Entropia Universe
I have been fascinated with the idea of virtual worlds since I read Snow Crash in the early-mid 90s. A place where I can do almost anything and be whoever I want to be, participating in a living, breathing world not so different from our own, but with possibilities beyond those on Earth. When I heard about Second Life for the first time, I got pretty excited. I tried it, I didn’t like it at all. I tried it again, and it was full of sex and furries and random shit flying everywhere, so now it sucks even more. Entropia Universe might be promising, so I’m downloading it right now. It looks better visually and even has some game aspects to it that could make it more fun. Has anyone tried it out?
Never heard of it, but now you’ve made me curious and I’ll have to go look. Like I need another brain sucker.
I was invited to the beta oh so long ago, but the thought of hooking up a credit card to my account at that time just didn’t appeal to me. Then again, it was “beta” and could have just been a fly-by-night operation to sucker people into giving them their credit cards.
Can’t say I still like the money idea part, but I can’t rightly say if the game is fun or not. I guess this makes you the guinea pig for us?
Entropia Universe (nee Project Entropia) is, uh, interesting. They were masters of PR (even before SL came along). They got coverage for press releases about how much some player paid for some in-game land. Supposedly, owners of the tracts of land could get a part of the money spent as a kickback. One of the large areas purchased (for over US$100k, if memory serves) even had custom client the owner could distribute and get people to start off in their area.
I firmly believe in microtransactions (paying for perks, virtual item sales, etc.), but PE does it all wrong. You have to buy *everything* in the game; there is no way to play for free. A friend of mine, an experienced MMO player, said 5 Euros lasted about 2-3 hours, so have deep pockets. Also, the aspect of being able to withdraw money out of the system smacks of gambling. Most people won’t be able to see any profit from the game, otherwise the company would go bankrupt.
I’ll be interested to hear what you have to say, Ryan.
Psychochild: You had me at “no way to play for free”
And Schway? SL has lots of stuff that isn’t sex or gambling. You just have to know where to look
The thing is it’s all user-made. That’s the coolest bit, even if I don’t have the patience to sit and try to make stuff. Or the creative talent, for that matter. I can’t say I spend that much time in SL anymore, but there are many neat things to see. And be. Tinies, furries, robots, critters, humans, beautiful, ugly, scary, etc. I once saw an island built to resember stuff out of LOTR and it was really well done. Beautiful! See also:
http://community.livejournal.com/second_lifers/391518.html?nc=10
One word… ’sweating’. After you sweat animals for about three hours you won’t ever want to play again. It is probably the most tedious and unrewarding thing I have done in my MMO experience to date. Just like Psychochild said, you really can’t play for free. Obviously some people like it though so I would say give it a shot some evening.
I’m jumping on the bandwagon here: PE/EU is so tedious and the micro transactions soon become your life blood in order to do something besides sweating animals to try and buy slightly better armor….in order to tank more damage while sweating.
Also tried Second Life a while ago, and I don’t like it one bit. Slow, ugly, laggy, and full of freaks and weirdos. Perhaps I’m gonna check out Entropia some day.
Yeah, the whole sweating thing is completely stupid. It took me about 5 deaths and 15 tries to even sweat one animal successfully. You start too weak to even suck the sweat from an animal, or whatever the heck you do.
So yeah, you don’t have to put a credit card in or anything anymore to start, but it is still ridiculously boring. I actually wandered around for about 30 minutes before I found anything at all to attempt to do. Bad.
Here’s to another failure of a virtual world in my eyes. Cristin, I know there’s a lot more to Second Life, but the sex and furries and weird stuff is so pervasive that I just can’t get into it. Without regulations as to where that can take place, it sucks.
I’ve installed and tried SL three times to date. The last time I played, the first thing I saw upon logging in was a naked chick trying to get me to pay her for services… in the tutorial area. That, coupled with the poor visuals and poorer performance have turned me off from that game pretty much permanently.
Second Life can be either fascinating, or disorienting. My sister designs hair in the game (http://mystikalhair.blogspot.com/), has met a lot of interesting people, and seen a lot of interesting creations. My 7 y.o. nephew logged in (with his father’s guidance), ran around on one server, bought a gun and bullets, shot someone, then got kicked off the server for shooting someone. The first time I logged in, I queried “Dungeon” to find any D&D type content and …oh boy, there are some things I’ll never unsee. SL has its niche and attraction, but a lot of people log in with expectations that are quickly shattered because the code and world are so open. Oh, and Ryan, I have also heard of religious groups that will also hang out in the new player areas to try and steer new players away from the virtual hookers. Surreal.
It’s far to early, I didn’t get enough sleep last night, and the bolded words together struck me as ridiculously funny :\
Fair enough
Second Life freaked me out. Never heard of this. Going to check it out, but if I get smacked in the head by a flying penis I know who to blame!
I played EU for about 3 months.
Because cash is involved, the mechanical balance is very tightly managed. In wow, if a group of quests drops too much gold, who cares. In PE, if a particular monster has too high a % drop rate on a high value item, its a cash sink for the company.
Consequently, anything player resold is also subject to a level of patience and market control that is unheard of in other games. In wow, if you list things for a few gold less in the AH, you sometimes save yourself money by doing so. Time taken off to sell stuff is time away from grinding and cash generation. In EU, if you sell mined ores for less, or pay a little more to rapidly level a crafting skill, thats real life money you are essentially throwing away.
I found that like all games, rare drops go to the long term players, and there is less chance to catch up than in any other game I have ever played, with no exception. Most of the master level crafters have over 10k us dollars sunk into one craft skill, and have controlled prices on some of the rare drop resources to fit their needs.
Further, the rate of skill growth is just as tightly monitored and tuned, because skills can be “chipped out” to become an economic asset. There are somewhere between no and few ways to “level fast” even if you are veteran gamer.
The tight economic control affects social interactions. Players would be far more profitable if they grouped, due to killing monsters faster meaning less armor repair. However, competition for rare drops, or dealing with an unskilled team member is horrific.
Towards the end of my time in EU I got crafty and bought a pretty good sniper rifle, in an attempt to farm the next needed pieces of gear. It seemed to me that you could not assume you could self-equip by hunting with any reliable success. Sniping monsters in a FPS way was massively more cost effective, but I had a hard time having fun doing it when I knew that every missed shot was a couple cents.
The explorer impact was very hard for me to deal with. In most games the high level players will brag enough to give a number cruncher enough data to figure formula out. In EU, the top players are tight lipped to the point of refusing to list out upper level skill unlocks, or what those skills actually do.
The real gem in the EU presentation is that they manage the expectations of nearly every player who comes through the door. Everyone believes they are the l33t gamer who will crack the system, or can hit the jackpot, or organize in a better way that everyone else. You can watch the arc of player experience on the message boards. Within 4-12 weeks of a new player coming in, the intro posts, the My plan is great posts, the my experience in implementing the plan… etc, are all very telling about the system as a whole.
This is perhaps the fairest summary of Second Life, ever.
Aren’t these type of games simply Pyramid Marketing – The Next Generation?
When RL cash comes in to play, power and control become all consuming.
Who knows, if this sort of thing takes off and becomes vastly profitable, one may even see Don Corleone logging on and taking his cut of the profits.
..now where did I leave that tinfoil hat?
[...] Gnome explains: I tried it, I didn’t like it at all. I tried it again, and it was full of sex and furries and [...]
I was on and still occasionally visit There.com.
Came out a little bit earlier than SL, and personally, I prefer its model, yes fewer user created items, but they are generally of high quality, and the copyright violations and sexual stuff is pretty much kept out.
Svarga was the only place in SL I found even remotely interesting.
Hey Ryan, if you decide to try it out more… le me know. I have Entropia and my character is a lowbie as well.
I’ve been playing EU for a while now. It’s a great game, I love just wandering around in the wilderness and all the weird things that are around are very entertaining. The game is very hard to make any money with, ’sweating’ is the way that I chose to make some decent money with, after a while my sweating skills got better and better to the point where it was a somewhat less cumbersome act. But even still, it was a difficult thing to do. Finally I acquired a gun! And now hunting was the big thing, but nonetheless still a hard thing to do. But, EU is definitely a great way to whittle away hours on end at the computer.
Good thing about Entropia Universe is that content is created by game maker, so it is very good quality. Bad thing is that you can’t create your own content.
Entropia Universe is soul destroying, but that said it is possible to make money out of the game if you like boredom, you sweat you sell the skills then do it again, i usually have entropia running on a macro while i play something else, at the last count i had nearly 45k dollars (3 years worth)
Hmm. Fairly long time player myself. I enjoy it more than most other online games which seems strange cause in many ways there is not that much to do.
However, in online games you generally get sick of doing the same quests over and over again anyway. WHereas there is only one quest in entropia -> Staying solvent.
Have played since 2003 (before sweating and fruit gathering) and in the first two months deposited about $700 in $10 – $20 amounts
Was a bit of a shock when i worked it out. However, since then I have deposited nothing and have reached about 10k$ so am happy.
It is possible to make much more but the methods tend to be tedious beyond belief. To make it via hunting or mining or crafting is very tough but can be done or at least it works for me and consistantly.
But it is much slower than via trading or sweating and selling skills or something similar but they are dulll beyond belief.
Mostly mining funds my hunting or vice versa depending on where I seem to be doing best. Still for the most part I enjoy it though there are definitely periods where I do not play for a while.
Always tends to be more interesting if you are in an active society.
However, you have more chance of winning the national lottery than looting the necessary equipment to become an uber hunter. So if thats your goal you need to be prepared to drop a LOT of money into the game. Some items such as improved and Adjusted Faps sell for $10k or more, same for the more powerful and economical weapons.
But I find it fun most of the time, frustratiing occassionally. But having a lively Soc helps a lot. Gotta be able to boast when you do well and winge when you don’t and whats the point without an audience.
But the challenge is fun and it can be done. SL I find too random
Might check out Afterworld though supposed to be similar but not as expensive as EU. On the other hand not sure that I want to hand my credit card details over to a Russian website.
I am a avid SL gamer… I have to admit that at the start, the onlt thing that kept bringing me back was the social end of the game. Basically Linden Labs took a chatroom and made it 3D. Those of you that are looking for a social game, SL is your best bet. The sex and greifing in SL is a deterent, for us perverted people you might find it fun… but that hype soon wears down. As in any online game you are going to run across some weird people, but once you find a place that appeals to your intrest, things can get very fun. I have played SL for almost a year now, and have taken my fair share of breaks. The main draw for me is Role Play… There are gobs of role play sims that are great for people with a nack for story telling or looking to develope there own story lines for books and the like. Another highlight I find neat about SL is the ability to run a buisness in game… I haven’t really started my own yet but there are many out there that actually make a real world income. For the last several months I have been a DJ, playing music over a private stream at clubs. In three months I have grossed about 100K linden (about 400 USD). That isnt anything worth transfering into RL cash, but for doing something I love, its a neat benifit.
Now, onto Entropia…
I have had Entropia for about a week… I find it to be a massive let down. You are better off with EverQuest or WoW.
The game teases you with constant notices of who killed or looted what and how much the loot was worth… making people think it is easy for them to get in on the action… but I really see now way to get any action without making a serious real world investment… I read one of you mention the “Pyrimid Sceme”. I think that is a very good definition for it. As well as a gamble… If you are a lifeless individual and are sitting on a million dollars you got from you mom and dad burning in a car accident… then this may be the game for you.
Need I mention all the scam artist? The internet is littered with scam reports from Entropia and seeing them yourself in EU is easy enough.
SL is for someone that wants a social game…
EU is fr someone that likes to be lonely and spend money…
EQ and WoW area good ballance of both. A friend and I have both made descent amounts of money playing EQ, but dont lose sight of the overal point and intention of ANY online game… Social interaction and escape from RL (hopefully for only short periods of time).
On a lighter note, any of you that want to try SL… my toon is named Lucian Lynch. You can look me up and send me an IM. I will show you aroud and glady introduce you to the real hype of SL.
ok , so here’s a little go at what I see as the positive and negatives so far. Keep in mind I was a long time member of the virtual world there.com..nearly 5 years. The company that runs it makena technologies inc is a prime example of how external money can corrupt a virtual world. There nothing new is developed for the membership, it’s developed for external financial interests first. I also played Second life off and on for 4 years, never did I get the platform to run smoothly, and rarely did I ever not encouter some sexual perdator or nut job. Entropia Univeerse does have a steep learning curve. And lets be honest with real world banks involved of course they are going to be pushing micro transactions as their life blood. But in all fairness it’s the best of the three platforms. I experienced NO LAG. Visually their current platfor is perfect, and withe the implementation of the crytech2 engine sometime this year, it stands to get even better. I have had a hard time finding a sci fi themed world that was compelleing, but this one has kept my interest. And with the death of star trek on line and nothing really great in the works I’ve come to really like project entropia.
I played both SL and Entropia for awhile, I played SL for the longest and seriously had a buisness in there which made me like $700. per month, but i had to drop it, seriously in sl you start to just have to ignore the amount of certifiable perversion that passes for normal in there.
There are plenty of normal people but they are very silent. Im not religious by any stretch but the place was beginning to give me nightmares, especially the more i learned about ancient history, esoteric symbols and religions. So i shut down my buisness and faded away, the addiction is still there but the horror trumps it-
To entropia, they have a disturbing amount of esoteric jokes that pretty much mock the profane but its not like sl, Mind Ark, [hint hint] is to be honest the tightest pyramid scheme ive seen in a long time- how you can have banks in a world where people have little or no money is impressive.
These are the facts, if you want to enjoy PE deposit $200.00 US, buy yourself a nice outfit, some weapons, and equipment for mining, tailoring and such, then just run around on that till it runs out [week tops] if you enjoy the game and dont mind spending money on it then put in about $2000.00 buy yourself a mall space in a good area and sell everything you collect under market, in about 2 months you might have your money back if you play a little every day.
SL is the same way only you have to actually learn how to build things so its best not to spend a dime in there until you are sure you like to make things, with sl just get the subscription so you get the stipend, then float around and explore.
There are places where you can go in SL where everyone is fully clothed and there isnt dom/sub slavery or furry stuff or some half naked chick being dragged by a string- try the themed victorian areas and feudal japanese- outside of that- good luck.
EU wins the Best Cocktease Award in online games category. The biggest hard-on for me was the skill tree. Dozens upon dozens of skills, ranging from Laser Weapon Technology to First Aid to Scan Animal to Manufacture Components to Prospect to Biology… and so on. Later you realize some of the skills are not implemented. The moment you start shooting things your skills start to grow and the message window is spammed with “Your skills in [category] have increased”. This gives the impression “Man, my skills are going up FAST”. Not true. You need thousands upon thousands of points in order to become… green. Newbie, Inept, Green… that’s pretty much what it says in my character sheet after maybe 200 hours of goofing around in EU.
Seriously tedious and unrewarding experience. For zombies only. And anyone who has at least a serious resistance to mind-numbing repetitive tasks.