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Entropia Universe: What is it about Entropia Universe?
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Carolyn Koh submits this Entropia Universe interview from the ION conference, talking to developer and player alike, Koh tried to get to the bottom of the question: "What is it about Entropia Universe anyway?"
One of the topics of a panel discussion as well as keynote and lecture at the 2008 ION Game Conference was that of the blurring of lines between Virtual Worlds, Online Spaces and traditional MMOGs; how they were integrated and how to integrate them. John Bates of MindArk who develops and publishes Entropia Universe brought up the topic in our interview.
“Entropia is not about quests and missions,” he said, “but an ongoing storyline and events that take place during this storyline.”
Entropia has a single world and it’s not just a virtual world, but also an exploring, tradeskill and adventure game as well. Parts of it are akin to Second Life, but players can also explore and adventure in this world, then come back to the cities and enjoy the social aspect of the game. Like Second Life, Entropia has a monetary system which has its in-game currency pegged at 10 PEDs (Project Entropia Dollars) to 1 US dollar.
Read the whole article here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
John Bates of MindArk who develops and publishes Entropia Universe brought up the topic in our interview.
“Entropia is not about quests and missions,” he said, “but an ongoing storyline and events that take place during this storyline.”
lol ..theres a lack of storyline .. and whith every new VU theres lots of bugs
so its moore like a beta
It was a great idea but once they went currency exchange it pretty much became a scam. They've continually nerfed loot drops over the years so you're forced to throw a lot of money at this game just to play it.
This isn't so much a game as it is an online casino. And just for quick reference, a pair of jeans ingame costs three to four times as much as a pair of nice designer jeans in RL. No, I'm not kidding. I'm not talking with equivalent currency denominations either. The PED cost of jeans when exchanged into USD is about $200.00 USD.
That's why this game is
I agree this game is strictly a money scam as it exists today.
Sorry Carolyn, but why can't you ask the hard question, why this game is so expensive? It certainly does not offer much for the high cost to play it!
Far as I am concerned this is one of those HIGHLY NOT recommended games.
Nothing wrong with paying for something, I don't object to that, just that this game takes it way way too far to the point they are gouging the playerbase.
Im confused. I thought the game was free to play ? It sounds like the perfect MMO Ive been searching for ever since Star Wars Galaxies changed.
Technically speaking, it's F2P. You don't buy the client. You don't pay any subscription. The ingame currency, however, costs you money. One PED, Project Entropia Dollar, is worth 1 cent USD. 100 PED is a dollar, 1,000 PED is ten bucks, et cetera.
You can't really make any money in this game though unless you buy land or are a real high end crafter which takes an investment of thousands of real dollars. There are people who have invested $30,000+ in this game.
The basic rule of thumb for this scam is that you pay a dollar an hour because you have to buy ammunition from system vendors (like bullets and power cells for guns, bombs for mining. Those are the only things you can do really when you start).
Basically, even if you dropped fiteen bucks PED, like you would for client, and then paid up fifteen bucks a month after that you would not be able to sustain yourself.
I know this because I actually tried it and was completely scammed by "this great sounding sandbox that let's you do anything." I did not play this game like a tard. I was ultra conservative on my hunting, I didn't splurge for nice things once, I didn't pay taxes to hunt on private land. All of my money went towards ammunition and most bombs and it is straight up online gambling.
This website should really quit supporting this "game."
Bingo! I "invested" $20 in this "game" a few years ago, about when it started, and blew it all on armor and ammo, and whatever drops I got never was enough to keep me supplied with ammo even. What I saw of it was neat, but it was a money losing situation. If it had been sub. based, I would have played longer.
Did anyone even find the $1M ( or whatever it was ) gem they said was hidden someplace?
LoL, I just found an e-mail from 10/14/2002 Subject: Project Entropia Server Stress Test
DOH!
LOL, I guess I've deleted the e-mails I used to get every 6 months telling me how long it's been since I played and that my account would be closed! I got those for about 2 years! LOL
------- END TRANSMISSION
Delete.
Couldn't have said it better myself.
I agree with lkavadas.
Many people on the games "official" forums are starting to complain about having to pump more and more money just to do basic things. Some people in EU defense claim to make money you have to spend money. If thats true then this isn't really a game at all. Most games will let you dabble in many of the features and skills to see what its like. Even with a real cash economy you shouldn't have to spend thousands of dollars just to get started.
I found out it was a cash machine when I invested some money and got some hunting/fighting skills past 2000. It doesn't matter what your skill is, you will always get the same loot. The also made items L for limited so you cannot repair them and have to buy new ones.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Technically speaking, it's F2P. You don't buy the client. You don't pay any subscription. The ingame currency, however, costs you money. One PED, Project Entropia Dollar, is worth 1 cent USD. 100 PED is a dollar, 1,000 PED is ten bucks, et cetera.
Worse than that.One PED is TEN cents. 10 to a dollar, 1000 for $100.
You can "sweat" mobs for a basic resource that people will buy for one half of one penny each. (200 Sweat = 10 PED = $1) If you get good at it, and get lucky, you can gather about 80 sweat in an hour. Sometimes you might get 1/4 of that.
Economically, you're WAY better off just getting a Sunday Morning Paper Route and putting the money from that into the game than you are spending your hours sweating, since sweating carries with it the risk of being attacked by the creature you're sweating. Being attacked = Repair Bill = even less economic viability.
Every single shot you fire from a gun costs you PED (remember: PED = Real Money). You kill a creature and loot it with traditional mechanics. However - quite frequently, the loot dropped isn't worth the money you spent on the ammo you used to kill the creature. It's like trying to hunt bear (for bearskin rugs) with $500 (each) bullets.
It is possible to come out ahead (temporarily), but, in the end, Entropia Universe is EXACTLY like feeding dimes into a slot machine in Vegas. Winning only encourages you to feed the beast more dimes.
Ouch. It's a very dark day indeed when the MMO money sink becomes an ACTUAL money sink.
Terrible idea Entropia. You're giving micro-transactions a bad name!
actually it would be easier to go to a park and pick up soda cans and return them for the deposit than to sweat.
This game does nothing more than feed on the same behavioral addiction that many folks have towards gambling. Which imo is the reason that people play this game. I played this game for 2 years and I can't speak for the crafting, but on the adventure/hunting side of the game every mob I killed was like putting money into a slot machine. I really felt the same rush of adrenaline that i got from gambling, every time the loot window would pop, I also had built my skills to a pretty substantial level and saw no improvement in my returns. I actually returned to this game later and found it to be even more of a cash drain.
If you started hardcore in beta or when the game went gold you might have positioned yourself at the top of the pyramid for making money. Maybe MMORPG should interview all the folks who have lost thousands of dollars playing this game instead of this public relations poster boy.
Occasionally, MMORPG.com should not run these kind of promo articles. Even though all games deserve a chance, after a while there are some that do not deserve promotion.
If this truly is online gambling, then I'd hesitate to call it an MMO.
Paying real money just to perform the most basic functions like attacking mobs?!
That's like a tax for breathing in real life. Killing mobs is the fundamental gameplay of MMOs!
When I played for a while, just about everyone I ran into in this game considered their gaming costs to be "investments". I never did understand that reasoning.
Also, there are also a couple other key things missing from Entropia Universe:
I particapate in Entropia, but I do wish MindArk would get rid of the Limited (L) item concept and implement mounts/vehicles and a good postal system.
well Im so desperate for a sandbox MMO that I downloaded Entropia. However I couldnt get past naming my avatar. No matter what name I choose, someone else either had it or it was too close to someone else's name. I was using common english names, artsy fantasy names, any combo, etc and no matter what name or variation of it, entropia said it was taken. After a half hr of this, I deleted the game
Quote from the article:
I hope that anyone considering this game realizes that the $10,000 Erik "drew" came from players who lost money. MindArk did not pay him to play the game, nor will they pay you. More than likely, if you play this game, you will just feed the top players like Erik.
"If you started hardcore in beta or when the game went gold you might have positioned yourself at the top of the pyramid for making money."
I have been playing since March 2001
and I am telling you this game is not a cash drain . Period.
I played back in the Project Entropia days...
At first you were able to break even fairly regularly which was fun and enjoyable, but they continually changed the way that loot drops so that it became pretty much impossible to make back what you were spending so I stopped wasting time and money on it.
I dropped in last year to look at the game and the loot has changed even further so that no PEDs dropped at all, only materials.
The only people that are profiting from the game are the very old players that spent large amounts of money when it was viable to get ahead, no new player will ever be able to reach their levels without spending a phenomenal amount of money.
If the Entropia Universe had static rules that never changed then it would have been possible to play and actually make progress just through hard work, but since the developers can change the rules whenever they like it has become nothing but a money pit for any new players.
Unless you are willing to spend stupidly LARGE amounts of money and ridiculous amounts of time I would stay as far away from Entropia Universe as possible.
And then 1 poster ( you ) who says it's not.
Who to believe...............
It is true, game will cost quite some money in order to have fun. And yes each time you loot a mob you expect that jackpot.
Doing anything in this game raises related skills. And skills can be extracted to a chip and then sold. As long as there is demand for skills you can chip out and sell skills.
I spent over $700 for various items mainly weapons and armor etc. over 6 months I played. I scored few loots that kept me playing and payed for ammo. However when I chipped out and sold all my skills I gained in that time I got $750 back. My experience wasn't that bad. Although I agree that I played with low-med armors and weapons and didn't really go for several hundred PED hunts like vets and ubers do. I also tried to have most economical weapons etc.
I am a EU player and have played for about 2 years I put a small amount of money in once a month just like i would and do pay a monthly fee for a number of other games. I really enjoy the game and have had many fun hours hunting crafting and mining. The thing with EU is you dont have to spend a fortune to play the bigger stuff you want to hunt or craft carries a bigger risk as you are using more ammo or items to do it so if you dont get loot from the result then you have lost more. So all this talk about it been a big money pit all depends on how you play. I have deposited around £500 in total over 2 years. I have just dont a check on my current value of items and skills which can all be sold and if i wanted to leave the game now after selling everything I would be able to withdraw £1100 from the game right into my bank account. Of all the other MMO's I have spent money on not one of them has given me any money back never mind more than twice the amount I have paid to play it.
If you rush into EU without reading up about the best ways to play you will lose alot of money very fast. If your in it to make money you will likely lose money very fast. If you just after a different type of game for some fun then take a look but dont rush to spend money until you have a good idea of how it works.
I saved more money on that game than any MMO with montly payment.. because i can cashout anytime... i guess there involve the investment stating... at July it will be 2 years i play that game... Just don't expect to make any money in that MMO... its just a game
I also played this game back in early 2004. I admit that the game was insanely fun and definitely got your blood pumping and gave you that "rush". I tried hunting, I did mining for minerals, and I tried the crafting. Everything you do gives you a "rush" and that makes the game fun. But that rush is most likely because EVERYTHING you do is a risk. A risk of REAL CASH.
Minerals that can be mined are worth a lot to crafters, so I tried this aspect of the game first. I had to invest like $30 USD I believe just to buy the needed mining equipment and a few "bombs" as they are called. If I remember right, each bomb costs 1 PED (which is a real world dime). And you basically go randomly dropping these "bombs" all over the world and use your mining equipment to read the feedback of your "bomb" drop. 90% of the time your bomb will read NOTHING IS HERE or something like that, so you've just wasted a dime. And another dime. And another. Finally, you'll get something and it will likely be something like a "SMALL DEPOSIT OF OIL" or some other mineral. So then you use some other piece of mining equipment to mine up your discovered stuff. If you get lucky, you'll discover a "ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF POOP" or whatever mineral. And when you mine it all up, it might display to the world that 'yourname' mined 1,345 PED worth of "poop" or some bs. But more then likely, by the time you find and mine a good amount of value in minerals, you have spent double or triple or more in real cash on bombs then what you find and mine up. And going back to the same spot and waiting on a re-spawn of that mineral doesn't work. I tried that, trust me hehe.
Hunting is played in real time and is a helluva lot of fun and is the reason most players hunt. But the armor you need and the weapons are expensive and wear out and need repaired or replaced way too often and the ammo that all the weapons use is utterly ridiculous. It's easy to blow $3 to $6 worth of ammo to take down a monster and then you'll be lucky if you get 20 cents USD of loot as a prize.
Crafting is rewarding and fun to learn new blueprints etc etc to make better and cooler stuff, but it too, is VERY expensive.
I can't even recall how much I blew on this game in about a months time back in 2004. If I was to be honest, it was probably over $200 USD. And in the end I wound up with a bunch of crap that probably was worth about $10 if I had sold it all and cashed out.
The game is a lot of fun. But it is WAY too expensive to have the fan that the game almost demands you invest in. I won't deny that it is fun and a pretty well designed game.
However the real genius in the game as I've said many times on this website is that money they are sucking out of the players. Mindark is a big ugly spider waiting on fresh prey to try their game out. And the more people that play it and try it, the more blood (money) Mindark sucks from it victims. The web(the game) this spider(Mindark) has spun can easily trap its prey into a almost certain losing battle (Cause the players to get obsessed and lose way more money then they will ever get back).
They should rename this game "CHING CHING!" because that's a lot more honest and accurate name for this game, regardless of the fun to be had in it's virtual world.
- Zaxx
Wow
I never suspected the existence of such games.
But if the game is such moneysink why is it still live? The graphics are gruesome, which is no wonder, when EO has existed for so long. No improvement in textures or models since creation. Players need to pay to do basic things. What keeps the players in, at all?