Comments on: Twelve Minute Shudder: Entropia Universe

By: EntropiaPlanets

EntropiaPlanets — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:59:27 +0000

For anyone interested in learning more about Entropia Universe, there is a wealth of information out there. For forums with Entropia Universe discussion, a wiki, and various tools integrated into a single Entropia Universe website, check out http://www.entropiaplanets.com.

By: Hidan

Hidan — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:49:02 +0000

@Eva

well i have been playing this game for a week as well, and while i do agree that we dont have to depo and still enjoy the game with sweating and meeting all the communities while doing so

but sooner or later, if you are hooked up with this game, you will want to Depo, and that is where everything will start ( the infamous Profit or loss problems ) and after reading all the replies here

i understand that this game is mostly based on purely Chances

you can just depo $5, go buy Mining gear, and go mine, then when you are super duper lucky, you get a World PED for thousands of PED

you can also depo $100, go buy loads of mining gears, go mine, and got nothing

now the $5 depo guy will start telling people that this game makes money, vice versa

so i do agree with people saying that this game is similar to gambling on casinos

although i do enjoy being in the game with the community, but other than sweating, i wont be doing much else

hence, for a player that does not depo like me, will have a hard time enjoying the overall game since we’re not able to participate on the uber events

sure there are some who did not depo a single $ and have lots of PEDS by today, but that dedication is hard to commit in this game

By: Belenor

Belenor — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 12:25:37 +0000

Well, I deposited some 220$ (actually, the latest deposit done today, so not yet accounted in EU). And I have an EU account since 2004 if I remember correctly. Notice that I did not say “I play since…” This is what I like with EU. I do not know other online games, so I have to ask – what happens if I do not pay the monthly fee? Is the account locked and I cannot play if I do not pay again? Probably. Well, with EU, I usually have a quite long periods I do not play, because I have so many other hobbies :-) But no worries, I just stop playing and return to the game a few months later to pick up where I stopped without any troubles with unlocking and paying. And I can stop anytime without a feeling of wasted money when not playing, you know, paid the fee one day and broken both hands the socond? No worries with EU :-)

Well, not much of an advantage, I know, but I like it :-) But I’m a strange fellow :-)

By: eva

eva — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 10:44:57 +0000

I’ve been playing this game for five weeks and have yet to make a deposit. I did my share of sweating the first week and I did A LOT of reading. The problem with most people is they just depo and go. Sweating is there for a reason, you gain a lot of skills and you meet a lot of people. It does suck yes, but the amount of things I learned doing that was immeasurable. This game like any game isnt for everyone.

By: John

John — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:36:49 +0000

The #1 the courts must ensure is that:
a) products and services are being received
b) that the people who profit from the sales are not monopolizing or unlawfully exploiting their customers

The internet and virtual societies cannot exist in the dark. That would be inviting dark age mentality and witch hunts and crime. The courts must tackle this issue. They must also tackle the issue of who owns the virtual assets? The company that owns the server and code, or the customer? Will the government protect the customer in the event of disaster or if the company declares bankruptcy or in a crime?

It’s difficult to trust MindArk when they exist in a real vacuum inside sweden. Legitimacy needs to be lended to them and for that they must challenge the courts and get everyone involved in the matter.

Having said this I have no doubt that virtual assets have value and that virtual economies tied to the real one are perfectly plausible, but it’s hard to see this reality unless government gets involved and hte laws can be enforced to protect everyone involved from non-criminal and criminal mishaps.

By: John

John — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:52:11 +0000

It would be a pyramid scheme except that:

a) virtual producs and services have value

In real life, an business owner makes more money the more people they get to become a customer. This is kind of like a pyramid scheme except that products and services are being sold. They even make a program where the pay the customer if the customer finds other customers. The difference, as I just stated, is that the customer is getting an actual product or service in the process or exchanging money.

Now, if you buy a virtual apartment and it operates in a similar manner (guy at the top makes money off you, and you try to get other people to buy apartments there), would you consider the apartments an actual product or service? I think this is the source of all of the confusion people feel when they play these games. If it’s not a product or service, then it could be argued this is a pyramid scheme.

So I think the root of all of this distress lies in the idea that virtual things have no REAL value, so the inevitable conclusion is that no product or services are offered in the transactions. This would mean it’s a pyramid scheme of some sort. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it’s prejudiced against virtual products and services. Let me ask you: Is a painting a product? Many people would consider what’s deemed these days as a painting to just be a piece of canvas (its real value) with paint thrown on it that some insane people will spend thousands of dollars for. Virtual property IS real because people are willing to buy it!!!! A virtual apartment is real. You can go in it and decorate it and enjoy it with friends. Virtual societies are real. Virtual friends are real. We need to get over this.

If I can get away with selling you nothing and get rich on it, then I deserve to be punished and have my business destroyed by the courts. That’s why we go after ponzi and pyramid schemes. The problem with online worlds is that half of the people think nothing is being produced for sale and it’s just a casino and the other half think something is being sold and it has value and it’s not just ignorance or addiction being exploited by a few businessmen to get rich. This is idealogical.

There’s some possibility now that open spaces are more important to evolution than competition. So people will run towards open spaces where they can build and socialize more than they will run to places where they can compete. That’s what is being alluded to. This leads me to believe that virtual reality will induce in humanity a rapid evolutionary change. The same thing would happen if space travel suddenly were cheap or energy reduced in price by ten times. We will most certainly evolve in a direction less physical and more mental. These are purely my opinions, based on my presumption that the internet and virtual property are a vast open space comparable to open spaces in our evolutionary past and that the studies that have backed up this idea that open spaces are more important than we thought are grounded in reality.

So what do you think? Will we evolve to become more virtual in the way we live? We already communicate at light speed in virtual reality. Why limit ourselves to physical constraints? When the possibility arises to upload our mind to the internet or to a computer device, evolution will surely be in full swing and it will be rapid and stunning.

By: Naifas

Naifas — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 02:19:06 +0000

I also started to play EU 5.5 years ago. I am not rich IRL nor ingame. I understand it’s dificult, and it’s a “love it or hate it” game. I’m still around after all that time, and average perhaps 80$ depos per year. You have to understand that the devs will take a cut on your ingame activities returns (some say around 5%). Some of your invested cash seems to also be channeled to larger drops that you may get or not (luck factor), and there’s the base return, which goes from 50 to 80% of your investment. I play at medium-high level when i don’t mind to loose more than the usual but have fun playing solo and testing my avatar’s strength. I play at low level when i don’t want to lose much and i team up when i don’t want to lose much while going for the big creatures. Every profit that happens in the meantime are lucky happenings. Or not :). You have to equation in the returns the market values which may by themselves keep your head over the waterline. In the meantime, i still have fun. I manage a society (yes, manage), and we support a lot each other. We even have a small ingame investment fund that pays for our little society events while making a few extra bucks on the side for all (we make an average of 1-2% a month). We meet IRL too, very often to drink, eat, and talk about the game. Sometimes, some people travel to meet other players abroad. Girls also play EU. Some meet their partners in life overthere, it’s not uncomon. I play with my wife, or played, since she spends a lot of time in the couch after she got pregnant :).
Of course if you expect the game to pay you to play, in a long term, you’re fucked. If you expect to get rich playing the game, wake up.
I don’t know what to think of players like ruskea or valentin, who pump gigantic quantities of dolars into the game just to burn it all in no time. There are ways to play it like slot machines (condition craft on mining amps anyone?). But only the doomed addicted gamblers choose to go down that path. I really think it should be stressed out that yes, you can play casino style, but beware, your odds, as in the casinos are not good! There are several ways to play it “safe” or “normaly”, but gambler players just won’t listen to the voice of reason.
The game is not free to play, but you can use the platform for free. There are missions now, or quests, like you call it, even for arriving noobs so you don’t feel so lost in the begining. You got free activities that can reward you with stuff with market value, but if you choose playing without putting a dime in, it will take you for ever and you will rapidly lose the interest in the game. I mean, yeah, you can go sweat creatures for a couple of months meet people there, chat with them and start to learn a bit while collecting the animal’s essence, but after 2-3 months of it, i bet you’ll want to move out and start to seriously try out the game. If you put in 20$, it’ll be enough to start as a hunter or miner. Get as much info about what gear to get before doing anything :). Knowledge is power. Knowledge is money. It will save u serious cash.
Goals. Besides those of missions, you can enter events organized by players or by the game devs. Or you can set your own. Example: grinding X mobs for that armor part or weapon.
Decay: Yes, everything decays. It’s what makes the economy work, like IRL. Oh, i decayed all my food, i better go get some more to stock my refrigerator :). (for EU players, i’m talking about L stuff, but you know it also affects the price of UnL, right?)

EVE: recently, a friend of mine that played EU is thinking of cashing out (with a large profit must i say) to dedicate entirely to EVE. Three months have passed. He did not cash out from EU yet, but is thinking about quitting EVE, although he likes the game and it’s complexity that is similar to EU, it is too time-consuming and he can’t do breaks like he used to in EU. The amazing part is that in EVE it seems after a couple of days you can do serious damage in pvp, and he fully dedicated to that activity.. while in EU, when he used to try pvp, he usually ended up at the revival terminal :D, even with 2 years of gameplay on top :). I don’t have anything against EVE or WoW, or other games, hell, i whish i had time to play them all currently. MOnthly fees are not an issue, if tried 1 at the time. But… in subscription fee game, i feel that if i’m not playing every single free hour that i have, i’m wasting my subscription, while in EU, there’s no stress at ll concerning that. I can make a deposit tomorrow and use that deposit in september for example, after a looong holiday. And it accumulates with your ingame earnings if any, our your preceding deposits. When i loot something in a game, nowadays, i always think about how much $ is it worth. And that thought only makes sense in EU.

I understand the reviewer’s frustration after his encounter with EU. It’s just not for everyone. It’s not a rose garden, and it can be hellishly difficult. Some like the challenge. SOme don’t. Have a nice trip back home.

PS: You can only lose what you put in
PS2: Yeah, i also find freakish the extreme value of certain assets ingame
PS3: it’s wild west capitalism ingame, be warned :)

By: RAZER

RAZER — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:31:45 +0000

Well, the game is not as bad as some people try to make you believe. Sure you can loose a lot of money, but if you play with your head, you can play for free or for a little amount of money. It is true that if you wanna advance in the game and buy better and better weapons and armor you would probably need to put some real money in the game unless you get lucky and loot something big. But if you can resist that urge and keep playing at a low level and progress in game naturally, you can do that for not to much money. Also remember that every item you buy in game is not lost money, you can sell them again and have the money transferred back to your bank account. This also goes for all the skills you gather.

Just remember that you probably not make a lot of money and that you can give up your day job and that it is a game and that you are playing for fun. If you remember that and try to get involved in the community I think it is one of the best games around.

One thing that does that is the fact that it is an 18+ game and most people you meet are mature and are able to have a normal conversation and you can ask serious (and not so serious) questions, and most people will try to help you in any way they can (except giving away free stuff).

I have been playing this game for about 5.5 years and I only seen a hand full of people that were shouting bad words in game or that were annoying people, and those guys will not last very long most of the time.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:23:37 +0000

I’ve always came back to Entropia after playing different FPS and strategy type games. It’s just a different breed than an MMO with a monthly sub fee and it takes some restraint and patience to learn how to conserve your peds and stretch them out. Also, I know many people in game that don’t deposit, and a few lucky ones that hit some big HOF’s and gave them a good head start.

By: PleasingFungus

PleasingFungus — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:56:30 +0000

The BEST shill. Come on!

“It’s true, that this is an attack article that is very biased.” (hm, yes, Quinns is being paid by ENTROPIA UNIVERSE’s many enemies)

“There are different ways of making money in the Entropia Universe, such as sweating… or collecting fruits and animal dung.” (I do love sweating and collecting dung, it is a pleasant escape from the real world)

“It is true that you can lose your pants in the Entropia Universe…”

By: TCM

TCM — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:14:29 +0000

A very interesting shill, to be sure.

By: Rasta

Rasta — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:11:43 +0000

It’s true, that this is an attack article that is very biased. The level of professionalism in terms of the author’s writing is quite low. The author’s concept of the game is also quite low. Just because you read an article on a site like this which no one ever heard of, doesn’t mean that what you’re reading is accurate. It’s just an opinion, and please remember to take it with a grain of salt.

Entropia Universe has a generally bright and expanding player base, and a bright future ahead of it — and is the only MMORPG in history to switch graphics engines. That alone is a big clue that the game is a successful one. It has a real cash economy and it’s up to you to determine how much you will spend, or if you will play for free. The beauty here is that you do not have to pay a monthly subscription fee, so you don’t get your account locked if you decide not to pay for a month or more.

There are different ways of making money in the Entropia Universe, such as sweating, trading, good loots, or collecting fruits and animal dung. Loots aren’t always good, but in my experience I have had some very nice loots which has helped support my gameplay. There are going to be large peaks and valleys in loot synonymous to a sine wave, and sometimes it takes many months before you get out of a valley or down from a peak. I have deposited some, but have set a limit as I’m not a complete idiot like some of these people you hear complaining who had no idea about how to match their spending with their skill progression, armory, and weaponry. If you follow a strict gameplan, you can do very well in this game but it takes dedication. If you’re a weak soul, then I wouldn’t recommend playing Entropia and rather should direct your interest in playing Furcadia.

Sweating is a grind, but it’s not supposed to be easy. I do find sweating fun though, as it’s a group activity that involves teamwork. There are other grinds in other MMO’s that earn you nothing but skills which are worthless, whereas you get multiple skills and make some money through sweating. If you were to sweat creatures and deposit a little bit of money ($10.00 per month for instance), you can have quite a bit of fun. Sure you’re not going to be uber, but most people who are playing games are in it for the entertainment, and there’s no doubt that you don’t have to be anywhere near the uber level in order to be entertained. In fact, I know some people that just run around this universe exploring, and shoot a couple mobs here and there, or drop a few probes here and there.

The skill system is very advanced; I’ve never counted how many there are but there must be hundreds. There are many different types of rifles, mining finders, amps, clothes, and a good player base to help you out if you need assistance. It is true that you can lose your pants in the Entropia Universe, but the people who lost a lot of money are those that I consider stupid people. The world is full of stupid people — they drive on our highways, shop at our stores, and play our games. There’s nothing that we can do about it. If you lost money in Entropia, it’s not Mindarks fault — they just provided the platform. And that platform is one in which allows a player to spend $0.00 or $1,000,000.

Give this game a shot, and follow an experienced player’s advice — one that has a good reputation. When it comes to people’s wallets, of course they are going to bitch and moan when their monetary losses were due to their own stupor, and lack of knowledge in reference to how this game actually works.