Friday, March 30, 2012

Writing for Gaming Sites

In addition to my blogs I started writing articles for The Metaverse Tribune which is part of the Metaverse Broadcasting Company, dedicated to using Virtual Worlds to construct and engage a global audience. My first article there is about why I started playing Entropia Universe and my first experiences within that massively multilayer online game. It is so successful that it is featured on the front page on The Metaverse Tribune

and it is linked on the main page of www.entropiauniverse.com
When  you click on the picture with the text "From The Metaverse Tribune - Why People Join - A Players Experience" you are redirected to my first article on The Metaverse Tribune.
The same picture linked to the article can be found on http://www.planetcalypso.com/ too.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

2012 - Too Many Games to Play

I didn't believe that I will ever say this, but at the moment I am feeling like there are too many games to play and not enough time. Everything started with Mass Effect 3 when it was released on 6 of March 2012. I decided to play again Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 2 to import my character in Mass Effect 3. I also installed some additional DLCs making my game time even longer. In the moment I am in the middle of Mass Effect 2 and to finish Mass Effect 3 I will need 2-3 more weeks if I don't quit my job and play all day. Although reading about the bad ending of Mass Effect 3 I am not sure I will play to the end. And the grand reason for everything that happened in all 3 Mass Effect games is this: "Yo dawg i heard you don't wanna be killed by synthetics, so i made some synthetics to kill you every 50k years, so you won't be killed by synthetics "
SPOILER:
But of course not everything about ME 3 is bad. There are some good moments too:
Robot with cameltoe - priceless.

The other game that is coming "soon" (soon by Blizzard) is Diablo 3. It is supposed to be released on 15 of May 2012. No gamer that played Diablo 2 will miss to play Diablo 3. The expectations are high and I hope it won't be disappointment like Mass Effect 3. Diablo 2 was game that people played for 10 years, but the competition in game world now is way bigger then when Diablo 2 was released. And I am not sure D3 will have the same success, but even if it doesn't it will be great game to play when you don't want to think too much and just click and kill.
Here are all 2-16 tiers for armors for all classes:

And on top of all that Planet Cyrene is coming on 1 of May 2012. And I am planning to go there and play really hard. The developers promised that there will be no missions just for the sake of having missions and that all the missions will lead to an area with something special going on. When you arrive on Planet Cyrene you'll be given an introduction on how and why you came to be on the planet and then will be thrown into the action pretty quickly, but in a guided way.
When you finish the starter area and are ready to move on to the real challenging parts of the planet there will be multiple paths you can choose, each with a unique experience. The choices you make will have an impact, most importantly the allegiance to different factions within the game. Who you choose to fight and whom you choose to befriend will define your avatar in distinct ways, it will dictate what storyline you receive and who you receive it from. This is little strange because Entropia Universe supposed to be designed so everyone can do everything, skill in every profession and can take any mission. It will be interesting to see how Planet Cyrene implements that. Besides missions there will be World events. World events will be special events that only happen during a certain time or in a certain area.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Change of plans for Project Entropia Universe

Here are some interesting stuff that MindArk employees said in 2001-2002 for the game and how silly they look now. But I guess we can't blame them - the games can change a lot for 10 years, the players change and the technologies changes.

Anders|MA: All players will start with a basic appartment. However it may be in the players interest to buy either a bigger appartment or even a house.

Per|MA: H2SO4: Yes, bank institutions can store your items for you and will keep them in mint condition. You can later extract your item from any other bank institution. Your dwelling can house items as well, but you do not need a dwelling just to keep items.

Anders|MA: We will use an insurance system. You insure your equipment so you will keep it if/when you die. However, if you murder a player all your insurances will be lost.

Per|MA: Cidium: Yes, NPCs will be available for hire for a lot of various purposes. Guards is a good example, where a better guard will cost more. NPC guards will unerringly guard whatever area they are ordered to guard. Simple, no? :-)

Xander: *Noir* How will societies be able to create and incorporate their official logos into the game? Will there be a way to import some form of graphic file into the PE game that everyone would see? Then would this be a screened process to prevent constant changing of logos and possible obscene content? Per|MA: Noir: Society logos must be sent in and reviewed, mainly to see to it that they are standardized and will work as a society decal.

5. How does Mindark plan on involving the characters in the story? Will they use "GM" characters that will seek out players and send them on quests? Or some other model? Yes to both questions. MindArk plans to employ one hundred and twenty people to begin with during spring that will solely be inside the game as GM characters to help other players with problems that might come up, or just to offer help.

How many characters will I be able to have? You will be able to have 5 - 8 different characters. 


Locke|Stratics: *Noir* Would it be possible to allow players to program 'bots' or 'robots' using a simple gui (for logic flow), or other interface as in the Playstation game "Carnage Heart"? JAP|MA: yes you will be able to program robots, the way they will be programmable is for attacks, beast of burdon actions and general service for their master.

Locke|Stratics: *Buzzi* Will players be deemed to fight the robots on Calypso "forever" or are you considering further dynamic development (in the far future) by expanding the gameplay to other planets? Fredrik|MA: The battle against the robots will carry on as the main hostile element but we will add new twists and turns to it to develope the concept even further to keep the main story line fresh and alive. And yes, it is meant to expand further than one planet, eventually.

Locke|Stratics: *Cidium* In some of the other online games, players can create their own 'guardian' creatures to protect them and aid in battles. Since PE is set in the future, will players be able to research/develope their own robot 'guardians'? JAP|MA: Yes they will. Actually they will be able to create their "own slaves". This is something that the good slave creators will have very thrilling moments, when having the slaves "coming up to life"

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Planet Calypso Content Release 2012.2 2012-03-13

Here is the Content Release 2012.2 for Planet Calypso on 13 of March 2012. A lot of bug fixed, just what players wanted. Beacon missions are greatly improved. And for me the most interesting part of this content release is the Iron Challenges for all Puny creatures. This means a lot of cheap game time for new players.


SETTLEMENT UPDATE

The vast majority of the outposts on Eudoria have been redesigned using modern assets.
Forests have been thinned out around the Fort Troy, East Scylla Mountains region.

BEACON MISSIONS

Beacon interiors have been enlarged and redesigned to improve playability.
Beacon robots have been renamed and rebalanced, they are now slightly tougher but not as many.
The number of storage container loot boxes in each Beacon has been increased to 21.
Storage container loot boxes are now randomly placed within the Beacon.
Real-time team member statistics display- damage, healing, kills, deaths, etc.
Timers have been adjusted in balance with the recent level design changes
Loot from unopened storage container loot boxes is now added to the storage container boxes in subsequent Beacon missions.
Each Beacon level now has its own unique end boss that guards a storage container loot box which holds a large part of the total loot for each Beacon mission.
Minimum number of players required to enter Beacon missions has been lowered from 4 to 2. Note that the recommended team size is a minimum of four players to complete Beacon missions effectively.
The number of checkpoints have been reduced in all Beacon missions.

NEW ITEMS

Weapons
Armors
Blueprints
Iron Challenges for all Puny creatures - speak to Ingrid at the Port Atlantis swamp camp.
New Traeskeron mission - speak to Henry Johnson at Camp Poseidon.
New Rextelum mission - speak to Private Brian at Triton's Landing.
MISC

The Longu and Molisk creatures have received graphical updates.

FIXED ISSUES

The Daily Hunter mission has been fixed.
Exploring the area mission has been fixed.
The Volcanic Island mission has been fixed.
Kill the Aetherex on mountains mission has been fixed.
Finding water mission has been fixed.
Clear the area mission has been fixed.
Hunt Some mission has been fixed.
Kill'em all! mission has been fixed.
Fixed a bug with the shared loot feature on Hussk.
Flying land area objects near the Emerald Lakes mall have been landed.
Fixed a problem with the terrain under some houses at Lake Penzance.
Fixed the name of the quest object in the Feffoid Cave.

KNOWN ISSUES

Breakable glass in the Beacon Missions can cause performance issues when it destructs.
It is not possible to purchase the more expensive items from the market traders.
Global/HoF messages and effects are currently disabled in beacons.

Is it possible to profit in Entropia? Yes it's possible!

When I read an article about Entropia back in 2006, I thought “why do people invest 100k USD” in a computer game. So I started reading and investigating. At the end I started playing Entropia to see if it is possible to make money.

After all these years I would like to share at least my answer. Yes it is possible to make money. I did profit more than 100k PED within the last 3 to 4 years (without any ATH ever). And in general it’s possible to profit in all 3 main professions. Nevertheless I did the most profit when crafting, because that’s my main profession. Just to give an idea. I crafted items of more than 2 Mio PED of TT in this time.

And in general it seems – at least for me – you are able to make a margin (profit) of about 5% in average.

So everyone just thinking of start playing Entropia: Keep in mind that at the beginning it’s very difficult to profit. First problem is, that you don’t have a clue what you are doing (main problem  ... and I could add things here as well ). And secondly you are not skilled enough to do things that profit (minor problem).

Hope someone finds this helpful ... and always have a lot of fun when playing!

PS: Anyone asking about why you should scan mobs/robots/... In fact I believe a lot of people just do it to get cheap skills. But in fact my observation is that with higher “scanner skills” you are able to loot “higher valued” (uber) items. I don’t mean that you loot more. But you are able to loot different things (with the better "knowledge" of the mob/robot)

I just bought a lot of land deeds these days. They are a good investment (as long as you trust ... anyway there is always risk with high return investments).

There is no sense in explaining how it did that. As you might no have the chance to do the same things. And of course if everyone is doing it the same way, it will not work. It was just an information.

But for those of you, who only believe what they see. This screenshot might help


I agree you have to think about what you are doing. And I DON'T promote to do anything. Just take it as it is ... an information for those interessed in.

Do the math. 2 Mio PED over 4 years means only 1370 PED every day. That's e.g. about 2 Kesmek Bik (L). It's not a big deal to craft 2 Mio PED in this time (the big deal is to sell all the stuff ). And if you decide to craft the right things you will profit. Even 5% is not much. We all know, if you are lucky you can have much more, but there are also days you are loosing money.

Never registered for entropia tracker. But as globals gives you about 5% of your revenues, those 154k peds just support the 2 Mio PEDs, right?

But as said before. I'm sure there are people out there who have the same question that I had back in 2006. That's why I wrote this here. Honestly I would have been glad at this time, when someone could have given me the answer. But on the otherhand so far I had a lot of fun (and some bad days )

Here is the full topic: Is it possible to profit in Entropia? Yes it's possible!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Virtual Paid Job on Mothership in Space

Do you wonder how to get paid to play video games? In Entropia Universe you can work on one of the expensive Motherships and get salary for your virtual work every month. Payment is in Project Entropia Dollars, but you can always withdraw them into real US dollars if you have more than $100 USD in the game. Here is description of the Mothership and the available jobs you can apply for.

The ToS Normandie is an Aniara class mothership which currently is the largest class of starships within the Entropia Universe. 'Mandie' as she is called by the crew and its most dedicated Captain Alaina Bonnie Scotia has been upgraded to the strongest ship within its class. The ship currently has a total structural integrity of 81108. It is operated with the first level of engine upgrades allowing for a subwarp traveling speed of 46.8 km/h and the simultaneous usage of 3 of the 7 active mothership plasma cannons. The Normandie is the first and currently only mothership utilizing warp drive IV. Since its first day of operation (1st July 2011) the Normandie has been traveling space every single night. This is possible due to a great and motivated crew that loves space and 'Mandie'. The Normandie has its own radio station streaming through space 24/7 on www.normandieradio.co.uk


Captain (1-2% of monthly operating profit) You are the boss, giving the commands making sure everyone is ready and doing his job. Your task is to make your crew work as one. You will have all the rights to join in on any task on the ship. You have to make sure the flight schedules are kept so that the Normandie will reach her waypoints in time. You have to sync with Scout and preparation officer to make sure space<->planetside transports are covered when the Normandie reaches her target.
Pilot (0.5-1% of monthly operating profit) Your job is to keep the schedules and reach the waypoints accoring to the flight plan. In case of an attack you have to turn the Normandie in the right angles so your gunners can hit the incomming targets and to turn away damaged sections from the attackers as much as possible. You are in consistent dialoge with your

CO-Pilot, Gunners and fighters. CO-Pilot (0.8-1.6% of monthly operating profit) You are the eye the one person who has the lives of the whole ship in his/her hands. Your job is to watch space and detect any incomming targets as soon as possible. You will be calling the fighters out and give captain, pilot and topgun all the information they need to protect the ship. You will be calling the targets for the mothership gunners and work closely together with Topgun.

Lead Repaircrew Officer (0.5-1% of monthly operating profit) Your job is to keep your section alive. You need to be 100% ready and quick at all times. Your job will be to increase and manage your team on each flight. Your team will consist out of customers, so be nice helpful and try to make them aware on how important it is for them to be ready. Try to increase your skills as much as possible to soon be able to use the best repairtools avaiable, be ready to chip in if needed. As long as you are not lvl25 vehicle engineer you will be payed in vehicle engineer skill chips. You have to sync with the other Repaircrew officers to even out the teams were needed and you need to make sure your team knows its way around in case they need to run for another section to help.

Mothership gunner (0.5-1% of monthly operating profit) You have the largest firepower at your hands, listen to 'the eye' (CO-Pilot) when targets get called and be quick diminishing them. Your weapons cost 1 Ped per shot, you need to be able to sustain the ammunition needed and to have very few missed shots. You are paying the bill for ammo, but you also get the chance to loot your targets.

Topgun (Squadron Commander) (0.7-1.4% of monthly operating profit) Jobrequirement is a fully functional quadwing. Your job will be to protect the Normandie and command her fighter squadron in close contact with 'the eye' (CO-Pilot). When the Normandie is going to leave the bluezone of a planet or spacestation you will be out patrouling the area around her. When the Normandie is aproaching the bluezone of a planet or spacestation you will be out securing space in front of her. When the Normandie is in Deep Space you will be in the hangar ready to take of within seconds, as soon as the eye is calling. You will be calling the targets for your fighter squadron considering the the info provided by 'the eye' (CO-Pilot).

Fighter (0.5-1% of monthly operating profit) Jobrequirement is a fully functional sleipnir mk2 and upwards. Your job will be to protect the Normandie and follow the commands of the Topgun. When the Normandie is going to leave the bluezone of a planet or spacestation you will be out patrouling the area around her. When the Normandie is aproaching the bluezone of a planet or spacestation you will be out securing space in front of her. When the Normandie is in Deep Space you will be in the hangar ready to take of within seconds, as soon as the eye is calling. You will aim and fire on the targets called by the Topgun.

Scout and preparation officer (0.5-1% of monthly operating profit) Jobrequirement is a fully functional quadwing. Your job will be to scout the space lane in front of the Normandie and notify the Captain and the eye about your findings. You have to avoid combat whereever possible. Your job is to reach the target destination very much in advance of the Normandie and get in contact with our external service providers for shuttle service preparation as well as with our customers on the respective planet to announce the arrival of the Normandie and help them getting prepared for their travel.

Steward/Stewardess (no monthly payment,optional , for VIP customers only) Your job will be to make the travel enjoyable to the Normandies VIP customers. Either guiding them through the ship and showing them all the sections or dancing for them in the Lounge. Your income will be tips only. Depending on the number of VIP customers this may change.

Repaircrew/fighter assistent: The Normandie is offering unpayed repaircrew/fighter jobs where you can get trained up and practise the skills you need. Your respective officer will feedback your captain about your progress and the captain will update myself. This is a good way to progress towards the payed jobs or if you want to take a job on another Mothership we will inform its owner about your skills. Assistent fighters still retain the right to loot shot targets.

Each of the listed jobs has a minimum basic payment and a bonus payment included. The first listed percentage above is the minimum payment, the second is the maximum including bonus payment. The bonus payment will depend on customer satisfaction. Every customer will be able to give feedback on the transport service provided directly to myself. There will be an average satisfaction rating soon.-

You can read more on Titans of Space website.

Friday, March 9, 2012

The successful business and gaming model of Entropia Universe

Usually when you ask someone that plays Entropia Universe "What is so unique about this game?" the answer will be "It has Real Cash Economy! Everything costs real money! You can get rich in the game and withdraw your money in your real life banking account!". While this is true, it is also true that there is more than just the money.
Humans are social animals and since the beginning of games players wanted to play with their friends or even with people they don't know in multiplayer mode. Player vs player or in some cooperation mode. Even some of the first games are for two players - Tic-Tac-Toe (1952); Tennis for two (1958); Pong (1972). Or some of the best games - StarCraft; Diablo; Counter Strike; Quake - they all have multiplayer and people like it.
The next level of social, multiplayer games are the MMOG's (Massively Multiplayer Online Games). Now there is new MMO every day - Dragon Nest; Vindictus; TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea; C9 (Continent of the Ninth Seal); Guild Wars 2; Star Wars: The Old Republic; Lineage 2; APB: Reloaded; Dragona; Prius Online; Seven Souls Online; Cross Fire; Grand Chase; Eden Eternal; Hunter Blade Online; Game of Thrones; Tribal Hero; Grimlands; Roto X; Anime Trumps; Maestia: Rise of Keledus; Living After War; Divina; Traveller AR; Dragon Born Online. This is just part of the new MMO games coming now. They are made, developed and managed like any normal game - there is one company that makes everything in the game, including every place and mission. The problems here are two. First there is small amount of people responsible for the fun of sometimes even millions of players. And it is hard to make the game interesting for so many people. And second problem is that after few months of playing you get bored of doing same quests again and again, you have the best armor and weapons and you tried every skill. Finally there is nothing more to do in the game and you quit playing it.
This is now how Entropia Universe works. The people from MindArk are the top level. Then there is Crytec.
They make the graphic engine (CryEngine 2 - probably the best graphic engine for 3D MMO) of the game and save MindArk from all that work and also the possibility to make crappy engine like Even Online. Then just under MindArk are the planet partners - Creative Kingdom; Pyxel Arts; Arkadia Studios; Next Island; Neverdie; Beladcom.
MindArk provides the Entropia Platform and Planet Partners can use the ready tools to make planets with all the places, creatures, missions, armors, weapons and everything else on their planet. And they have to pay to work for MindArk. And then on the lower level are the players. Every player for all over the world have the opportunity to be part of the game, work for MindArk and make the game more fun to the other players. For that they pay $10 000 USD - $100 000 USD for a land area or $500 USD - $5 000 USD for a shop in the game. Players organize events for other players. Players help other players by mentoring them. In the end there are thousands of people working for free (even they pay for that) for MindArk turning Entropia Universe from regular game into virtual universe. Combining that with the freedom of choice in Entropia Universe (you can do whatever you want, you are not limited to following some quest or anything) makes the game so unique and people can play it for years not just for few months.
When I say that players work for free for MindArk it is not 100% true. They work with no real contract or salary. They work for their fun. But also they can make some money from that. There is no other game where you can buy part of the game and receive part of the income that game makes.
For all these reason I think that the future belongs to games like Entropia Universe. Something more than just a game. A game where you have endless freedom of choice and opportunity to be part of the game and change the game itself.