Entropia Universe

Entropia Universe
Developer(s)	MindArk
Publisher(s)	MindArk
Designer(s)	Multiple
Engine	CryEngine 2
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release	January 30, 2003
Genre(s)	MMORPG/RCE/FPS
Mode(s)	MMORPG

Entropia Universe is a massively multiplayer online virtual universe designed by the Swedish software company MindArk, based in Gothenburg. Entropia uses a micropayment business model, in which players may buy in-game currency (PED - Project Entropia Dollars) with real money that can be redeemed back into US dollar at a fixed exchange rate of 10:1. This means that virtual items acquired within Entropia Universe have a real cash value, and a participant may, at any time, initiate a withdrawal of their accumulated PEDs back into US dollar according to the fixed exchange rate, minus transaction fees; the minimum amount for a withdrawal is 1000 PED. The Entropia Universe is a direct continuation of Project Entropia.

The Entropia Universe entered the Guinness World Records Book in both 2004 and 2008 for the most expensive virtual world objects ever sold, and in 2009, a virtual space station, a popular destination, sold for $330,000. This was then eclipsed in November 2010 when Jon Jacobs sold a virtual resort on Planet Calypso for $635,000; this property was sold in chunks, with the largest sold for $335,000.

Development (x)

In 1995 development of Entropia Universe (formerly Project Entropia) was started by two different groups - one in Sweden headed by Jan Welter Timkrans and on in Switzerland headed by Benny Iggland. They started off with just one planet called Planet Calypso with, as far as we know, at that point no intention to develop that one planet into a universe with multiple planets. In 2001 the game used the NetImmerse 4 game engine, which by today's standards does not look so nice, but for 2001 it was state of the art. On May 20th 2002 they started the Commercial Open Trial and the game was opened to the world. With Version Update 4.2 on 28th January 2003 the game was considered "Gold".

Some of the more interesting additions to the game are:

4.2	28 January 2003	Personal storage system
5.3	24 November 2003	Housing system, space travel
5.6	5 April 2004	Mentor & Disciple system
5.7	1 June 2004	Crystal Palace Space Station
6.0	10 August 2004	New graphics engine (GameBryo)
6.1	6 October 2004	Amethera continent, Landgrabs
7.3	4 May 2005	Land Area Management, Auction Procurement Orders
7.5	1 July 2005	New avatar creation process, Beauty Professions
7.8	23 November 2005	Animal Taming
8.0	19 December 2005	Asteroid Space Resort
8.8	18 December 2006	Shopping Malls

The next interesting development in the history of Entropia Universe came on 17 August 2009 as Version Update 10.0, which is the implementation of the long awaited CryEngine 2 from CryTek. This again gave the game the cutting edge of game engines and made the game look very good. The one problem with this engine is that it is not made for MMO's and therefor needed a lot of work from both MindArk and CryTek to get it to work. Because of this new engine almost everything in the game had to change including the landmasses on the, then only, planet Calypso, which they packed into an even with a nice story of attacking robots and a big space ship crashing into the planet changing the land. After a few days where the game was offline it restarted with the new engine and everybody had to go and explore the new planet again. There were also some systems that were disabled right after the implementation of the CryEngine, of which some got back after a few weeks and some took months or even years. There are still systems that were in place before CryEngine that have not yet returned at the end of 2012.

11.0.0	6 April 2010	New Planet (ROCKtropia)
11.2.0	21 June 2010	Vehicles
11.3.0	28 September 2010	Voice chat system
11.5.1	8 December 2010	New Planet (Next Island)
11.10.2	25 May 2011	New Planet (Planet Arkadia)
12.0	21 June 2011	Space
12.6.0	1 May 2012	New Planet (Planet Cyrene)
12.9	10 Dec 2012	VirtualTycoon mobile app released for Android devices.

Cost to participate (x)

The game and all its planets can be downloaded and played for free, following an account registration procedure. When a player arrives at his/her planet of choice you start you virtual life with just a few basic items. These items are a damaged orange jumpsuit (shirt and pants) a pair of damaged grey shoes and a tool to extract vibrant sweat from creatures.

From this point a player has to make a decision, "Do I want to play for free" or "Do I want to put in some real money". With both choices it is perfectly possible to play the game, but both will need a very different style of playing.

Playing for free:

There are people in the game that have been playing for free for years and have done very well. Some have even build up a nice sum of money so they can do most of the things paying players do as well (maybe at a lower level). There are a few things people can do in game for free:

• Using the service as a 3-D virtual chat room or exploring the virtual universe.
• Using an in-game process called "Sweating" or "Sweat Gathering" to extract bottles of "Vibrant Sweat," which is used to make Mind Essence, so it can be sold to other players for PED or changed to other items. The 2010.06.03 VU release introduced 2 new types of ME, one of which can be made with sweat, coming from loot; second can be found in trade terminals as ready to use solution.
• Collecting "fruit", "dung", and 6 sorts of precious rare stones of different value, which can be sold to other players to raise funds.
• Performing numerous "jobs" for other players - for example, acting as a trader, or buying pre-defined amount of crafting materials at specified rate for crafters.
• Performing missions (quests), that can be completed without any in-game equipment or money.
• Trickery: cheating, and stealing.
• Finding abandoned items or PED lying on the ground.
• Begging, which is largely frowned upon.
• Take part in newbies missions in order to receive free tools and ammunition.

Except the top most option all the other options have the possibility to make the player some money, but most of them will make the player just a little money.

The most common activity for new players or free players is sweating and either making Mind Essence with it to sell or sell strait away. Prices on sweat vary a lot and while it use to be 13 PED for 1000 sweat (around 2004) it is now about 2-4 PED for 1000 sweat (2013). It is up to the player to negotiate a good price in the current market and with the current competition in mind.

Possible the best way to make some money for free is by doing jobs for other players, but this usually involves a large amount of trust between the employer and the employee, which would be a problem for most new players, because there is usually nothing to base that trust upon and since you are playing with real money you would have to urn that trust first. Also there are usually not that many players that offer jobs, so finding one would take some time and effort.

Playing with real money:

If a player decides to play with real money, he/she has another choice to make and that is the amount of money they are willing to 'invest' in the game. Because there is no subscription of any kind it is all up to the player what he/she is willing to pay to play the game. A player can invest anything from 10 to 1.000.000 dollar into the game it is all up to the player.

The advantage of investing real money into the game is that you usually can skip the, widely regarded as boring, free activities, like sweating, and get to the 'fun' part right away.

With as little as 15 dollar (150 PED) a player can buy himself a very nice collection of starting gear, containing, for example, a simple rifle, some basic armor and a healing device (about 25 PED all together) and spend the rest of the money to buy ammo for the rifle and go and hunt some creatures.

If you have a limited budget, playing smart is the key, so finding out what the best setup in gear is for what creature is very important. For smaller creatures it is in most cases smarter to play without armor (players call that naked, even though you are not really naked) then with armor because of the decay the armor will have from getting hit. This way you will get killed more often, but using your heal tool will at least give you some skills next to the decay it has from using it where armor just gives you decay.

The general idea is that there is a 90% return rate in Trade Terminal (TT) value from any of the 3 main activities in the game. This number is however based on a long period of time with, in the case of hunting, 1000's of creatures killed and of course playing smart is very important. The other 10% needed to break even will have to come from the other players when you sell your loot to them. It therefore is important to know the market and know what people are willing to pay for your loot.

Probably the only sure way of making money in the game is by trading, BUT, to make money you need money, or you have to start very slow and work your way to the top. To make money trading you have to be smart and be willing to crunch the numbers all the time and play the marked in order to get the best possible deal. This might mean that you have to keep a certain stack of item in your inventory for weeks or months and wait till prices go up again. This then of course is 'dead' money, you cannot use, so having enough money as a buffer is highly advised.

How much does it cost to play: Well, it all depends on you and how much money you have in real life and on how much (if any) of that money you want to spend on a game and how smart you are. One thing you have to do is look at it over a longer period of time, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, but overall it should balance out to around that 90% return.

Character creation (x)

Before beginning the game a player has to choose a name for his avatar, which must be a first name, a last name and a nickname of which all 3 names will be visible to all the players in game. The name can not have any profanities in and can never be changed, unless MindArk thinks the name is inappropriate. Next the new player will need to create his or her avatar and can choose to adjust about everything, from sex to height to eye, hair and skin color.

During the process of creating your avatar there will be some personal info asked which will not show up for anyone in-game. This info is used by MindArk to verify that you are real when you wanna withdraw money out of the game. Giving them false information, could end you up not being able to withdraw any money.

After initial creation further physical modifications can only be achieved through the services of other users acting as hairdressers or plastic surgeons, for example.

Contrary to most other MMO's every person is only allowed ONE avatar and having more then one could end a player up banned from the game loosing any funds they have invested in the game. This drastic measure is implemented to don't give players the opportunity to cheat or farm, which could really influence the game and it's players in a negative way because of the real money that is involved.

Because of the 'only one avatar per person' rule people should be careful when they want to start the game over from the beginning (no idea why people would do that) because when starting the game over with another avatar that will be your second one and you could be banned from the game. If for some reason you do wanna start over, the smart thing to do is contact MindArk asking them to delete your previous account. This is also on situation where filling out your real information is needed, because they will most likely ask for some form of identification, before deleting your account.

Planets

Entropia Universe, or Project Entropia as it was called back then, was created in 2003 with only one planet called Planet Calypso. With the anticipation for more planets in the universe the name was changed to what it is called now.

The second planet was released on April 6th 2010 and is called ROCKtropia and is owned and developed by NEVERDIE studios of long time Entropia Universe player Jon 'NEVERDIE' Jacobs. The theme of this planet is music, which is seen throughout the planet.

The third planet to be released was Next Island on December 8th 2010. The theme of this planet is paradise and it indeed looks like that, with nice beaches and landscapes.

The fourth planet that was launched is Planet Arkadia on May 25th 2011. The theme of this planet is Treasure Hunting which you can do both in-game as outside the game.

The fifth planet that was launched is Planet Cyrene on May 1st 2012. This was a soft launch to let excisting players on the planet and test things out. When the full launch is planned is not known at this time.

Space, while not really a planet, is a different area in the Entropia Universe, connecting all planets. Space is developed and managed by MindArk themselves and allows the players to travel from one planet the the others in their space ships.

Significant events and virtual property sales

December 14, 2004 - The game creators MindArk announced the conclusion of the first "Treasure Island Sale". This was a virtual island put up for auction. The winning bidder, an avatar named Zachurm "Deathifier" Emegen, paid 265,000 PED (US$26,500) for the island. At the time this was the highest price ever paid for a virtual item. According to the press release, it is "a large island off a newly discovered continent surrounded by deep creature infested waters. The island boasts beautiful beaches ripe for developing beachfront property, an old volcano with rumors of fierce creatures within, the outback is overrun with mutants, and an area with a high concentration of robotic miners guarded by heavily armed assault robots indicates interesting mining opportunities."

October 24, 2005 - A virtual "asteroid space resort" was bought by Jon "Neverdie" Jacobs for a sum of 1,000,000 PED (US$100,000), greatly surpassing the sale of Treasure Island. Jon Jacobs is also the writer and producer of a song played within the Entropia Universe called "Gamer Chick". The asteroid was named Club NEVERDIE after Jacobs's own in game avatar and has made headlines around the world for the high price of the purchase and his own ambitious plans to turn the resort into a venue for "Live Entertainment in Virtual Reality".

November 9, 2005 - The BBC reported that "Deathifier" had recouped his investment in under a year. He made money by selling virtual homes as well as taxing other gamers to hunt or mine on the island. "The money made to date is only a taste of what can be achieved with my virtual island purchase," said Deathifier.

May 2, 2006 - MindArk announced the introduction of an ATM card enabling players to withdraw the real-world currency equivalent of their PED funds directly from any real-world Versatel ATMs. As reported on the BBC newsfeed users could sell virtual items online and then go purchase a dinner for themselves down the street in real life with this cash card technology. It was stated that $165 million had "passed through the game" in 2005 and that this figure was expected to double in 2006.

Mike Everest, a home-schooled high school senior from Durango, Colorado, and his mother earned $35,000 in 2006 by constructing and selling weapons in Entropia. Of this, $12,000 will be used as college funds for his siblings. Everest spent an average of three hours per day playing the game and intended to continue playing to fund his own college education.

October 17, 2006 - MindArk announced that Entropia Universe had achieved the milestone of over 500,000 registered users. "The growth of Entropia Universe is an enormous achievement for us and the members," said Jan Welter, CEO of MindArk, developer of Entropia Universe. "As the world of video games evolves to become more than just a means of two-dimensional entertainment, we are seeing a demand for the integration of real-world features in virtual environments. Individuals are joining the Entropia Universe community to interact, meet new people, learn new ideas, reach entrepreneurial aspirations, create societies and even foster new relationships in everyday reality."

May 8, 2007 - MindArk announced the results of the world's first virtual banking license auction. These two-year exclusive licenses aim to integrate real world banking systems into Entropia Universe. The virtual Entropia Universe banks will work similarly to real world banks, or pawn shops. Initially, they will be provided with secure systems enabling them to lend money to participants and collect interest, design and name their own virtual bank building(s), and make their own personnel available through avatars. Each winner must add a further US$100,000 as working capital. MindArk CIO Marco Behrmann said, "The five banks will have integrated services within the mechanics of Entropia Universe and will not just be virtual advertising spots." After months of bidding the five licenses sold for a total of US$404,000, to:

• Avatar "Janus JD D'Arcwire", representing Wirecard Bank AG, who paid US$59,060.
• Russian Internet payment provider MONETA.ru, with avatar "Yuri iNTellect" who paid US$99,900.
• Entropia celebrity "Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs", who paid US$90,000.
• Second Life virtual celebrity and entrepreneur Anshe Chung, who paid US$60,000.
• Avatar "Jolana Kitty Brice", an Entropia Universe participant and entrepreneur who paid US$95,000.

December 8, 2009 - The sale of the Crystal Palace Space Station was announced. A public auction held from December 14, 2009 through December 28, 2009 determined the new owner. It was won by Buzz Erik Lightyear who paid 3.3 million PED, or US$330,000 for it.

June 15, 2010 - Parent company MindArk AB released its 2009 annual report. They reported a cash flow of -18.6 Million SEK (-$2.4M). In the report it states that the real life bank they were planning to start is on hold due to a lack of funds. MindArk also said they had a signed letter of intent to sell their original virtual planet, Planet Calypso, for a price of $6,000,000 USD to an unnamed company. This company was later on announced to be SEE Virtual Worlds, which was already a partner with the intention to release at least two planets in the Entropia Universe (Planet Michael, a virtual world celebrating the life of Michael Jackson, and a second planet featuring monsters from Universal) but in June 2011, MindArk released a statement announcing the end of the partnership with SEE altogether.

Systems Requirements

Very High Settings

Internet Connection: ADSL or better Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 Computer Processor: Intel I7 / AMD Phenom II Computer Memory: 4096 MB RAM or more Graphics Card (with latest drivers): NVIDIA GeForce 285 / ATI Radeon 4870 or better DirectX: Version 9.0c or later Sound Device: Direct X compatible sound device Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768 pixels Hard Drive Space: 10 GB of free space

High Settings

Internet Connection: ADSL or better Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 Computer Processor: Intel Core duo or AMD Athlon 64 X2 Series or better Computer Memory: 2048 MB RAM or more Graphics Card (with latest drivers): NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Series or better / ATI Radeon 2900 series or better. DirectX: Version 9.0c or later Sound Device: Direct X compatible sound device Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768 pixels Hard Drive Space: 10 GB of free space

Medium Settings

These requirements should be considered the minimum system requirements for Entropia Universe: Internet Connection: ADSL or better Operating System: Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 Computer Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.8g hz or AMD Athlon 64 Series or better Computer Memory: 2048 MB RAM or more Graphics Card (with latest drivers): NVIDIA GeForce 7800 Series or better / ATI Radeon 1900 series or better. DirectX: Version 9.0c or later Sound Device: Direct X compatible sound device Screen Resolution: 1024 x 768 pixels Hard Drive Space: 10 GB of free space

Low Settings

If your system falls below the Medium Settings requirement you may still be able to participate in Entropia Universe, but your visual experience will be hampered. If you use Medium Settings on a system below Medium Settings requirements, you may suffer from low frame rate. If you use Low Settings, there may be artifacts such as white texture-less avatars, no ground vegetation, short draw distance and no shadows. Please note that support is not given on technical issues deriving from a computer that only handles the Low Settings.

External links (x)

• Entropia Universe Portal – Official website.
• Planet Calypso – Official website for Planet Calypso
• Planet ROCKtropia – Official website for Planet ROCKtropia
• Planet Next Island – Official website for Planet Next Island
• Next Island Forum – Official forum for Planet Next Island
• Planet Arkadia – Official website for Planet Arkadia
• Planet Arkadia Forum - Official forum for Planet Arkadia
• Planet Cyrene – Official website for Planet Cyrene
• Planet Cyrene Forum - Official forum for Planet Cyrene
• Planet Toulan - Official website for Planet Toulan
• Theryon Wars - Official website for Theryon Wars