virtual sex or played Tringo in the whole of my SL btw. =p
Since a MMORPG is quite time consuming you cant play several in my opinion.
I took a look at WoW, SL & EU.
-WoW is really beautiful, I think it’s the best looking game of the 3 by far. The interface is very intuitive and the monthly fee isn’t that big.
The disadvantage for an adult is the community, it’s kinda childish, it’s a lovely game but it’s for kids. It’s also not really hard to be an high lvl player in a relative short time due the lvl Limit. So it’s beautiful, fun, cheap but it has a mainly children community.
-SL is the most crappy looking I think, it’s an animated chatbox. The idea of able to script and be creative is great, the only thing is; I don’t want to write code in my spare time. I’m convinced that SL can be very exiting for a lot of ppl, and then I assume mainly programmers or hardcore chatters.
-EU is a bit of both worlds, It is better looking then SL, but not as great looking as WoW. The playersbase is mainly adult so that is a big +. And the gaming aspect is fun and there is a lot of variety. It is ‘free’ yes you can download it and start playing, but you will advance slow, very slow. It’s not remotely possible skilling up to a high lvl character in 5 years without depositing ingame. It is the hardest game to start with, no tutorials, you just got ‘dropped’ on the planet. So if you wanne be part of a great community and want to have nice spare time gaming activity this is great.
Can’t really say one this is better than the other, I enjoy EU the most and and if you never tried it download it and give it a chance for a week to get through the learning curve.
been playign alot of games, i guessit coems down too what u prefer.
EU is sex free, SL isnt,
EU is a game with kick ass prices (people loot up too 15,000 dollars in one kill), SL isnt a game
EU has goals in alot of disciplines.
to bad sl gamers trash games to get more attention too the hype of SL, withotu giving other games a change.
the fixed rate makes eu a safe investement, wich alot of people do. As a matter of fact, the top gamer in SL, just bought a EU banking license.
EU is hosted in inetrnetcafes, and u can order cd, and the site isnt in german, its hosted in multipel languages.
its a kick ass ride fo the true gamer, not for easy quiters, it s got a solid base of players, and its anywhere between free and millions, depending on how U play it
if u ever download EU ,goto a place called atlas haven, and ask for me ; CBB
i ll help and answer all questions u got,
greetings
CBB
Walker Moore, you have some faulty comparison figures. You state that Entropia has 600 users online. That figure is almost two years old, so it is perhaps a bit unfair to use it?
indeed, the current number is 580.000
and read the news about their deal met china, invlolving 280 million users, making it the biggest future mmorf ever
greetz CBB
Re: download problems, it just took me about 40 minutes to download the whole thing on a standard DSL line here in London. Guess it helps that the US gamers are still asleep
I play EU for a year now and i got loads of friends playing WoW and SL, so i think i can compare.
All three games have their values to different kinds of ppl. So if you want to start one of the 3 ( even 2 together is kinda impossible) just ask you yourself this questions to decide which game is best for you. In each game you will meet most of these kinds of ppl, that will answer thse questions same ways like you do.
-Are you an artist and not interested in games? - Play SL!
-You want to get a serious internet entrepreneur with your own creations? Play SL!
-You want to get a serious internet entrepreneur with pre-build investments, so no own creativity is needed? Play EU!
- Are you an artist and interested in gaming too? - Better play EU
-Are you a gamer but not interested in Casino-gamble? - Better play WoW
- So you are a gamer and a gambler? - Play EU, you´ll love it!
- You like hardcore Casino-Gambling only? - Play EU and become a crafter!
- Do you have no patience and no money to substitute it? - Forget EU and SL, better play WoW
To answer Joses Question from above about Raids/Instances, PvP and Quests.
Raids/instances: As a hunter you plan your own raids on this or that mob and besides the beaconruns and some competitions there are no instances the way you know them from WoW. Competitions vary from swimming and running-events to Hunting Championships and the WOF ( World of Firepower event) which is a tournament where countries compete against each other.
PvP: In my point of view even better than in WoW. They vary from the Octagon Fights (Arena) and unlootable PvPs in certain PvP areas or landclaims to lootable PvP, where you can loot all stackable items (loots mainly) from your PKed opponent. Lootable PvP is pure adrenaline cause hunting and mining is there very profitable too. Another kind of PvP in EU is the annually Land Grab, where whole societies fight for several landclaims, this is like real war, some kind of capture and hold the flag for 4 hours. A participanting society gets an idea what real war really costs.
Quests: Simply no. Maybe you can count player organized events here, but the common quest like you may know it from games like WoW or Baldurs Gate is not available in EU
About aims in EU: There are no real aims, besides things like, i want to be able to shoot a hundred Aurli Devastators in a row,naked without faping (healing), getting rich by it, to pay the bills, skill up crafting or buy a landclaim.
About highest loots: Actually 158K PED (15.8K USD) is by far not the highest loot ever made in EU. It got surpassed by a crafting All Time High of 22.9K USD 2 month ago but that still is not the highest. A very famous miner in the game once got a Hall of Fame entry of 17k PED TradeTerminal-worth (1.7k USD) of Rugaritz stone. This stone has the markup of about 3.4K-4.1K%, so this loot should be something between 60-70K USD, when sold to other players.
The installation process was actually quite ok for me. The download must have been completed in about 2 hours as I’d set my pc to shutdown and went to sleep
I just seems really strange to me to claim the avatars would look much nicer than in second life. As I was playing with the edit sliders I came to the point to quit the game and deintalled it right away. I found them realy ugly in comparison.
@ Dakotah Yue
You can see some of Calypso’s beautiful avatars at my Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/m.....161743837/
or last week’s Entropia Hawtie
http://myentropianlife.blogspo.....awtie.html
Cheers!
” As I was playing with the edit sliders I came to the point to quit the game and deintalled it right away. I found them realy ugly in comparison”
Sounds to me like either you have ADD, or you’re only interested in the way the avatars look.
Seeing as 2nd life is all about virtual sex, you should keep your happy ass there, anyway, we don’t want you in EU
“Seeing as 2nd life is all about virtual sex, you should keep your happy ass there, anyway, we don’t want you in EU ;)”
Dear Eu Gal , I think Dakotah refers to the following paragraph which obviously is very one-sided. Good thing is that you are representing nothing and nobody, you are just insulting people here.
“Users/ players must setup an avatar with a bewildering array of options. Entropia Universe claims that they have the best avatars in the business and it’s a fair claim. Much nicer looking than Second Life with more customization options than you’ll probably ever want to use.”
The entire concept of Entropia Universe is based on gambling PEDs (US Dollars) in various games of chance in the hope of greater returns, based on unknown and secret random algorithms.
If Entropia Universe isn’t supposed to be an online gambling service, what is the purpose of “Global” loot messages advertising loots received over the value of 50 PEDs, the “Hall of Fame” and “All Time High’s” other than to encourage players to gamble their PEDs (US Dollars) in the games of chance that are the Hunting, Mining and Manufacturing professions in pursuit of that elusive win?
The driving dominant factor for successful outcomes (a win) in the three playable professions in Entropia (Hunting, Mining, Manufacturing) is nothing other than a series of hidden random algorithms that determine a profit or a loss, with unknown and secret odds.
The obvious nature of the game is that the ‘House Always Wins’ at the expense of those paying for the privilege of a chance to spin the wheel/roll the dice/pull the lever/click the mouse and gamble on striking it lucky.
Gambling in this context has a specific economic definition, referring to “wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods”.
The Manufacturing/Crafting “profession” in Entropia is directly analogous to playing a Slot machine, in that items of real value are gambled with the intent of producing a gain/profit given unknown odds. The actual in-game system involves nothing more than dragging virtual items of a specific value into a window, pressing a button and then waiting for an algorithm to generate a random outcome of either a win or a loss.
The exact same thing also takes place in the Hunting and Mining “professions”, however, this time virtual ammo or virtual mining probes (which have a real cash value) act as the casino chips/coins, and an unknown random algorithm generates either a profit or a loss in terms of the loot received (which has a real cash value) when a creature is killed or a mining probe dropped.
The only purpose “Global” loot messages, the “Hall of Fame” and “All Time High’s” serve is to demonstrate how much one may win, and to encourage players to gamble PEDs (US Dollars) on these so called “professions”.
I first logged in on January 13th, 2005. I was 18 years old at the time, so after looking around for a few days, doing the tedious jobs to obtain a gun, I decided to put in $10 to bypass the “work” and get to the fun aspects I had read so much about. I recieved an item valued at $10 on my first hunt, doubling my captial; it was at this point I became hooked ; )
Over the next 2.5 years I would say I have deposited a total of $6k usd, and put in more hours than your average Asian gamer (no offense meant whatsoever). This sum sounds tremendous, but I was smart about my investments, and was actually offered $100,000 for my account last December, which I promptly refused. Aside from this offer, I have taken out quite a bit more than that $6k I invested, won’t say the exact amount as I dont want to make any EU participants who may read this upset.
You can play on many different levels in Entropia. I have always been the type of person who feels I need to be the best at whatever I do, so I used my limited funds (all deposits came from previous summer jobs, etc, as I am still a student) and time to build my avatar to what I feel is top 5 in the game today; My current equipment and skill are valued at ~ $150,000, and I am a proud member of the #1 Society in EU.
Why so much? After 2.5 years of working insane hours, I am to the point where I can play for guaranteed profit, and instead of going back to construction this summer, Im proud to say Im using Entropia to rebuild my bank account for the upcoming college semesters. I can make more on an average month than your average accountant starting out in the workforce.
As I said, you dont have to play at this high level. New starter weapons with nice bonus attributes are available to people starting out; weapons that were unheard of when I first joined, making for much more efficient hunting/mining.
As with just about anything in life, Entropia can take you as far as you allow it to; You can play for fun, friends, profits, or all three =)
Now put the essence of the last 2 posts together and youre quite near to the truth. Genuine says its a pure gamble, Stryker, appearing to be one of the 2 most skilled hunters in EU, says you can be very successful ingame, and i believe him cause i saw countless globals and hofs of him.
What genuine doesnt mention at all and stryker indicates with the words “After 2.5years of working insane hours…” are the avatar-skills, that turn the gamble slowly, very slowly to a great fun working place. Skills directly affect the loot, but not only.
I am by far not at that point yet, but I am aware that the hard times getting less. Therefore i disagree with strykers sentence ” As i said, you dont have to play at this high level”. Yes you really got to, or you will have to stop playing and loose a lot at a point of no return, or depo, depo and depo again, to skill, skill and skill again, till you have your own 6K USD in and finally make a constant profit.
Another thing you really have to do too, is listen carefully to the succesful players. There are loads of theories in the game and some players constantly keep their theories proofed by their success. One of my ex-disciples is a good example, he hofs constantly and way more than i do, so i use to listen to his advice now.
I have a question regarding the economics of the game. in a real world situation there is supply and demand, as there is in entropia. the problem though, is that in the real world there is a limited supply of everything. for example there is only so much gold on earth, and so much iron on earth. that is why these things have a price. That’s why these things cost money. because its hard to find, and more importantly there is a limited amount of it on earth. now then thats to say there is a limited supply. but in entropia as far as i know the supply is endless, and materials will always exist for you to gather, for example a miner will never find that one day there is no, for example, iron in the ground. the supply is always being renewed. now with a never ending supply, and the demand staying the same, perhaps changing slightly but nothing dramatic, what stops the same kind of shit that happens in other online games to happen here? what stops people working day in and day out collecting resources then selling them for insanely cheep prices, which they can do because the supply of the stuff is endless, so they can sell it for as cheep as they want cuz they know there is always going to be more of it. they will just keep selling cheaper and cheaper until your out of a job cuz you cant possibly compete with some Asian company somewhere that just collects resources day in and day out and sells tons of the stuff for impossibly cheep prices in some online video game. Other online economies have been crippled by this same problem. Where ever there is endless supply, the prices will become unrealistically cheep. This is my brothers theory, and I tried to debate against him about it, but he proved to be right, as far as I can tell. I was hoping perhaps some one could help me out. Maybe im missing some of the facts or my economic theory is not quite right. If someone could reply id really appreciate it. Thank you.
That sir, is called Inflation.