MindArk is in the process of preparing for its upcoming IPO, which will likely include an offering of newly issued registered shares as well as existing shares. MindArk intends to use the proceeds from the newly issued shares to implement its growth strategy, in particular the expansion of its market position and pursuit of potential acquisition opportunities.

MindArk is the face behind the creators, and developers of the MMORPG Entropia Universe, with a real cash economy (RCE).

I’m not quite sure what to think about this. On one hand it will give the developers the extra capital to expand in-world events, economies, graphics, trades, and players goods. The recent updates(VU 9) required users to upgrade their graphics drivers, and for some their graphics cards. With the CryEngine coming it’s quite possible users may have to make substantial upgrades or even entire system replacements just to keep up. Most hard core players won’t mind.

The 2 pec “tax” (which I believe has been reduced to 1 pec, but I haven’t confirmed it) was supposed to deter users from wearing too many items in highly populated areas. A lag preventer, if you will. Firstly in my opinion it’s degraded the EU life. There are many avatars that are running around in underwear because they won’t pay up. For others (like myself) it doesn’t matter. I want to play the world how it was meant to play. What’s that got to do with an IPO? I’m concerned being publicly owned won’t make a hill of beans difference in how the money is used on the backend. I’ve seen too much greed in Second Life. The Lindens have a plentiful income, and SL still has scaling issues. Will they beef up the backend in Entropia with all the extra cash and let us have a rich environment?

On a positive note, maybe with all that extra cash the loots will get better. “Loot” is objects that have value that are awarded to an avatar based upon their skills, and some work they’ve done. Some of which include; crafting, mining, hunting, and trading.

Interestingly enough the comments on the video page are filled with love/ hate comments regarding the players experiences, and the possibility to come out in the black in one of the few REC (Real Cash Economy) virtual worlds.

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.

(image courtesy Entropia Universe – MindArk PE AB)

Though they haven’t come out and said what exactly all the changes are, they did mention some graphics changes. Like the Shadow Armor set pictured here. Graphics cards with pixel shader 3.0+ is recommended to get the full effect of the new changes, though older cards will still work.

Here’s a list of some of the graphics changes;

• Increased Polygon Count
• Higher Resolution Texture Maps
• Normal Mapping Technology
• Reflective and Glossy Surfaces
• Redesigned Armor/Clothes/Avatar
• Dynamic Level of Detail Technology, which allows crowds of hundreds of simultaneous avatars to be in one place while maintaining a good frame rate. (Take that SL!)
• Advanced Shader which allows realistic combinations of leather and colored clothes

All these fancy changes before MindArk even adds the Crytek CryEngine. I hope these changes keep coming. So far all of them seem to be positive. One thing I’ve noticed with EU, is that after changes are made, about 98% of the time they are successful, and don’t include grid outages and missing inventories unlike another particular world I can think of.

Entropia Universe, the safest virtual world utilizing a real cash economy, has signed a license agreement to use the stunning high-tech game engine CryENGINE 2®, from German developer Crytek, creators of “Far Cry®” and upcoming “Crysis®.” This will make Entropia Universe the closest-to-reality looking massively multiplayer online game ever seen.

It’s said to be finished by mid 2008.

Some of the really cool features (seen in video) that I’m looking forward to are;

• Parametric skeletal animation system
• Breakable buildings & vegetation systems

This is going to bring gaming to a completely different level!

Download the wmv direct from Entropia Universe (better quality).

As soon as I opened the cover of Virtual Worlds I was relieved to find that my tired old eyes would not be suffering from eye strain. The text is large enough without being to large to allow ease of reading… Thank You Media Village!

I was sucked into this book from the first paragraph of this easy to read in a day book.

Virtual Worlds are 21st Century versions of 1960s mind-expanding drugs, but they are expanding more than just the mind. Virtual worlds and enhanced social networks allow us to explore new universes, expand our emotional range and depth, change the nature of communication and create different identities for ourselves. You can now create multiple versions of yourself with different names, gender, ethnic heritage, passions, dreams, and even relationships.

Although my online personality in virtual worlds reflects my real life self… meet me in Second Life and Real Life… pretty much only the physical representation is different to picture me as I wish I were physically. Jack Myers statements that people are able to recreate multiple versions of themselves and test out what they would really like to be; allows the use of multiple emotional perceptions of ourself to help learn about what alternate selves can become. These emotional perception changes rings a loud tone of truth to me.

I am particularly interested in how, as Myers points out, the intellect has been given control to over come most all emotions. We hear often people talking about emotions of the gut (something is wrong… I feel it in my gut) or heart, (I feel like my heart is breaking) but almost alway, these emotions can only be allowed with approval of the brain.

VIRTUAL WORLDS makes the bold statement:

The brain has, in essence, captured dictatorial powers over emotional — and physical –well-being. As new generations learn in Virtual Worlds how to empower emotional centers to gain power and control equal to the brain, the natural evolutionary process will ultimately lead to a re-balancing of the human psyche, spirit and ego.

These virtual worlds and social networks are allowing people to experience new emotional depths and ranges, and as these emotions gain use, will they change the very essence of how we view ourselves and how we communicate?

To a degree, Myers discusses the expansions of virtual worlds and how there must be marketing changes to keep up with the potential of these virtual worlds, how and why virtual worlds are real to the user, and how wireless is the next frontier.

The last chapter of the book is the first chapter of a new virtual world reader generated fiction; which sets the opening ground work for the direction of the new book.  The readers of this book are invited encouraged to allow themselves to be totally immersed in this virtual world, and send in your ideas, thoughts, chapter.  Once the chapter is chosen it will be published and then be opened to the readers to write the next chapter… until the book is complete.

Each accepted contribution and its author will “authorize Myers Publishing LLC all reprint and publication rights in all media with no restrictions. If your chapter is selected as the official Chapter 2 for CyberParadiseSociety.com, you will be granted a non-negotiable share of all subsequent revenues generated by the book (upon completion) and properties developed from the book.”

I enjoyed this book which gently fed me more than one idea to ponder.  It is an easy read which can open thought processes in your mind you may have not considered.  I rate this book at 4 stars out of a possible 5 stars. I feel it is written for the parents or friends of people that are actively involved in a virtual world more so than for the person involved.

If your friends or parents don’t understand how or why you are so involved in a virtual world, you may want to consider buying them a copy of this book which might, just might, add a little glow to that light bulb above their head.

Yesterday in the post Court Ruling & Should We? I wrote:

“Cyberspace” what is it? What should it be?

“Cyberspace” is not inside your computer, nor the computer of people you are interacting with. Is it really inside a server somewhere in between? Or is that server simply a device which allows us to enter into “Cyberspace” as would be some space ship which would allow our us to reach distant solar system?

“Cyberspace” is a truly a place, some say it is not exactly real (which can be neither proved nor disproved) that is really a destination. As much a destination as an alternative dimension, or another planet in outer space. This place is an earnest and serious place where millions of us enter and leave it everyday.

Some give “Cyberspace” considerable thought, write about it, negotiate over international implications, or regulate it. regulate it… regulate it… regulate it… regulate it… regulate it… regulate it…

Should “Cyberspace” be regulated by any government body? Would they also regulate inhabitants of some distant planet revolving around some distant star? Maybe the question should be … Would we put up with government’s from some inhabited planet to regulate Earth?

How much right do we as a community of humans really have trying to control regulate force our ideas onto any alternate universe, dimension, country, or state?

click me for larger picture,

Today, thanks to fellow author TD Goodliffe’s post “Daniel Linden’s haunting words about SL at Standford Humanities Lab” pointing to the Washington Post article Does Virtual Reality need a Sheriff?, I find a quote by Philip Rosedale:

In the ideal case, the people who are in Second Life should think of themselves as citizens of this new place and not citizens of their countries.

“Rosedale said he hopes participants in Second Life eventually develop their own virtual legal code and justice system” stated the Washington Post.

These quotes leave me believing that Rosedale, Kapor, and I aren’t to far off on the basic idea of virtual laws. I have no idea how Jeff Bezos (founder of Amazon), Pierre Omidyar (founder of Ebay) think along these lines of “freedom” in cyberspace, but I know for a fact that I am a “Libertarian.”

To me “Libertarian” means, in its fundamental form, I believe each person should have the right to do anything they want to do; as long as doing so does not interfere with anyone else’s rights. (I know this is over simplistic on the surface) Yes, I know that the uproar right now is over “age play,” but I also realize that once any form of “rights” is given up… it never seems to stop. Today it is “age play” tomorrow it could be something in which you or I participate.

The thing about true freedom is: if you want it, you have to fight for things you may not personally believe, but might set standards which will lead to the removal of rights you do believe in. Again the string which connects rights are tied together, and once one falls — another is tugged upon putting it in peril.

Rosedale’s statement, “I hope participants in Second Life eventually develop their own virtual legal code and justice system,” needs careful consideration and thought before being acted upon. Yet, shouldn’t an alternate world have the right to govern itself?

Resident’s of Second Life are residents of an alternate world, and are citizens from around the globe. No country’s governments should be able to set its own form of standards upon a global community. That should be left to the global community!

Could and should an “Avatar Bill of Rights” and a “Constitution” be established for cyberspace?

Techcrunch which usually covers new Web 2.0ish startups is looking instead at two established players in the MMO space. One (Second Life) more established than the other (Entropria). The article also mentions World of Warcraft but the comparisons there are less clear and valid. You can’t really compare World of Warcraft an MMORPG to Entropia or Second Life. MMOs have different objectives than MMORPG.

The Techcrunch writer Duncan Riley asks if Entropia is a better Second Life (emphasis mine):

The addition that makes Entropia Universe a direct competitor to Second Life though is money. Like Second Life, the in-world currency in Entropia Universe can be converted to US dollars. Unlike the Linden dollar that continues to decline in value, the Entropia Universe PED can be traded at a fixed exchange rate of 10 PED to $1 USD.

First, an important correction: the value of the Linden dollar has not continued to decline in value. The current exchange rate of this writing is around L$267 per $1 USD is among the best it has been since I’ve been in Second Life (December 2005). There was a point when the Linden dollar was being exchanged at L$320 per $1 USD. Duncan is correct about the Entropria Universe having a fixed exchange rate.

What good is money if it isn’t fluid?
Recently I withdrew money from my Second Life account to PayPal and reported the amount of time (some 8 days) as being excessive. I received feedback that Project Entropia was even worse about cashouts than Second Life, sometimes taking months. Can any readers verify the amount of time it has taken for PE cashouts?

The Techcrunch article points to the ATM card that Project Entropia offers as being a way to immediately access the funds inside Project Entropia. If it works that seamless then it is far superior to the cashout system at Linden Lab, but I don’t know anybody who has used one of these cards that can confirm it works this great. Do you? If it does work this slick then I hope Linden Lab will do this for Second Life. I first wrote about the Entropria ATM card over a year ago on May 3, 2006, BTW. My experience inside Entropria thus far has been less newbie-friendly than Second Life but I haven’t given Entropria anywhere remotely close to the amount of time.

I agree with Duncan that the graphics in Entropria are better than Second Life and I remain intrigued with Entropria.

The Second Life is aimless complaint
Duncan didn’t stop swinging at Second Life with the economy, he moved to sensationalism:

One criticism I hear regularly about Second Life is that it’s aimless; it’s not a game so there is nothing really to do other than enjoy virtual sex and play Tringo.

Umm, no. But wait with the pitchforks, he added an exception, sort of:

Now before I am shouted down by a legion of Second Life groupies, I do see Second Life’s appeal as a creative and social space, but not everyone wants to get online and build virtual strip clubs or interrupt interviews with flying penises.

Personally don’t consider myself a “Second Life groupie” although I’m part of a group that covers virtual worlds including Second Life. Neither myself or anybody in our VTOR group that I’m aware of has built a virtual strip club or disrupted an interview with flying penises. Duncan is referring to the incident with CNET and Anshe Chung, but Anshe is just one resident of millions. If you want to point to her incident as significant of the platform as a whole, then what about our resident experiences? Yes, Anshe is the most trotted out celebrity resident aka wealthy land baroness, but using an incident with her to describe how Second Life is overall is dramatic over-generalization.

What about events like the book reading with Dean Koontz? I was there and not only did the event go off without a single flying penis, it was structured in a way that dealt with the sim (server) limitations. As far as celebrity goes, I’d say Dean Koontz is much more popular than Anshe Chung. Why wasn’t his avatar pelted with flying penises? Fellow VTOR author Weirdharold has reported and reviewed several live musicians and I don’t recall any flying penises described at any of those events. Then there was the Major League Baseball All Star Game last year that came off very well. I can go on and on and on with events that have been pulled off without problems or disruption that I’ve personally attended.

There have also been company launches like Visual Studio Island. The biggest complaint I either experience firsthand or hear about these type events isn’t flying penises or sex-starved, Tringo fanatic avatars, it’s the number of people who can attend. I wish more people writing about Second Life would be critical of its true flaws instead of pointing to isolated events with controversial avatars.

Either Duncan doesn’t know anybody that’s been to Second Life events like the ones I described or was too lazy to do the reporting while he was waiting for Project Entropia to load. Hint: I’m on your Skype list, Duncan

The real SL issues
Second Life is far and away not without plenty of its own problems that a critical piece could and should mention. Duncan, if you want to bash Second Life then subscribe to VTOR and we’ll give you plenty of legitimate issues to shout from the mountain top:

- serious architecture problems (Linden Lab says they are working on redesigning)
- inventory and backup issues (residents losing inventory items they’ve paid for)
- overcharging for hosting a ridiculously low amount of people on a server (40 or 50 per server?)
- amateurish distribution of new updates, patches and bug fixes (Darius has waxed on this repeatedly)

I could go on, but if they fix those four, they’ll make a lot of residents — ok, perhaps not all the “SL groupies” — happy.

Imagine if Second Life culled their membership by suspending inactive accounts that haven’t logged in within 300+ days? Tonight I fired up Entropia, logged in and promptly was killed trying to “sweat” out a creature. I really don’t like the Entropria navigation at all. Click with the mouse to move around and not use the arrow keys?

There was a friendly human guide that offered me a little helpful advice but I haven’t found anything enticing about Entropia yet. Maybe I was just rubbed the wrong way about the concept of invalidating accounts of people who took the time to register and download the software and was looking through anxious eyes.

If you have an Entropia account, just don’t forget to login at least once every 300 days. I wonder if they wipe out your account balance when they deactivate you? I don’t have to worry on either account as I’ve since logged in and my balance remains a shimmering goose egg.

Think I need to travel in there along with fellow VTOR author Lestat who seems to like exploring Entropia. I’ll readily admit I haven’t given it a good shake thus far. What should one start out by doing in there (besides reaching for the plastic and giving them real money)? Where should I go? Good resources, guides?

With all its scalability and reliability faults, I think stepping into Second Life is a much more friendly newbie situation.

Entropia Universe (EU) has a real cash economy and even has it’s own cash card tied to your game account that will work at any cash machine. More on the EU cash system later.

It’s free to play. All you need to do is sign up for an account. There are no membership fees, or monthly dues to be paid. You do have the option of making cash deposits into the game to improve your playing experience. More on that later.

So lets begin…

Download the client. Install it. It takes quite a while to install, I believe the file is over 1GB.

David James Lyons
aka James

Then it starts with a narrative EU animated movie to explain a bit to you. Its been a while but I believe you are part of an endeavor searching for a planet suitable for colonization. For some reason I think I remember not landing but crashing to the planet Calypso. Some people crash in different places and begin their adventure at different places. The movie narrative explains that it is up to us to build the society on Calypso. I crashed in the city of Atlas Haven on the continent of Eudoria.

Atlas Haven on Eudoria

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