Another MMMORPG has chosen the Entropia Universe platform, adding another destination for Planet Calypso, Rocktropia, Next Island, and other planet residents to travel to!

Arkadia Studios has announced Planet Arkadia, which is rumored to launch early in 2011.

http://www.planetarkadia.com/frontline-news tells the back story for this new place to adventure!

I must say that this is a planet I'm looking forward to. The way they have involved the community and informed them is SO GREAT, and they are not even online yet. We got a great storyline already which is great.

The CEO of this future planet is also a long time player of the game, so he knows what the community wants and likes, sure there are restrictions on what he is allowed to do according to MindArk (developer of the game 'engine') but I'm sure we will see some cool things we did not know were possible :)

I've tried Entropia but never had a clear understanding of the model. So it's a game engine like say Second Life (although seems to support more advanced surface and pixel shaders) and is open for licence by small companies to create virtual worlds under the umbrella of the Universe? Each planet has a theme and art made by the small company who funded it?

Whats the catch? What do people do on the planets? Is it a social game like 2nd life or are there game mechanics and RPG elements?

Originally posted by Arioc

I've tried Entropia but never had a clear understanding of the model. So it's a game engine like say Second Life (although seems to support more advanced surface and pixel shaders) and is open for licence by small companies to create virtual worlds under the umbrella of the Universe? Each planet has a theme and art made by the small company who funded it?

Whats the catch? What do people do on the planets? Is it a social game like 2nd life or are there game mechanics and RPG elements?

in a nutshell, its all about money.. and in this case.. its real money.. because anything you want to do, has a price.. and in EU's case, quite an expensive one at times. But if you have a relatively large disposable income, then this game probably can be fun.... if you can't afford the price tag though.. then the game is more grindy than you can imagine.. with very little in the way of gains..

The idea behind the game is a Universe with multiple planets. So far we have 2 planets, Calypso (the planet it all started on) and ROCKtropia a planet with a Rock/metal theme to it where you can hunt vampires and werewolves. The game  'engine' is developed and maintained by MindArk a company from Sweden. The planets are developed and maintained by other companies that can get a licence to develop a planet withing the universe. Within the next year there will be another 2 to 4 planets launched into the univers, so keep your eyes open for some great new things to discover in the universe.

The graphics engine is the CryEngine2 a well known engine for some great looking games.

The idea is that you can donwload and play the game for free, starting on one of the planets in the universe. From there you can choose to keep playing for free (by grinding your money together) of deposit a little (or a lot) money whenever you like. So no monthly supscription you also have to pay if you don't play or when you don't have money that month, it is all up to you if, when and how much you pay. The way the game company makes money is by decay. Every item you use in game decays and need repairs or replacements. The money for this repair or replacments goes to the developer. The money spend by using ammo to shoot your weapon goes back in the lootpool, so they do not make any money from that.

Once you are on the planet there are lost of things to do, like hunting, mining, crafting and even hairdresser and makeup artist. There is also a lot to explore and discover (which is free of course). Next to the stuff you can do on the planet you started on you can also travel to the other planets. This is not free (costs 4 dollar) but you will get a new experiance. You will bring all of your avatar and all of its skills to that other planets, so you will not have to start all over again. So, you essentially start a new game with the skills you had for 4 dollar (not expansive for a new game).

The game is also a 1 server game, meaning that ALL players playing the game can communicate and meet ALL other players in game, so you won't have the problem with your best friend playing on some other server you can't go to.

Thats in a nutshell what the game is about. People have called it a mx betwean Second Life, WoW and FarCry. So socializing, shooting and quests, but also vehicles, PVP and the best community you will ever come across in any MMO !!!

Actually to clarify one point  Razer made...

There are lots of  servers, but only one instance of each area of a planet partners planet. An avatar passes seamlessly between server borders as they would travelling from locality to locality in the real world. because it is single instance there are no mirror images, and no missing your friends because they are on the wrong server.

That's what I ment to say AG, thanx for clearing that up :)