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Entropia Universe: Entropia Universe CES 2008
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
Last Week while attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, staff writer Carolyn Koh had the opportunity to sit down with David Simmonds and John K. Bates of Mindark to discuss what's new with Entropia Universe.
How many of our readers are familiar with Entropia Universe? This is an MMOG that had hovered on the edge of my consciousness for a while. When asked by their PR people to make an appointment, I had to do a bit of research. Then it all came back. It was formerly known as Project Entropia. A virtual Sci-Fi world, with a micropayment economic model and in-game currency exchange to US dollars pegged at 10 PEDs (Project Entropia Dollars) to 1 US dollar.
In the Entropia Universe, players are colonists trying to tame the planet Calypso. The wilderness is filled with dangerous creatures and is rich in ore and minerals. There are also two space stations and the Neverdie Asteroid that orbit the planet. The game is free to download and play, but paying for items such as better tools, weaponry and clothing can be a quick boost to faster means of earning PEDs. Non-paying players can gather fruit and dung, and collect sweat from certain animals to sell for PEDs, or “hire out” to other players by doing jobs such as selling for them.
Because of the difficulties involved, it is a point of pride for some players to never have paid any money into the game and still made it. There are also those that have made a modest investment, and then turned a tidy profit; like the high school senior who managed to send his older siblings to college on his earnings in the Universe.
;)
Read the full article here.
Comments
Nice to see how they continue develop the game, it must generate tons of money for the owners.
I've tried this game half a dozen times now, there's something interesting there (skillbased, sci-fi) but the "mob sweating" just feel so awkward that I quit after just an hour or so. I would like to have fun before investing in weapons and ammo.
And the "real money transfer"-thing, how does that affect the playerbase. I'd expect a VERY greedy world where everybody try to trick you. Is it so?
Last time I played they changed all the UGLY avatars to something more appealing. Well done, I really couldn't stand the old ones.
I played this game in early beta and stayed with it for quite a while. All these stories you hear that people can play this game for free are full of sh!t.
Playing for free means running around exploring but not being able to do anything. Begging for money most of the time like I've seen the annoying people do or standing around socializing. That's about it, if you think you're gonna jump in this game and load up on weapons and gear then start playing guess again.
it gets very expensive to maintain playing this game if you're really going to play and not F off all the time. You want to mine? pay, you want to hunt and get loot? pay, you want to repair your items? pay it's all BS.
Plus they are years behind in what they were suppose to release in content just like this article on space. They were talking about this back in 1999-2000.
Let me sum up Project Entropia for those that never played it or those that are but are fooling themselves.
1. Big money investment to be able to REALLY play the game.
2. Some of the most annoying people out of any other game.
3. Any new MAJOR content takes them many years to roll out
Good luck and have fun if you try this title
Hopfully the Cryengine can provide us and the devs with more options for the development.
And when it's came to EU discussions; You can make proffit on it, but it will take time. And knowing the market is A-O.
In the beginning I trowed in 100-200PEDs/month. Now I go slightly plus. But planing your trip and a good soc (guild) helps alot!
______________________________
The Sceptics, yes they're special but we've need them to.. I guess.
And if they're put more effort MMORPG.com can create a 'Team Sceptic'
and send them to the Special Olympus.
I made an account on this game a few years back. I play it every now and then. Sometimes i play for hours sometimes minutes. I've paid in maybe $200 over the course of those 3 years and found the game to be enjoyable all in all. It's definately not an easy game. Right now it has a problem with my Vista (crashes to desktop when i die) so i don't play so much.
I'm very much looking forward to the new engine but with the speed in which they develop things and looking at the daunting task of rebuilding a game on a new engine i don't see that happening for a couple years. I'd expect it to go through the same stages as if it were a totally new game. Alpha testing, beta testing and such. I think they're overhyping the cryengine2 move to entice players to start now knowing full well it's going to be 2 or 3 years before the game is using it.
Make a difference!
I play it once in awhile also. But just like copeland i have the crash on dien issue to. PE said they wont fix it til more people use vista(got to love it).
I did find out that the crash is related to the sound that plays when you die, but I refuse to play a game with no sound.
Playing Fallen Earth.
The Vista sound crash bug was fixed in a patch a while back.
Was it in the last two months? Because I put the ticket in on dec12 it took them almost a week to respond but they said they were aware and to disable sound. If its fixed Ill be jumping back in.
Playing Fallen Earth.
I am like the OP, I've heard of the game but never really looked into it. I basically attributed it to being a Second Life 2. But after reading this, I apparently was totally wrong. The inclusion of space definitely sounds like fun and something new and refreshing. I may have to check this out when it comes online.
"If we don't attack them, they will attack us first. So we'd better retaliate before they have a chance to strike"
'The inclusion of space' may sound interesting, but grinding for sweat and feces certainly doesn't.
Evil will always win, because Good is dumb.
This game is everything but free. Yes, you can download it and make a free acount and run around exploring the game universe, but thats about it what you get for free. When it comes to the only 3 activities that you can do to get a few PEDs, get ready to do hours and hours of grinding. If you are looking forward to getting the best armor or weapon, then get ready to pay more then 10000PEDs for it. The players have boosted the ingame market so high, that i started to call this game ....A Rich Man's Game....
So the free thing about this game is:
-you can download it for free
-make a free acount
-become a part of the game universe
-have fun exploring.....if you can stay alive :-).....
-socialize, chat, spend countless hours collecting sweat, fruit or dung and then spend the few PEDs you can earn selling it to have a few min of fun.
-you can get to know the game before you decide to invest any money in it.
I've spent countless hours playing this game, and all i can say is...if you want to enjoy this game get ready to spend a min of 50$ a month to have some real action. And this will only give you a good start. Yes there is always a chance to get a realy good loot which will extend your fun without having to deposit any extra $, but it's a ..luck.. thing, just like in the casino.
The only way i see to make a living and profit in Entropia is off of the ingame high economy. Buying, selling and doing business having very little or no time to explore or play the game itself. Or you can always invest in an asteroid for 1 000 000PEDs and live off of taxes :-) (if i had that kind of money, i would do it)
All in all, not my type of a game. Don't have time or money to play forever to lvl up a skill to 10000 or so.... and there are about 50 skills that you can lvlup.
Just download it, make an acount and try it for a month or so. It's free to try and get to know the game....before you deside to invest your first 10$ :-).
this was one of 1st game i put money into. i joined quite a while ago and deposited $10. bought a sword and thought ok im off.
well it didnt grab ne in the 1st hour, i wsas told i should have bought a gun as it deteriorates slower than a sword { but aha i thought swords wouldnt use ammo so woiulf be cheaper} i was wrong.
anyhow i got jack and deltedit and never went back. recently, i heard they had upgraded ot new engine and thought id go check it out. again.
afte like 5 years, my account was still there, but no character or cash. i emailed them and they said inactive accounts have items sold and cash put in storage etc so i rolled up new one.
this tim ei had elike $9.20 left and decided to go the gun and ammo route. met a guy hunting tough monsters and always seeing news of people scoring big booty awards, he saids its a random event and we hunt to get the random booty.
eventually we hit one but well after 3 days , most of my money is gone,. i got like $2 in tghere and quickly running out of ammo. if i dont hiot another big win that we split its more cash in
i didnt think thast 3 days intesive gunning wild lifew fgor $10 was a good way to spend entertain ment dollars. i mean if the same success rate is expanded on it is $100 for a months play.
i could be wrong, butr this game looks like a money pit. theres prob an amot to invest at start that wiuth bonus booty u can roll on for quate a while , but $10 sure aint it. oh yea ammo is one of the drops that u get but it is no where near the amont or type of gun ammo u need i had several diff ammo type sdrops but only 1 gun.
another thing is the name entropia,. it means things decay thru time,. exactlyy wghat happens when u use stuff. apparently ea time u take off armour or put back on it wears a little.
use guns they wear, sword wear lots, etc. they need to be repaired also,im not sure but i go tthe idea that its cheap to just buy anothert gun than repair it.
i aint no exp[ert, and a lot of this cou.d be wrong. but it was my impressions, and $10 for 3 days hunting was way too pricey for this little black duck
Again the reviewer fails completely to get the gist of this game, they want and expect you to spend lots of money in this game. If Caroline had taken the time to play it, should would have realized all this game is, is a money pit.
It cost lots of money to play it. Anyone who tells you different is a marked prevaricator.
Sorry it is a game where you enrich the owners and that is about it. The playerbase is also pretty cutthroat in my opinion.
I highly recommend anyone thinking of trying this game change their mind. You will regret the decision. This game is probably the worst rip-off in the business, bar none.
You sound like the ones who don't understand it. The general consensus is that once you understand how Entropia works you can play it for free and even make some money off of it. As stated on their web page it is designed to cost about $1 per hour of play, which most say is accurate. A lot of the fun lies within how to become one of the ones that come out on top. Calling it a "rip-off" shows that you don't "get it". As in real life economic markets, there are winners and losers. There are a lot of success stories in Entropia about people making huge amount of real dollars. Given your statement above I take it you are not one of the winners?
I see the ways to approach it as two different paths. One path is you play it as a game, or entertainment, and deem the fun worth the money you put into it. Buy the skills needed (as skills are trade-able, and have a dollar value), get the guns and tools you want, kill the monsters and loot them or build a mining operation. You will probably lose more money than you earn, but hey, it is entertainment, right? Or you play it as a free market economy simulator game and become a part of the cutthroat crowd that deals with trading, business, corners, margins, cooperations and cartels. Trade on the auction or in the shopping malls, find tomorrows' rare items, analyze the demand and supply of the goods, items, and commodities and try to get ahead. It is quite exciting as everything has a real dollar value to it. It's like playing the stock market. Or mix the two paths. Or approach it like a social game. Entropia lies between Second Life and WoW. If you compare it to either you will miss.