Entropia: “No 2 Pecs” rally

The much anticipated (at least by me) Entropia Version Update 9 was pushed out yesterday. I couldn’t wait for real life circumstances to lend the way for me to logon and get the new goods. More about those goods later…

For my second night I was sporting my newly fashioned avatar and ready for a good hunt. I popped into Port Atlantis to see what rates particular items were trading at. Port Atlantis is well known as a trading location in EU. Upon arrival I was greeted by a large handful of people conducting a ’sit-in’ around the teleport. When I asked what it was all about, the crowd was complaining about a new cost in the game. I read this tidbit in the new release notes:

The increased detail of armor and clothing will demand more system performance. In an attempt to stave off a lag increase, a deterioration of 2 PEC per item has been introduced when equipping garments and armor. Increased realism will make clothes look more worn as their condition diminishes.

While the worn look of clothing is a pretty neat feature, the extra 2 pecs just for putting on a piece of armor or clothing raised my eyebrows. It turns out, I wasn’t the only one. The Entropia Forum is already a buzz with people threatening to quit playing the VU, or starting writing campaigns of protest to MindArk (the people who run Entropia Universe).

How much is 2 pecs anyways? The PED(Project Entropia Dollar) is 10PED/ 1 $USD. 100 pecs are in a PED. So 2 pecs is roughly USD$0.002. Big deal right? Well yes, but in a real cash economy this is a big deal.

The claim (as in the quote above) is that this will prevent lag. Hmmm this sounds like a familiar whine that I continually see about another VU I know so well. In a more practical sense lets check out a small example. I put on 6 pieces of armor to go out for a hunt, thats 2 pec X 6 = 12pec. Return from hunt. Take off armor to repair it, which this decay costs a few pec already. Thats 2 pec X 6 = 12 pec. So withour even putting the armor back on to go out for another hunt costs 24 pec . Thats USD $0.024 BEFORE paying for decay/ repair.

While listening to the avatars debate around the teleport (about half of them in underwear) things started heating up. More and more people came to have a listen. Most of which agreed that the 2 pec seemed a bit greedy. Chants of “No 2 pecs” started echoing around the area. Before I knew it, someone had taken charge and helped the avatars form the words by lying on the ground. I’m sensing quite a passion from most players about this, and don’t believe its the end of the “No 2 pec” situation.