Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Next Planet Partner content release is coming

If you are on your summer vacation and you don't folow the news about Entropia Universe and in case you missed that news, Kim from MindArk confirmed the date of the next update in a forum post:

"The next PP content release is scheduled for Aug 21."

Daniel dagnai Czerwi is always buying vibrant sweat

This is a post for non depositors. If you want to sell your sweat look for Daniel dagnai Czerwi. He is always buying sweat. Here is his message:

"Hello everyone!I am a well-known trader who always buys vibrant sweat from sweaters. Simply add me in game as a friend, and whenever you have some sweat I will buy it.

Daniel dagnai Czerwi"

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Who is reading this blog July 2012

If you are wondering what countries are playing Entropia Universe the most, here is a chart showing who is reading this blog the most.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Nice Entropia Universe Google Adsense Advertising

I just sow this ad and probably the best ad I've seen so far of Entropia Universe :)


China bars use of virtual money for trading in real goods

Monday,June 29,2009 Posted: 05:00 BJT(2100 GMT) xinhua

China has unveiled the first official rule on the use of virtual currency in the trade of real goods and services to limit its possible impact on the real financial system.

The government also spelled out the definition of "virtual currency" for the first time, which includes prepaid cards of cyber-games, according to a joint circular from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Commerce Friday.

"The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services." it said.

China has the world's largest population of Internet users, with 298 million people online as of the end of last year.

According to media reports, the virtual money trade topped several billion yuan last year after rising around 20 percent annually.

Since 2007, virtual money trading has drawn official attention, with the government demanding tighter controls as such trading became an avenue for gambling and illicit trade.

Under the new rules, using virtual money for gambling will be punished by public security authorities, and minors may not buy virtual money.

The Ministry of Culture also vowed to step up supervision on money laundering via virtual credits and other illegal online activities.

The most popular Chinese online credits are "QQ coins" issued by Tencent. com, which has at least 220 million registered users. In a media statement Saturday, the company said it "resolutely" supported the new rule.

The statement said Tencent had strongly opposed the underground trading of virtual money, which could enable online theft and fraud. The company would work with the authorities to combat online crimes, according to the statement.

Cui Ran, an expert on the Chinese online industry, said the regulation aimed to "nip illegal online activities in the bud," as current trading volume was still too small to shake the nation's entire financial system.

But as the trade expanded steadily, with increasing conversions between virtual and real money, there would be an impact on the financial system, he noted.

Korea prohibits trade of online game items

Korea has decided to ban trade for commercial game items from the second half of this year as a measure aimed at encouraging students to not waste time.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced that it is planning to halt all virtual item trades with a new law, to be announced sometime next month.

“The main purpose of the games is for entertainment and should be used for academic and other good purposes,” said Kim Kap-soo, head of the ministry’s content policy division, Wednesday.

The government official also stressed item collecting for commercial use is a serious hindrance to creating a healthy game culture.
Korea is the world’s most-wired society with the Internet penetration rate standing at above 93 percent, data from government agencies said. Korea is also the home of the world’s biggest smartphone and TV manufacturer _ Samsung.

For online role-playing games, the law prohibits users from using programs that allow in-game characters to hunt and collect items without the need of a player controlling them.

The ministry calculates that over 60 percent of items exchanged on the market were obtained by the use of automatic programs. Such programs and other method are impinging in the way of on-line games’ negative reputation, the government agency said.

Those who violate this law will face up to a 50 million won fine, at a maximum, and five years in jail.

For arcade games, game providers will be unable to list in-game items in their accounts as property, or handout gift certificates for item purchases. In 2007, the then popular arcade game Sea Story handed out certificates that were quickly exchanged or sold for cash, and the government is concerned that a similar incident may reoccur.

The ministry said that arcade game businesses that keep books registering items and scores (that can be exchanged for cash) has risen to 1,500 as of April. There were only 50 such businesses in 2009.

In a statement, the ministry says item trades contribute to many problems in society, including teenage crime, and felt that a solution was required.

The ministry is planning to give active guidelines to provincial administrations and have the police department actively enforce the new law. The government is also heightening prevention of gambling and other illegal activities using games.

Korea is a hub for online role-playing games, which have also drawn concern because of the booming trade in virtual money and items.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Cyrene TP and Mob Map at soft launch

I went to Planet Cyrene the first day it was open for players, but I was little disappointed by the small area, just 3 servers compared to massive Calypso 32 servers. I know this is soft launch and it will be bigger when they release the full planet. I will wait until that happens to go to Cyrene and explore again. The story, the mobs, the armors, the weapons everything is top notch. Just 3 servers are not enought to entertain you for long. Here is hi-resolution map with mobs and teleporters of what is Cyrene now:


Arkadia Fashion Stars - Mr and Mrs Arkadia 2012

Wile Next Island has some hard time some other planets are doing great. Arkadia will have fashion event soon. And when people have time and money for style that means the economy is blooming.

Here is the message from Max EJ:

Hello Entropians from all over the universe!

Arkadia team and Arkadia advisors is happy to present you:
The first annual Arkadia Fashion Stars event in which a Mr. and Mrs. Arkadia will be elected as top fashion models of 2012.

The event will be held on Arkadia at the Celeste Military HQ catwalk on Saturday July 28, 1800MA time.

To register post your avatar name in this thread and fill in this form.
Be sure to register in the thread and fill the form to ensure your place in the competition.

Each participant will get a chance to show himself in three different rounds:

Round 1 - Dress Clothes (max. one armor part)
Round 2 - Armor & Clothes (min. four armor parts).
Round 3 - Casual/beach/underwear (max. one armor part)

All clothing/armor items available in game are allowed to be used
The use of weapons/ME chips/Tools etc. is prohibited (we are holding a fashion show, not a show show.)
The participants are obliged to download and install the entropialife client.

Each participant will score points for their outfit from a committee of judges.
Participants will be judged for overall outfit look, texture/color matching and for item use and originality.
At the end of the event all points will be calculated and the winners will be announced.
The Judges score sheets will be posted after the event.

Normandie radio will host the event so be sure to tune in http://www.normandieradio.co.uk

For the winners we prepared and acquired special prizes:

The first places will receive:
an Arkadia apartment deed
a gold Arkadia forum memberships
a special unique item Arkadia team made for the event.

The second places will receive:
a pair of Jeans, Sponsored by Freyr’s Fashion.
150 ped worth of EntropiaLife Credits.
In order to be ellagable to win the el. credits be sure you run the el, client.

The third places will receive:
a set of Arkadia cloth.

Now go and start preparing all your crazy outfits!
Arkadia team, Arkadia Advisors and the Judges wish you all luck and hope you will have fun.

-------------------------------------

The event is sponsored by:

-Freyr’s Fashion shops at Sanctuary Cove (Arkadia) & Twin Peaks Mall, Level 2 (Calypso).
-Entropialife.com - download/install the entropia tracker client.
-Arkadia Forum - arkadiaforum.com

Entire staff of Next Island was fired

Meg from Next Island staff posted on 16 of July on her personal blog that entire stuff of Next Island was let go:

"Wednesday the entire staff of Next Island was let go. Although I knew we weren’t being called to this urgent company meeting so we could pet kittens and eat cupcakes, it is still terribly sad to leave a project I’ve been on for almost two years now, and leave so many narratives unfinished in the gameworld. I’ve been so involved in Next Island for so long, leaving so abruptly is almost like getting dumped.

I came in Thursday to finish a dialogue, originally for August, er, October, and now for personal satisfaction. It was originally constraining to write missions and lines for stationery NPCs, but it’s taught me how effective one line of dialogue can be.

Thursday night found me in the office, clearing out my desk around the time I’m usually calling Harold and telling him that perhaps he shouldn’t wait for me to have dinner. The night janitor came by and saw the state of my desk.

“Moving out?” he asked.
I nodded.
He asked if I got a new job, and I had to say no.
He asked if I got a promotion, and I had to say no.
He asked if I lost my job, and I had to say yes.
“But you? You are always working. You are always here at night,” he said, “How did you lose your job?”

That one line of dialogue can really be effective, I thought, and I picked up my box of island maps, Hello Kitty desk toys, Screamland copies, and XYZZY coffee mug, and walked to the elevator to go home."

What a heartbreaking story! BUT. Is this really a bad thing or actually a good change? Everyone knows Next Island was doing worst from all the planets. It started bad with all the NEVERDIE names all over the planet. I personally traveled to all other planets except NI. I play most on Calypso, I was on Rocktropia and Arkadia few times, one time on Cyrene and will go back after they start the real launch. But I have never been to Next Island and never wanted to.

At forums I see post from other planets about new missions and mobs and from next Island usually the news is "WORK IN PROGRESS" and I don't even care what is it. The crafting sucks monkey balls and speaking of monkey balls, every where you go there are monkeys on the planet. Like the planet of the apes.

Their site is even flagged by Google:
"Diagnostic page for nextisland dot com
Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.
Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 2 time(s) over the past 90 days."

Now the question is what is going to happen to Next Island. Will it just get new stuff and make things better? Will the planet be sold to someone else who knows what to do with it? Or will it go to MindArk hands?

And how this is going to impact Entropia Universe?

UPDATE:

Bjorn|MindArk, MindArk Official:

"I'd like to reassure everyone that Planet Next Island will not be shutting down.
MindArk is in constant contact with the developers of Next Island, and we are monitoring the situation closely.
More detailed information about Next Island's plans for continued development will be provided as it becomes available."

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Mission Rewards Rebalancing Update

News from MindArk:

Based on feedback from participants and summer scheduling issues, the implementation of rebalanced mission rewards -- originally scheduled for August 21 -- will be postponed until the October 9th Planet Partner Release.

In addition, a new system for the awarding of attributes will be implemented with the October 9th release, utilizing new items called Attribute Tokens. This system will give planet partners the ability to create missions which award fractional amounts of attributes, and thereby greatly increase the number of creatures which are able to offer attribute rewards through missions.

The new Attribute Tokens, which are non-tradable, exist in five types -- Agility, Intelligence, Strength, Psyche and Stamina -- and can be turned in to an NPC in exchange for points in the associated attribute, at a ratio of 100 Attribute Tokens per attribute point. This system allows participants to decide for themselves the best time to receive the attribute point reward, rather than being forced to receive the reward at the moment of mission completion.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Paying for Entropia Universe by playing Diablo 3

At the moment I am trying to find out if it is possible to play Diablo III, sell your good items on the Real Money Auction House (RMAH), transfer the real money into PayPal, then withdraw the money from PayPal into my bank account and then deposit into Entropia Universe with my debit card. This is easy to do for someone that can play all day Diablo 3 and many people already made more than 1000 dollars selling their loot from Diablo 3. But for someone like me, playing just for few hours it looks like almost impossible to do. The game is out for 50 days now and I just got to Act 1 on Inferno difficulty. And the really good items starts to drop on Act 1 Inferno and drop more on Act 2,3 and 4 inferno. But the people that play all day were farming Inferno for more than a month and made some good real money selling virtual items.

Here is new chart stats from Xfire show that there's a massive dropoff in players for Blizzard's Diablo III. The stats also show that over the course of late May to late June, the amount of hours players invested into the game has significantly dwindled by almost half for Xfire users.

Just when I was thinking there is no way in hell (inferno) for someone coming so late to inferno to sell some gear for real money because soon no one will actually need better armor and people will even stop playing Diablo 3 for the lack of end game content when yesterday some one with the nickname Slicktorine asked on the Diablo 3 forum:

"Can you please give any info about the possibility of adding some end game content, or at least fixing the problems that exist with the current end game content.
I understand people weren't supposed to get so far/so fast, but we have (350 hours played, YIKES).

Act 4 is currently pointless due to the small number of elites and the the drop rates being identical to ACT 3. Act 3 is superior in every way to Act 4, which seems nonsensical to me.....

Maybe you could up the difficulty in Act 4, increase the drop rates, add some elites or allow VALOR to transfer over from ACT 3."

And the answer from Bashiok from Blizzard was:

"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game. There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks. But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months. There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now.We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas. I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out."

Now while some people say RMAH is the worst thing for Diablo 3 if Blizzard see that they are making tons of cash they will try to keep that. And for people to continue to use the RMAH (where Blizzard are making money from) Blizzard must make the game better than it is now so people will want to play more and buy more items for real money. This is great for Blizzard - they are making a lot of money. But it is also great for poor players. First they can make some cash by playing the game and second for 50-60 euro they get a game that is constantly improved like MMO, but they don't have to pay every month like in MMOs.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Eomon Migration Update

The Imperial Exobiology Institute reports that Eomon herds are growing in numbers around Minopolis and Nymphtown.

There have been other reports of Longtooth gathering in the south of Cape Corinth, indicating that they will start their annual migration.

Mission brokers “Nikki Von Han” at Nymphtown and “Fritz Feldgast” at Cape Corinth announce that they have new missions for Eomon, Longtooth and Exarosaur elites.

Colonists are warned to stay vigilant for mutants and other predators when hunting these gargantuan herbivores.