This Entropia Universe Buzz article is the first in a new series of Developer Notes where the development team at MindArk will share various tips and bits of information about Entropia Universe with our participants. Some Developer Notes will address important issues that we have noticed being discussed on community forums, while others will be prompted by feedback and questions received via support cases. Our goal with the Developer Notes series is to help participants better understand MindArk’s goals for Entropia Universe, and hopefully correct several misconceptions that have arisen within the community that we feel might help participants make more informed decisions for their avatars. We hope that you find the Developer Notes articles interesting and informative.
Independent Lootpools - One concern that we see very often on community forums, especially when a big All Time High is achieved, is that one profession is unfairly “financing” a huge loot in another profession. This misconception often results in one group of participants (i.e. hunters) becoming upset or frustrated that their activity is being used to fund the rewards given to another group of participants (i.e. miners). To hopefully dispel this misconception, we would like to inform participants that the loot pools for each main profession (hunting, mining and manufacturing) are completely independent of one another, and that a large loot in one profession has absolutely no impact on potential loots in any of the other professions.
Resource Distribution - In order to promote interplanetary trade and to stimulate the growth of local planetary economies, the availability of various resources will be periodically adjusted on each of the different planets within Entropia Universe. The MindArk balancing team monitors resource availability and distribution among the planets very closely, and is constantly making adjustments to achieve the goals of local planetary economy growth and interplanetary trade. One exciting side effect of this process is that it creates unique opportunities for observant and industrious participants to profit from shifts in supply and demand in local planetary markets and creates opportunities for speculation. Another benefit is that the reallocation process creates a more dynamic and challenging universe for participants to enjoy and adapt to.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Diablo 3 Guest Pass
Bellow you will find 4 Guest Passes for Diablo 3 and 2 Guest Passes for World of Warcraft. Be quick to use them or other will get them before you. One pass can be used only one time.
Players on Starter Edition game licenses have the following restrictions:
- Act I up to the Skeleton King is available
- Level 13 cap
- Matchmaking available only with other Starter Edition players
- No Real Money Auction House access
- How do I get the Diablo III Starter Edition?
Log into your Battle.net Account Management page and navigate to the Download Game Clients section. The Diablo III Starter Edition will be available for download there.
Players without a Battle.net account can create one, and then download the Starter Edition.
Note: The Diablo III Starter Edition will not be available without a Guest Pass until further notice.
How do I download the Diablo III Starter Edition?
Navigate to the Download Game Clients section of your Battle.net Account Management page and click the icon for your operating system under the Diablo III heading.
How do I upgrade from Starter Edition to the full version of Diablo III?
Log into Battle.net Account Management and select your copy of Diablo III Starter Edition on the Game Account list. On your Diablo III Starter Edition Game Management page, you will see your upgrade options on the right-hand side.
Here are my Diablo 3 Guest Passes:
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Lootable Calypso Land Deeds Information
As announced in the press release made earlier today, $100,000 worth of Calypso Land Deeds will be added to Planet Calypso loots starting on May 16th, and distributed throughout the rest of 2012.
Each of the 1000 deeds is paired with a unique numbered token item that will trigger a discovery global chat message when looted. To redeem a discovered token for a Calypso Land Deed, place the token in your avatar’s storage and submit a support case on the Planet Calypso official website and request that the token be exchanged.
Deeds will be distributed as follows:
Hunting loots - 400 deeds, available starting on May 16.
Mining loots - 200 deeds, available starting on May 21.
Crafting loots - 240 deeds, available after June 5th.
Event prizes - 160 deeds, distributed during special events throughout 2012.
For hunting, each and every creature and robot type found on Planet Calypso (including Crystal Palace and F.O.M.A) has been assigned one or more of the special numbered Calypso Land Deed tokens, giving participants of all skill levels the chance to loot a Calypso Land Deed.
The CLD tokens allocated to mining can be discovered while mining anywhere on Eudoria, Amethera or F.O.M.A, and will become available starting on May 21.
The CLD tokens allocated to crafting will become available after June 5.
Each of the 1000 deeds is paired with a unique numbered token item that will trigger a discovery global chat message when looted. To redeem a discovered token for a Calypso Land Deed, place the token in your avatar’s storage and submit a support case on the Planet Calypso official website and request that the token be exchanged.
Deeds will be distributed as follows:
Hunting loots - 400 deeds, available starting on May 16.
Mining loots - 200 deeds, available starting on May 21.
Crafting loots - 240 deeds, available after June 5th.
Event prizes - 160 deeds, distributed during special events throughout 2012.
For hunting, each and every creature and robot type found on Planet Calypso (including Crystal Palace and F.O.M.A) has been assigned one or more of the special numbered Calypso Land Deed tokens, giving participants of all skill levels the chance to loot a Calypso Land Deed.
The CLD tokens allocated to mining can be discovered while mining anywhere on Eudoria, Amethera or F.O.M.A, and will become available starting on May 21.
The CLD tokens allocated to crafting will become available after June 5.
New loot includes Calypso Land Deeds worth over 100 000 USD
EXPLORE ENTROPIA UNIVERSE'S PLANET CALYPSO TO WIN BIG
New loot includes land deeds worth over $100,000
Gothenburg, Sweden - May 16, 2012 /GameBlast/ - MindArk, developer and publisher of Planet Calypso, the oldest planet in the Entropia Universe Massively Multiplayer Online Game, announced today a lucrative new addition to the loot which players can acquire. By simply hunting, mining or crafting players can now find one of a thousand Planet Calypso Land Deeds.
The Land Deeds are worth $100 each, provide revenue sharing and can be sold for even more on the open market now that all of the available deeds have been acquired. Through the Citizenship Program the deeds allow players to participate in revenue sharing with a projected annual ROI of 25% per deed paid weekly, making this the loot that keeps on giving.
Now, nearly anyone with a computer and an internet connection can acquire a piece of an entire virtual world, sharing in the Planet Partner gross revenue of Calypso. To get the opportunity to obtain one of these 1000 deeds colonists on Calypso simply need to play. There will be 400 deeds added to the loot while players are hunting, 200 added while mining and 240 added while crafting. There will also be an additional 160 deeds included in special events and story lines to be announced later. Deeds will begin dropping on May 15, 2012 and continue throughout the rest of 2012. Those who are not colonists on Calypso can easily create an account and start playing by visiting www.planetcalypso.com.
Planet Calypso is the oldest of the planets in the Entropia Universe, with over one million registered accounts and over $400 million USD per year in user-to-user transactions. For more information on MindArk or the
Citizenship System please visit www.entropiauniverse.com.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Idea for farming on CLD land
A little idea for a system in which we could farm on our CLD plots when the plots are implimented. What would be cool is if each plot came with a little terminal. This terminal would serve 2 functions: 1) it would be where we place the seeds to be planted. multiple types of plants would be cool, but I was thinking primarily fruit trees; maybe 5-10 spaces per plot. 2) it would be where we can buy the seeds from MA. We may as well just make it as simple as possible and create a separate terminal where we can buy seeds directly from MA for TT value. Each fruit tree seed would be 0.25PED. So, if we say each land plot has 10 spaces then it would cost 2.5PED to fill it out.
However, you wouldn't be able to plant the seed directly after buying it. Seeds not only need soil and sunlight, but also water to grow. To help stimulate the sweat market a little MA could make it so that before being able to plant your seed you would need to refine it with 1k sweat to create a "fertilized seed".
After that you plant the seed in the terminal. The seed would take some time to grow, maybe 4 weeks to fully mature, during which time the plant would go through stages like seedling, young plant, etc. You would have the option of watering the seeds with additional sweat using the terminal to speed up the process. 1k sweat would maybe cut off 3 days from the growing period. When fully grown the fruit tree would produce 25 fruits that each had a TT value of 0.01PED which would add up to the TT value of the seed. At this point you could either choose to leave the tree alone and let it serve as decoration on your land, or you could choose to harvest the fruits after which the tree would die and you would have to plant another.
Having the tree produce fruit that equaled the TT value of the seed would ensure that CLD owners wouldn't loose ped from farming, unless you bought the sweat of course, and making the tree die right away and not produce further fruit would ensure that MA didn't loose any money. Basically you would be trading 25 pec + a little sweat for 25 fruits or a cool little tree by the end of the growing period. Also, farming can be fun and relaxing sometimes for some people. The fruit itself would also be useful. You would be able to refine 1 fruit with 100 sweat to produce 1 health drink that kept the original 0.01TT value of the fruit. Health drinks would be consumable items that would heal you 10-20 HP. So, that would be 10-20 HP for 0.01 TT value. Or perhaps the drinks could even do other things like raise defense or attack power for a short period of time. Maybe different plants could do different things so farmers would have to watch trends and plant what crops were in demand. With the fruits having this use the CLD farmers could possibly make some extra PED by selling the drinks for a small MU. In this way CLD plots would really become useful for the CLD investors and would also help the sweat market alittle so that newer players would have a better time beginning the game.
If done correctly MA would loose no money from this idea; CLD owners would feel that their investment paid off a little more and would be able to use their investment to create a little extra revenue along with the weekly payout; It would help stimulate the sweat market a little to improve new player retention and help new players get a better feel for the game before deciding that they want to deposit; By increasing new player retention it would hopefully also increase the amount of depositors we have in the game because of people not quiting right away; so in the long run MA would possibly make more money from this idea.
If you chose to build a house on your land by having a 3x3 plot then the terminals would disappear of course.
If you wanted to turn farming into a "proffession" with "proffession skill levels" then there is also more that you could do with it. The skill in the farming proffession could influence the number of available spaces you have on your plot to plant seeds in, the type of seeds that you can plant, and the success rate of creating a "fertilized seed" through refining 1k sweat + 1 seed.
You could start out with, lets say 5 spaces on your plot, and then gain 5 spaces every 10 proffession levels. So, at lvl 10 farming proffession you'd have 10 available spaces; lvl 20 you'd have 15; lvl 30 you'd have 20; and so on.
MA could create different seeds that made different plants that had different affects when their fruit was made into consumable drinks. Such as a health plant, defense plant, attack plant, concentration plant, etc. At first you would be able to use 1 type of seed and then every 10 proffession levels you would be able to use higher leveled types of seeds. Much like how you can use different types of paint at higher levels of the painting proffession. So, for example, at lvl 0 you could use a type of plant that made a concentration drink; at lvl 10 you could use one that made a health drink; at lvl 20 you could use one that made an attack drink; and so on.
As for success rate; at the begining of being able to use each type of plant you would have a base 50% success rate for refining the fruit into a "fertilzied seed" and then every proffession level you would get an increase of 5%. So at level 0 you would have a 50% success rate to create a fertilized seed for a concentration plant; at level 1 you would have 55%; at level 2 you would have 60%; and so on until you reached 100% at level 10 which would be the max of each seed type. At this point you would gain the ability to use the second seed type. So, you would have 100% success rate on the first seed type and 50% success rate on the second seed type and increase 5% on the second seed type until level 20 when it would also become 100%. You would gain farming xp by refining seeds, planting seeds, watering seeds with sweat, and harvesting seeds.
FlorencioNineWind
However, you wouldn't be able to plant the seed directly after buying it. Seeds not only need soil and sunlight, but also water to grow. To help stimulate the sweat market a little MA could make it so that before being able to plant your seed you would need to refine it with 1k sweat to create a "fertilized seed".
After that you plant the seed in the terminal. The seed would take some time to grow, maybe 4 weeks to fully mature, during which time the plant would go through stages like seedling, young plant, etc. You would have the option of watering the seeds with additional sweat using the terminal to speed up the process. 1k sweat would maybe cut off 3 days from the growing period. When fully grown the fruit tree would produce 25 fruits that each had a TT value of 0.01PED which would add up to the TT value of the seed. At this point you could either choose to leave the tree alone and let it serve as decoration on your land, or you could choose to harvest the fruits after which the tree would die and you would have to plant another.
Having the tree produce fruit that equaled the TT value of the seed would ensure that CLD owners wouldn't loose ped from farming, unless you bought the sweat of course, and making the tree die right away and not produce further fruit would ensure that MA didn't loose any money. Basically you would be trading 25 pec + a little sweat for 25 fruits or a cool little tree by the end of the growing period. Also, farming can be fun and relaxing sometimes for some people. The fruit itself would also be useful. You would be able to refine 1 fruit with 100 sweat to produce 1 health drink that kept the original 0.01TT value of the fruit. Health drinks would be consumable items that would heal you 10-20 HP. So, that would be 10-20 HP for 0.01 TT value. Or perhaps the drinks could even do other things like raise defense or attack power for a short period of time. Maybe different plants could do different things so farmers would have to watch trends and plant what crops were in demand. With the fruits having this use the CLD farmers could possibly make some extra PED by selling the drinks for a small MU. In this way CLD plots would really become useful for the CLD investors and would also help the sweat market alittle so that newer players would have a better time beginning the game.
If done correctly MA would loose no money from this idea; CLD owners would feel that their investment paid off a little more and would be able to use their investment to create a little extra revenue along with the weekly payout; It would help stimulate the sweat market a little to improve new player retention and help new players get a better feel for the game before deciding that they want to deposit; By increasing new player retention it would hopefully also increase the amount of depositors we have in the game because of people not quiting right away; so in the long run MA would possibly make more money from this idea.
If you chose to build a house on your land by having a 3x3 plot then the terminals would disappear of course.
If you wanted to turn farming into a "proffession" with "proffession skill levels" then there is also more that you could do with it. The skill in the farming proffession could influence the number of available spaces you have on your plot to plant seeds in, the type of seeds that you can plant, and the success rate of creating a "fertilized seed" through refining 1k sweat + 1 seed.
You could start out with, lets say 5 spaces on your plot, and then gain 5 spaces every 10 proffession levels. So, at lvl 10 farming proffession you'd have 10 available spaces; lvl 20 you'd have 15; lvl 30 you'd have 20; and so on.
MA could create different seeds that made different plants that had different affects when their fruit was made into consumable drinks. Such as a health plant, defense plant, attack plant, concentration plant, etc. At first you would be able to use 1 type of seed and then every 10 proffession levels you would be able to use higher leveled types of seeds. Much like how you can use different types of paint at higher levels of the painting proffession. So, for example, at lvl 0 you could use a type of plant that made a concentration drink; at lvl 10 you could use one that made a health drink; at lvl 20 you could use one that made an attack drink; and so on.
As for success rate; at the begining of being able to use each type of plant you would have a base 50% success rate for refining the fruit into a "fertilzied seed" and then every proffession level you would get an increase of 5%. So at level 0 you would have a 50% success rate to create a fertilized seed for a concentration plant; at level 1 you would have 55%; at level 2 you would have 60%; and so on until you reached 100% at level 10 which would be the max of each seed type. At this point you would gain the ability to use the second seed type. So, you would have 100% success rate on the first seed type and 50% success rate on the second seed type and increase 5% on the second seed type until level 20 when it would also become 100%. You would gain farming xp by refining seeds, planting seeds, watering seeds with sweat, and harvesting seeds.
FlorencioNineWind
Monday, May 14, 2012
MindArk Recruits New CTO From Ericsson
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, May 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- MindArk, developer and publisher of the largest real money MMO, announced today that it has appointed Klas Moreau, formerly of Ericsson, as its Chief Technology Officer. This is a newly created position which will aid the company is keeping its flagship, the Entropia Universe MMO, at the pinnacle of new technologies.
"I am very happy that we have managed to recruit one of Ericsson's top R&D executives. The timing is perfect since Mindark is now ramping up both development and marketing efforts substantially," says Jan Welter Timkrans, Mindark's Chairman of the Board.
Previously Klas Moreau was Head of Business Unit Command, Control and Applications at Ericsson, the Swedish Telecom Giant. He has held several other R&D management positions within Ericsson, managing 150 or more employees. Mr. Moreau has over 15 years of management experience with global multi-national, multi-cultural organizations using technology-based business models.
"I will ensure there is a solid foundation that enables Entropia Universe to grow significantly, both in the number of participants and in their global reach. My goal is for Entropia Universe to double its number of participants by the end of 2013," said Klas Moreau.
"I've been a gamer since the days of the Commodore 64. Now I have the opportunity to combine my gaming interest with my leadership abilities and passion for technology."
Klas' solid understanding of technology, combined with his business acumen makes him a valuable asset to the company and all of its planet partners. Klas Moreau starts work at Mindark in May, 2012. MindArk owns Entropia Universe which has over one million registered accounts and over $400 million USD per year in user-to-user transactions. For more information on MindArk or the Citizenship System please visit www.entropiauniverse.com.
"I am very happy that we have managed to recruit one of Ericsson's top R&D executives. The timing is perfect since Mindark is now ramping up both development and marketing efforts substantially," says Jan Welter Timkrans, Mindark's Chairman of the Board.
Previously Klas Moreau was Head of Business Unit Command, Control and Applications at Ericsson, the Swedish Telecom Giant. He has held several other R&D management positions within Ericsson, managing 150 or more employees. Mr. Moreau has over 15 years of management experience with global multi-national, multi-cultural organizations using technology-based business models.
"I will ensure there is a solid foundation that enables Entropia Universe to grow significantly, both in the number of participants and in their global reach. My goal is for Entropia Universe to double its number of participants by the end of 2013," said Klas Moreau.
"I've been a gamer since the days of the Commodore 64. Now I have the opportunity to combine my gaming interest with my leadership abilities and passion for technology."
Klas' solid understanding of technology, combined with his business acumen makes him a valuable asset to the company and all of its planet partners. Klas Moreau starts work at Mindark in May, 2012. MindArk owns Entropia Universe which has over one million registered accounts and over $400 million USD per year in user-to-user transactions. For more information on MindArk or the Citizenship System please visit www.entropiauniverse.com.
Planet Cyrene - Spear Mission
Ok then folks a departure from my normal posts as I am going to talk about planet Cyrene and in particular the mission to get a spear mk1 hoverbike. Very little information has been posted about this so i will tell you what i do know.
Yesterday (10th May 2012) I was hanging about at twin peaks when someone pulled up on a spear mk1, very nice looking machine an open hoverbike designed for 2 persons. After chatting with a couple of soc members i discovered that it is a Cyrene vehicle and could be obtained by completing a mission on cyrene.
Filled with excitement I jumped in my quad and flew (nearly ran out of fuel) to cyrene. On arrival another soc member advised that i go A.R.C. HQ tp and look for engineer ferguson, he is located at 1294 825, up the hill away from the main tp. When you talk to him he offers you a spear mk 1 in exchange for 10 light powercells. You are advised that these can be crafted at a construction machine.
Fergusson advises that you go and purchase a blue print(BP) for the power cells, easy so far. You also need to buy the BP book for cyrene (available from the trade terminal). Ok to craft the power cells you need to obtain Low Grade Power Supplies which you advised are available from the scout bots located just outside the base.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS TRICKY.
You are told that 8 low grade power supplies can be crafted in to 1 Light powercell. However if you have any experience in crafting(and i have very little) you will know that it is a tricky process and often ends in failure and the loss of your raw materials.
So the perfect crafted could probably craft 10 light power cells using 80-100 low grade power supplies, if you are as bad as me it might anywhere up to 800 low grade power supplies to craft the 10 Light power cells required.
This is only the first problem.
There are no bots outside the base, they are scattered all over cyrene and they dont frequently drop the low grade power cells when you destroy them. Add to this very bad glitching and annoying noises when you are hunting them and the whole process becomes a literal headache.
Now you could purchase the low grade powercells from auction but they currently cost 118 ped for 60 so thats around 160 ped for 80 and considerably more if the crafting process is continually unsuccessful.
The alternative is to hunt the bots till they drop the low grade cells but one of my soc members killed over 200 bots and sometimes they dropped no cells, in the end i think he got 32 cells from a 200 kills. The rest of their loot is rubbish so no gain there.
So my advice is stay away from the mission unless you want to burn a load of ped on a vehicle which looks cool but i am advised has rubbish stats, it will only take 22-24 hits b4 it is worn out(i dont know if that means you can repair it after that or if it totally broken)
Anyway this is just what i have observed and with all my posts please feel free to disagree, comment or add your own info, as i said before i only started this thread as i couldnt find any other info about it on the forum.
GL to you all
Charley Moondog 1969 11th May 2012
Yesterday (10th May 2012) I was hanging about at twin peaks when someone pulled up on a spear mk1, very nice looking machine an open hoverbike designed for 2 persons. After chatting with a couple of soc members i discovered that it is a Cyrene vehicle and could be obtained by completing a mission on cyrene.
Filled with excitement I jumped in my quad and flew (nearly ran out of fuel) to cyrene. On arrival another soc member advised that i go A.R.C. HQ tp and look for engineer ferguson, he is located at 1294 825, up the hill away from the main tp. When you talk to him he offers you a spear mk 1 in exchange for 10 light powercells. You are advised that these can be crafted at a construction machine.
Fergusson advises that you go and purchase a blue print(BP) for the power cells, easy so far. You also need to buy the BP book for cyrene (available from the trade terminal). Ok to craft the power cells you need to obtain Low Grade Power Supplies which you advised are available from the scout bots located just outside the base.
THIS IS WHERE IT GETS TRICKY.
You are told that 8 low grade power supplies can be crafted in to 1 Light powercell. However if you have any experience in crafting(and i have very little) you will know that it is a tricky process and often ends in failure and the loss of your raw materials.
So the perfect crafted could probably craft 10 light power cells using 80-100 low grade power supplies, if you are as bad as me it might anywhere up to 800 low grade power supplies to craft the 10 Light power cells required.
This is only the first problem.
There are no bots outside the base, they are scattered all over cyrene and they dont frequently drop the low grade power cells when you destroy them. Add to this very bad glitching and annoying noises when you are hunting them and the whole process becomes a literal headache.
Now you could purchase the low grade powercells from auction but they currently cost 118 ped for 60 so thats around 160 ped for 80 and considerably more if the crafting process is continually unsuccessful.
The alternative is to hunt the bots till they drop the low grade cells but one of my soc members killed over 200 bots and sometimes they dropped no cells, in the end i think he got 32 cells from a 200 kills. The rest of their loot is rubbish so no gain there.
So my advice is stay away from the mission unless you want to burn a load of ped on a vehicle which looks cool but i am advised has rubbish stats, it will only take 22-24 hits b4 it is worn out(i dont know if that means you can repair it after that or if it totally broken)
Anyway this is just what i have observed and with all my posts please feel free to disagree, comment or add your own info, as i said before i only started this thread as i couldnt find any other info about it on the forum.
GL to you all
Charley Moondog 1969 11th May 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
MindArk Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
MindArk PE AB (publ) develops, operates and markets Entropia Universe and the Entropia Platform. Entropia Universe is a 3D Internet virtual universe with a unique integrated economic system and stunning graphics. The client software is free-of-charge and available to anyone with Internet access. The Entropia Platform is a secure entertainment and business platform, enabling companies and organizations all over the world to build content on themed planets inside Entropia Universe.
Technical Development 2011
MindArk's work with developing the technical platform has continued during the first six months of 2011.
The focus has primarily been to further develop the virtual universe to create yet another dimension - Space encompassing all the existing and future planets.
Launching Space
The vision of implementing Space to connect the various planets has always been an important part of the Entropia Universe concept. The development project was initiated during 2010 to prepare for such implementation.
During the first two quarters of 2011major resources were focused towards completing the Space project and in the middle of June MindArk launched Space as part of Entropia Universe.
New Planet Releases
In May 2011, a 4th planet, Planet Arkadia, was released in Entropia Universe. The company behind Planet Arkadia is based in Singapore and is targeting the Southeast Asian market.
A 5th planet, Cyrene, produced by the company Creative Kingdom with headquarter in Los Angeles, is in full production and is estimated to launch during Q4.
Collaboration with Ericsson
MindArk has worked in close
collaboration with Ericsson in a
project for developing an advanced
voice communication system in
Entropia Universe. The technology
enables in-depth social interaction
capability and enhances the
experience for the end users in
Entropia Universe.
Ericsson made a public announcement
about the collaboration in May
2011. Development continues on the
project and the two companies are
discussing future joint efforts in
marketing.
MindBank
In March 2010, MindArk put a
request to the Swedish
Financial Supervisory Authority
(Finansinspektionen) to withdraw
earlier granted approval to conduct
banking activities. During a board
meeting in March 2011 it was
decided to discontinue all activities
related to the bank project.
The Managing Director of MindBank,
however, will continue to work close
with MindArk´s CEO in the process of
contracting more partners. The bank
project is quality assured and
thoroughly documented to prepare
for a future application when the
necessary funds for establishing the
bank can be guaranteed.
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
Economic Development
Focus on new content to the end
users in Entropia Universe and
release of Space have together led to
an increase of received end user
funds.
End users’ net contribution for the
first six months this year was 23.9
million SEK compared to 20.8 million
SEK the previous year, an increase of
15 %.
A complete organizational review
resulted in an organizational change,
which lead to a reduction in staff
equivalent to nine full-time
employees. That, combined with a
deliberate restraint on costs resulted
in decreased operating costs from
35.7 million SEK from previous year
to 27.3 million SEK this year, a
decrease of 23%.
The profit before taxes for the
MindArk Group amounts to minus 8.2
million SEK compared to minus 13.4
million SEK previous year.
Cash Flow and Liquid Assets
One of the major goals for 2011 is to
re-establish a positive cash flow.
MindArk´s implemented organizational
streamlining were part of this,
resulting in lower operating costs.
Furthermore, MindArk made
investments in new content in
Entropia Universe which increased
net sales.
The cash flow has hence improved
compared to the development during
2010, but it is still negative. The
Group's liquid assets as of June 30
were approximately 6.6 million SEK
2
..
MindArk PE AB (publ) develops, operates and markets Entropia Universe and the Entropia Platform. Entropia Universe is a 3D Internet
virtual universe with a unique integrated economic system and stunning graphics. The client software is free-of-charge and available to
anyone with Internet access. The Entropia Platform is a secure entertainment and business platform, enabling companies and
organizations all over the world to build content on themed planets inside Entropia Universe.
compared to approximately 8 million
SEK the previous year.
Annual Meeting 2011
The annual meeting for 2011 was
held on June 1 in the company’s
offices. In addition to standard
decisions according to the articles of
association, it was by the meeting
decided to submit an authorization to
the Board of Directors to issue new
shares at market conditions. The
increase of the share capital may be
made up of 25 %.
The Board´s current members,
elected at the Annual meeting 2010,
-Fred Rosenthal (Chairman), Jan
Welter Timkrans, Christophe Morvan
and Urban Näsman – were all
reelected. The meeting resolved that
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
the Board should not have any
alternate.
Forecast for Second Half of 2011
The current operation is expected to
increase in the second half with
higher net deposits than previous
year. Furthermore, costs are
expected to be significantly lower the
second half of 2011 than the same
period last year.
Net profit before tax for the second
half of 2011 is expected to be better
than in the first half of the year with
positive results and cash flow for the
months of September through
December.
Accounting Principles
This semi-annual report has been
compiled according to the laws
concerning annual accounts.
The accounting principles are
unchanged compared to the last
annual report.
Receivables are shown as the value
at which they are expected to be
paid. Other assets and debts are
shown at acquisition value unless
otherwise noted.
Accrual of income and costs are
shown according to accepted
accounting practices.
For further descriptions of accounting
principles, see 2010 Annual Report.
3
..
MindArk PE AB (publ) develops, operates and markets Entropia Universe and the Entropia Platform. Entropia Universe is a 3D Internet
virtual universe with a unique integrated economic system and stunning graphics. The client software is free-of-charge and available to
anyone with Internet access. The Entropia Platform is a secure entertainment and business platform, enabling companies and
organizations all over the world to build content on themed planets inside Entropia Universe.
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
Financial Information
For further information concerning
the company’s financial results,
standing and cash flow during the
period, see results and balance
reports below, as well as the cash
flow analysis and key figures.
Göteborg, August 2011
The Board of Directors
4
..
MindArk PE AB (publ) develops, operates and markets Entropia Universe and the Entropia Platform. Entropia Universe is a 3D Internet
virtual universe with a unique integrated economic system and stunning graphics. The client software is free-of-charge and available to
anyone with Internet access. The Entropia Platform is a secure entertainment and business platform, enabling companies and
organizations all over the world to build content on themed planets inside Entropia Universe.
Review report
I have reviewed this report for the
period 1 January 2011 to 30 June
2011 for MindArk PE AB (publ). The
board of directors and the CEO are
responsible for the preparation and
presentation of this interim report in
accordance with the Swedish Annual
Accounts Act. My responsibility is to
express a conclusion on this interim
report based on my review.
I conducted my review in accordance
with the Swedish Standard on
Review Engagements SÖG 2410,
Review of Interim Report Performed
by the Independent Auditor of the
Entity. A review consists of making
inquiries, primarily of persons
responsible for financial and
accounting matters, and applying
analytical and other review
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
procedures. A review is substantially
less in scope than an audit conducted
in accordance with International
Standards on Auditing, ISA, and
other generally accepted auditing
standards in Sweden. The procedures
performed in a review do not enable
me to obtain assurance that I would
become aware of all significant
matters that might be identified in an
audit. Accordingly, I do not express
an audit opinion.
Based on my review, nothing has
come to my attention that causes me
to believe that the interim report is
not prepared, in all material
respects, in accordance with the
Swedish Annual Accounts Act.
Göteborg, 31 August 2011
Magnus Götenfelt
Authorised Public Accountant
5
..
INCOME STATEMENT (kSEK) GROUP PARENT COMPANY
JANUARY–JUNE 2011 JANUARY–JUNE 2010 JANUARY–JUNE 2011 JANUARY–JUNE 2010
Net sales 23 907 20 805 23 028 9 152
Other income 213 6 268 1 514 8 455
Operating expenses -27 356 -35 731 -27 487 -30 343
Depreciation according to plan -4 378 -4 692 -3 511 -3 578
Operating profit -7 614 -13 349 -6 456 -16 314
Financial items -583 -55 -465 5
NET PROFIT BEFORE TAX -8 197 -13 404 -6 921 -16 309
======= ======= ======= ======
6
..
BALANCE SHEET (kSEK) GROUP PARENT COMPANY
JUNE 2011 JUNE 2010 JUNE 2011 JUNE 2010
ASSETS
Intangible assets 17 003 24 466 17 003 22 429
Tangible assets 18 898 20 886 16 956 17 566
Financial assets 2 095 3 018 9 663 10 586
Receivables 39 141 5 113 7 762 3 892
Prepaid expenses 2 104 2 295 1 483 1 632
Cash and bank balances 6 594 8 089 6 008 7 077
TOTAL ASSETS 85 835 63 867 58 875 63 182
EQUITY & LIABILITIES
Equity 40 871 50 302 42 369 38 603
Untaxed reserves 0 0 0 11 717
Provisions for deferred tax 0 3 081 0 0
Short-term liabilities 44 964 10 483 16 506 12 862
TOTAL EQUITY & LIABILITIES 85 835 63 867 58 875 63 182
UNCONSUMED USER HOLDING 61 100 63 700 61 100 63 700
PLEDGED ASSETS 1 104 1 622 1 104 1 622
7
..
CASH FLOW STATEMENT (kSEK) GROUP
JANUARY-JUNE 2011 JANUARY-JUNE 2010
PARENT COMPANY
JANUARY-JUNE 2011 JANUARY-JUNE 2010
OPERATING ACTIVITIES
Cash received from customers 24 151 32 382 23 605 22 965
Cash paid to suppliers and
personnel -26 775 -37 807 -26 180 -29 338
Interest received 65 97 64 97
Interest paid -37 -71 -0 -12
Income tax paid -103 2 395 -58 2 455
Cash flow operating activities -2 699 -3 004 -2 569 -3 833
INVESTING ACTIVITIES
Purchase of property and equipment
-304 -1 169 -64 -1 019
Sale of property and equipment 68 0 68 0
Investments in other financial -64 0 -640
assets
8
Amortization financial assets
Increase in long-term receivables
Cash flow from investing
activities
-
687
254
133
FINANCING ACTIVITIES
Other financing / amortization (-) -141
Cash flow for the period -2 707
Ingoing cash and bank balances
Exchange rate differences in cash
and bank balances
9 659
-358
Outgoing cash and bank
balances
6 594
0
-289
-1 458
-544
-5 006
13 122
-26
8 090
687
-167
460
0
-2 109
8 479
-362
6 008
0
-289
-1 308
-5 141
12 298
-80
7 077
9
..
KEY RATIOS – MINDARK GROUP JANUARY-JUNE 2011 JANUARY-JUNE 2010
Net sales (kSEK) 23 907 20 805
Operating profit (kSEK) -7 614 -13 349
Financial items (kSEK) -583 -55
Net profit (kSEK) -8 197 -13 404
Thousand number of shares issued 114 635 114 635
Operating margin -32 % -64 %
Profit per share (SEK) -0.07 -0.11
Liquid funds (kSEK) 6 594 8 089
Adjusted Equity (kSEK) 40 871 50 302
Adjusted Equity per share (SEK) 0.36 0.44
Total assets (kSEK) 85 835 63 867
Equity ratio 48 % 79 %
Number of employees in the MindArk 66 80
Group
10
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
Technical Development 2011
MindArk's work with developing the technical platform has continued during the first six months of 2011.
The focus has primarily been to further develop the virtual universe to create yet another dimension - Space encompassing all the existing and future planets.
Launching Space
The vision of implementing Space to connect the various planets has always been an important part of the Entropia Universe concept. The development project was initiated during 2010 to prepare for such implementation.
During the first two quarters of 2011major resources were focused towards completing the Space project and in the middle of June MindArk launched Space as part of Entropia Universe.
New Planet Releases
In May 2011, a 4th planet, Planet Arkadia, was released in Entropia Universe. The company behind Planet Arkadia is based in Singapore and is targeting the Southeast Asian market.
A 5th planet, Cyrene, produced by the company Creative Kingdom with headquarter in Los Angeles, is in full production and is estimated to launch during Q4.
Collaboration with Ericsson
MindArk has worked in close
collaboration with Ericsson in a
project for developing an advanced
voice communication system in
Entropia Universe. The technology
enables in-depth social interaction
capability and enhances the
experience for the end users in
Entropia Universe.
Ericsson made a public announcement
about the collaboration in May
2011. Development continues on the
project and the two companies are
discussing future joint efforts in
marketing.
MindBank
In March 2010, MindArk put a
request to the Swedish
Financial Supervisory Authority
(Finansinspektionen) to withdraw
earlier granted approval to conduct
banking activities. During a board
meeting in March 2011 it was
decided to discontinue all activities
related to the bank project.
The Managing Director of MindBank,
however, will continue to work close
with MindArk´s CEO in the process of
contracting more partners. The bank
project is quality assured and
thoroughly documented to prepare
for a future application when the
necessary funds for establishing the
bank can be guaranteed.
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
Economic Development
Focus on new content to the end
users in Entropia Universe and
release of Space have together led to
an increase of received end user
funds.
End users’ net contribution for the
first six months this year was 23.9
million SEK compared to 20.8 million
SEK the previous year, an increase of
15 %.
A complete organizational review
resulted in an organizational change,
which lead to a reduction in staff
equivalent to nine full-time
employees. That, combined with a
deliberate restraint on costs resulted
in decreased operating costs from
35.7 million SEK from previous year
to 27.3 million SEK this year, a
decrease of 23%.
The profit before taxes for the
MindArk Group amounts to minus 8.2
million SEK compared to minus 13.4
million SEK previous year.
Cash Flow and Liquid Assets
One of the major goals for 2011 is to
re-establish a positive cash flow.
MindArk´s implemented organizational
streamlining were part of this,
resulting in lower operating costs.
Furthermore, MindArk made
investments in new content in
Entropia Universe which increased
net sales.
The cash flow has hence improved
compared to the development during
2010, but it is still negative. The
Group's liquid assets as of June 30
were approximately 6.6 million SEK
2
..
MindArk PE AB (publ) develops, operates and markets Entropia Universe and the Entropia Platform. Entropia Universe is a 3D Internet
virtual universe with a unique integrated economic system and stunning graphics. The client software is free-of-charge and available to
anyone with Internet access. The Entropia Platform is a secure entertainment and business platform, enabling companies and
organizations all over the world to build content on themed planets inside Entropia Universe.
compared to approximately 8 million
SEK the previous year.
Annual Meeting 2011
The annual meeting for 2011 was
held on June 1 in the company’s
offices. In addition to standard
decisions according to the articles of
association, it was by the meeting
decided to submit an authorization to
the Board of Directors to issue new
shares at market conditions. The
increase of the share capital may be
made up of 25 %.
The Board´s current members,
elected at the Annual meeting 2010,
-Fred Rosenthal (Chairman), Jan
Welter Timkrans, Christophe Morvan
and Urban Näsman – were all
reelected. The meeting resolved that
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
the Board should not have any
alternate.
Forecast for Second Half of 2011
The current operation is expected to
increase in the second half with
higher net deposits than previous
year. Furthermore, costs are
expected to be significantly lower the
second half of 2011 than the same
period last year.
Net profit before tax for the second
half of 2011 is expected to be better
than in the first half of the year with
positive results and cash flow for the
months of September through
December.
Accounting Principles
This semi-annual report has been
compiled according to the laws
concerning annual accounts.
The accounting principles are
unchanged compared to the last
annual report.
Receivables are shown as the value
at which they are expected to be
paid. Other assets and debts are
shown at acquisition value unless
otherwise noted.
Accrual of income and costs are
shown according to accepted
accounting practices.
For further descriptions of accounting
principles, see 2010 Annual Report.
3
..
MindArk PE AB (publ) develops, operates and markets Entropia Universe and the Entropia Platform. Entropia Universe is a 3D Internet
virtual universe with a unique integrated economic system and stunning graphics. The client software is free-of-charge and available to
anyone with Internet access. The Entropia Platform is a secure entertainment and business platform, enabling companies and
organizations all over the world to build content on themed planets inside Entropia Universe.
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
Financial Information
For further information concerning
the company’s financial results,
standing and cash flow during the
period, see results and balance
reports below, as well as the cash
flow analysis and key figures.
Göteborg, August 2011
The Board of Directors
4
..
MindArk PE AB (publ) develops, operates and markets Entropia Universe and the Entropia Platform. Entropia Universe is a 3D Internet
virtual universe with a unique integrated economic system and stunning graphics. The client software is free-of-charge and available to
anyone with Internet access. The Entropia Platform is a secure entertainment and business platform, enabling companies and
organizations all over the world to build content on themed planets inside Entropia Universe.
Review report
I have reviewed this report for the
period 1 January 2011 to 30 June
2011 for MindArk PE AB (publ). The
board of directors and the CEO are
responsible for the preparation and
presentation of this interim report in
accordance with the Swedish Annual
Accounts Act. My responsibility is to
express a conclusion on this interim
report based on my review.
I conducted my review in accordance
with the Swedish Standard on
Review Engagements SÖG 2410,
Review of Interim Report Performed
by the Independent Auditor of the
Entity. A review consists of making
inquiries, primarily of persons
responsible for financial and
accounting matters, and applying
analytical and other review
Mid-Year Report January – June 2011
procedures. A review is substantially
less in scope than an audit conducted
in accordance with International
Standards on Auditing, ISA, and
other generally accepted auditing
standards in Sweden. The procedures
performed in a review do not enable
me to obtain assurance that I would
become aware of all significant
matters that might be identified in an
audit. Accordingly, I do not express
an audit opinion.
Based on my review, nothing has
come to my attention that causes me
to believe that the interim report is
not prepared, in all material
respects, in accordance with the
Swedish Annual Accounts Act.
Göteborg, 31 August 2011
Magnus Götenfelt
Authorised Public Accountant
5
..
INCOME STATEMENT (kSEK) GROUP PARENT COMPANY
JANUARY–JUNE 2011 JANUARY–JUNE 2010 JANUARY–JUNE 2011 JANUARY–JUNE 2010
Net sales 23 907 20 805 23 028 9 152
Other income 213 6 268 1 514 8 455
Operating expenses -27 356 -35 731 -27 487 -30 343
Depreciation according to plan -4 378 -4 692 -3 511 -3 578
Operating profit -7 614 -13 349 -6 456 -16 314
Financial items -583 -55 -465 5
NET PROFIT BEFORE TAX -8 197 -13 404 -6 921 -16 309
======= ======= ======= ======
6
..
BALANCE SHEET (kSEK) GROUP PARENT COMPANY
JUNE 2011 JUNE 2010 JUNE 2011 JUNE 2010
ASSETS
Intangible assets 17 003 24 466 17 003 22 429
Tangible assets 18 898 20 886 16 956 17 566
Financial assets 2 095 3 018 9 663 10 586
Receivables 39 141 5 113 7 762 3 892
Prepaid expenses 2 104 2 295 1 483 1 632
Cash and bank balances 6 594 8 089 6 008 7 077
TOTAL ASSETS 85 835 63 867 58 875 63 182
EQUITY & LIABILITIES
Equity 40 871 50 302 42 369 38 603
Untaxed reserves 0 0 0 11 717
Provisions for deferred tax 0 3 081 0 0
Short-term liabilities 44 964 10 483 16 506 12 862
TOTAL EQUITY & LIABILITIES 85 835 63 867 58 875 63 182
UNCONSUMED USER HOLDING 61 100 63 700 61 100 63 700
PLEDGED ASSETS 1 104 1 622 1 104 1 622
7
..
CASH FLOW STATEMENT (kSEK) GROUP
JANUARY-JUNE 2011 JANUARY-JUNE 2010
PARENT COMPANY
JANUARY-JUNE 2011 JANUARY-JUNE 2010
OPERATING ACTIVITIES
Cash received from customers 24 151 32 382 23 605 22 965
Cash paid to suppliers and
personnel -26 775 -37 807 -26 180 -29 338
Interest received 65 97 64 97
Interest paid -37 -71 -0 -12
Income tax paid -103 2 395 -58 2 455
Cash flow operating activities -2 699 -3 004 -2 569 -3 833
INVESTING ACTIVITIES
Purchase of property and equipment
-304 -1 169 -64 -1 019
Sale of property and equipment 68 0 68 0
Investments in other financial -64 0 -640
assets
8
Amortization financial assets
Increase in long-term receivables
Cash flow from investing
activities
-
687
254
133
FINANCING ACTIVITIES
Other financing / amortization (-) -141
Cash flow for the period -2 707
Ingoing cash and bank balances
Exchange rate differences in cash
and bank balances
9 659
-358
Outgoing cash and bank
balances
6 594
0
-289
-1 458
-544
-5 006
13 122
-26
8 090
687
-167
460
0
-2 109
8 479
-362
6 008
0
-289
-1 308
-5 141
12 298
-80
7 077
9
..
KEY RATIOS – MINDARK GROUP JANUARY-JUNE 2011 JANUARY-JUNE 2010
Net sales (kSEK) 23 907 20 805
Operating profit (kSEK) -7 614 -13 349
Financial items (kSEK) -583 -55
Net profit (kSEK) -8 197 -13 404
Thousand number of shares issued 114 635 114 635
Operating margin -32 % -64 %
Profit per share (SEK) -0.07 -0.11
Liquid funds (kSEK) 6 594 8 089
Adjusted Equity (kSEK) 40 871 50 302
Adjusted Equity per share (SEK) 0.36 0.44
Total assets (kSEK) 85 835 63 867
Equity ratio 48 % 79 %
Number of employees in the MindArk 66 80
Group
10
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Results from the inactive participants hunting event April 27-29
The exclusive hunting event for inactive participants was a resounding success: More than one thousand eager hunters accepted the invitation!
We hope that you had great fun and that you enjoyed being active in Entropia Universe once again.
In the invitation to the event, valuable prizes were promised to the three most successful hunters, with the winners determined by the three highest single loots on the following creatures: Daikiba, Tripudion, Caudatergus, Exarosaur.
Those winners are:
1st Place - $2000 Alienware Gift Card: Thorkell Wizze Viking- 455.5 points
2nd Place - $750 Alienware Gift Card: Lizzie PERKy Borden -104.1 points
3rd Place - $250 Alienware Gift Card: Andre Psychos Pereira -102.9 points
I would like to congratulate the winners and wish all of you very welcome back into the game again!
Kind regards,
Jan Welter Timkrans
Humble Creator of Entropia Universe
P.S. An exciting new planet has been added to Entropia Universe: Planet Cyrene, soft launched on May 1.
We hope that you had great fun and that you enjoyed being active in Entropia Universe once again.
In the invitation to the event, valuable prizes were promised to the three most successful hunters, with the winners determined by the three highest single loots on the following creatures: Daikiba, Tripudion, Caudatergus, Exarosaur.
Those winners are:
1st Place - $2000 Alienware Gift Card: Thorkell Wizze Viking- 455.5 points
2nd Place - $750 Alienware Gift Card: Lizzie PERKy Borden -104.1 points
3rd Place - $250 Alienware Gift Card: Andre Psychos Pereira -102.9 points
I would like to congratulate the winners and wish all of you very welcome back into the game again!
Kind regards,
Jan Welter Timkrans
Humble Creator of Entropia Universe
P.S. An exciting new planet has been added to Entropia Universe: Planet Cyrene, soft launched on May 1.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Is Real Cash Economy worth it?
This is my first post in PC forum, and eh.. i have been playing this game for quite a long time and took a long break after probably January of this year. I joined this game one year ago and this game has definitely changed a lot, with the addition of new planets and now space. But what has not changed is that micro transactions from players still fund the game and make the game what it is.
Now, I also have been looking at other great games, some of them pay 2 play and many of them lack the graphics and expanse that this game has, yet they have more players. I found out that this is because of the straight forward game play that those games give, where if i play hard, i get the reward. Loot isn't random and things just seem to.. work. There is no entropy. Even in expansive games like EVE, there are some level of "obviousity". Your success there depends on your adaptability, not your strength and you have total freedom over your character and his choices. If you look beyond the settings and the genre, you see that both games are highly similar. Both have player driven economies. Both have high level of player involvement in communities. In both games, action is sacrificed for a high level of freedom. But the one place that they do differ is that one game has more than 14 million players, while other has around 1 million. Don't get me wrong here, I believe EU is a great game and has a high potential to succeed. But the one thing it does not inherently provide is equal opportunity, which is a result of the Real Cash Economy in this game. Because a person can pay into this game, any amounts of money at any times, what it gives him is an unfair advantage over another player, because that player might not be able to pay the same amount. A person's hard work doesn't matter, nor does his skill. Its all money that dictates the position of the player. If that person is rich, he can do whatever he wants. In a game, this is very unfair and does make a lot of people quit. Also this system enables high level players to get higher level equipment and this does bring an unfair advantage when it comes to PVP. You don't have to be a good pvp player anymore, but just have a good amount of money to buy the best gun available and fight. Its money first, player skills second now.No more does a player's resilience and patience matters. Loots are set at random, thus a player has to continue to put in money and as he/she levels up even more, he/she has to put in more money to accommodate for that higher level. Not all of us have infinite amount of money to spare. I have paid for other P2P games, but all the other games have a much more fairer system, where all the players are given equal opportunity to thrive and succeed, given that the player makes right choices. In simple terms, nothing is set at random and no one is given access to more stuff because in standard p2p games, Everyone pays the same and everyone gets access to the standard features others get access to. In this game, that is not so. People are given freedom to pay into, any amount they want, which means high paying players get access to things that people who pay less don't get to, but they have to sacrifice the extra money. There is no way for a player to work his way up and gain more wealth, because everything is set at random and he has to take a lot of blind decisions to succeed
Now I am not against microtransactions, but when microtransactions, like in this game, is the sole decider in our quality of gameplay and our chance of gaining prosperity in this game, something is wrong. No other game does this and I don't see why the publishers of this game(MindArk) still allow this. If they want to charge customers, let them charge them a monthly subscription fee. I mean most of the people pay anyways, so i don't see how a subscription fee would make people leave the game, provided that everyone gains access to fairer gameplay, much more fairer loot system, crafting system, and a change to attain happiness and wealth in this game. Let there be Microtransactions, but only on items that don't affect the main gameplay. i.e buying/selling of land, houses, clothes, in-house items and maybe some space vehicles, things that don't affect hunting, mining, pvp, crafting etc. microtransactions might affect trade, considering players with more money will gain more control(given he makes good decisions), but a regular player, who pays the subscription fees must also have a path to gain wealth, but might have to take a longer path..
With a better system, this game can attain a higher player base.
ferox
Now, I also have been looking at other great games, some of them pay 2 play and many of them lack the graphics and expanse that this game has, yet they have more players. I found out that this is because of the straight forward game play that those games give, where if i play hard, i get the reward. Loot isn't random and things just seem to.. work. There is no entropy. Even in expansive games like EVE, there are some level of "obviousity". Your success there depends on your adaptability, not your strength and you have total freedom over your character and his choices. If you look beyond the settings and the genre, you see that both games are highly similar. Both have player driven economies. Both have high level of player involvement in communities. In both games, action is sacrificed for a high level of freedom. But the one place that they do differ is that one game has more than 14 million players, while other has around 1 million. Don't get me wrong here, I believe EU is a great game and has a high potential to succeed. But the one thing it does not inherently provide is equal opportunity, which is a result of the Real Cash Economy in this game. Because a person can pay into this game, any amounts of money at any times, what it gives him is an unfair advantage over another player, because that player might not be able to pay the same amount. A person's hard work doesn't matter, nor does his skill. Its all money that dictates the position of the player. If that person is rich, he can do whatever he wants. In a game, this is very unfair and does make a lot of people quit. Also this system enables high level players to get higher level equipment and this does bring an unfair advantage when it comes to PVP. You don't have to be a good pvp player anymore, but just have a good amount of money to buy the best gun available and fight. Its money first, player skills second now.No more does a player's resilience and patience matters. Loots are set at random, thus a player has to continue to put in money and as he/she levels up even more, he/she has to put in more money to accommodate for that higher level. Not all of us have infinite amount of money to spare. I have paid for other P2P games, but all the other games have a much more fairer system, where all the players are given equal opportunity to thrive and succeed, given that the player makes right choices. In simple terms, nothing is set at random and no one is given access to more stuff because in standard p2p games, Everyone pays the same and everyone gets access to the standard features others get access to. In this game, that is not so. People are given freedom to pay into, any amount they want, which means high paying players get access to things that people who pay less don't get to, but they have to sacrifice the extra money. There is no way for a player to work his way up and gain more wealth, because everything is set at random and he has to take a lot of blind decisions to succeed
Now I am not against microtransactions, but when microtransactions, like in this game, is the sole decider in our quality of gameplay and our chance of gaining prosperity in this game, something is wrong. No other game does this and I don't see why the publishers of this game(MindArk) still allow this. If they want to charge customers, let them charge them a monthly subscription fee. I mean most of the people pay anyways, so i don't see how a subscription fee would make people leave the game, provided that everyone gains access to fairer gameplay, much more fairer loot system, crafting system, and a change to attain happiness and wealth in this game. Let there be Microtransactions, but only on items that don't affect the main gameplay. i.e buying/selling of land, houses, clothes, in-house items and maybe some space vehicles, things that don't affect hunting, mining, pvp, crafting etc. microtransactions might affect trade, considering players with more money will gain more control(given he makes good decisions), but a regular player, who pays the subscription fees must also have a path to gain wealth, but might have to take a longer path..
With a better system, this game can attain a higher player base.
ferox
Entropia Universe 12.6 Release Notes
01 May 2012
Planet-Specific Patches
Integrated minor fixes for planet content into Entropia Universe:
Calypso
ROCKtropia
Arkadia
The Thing
Cyrene
Next Island
Visit each planet page for more information.
New Planet Released
Planet Cyrene is ready to explore.
Space
Planet Calypso space stations; Crystal Palace and F.O.M.A, have been moved closer to Planet Calypso Space Station.All Motherships and Privateers have been moved to their nearest space station safe zone.The space server south of Planet Calypso has been removed.
Fixed Issues
Trade terminals in the Fort Events are now working.
Players can no longer join other players solo dungeon instances.
Known issues
Opening item info on the new teleporters on planet Cyrene will cause the game client to crash.
Planet-Specific Patches
Integrated minor fixes for planet content into Entropia Universe:
Calypso
ROCKtropia
Arkadia
The Thing
Cyrene
Next Island
Visit each planet page for more information.
New Planet Released
Planet Cyrene is ready to explore.
Space
Planet Calypso space stations; Crystal Palace and F.O.M.A, have been moved closer to Planet Calypso Space Station.All Motherships and Privateers have been moved to their nearest space station safe zone.The space server south of Planet Calypso has been removed.
Fixed Issues
Trade terminals in the Fort Events are now working.
Players can no longer join other players solo dungeon instances.
Known issues
Opening item info on the new teleporters on planet Cyrene will cause the game client to crash.
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