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.

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.

Originally posted by admriker4

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."

Originally posted by lkavadas

 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.

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

Delete.

Originally posted by lkavadas

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."

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.

Originally posted by lkavadas

 

Originally posted by admriker4

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.

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.

Originally posted by Briansho

The also made items L for limited so you cannot repair them and have to buy new ones.

Also, there are also a couple other key things missing from Entropia Universe:

• No mounts or vehicles.
• No in-game postal system (you can only contact your friends if they are online). They should just copy World of Warcraft's postal system.

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:

“It’s a game,” said Erik. “I’m having fun with it. I can walk away from it, explore new areas when they are patched in, enjoy doing things or just hanging out with friends. Shops and the auction run 24 hours and I don’t have to attend them. All transactions are secure and automatic.”

I probed a little further, “Does it pay your rent?”

“Well,” Erik volunteered. “I drew about $10,000 last year.”

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.