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Entropia Universe: MindArk Interview
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Entropia Universe is developed by MindArk and is a huge hit with many MMO players. We had the opportunity to chat with MindArk CEO David Simmonds about all things Entropia. Read on and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.
MMORPG: With the introduction of planet partners a great variety of themes became available with a rock-music world on Rocktropia, time travel on next island, a treasure-hunting theme on Arkadia and several more in the making. What are the criteria for planet partners to be allowed a place in Entropia Universe?
DAVID SIMMONDS: A new Planet Partner must first submit a concept for their planet and a full budget for development and marketing, this is reviewed and considered by our development and management teams as a viable addition to the Entropia Universe. Once this part has been approved we can then start the Due Diligence to determine the financial stability of the company to be able to fulfill the Planet Partner Agreement.
Read more of Arno Laurman's Entropia Universe: MindArk Interview.
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Comments
nice
I have been looking to give this game another go
It is a nice game and the community is small but strong (and in most cases friendly) but new players should count on at least putting in a few bucks in to it, or the learning curve will be steep and the grind fairly rough.
This have been a good conversation
I want to play this game but I just don't feel comfortable with the real $$ drain. I want to relax while I play... I remember playing it the first month it was released and I put $10 in, and it was super fun, I had a really great time. I think they do a great job at creating a world to explore. But I don't feel like there will be any progression to the game except that which I give myself via putting more $$ in. And I feel like I would have to play a lot or do a lot of research to make sure I am not being ripped off and I am getting the biggest bang for my buck, but that is not really what I want to do in a game, I would rather explore and make mistakes from in-game.
Play as your fav retro characters: cnd-online.net. My site: www.lysle.net. Blog: creatingaworld.blogspot.com.
I agree 100%. This game seems to have a lot of potential for me, but I have read some horror stories about people spending way too much money on this game, and almost being addicted. Like it or not, MMO games have something in them that triggers a similar type of addiction that gambling does. I don't want that addiction tied to my bank account!
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
if you look for a sandbox. here it is! even if some sandbox-fundamentalists would disagree, because some sandbox-features are missing.
the real-cash economy with a fix $-exchange-rate ist strange, no doubt. if you are familiar with online-poker you should be used to such a model. it is possible to play the game without any investment, but thats extremely difficult. i guess it is possible, to play the game with the usual 15$ monthly investment, but it plays different.
it is a real virtual life. the first thing you have to do, is looking for a job and making a plan, how to make enough money to fund your activities. 15$ in ammo is pretty fast gone, if you just run around and kill animals for fun. so you need a good plan and a lot of patience to grow your bankroll slowly and extend your activities step by step. to make a net-profit, which is possible, you have to be extremley creative and lucky, because if everybody could do so, and would cash-out afterwards, the provider would be broke soon. but dont expect to make net-profit every day. so they implemented a lot of very ugly but realistic money sinks. decay is harder than in most other games and every repair costs you cash. you have earned it ingame or you invest new bucks.
if you say: i just like to have fun and not another job and work hard or at least creative for my money, this game is not for you.
if you should get addicted, and loose control about your cash-ins, you are faster bankrupt in RL than with any asian- f2p-game.
played: Everquest I (6 years), EVE (3 years)
months: EQII, Vanguard, Siedler Online, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2
weeks: WoW, Shaiya, Darkfall, Florensia, Entropia, Aion, Lotro, Fallen Earth, Uncharted Waters
days: DDO, RoM, FFXIV, STO, Atlantica, PotBS, Maestia, WAR, AoC, Gods&Heroes, Cultures, RIFT, Forsaken World, Allodds
You have all been Hussked!!!!!!!
Oh come on, this game is not even close to being a sandbox. It is basic gambling, period. It can be very expensive for beginning players. People that play this game are always encouraging others to play it because that is their income.
Do I have to fill out a tax form to retrieve my money from Entropia if I make a large amount?
Well, a suprisingly high number of people keep saying that, showing they haven't understood the concept of RCE and how to use it to their advantage in their gameplay. It is far away from gambling. Show me one, only one casino where you can sell your 100$ Chip for 120$ to another player. Find me one where you can do that on regular base and i revise my opinion.
Actually EU is nothing like gambling, gambling you toss a coin into a machine and pray for a chance to win. EU if you just toss money into the game grind and exchange at TT you will most likly lose period no gambling there just straght out logical sense, every forum etc talking about economy of EU stats 70% return of investment while doing the base 3 objectives of the game Hunting, Mining , and Crafting, this is not a secret you should just know that entering the game. You have to make up that 30+ percent margin yourself by using your own skills in bargaining and number crunching. Of course you have a chance of getting lucky but it is more like lottery luck don't ever count on it.
The game is more of a bartering game, using supply and demand as key. Know what other players want use your investment to try get it and then sell to them for markup. It is a vitural business. Heck don't even have to use the randomness factor to play to try to get the loot needed. Become a virtual trader, find someone else selling for lower prices and then resell for higher prices. Sell your services, buy a space ship become a taxi driver, become a solan manager change avatars apearances, just have fun being one of the many radio station DJ's and hold virtual parties. The point here is the game is so dang dynamic you don't just grind and expect to profit by taking the loot and dropping it into a trade terminal to cash out rich. You actually play the game and interact with others to succeed and lets face this game at least lets you cash some of your investment back out when needed. I don't see many other monthly substribtions doing that. Well they do by selling their accounts and such but thats really not legal according to their EULA's at least this game it is legal to get money out of the game even if it isn't what you originally put in. Call it your fee to play and participate in the game, they don't require you to pay to play you choose to, you always have the option just to play.
My take on EU, I have been playing for year now and had my doubts and stuff over that year but afterawhile it all rationalizes out and EU is not the game first invisioned. You are your own destiny in the game luck really has nothing to do with success in EU it is just nice to have.
I personally lost over 10k$ USD. If you take the time to browse their own forums, you will see MOST PEOPLE LOSE A LOT OF MONEY VERY VERY VERY FAST.
Some people have lost 100s of thousands of dollars... $100k's!!!!
It's gambling with enough excuses to not be labeled as such.
Trust me, do yourself and your friends/family a favour; do not download Entropia Universe.
ps:
Only completely brainwashed fanboys will tell you to play Entropia. I play Entropia myself around 30hours a week, but I am hopelessly addicted to it having lost so much money with that hope of one day getting it back... it won't happen and I hate myself... well I hate the person that I have become thanks to those fkn swedish scammers at Mindark.
Entropia is a scam, a casino designed to suck you in and strip your bank account.
The Swedes are rich enough without you handing over your credit cards! DONT FALL FOR IT!
So your reason for not calling it a casino is that you can scam other people to pay more for something than it is worth? Nice...
My gaming blog
Beside that people pay exactly what it is worth, because it is market. Prices are determined by supply and demand. When you ask more than something is worth you won't sell it. It's not a scam it a marketprice.
Or do you call the baker around the corner a scammer because he wants more than the cost for flour & water for it ?
Sounds to me like you dont have a grasp on the money you spend if you lost 10k USD playing that game LOL..
I did just fine by initially putting on £30 then for the few months i played i only put in £15 had good fun but i moved onto Darkfall, where i initally paid £40 and then paid £12 a month LOL.. i must admit i never got super lucky hitting anything bit in EU but i made enough to buy ammo and so on.. if people have really lost over 10k USD let alone 100k USD playing this game then their local authoriy should put them in a mental home and donate the rest of their cash to cahrity..
Funny comments. The cost to play is way less then what you pay for beer. The fun is way more than all other MMOs out there. And when space get few updates all EVE players will be flying in Entropia Universe. The depth of the game is huge, the choises and posibilities - endless. Now you can buy few shares from Calypso and play until you die for free with the chance to win real money. What more do you want. And it's all 1 universe - 1 server not like in SWTOR different servers. If you want to play for free get a virtual job and you can play without paying anything.
There is no scamming in trading the ingame items. If you try to sell to high noone will buy if they sell to high for what you think is reasonable don't buy. You have total control over your actions, if you give stuff away and someone runs off with it, that is your own fault, would you give 2000USD watch to someone you don't know to look at? No he will prolly try to run with it and sell it DUH same here. Don't play like an idiot don't loose like an idiot. Play like an idiot accept the consequences.
Well who's fault is that duh your's, you must have thought it was worth 10KUSD to put 10KUSD into the game. don't blame the game or others just look in the mirror. There is no rule that says you have to put a single cent into the game you chose to. You complaint and critizism is null and void.
Oh and BTW I'd never tell someone to play the game I'd say take a look, I could care less if they play it or not I personally think it is interesting game.
Can't imagine your beer budget. It is far too easy to spend big bucks on this game and there is little to do unless you spend money. This is not like many of the f2p games where you can spend a little money and have fun.
The players that get lucky are few and far between.
Umm far to easy to spend big bucks and to little to do unless you spend money? UH OK!!! Yes you can deposit as much as you want but you have control over it, if you can't control it maybe help is to be sought, there are many places to get help for this type of thing and it is nothing to be ashamed of. As far as to little to do that is all a point of perspective, if it is not your type of game just don't play it, go play your other games that are your type of game. Quit telling people it sucks and it is not worth looking at who are you to say what others will enjoy or not based on dollar amount for enjoyment?
I would say you would probably want to claim it as income. IRS could come back to haunt you if you are sitting on large pile of money gaining interest and there was no claim of you getting it. You would probably claim it as other source of income generated for the year. I know some US states have different amounts tagged to this value state I live in says anything over 500USD per month coming in should be claimed as income and is no longer considered a hobby. Anything under that a month you should be safe for not claiming it. Not sure if you would actually get official tax forms to fill out though as when in a casino and you hit a jackpot being this is not a US based business.
Because I don't like to see people get ripped off and this game will do it easily! Why is it we get these few post fan boys on these very questionable games?
I used to play this game and even made a few K$ playing it. I wouldn't call it a casino as there are many things to do in the game but the main activities in it (hunting, crafting, mining) are nearly impossible to argue not to be gambling. Here is the wikipedia definition of gambling Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value (referred to as "the stakes") on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within a short period.
Undeniable Fact 1. The PED is given a constant exchange rate with the USD and therefore a PED would be considered to have "material value".
Undeniable Fact 2. All (virtual) items in the game have a value in PED which you can sell it back to "the house" for. Since the PED is given material value by being tied to the USD these items are now given material value by being tied to the PED.
Undeniable Fact 3. When mining, crafting, or hunting in the game you use some of these virtual items which decay in value (aka spend PED) hoping to get something of value in return (resources, items, loot, etc). This return could and has in the past for at least one person that I know just starting out in the game come in the form of items with a PED value greater then everything you have ever lost in the game to "the house". There is no way to predict the PED value of what you will get from doing an activity at any given time and much like playing a slot machine there is a great variance in payouts which allows for a possible short term gain even though if you played long enough you would lose due to it being programmed to payout less then 100% of what it receives. Casinos refer to this as the "house advantage". Professional gamblers would call a game with an expected payout of less then 100% a "negative expected return".
If this was all there was to the entire game there would be no one arguing that its not gambling. There are other aspects to this game though which make the game very complicated and make it possible to have a "positive expected return" after selling your payout items (loot or whatever you want to call it) to other players for a "markup" more then "the house" PED value. I would argue and anyone who can think logically would have to agree that these P2P transactions are after the fact and have nothing to do with whether or not it is gambling. I can (or could when the laws were different) play online poker at low limits and have a positive expected return. In fact I never had a losing month. Poker is still gambling though even if you know you will win over the long term because, well read the gambling definition again.
If there was no way to sell these items back to "the house" then it wouldn't be gambling because the payout would be 0% and just considered the cost of playing (any money you sell the items to players for would be a sale of virtual goods). If you couldn't turn PED back into money then the game wouldn't be gambling because the PED would have no material value.
Here are the possible arguements you might have as to why its not gambling that I can think of or used to hear when I played that I didn't already mention.
Counter Argument 1. You could try to claim that the primary intention in the game for you is not to "win money" but to just have fun or to gain some skills or beable to use this or that item or whatever else. - Most people I know that gamble only play for fun and don't expect to win money although they hope they will much like this game (poker can be an exception for some). This is the only thing close to a reasonable arguement I can think of to say this game doesn't involve any gambling by the wikipedia definition.
Counter Argument 2. But I have this or that "uber" gun and or skills so I get better returns then other people and that means the game is based on skill not luck. - There is a big difference between "skills" in a game and a game of skill. Also positive expectation does not make something not gambling. Some casinos in Las Vegas used to have dueces wild video poker machines with 100.8% expected payout if played using perfect stratagy. Its still gambling.
Counter Argument 3. Mindark says its not gambling. Why isnt it banned in the US then? etc - Well of course they say its not gambling that would make it illegal in many parts of the world. As for it not being banned in the US, it took years for them to go after pokerstars, ultimate bet, absolute, etc and they had millions of players generating billions of dollars in revenue per year and really the only reason they got shut down was for money laundering. EU is well hidden and not even understood by most players let alone the DOJ, because of this doesnt need to launder money to get around UIGEA, and is too small to even be on their radar. Also online gambling very well will be legalized in the US by the end of the year so its probably not even a issue here anymore. BTW here is some other stuff mindark has said. Read the last paragraph
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2002/06/53534
"it's up to you to deposit as much as you want" do you stand outside bars with banners saying the same for those hopelessly addicted to gambling on slot machines? Because that's what Entropia makes you - hopelessly addicted to gambling.
To say "it's your own fault, spend less" is easy for a fanboy to say. Not so easy for the afflicted to accomplish.
Get real fanboys. Honestly.
1 in 10 don't get their bank balance stripped.
9 in 10 do
You can't argue that... the amount of flack this game gets from it's own players who - in their own words - wish they could quit.
It's all over your own forums fanboy, face facts. Entropia is a ponzi scam, plain and simple.
Entropia is a scam, a casino designed to suck you in and strip your bank account.
The Swedes are rich enough without you handing over your credit cards! DONT FALL FOR IT!
Love the game, playing it now for 4 years+. Ofc at begining isn´t easy but after some time you start to understand how things work and possibilities start to come. It may have a random factor but have nothing to do with a casino or piramide system. You CAN control alote of factores that will end in a good thing for you if you know what you doing. Markups is the key to survive, any offer/demand for a item/resource/oil etc is created by the players themselves. The system is unique and you will not found anything similar to this outhere, like the type of economy, sci-fi theme, no multi servers and free to play. Try it today!!!