EU Article in March 2008 issue of Creativity

[Sirhc]

Click here for a link to Creativity Magazine website

I was reading through my Creativity Magazine today and right there in front of my eyes was an article about EU.

Here is the scanned image:

[br]Click to enlarge[/br]


Here is the text of the article hopefully I copied it correctly I am not typist:

After the hype surrounding Second Life---and the subsequent backlash, encapsulated in an August Wired Article detailing “How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life”--- marketers might be understandably wary about the next big virtual world. Still, Swedish company MindArk is betting that is Entropia Universe (EU) platform has what it takes to attract big clients. In fact, it has already attracted the biggest client of them all, the People’s Republic of China, which plans to launch it own virtual planet on the Entropia platform by the end of 2008. Right now, EU is a tiny compared to Second Life---the former has 700,000 registered accounts, while the latter has close to 13 million (fewer than a million have logged in the previous 30 days)---but “Planet China” could change all that. Beijing’s Cyber Recreation Development Corp, which is developing an office park devoted all things IT in the hopes of attracting international investment, plans to build a virtual environment capable of supporting a staggering seven million concurrent users. Second Life, by comparison, has rarely registered more than 50,000 simultaneous log-ins. According to MindArk’s head of marketing Frank Campbell, EU’s distinguishing characteristic is its “real cash economy”. The in-world currency, the PED, is tied to the U.S. dollar (10 PED = 1USD), and users can easily transfer funds in and out of the virtual universe. Last year, MindArk auctioned off five licenses to operate banks within EU for a total of $404,000. It’s this mix of e-commerce, social networking, and World of Warcraft-style gameplay that MindArk hopes will make EU the next big thing---and carry it through and IPO, which it announced late last year.

As for whether of not marketers will invest in yet another virtual world, Campbell compares the current situation to the Internet Bubble. “When the Internet first came, everybody was jumping on it because it was hot and you could feel the potential in it without actually knowing how you were going to pull the best out of I”, he says. “I think it was a bit like that with what happened to Second Life last year. They didn’t have a real solid business model of where the customers were going to come from, how income was going to be generated, and so forth. It wasn’t fully thought through.” (Jim Hanas)

Interesting article

 

[Kazanori]

Very nice find and a good read

+rep

 

[Returns_Again]

Thanks for sharing. +rep!

Ratae.

 

[dilly]

Finally an artical that isnt hyping SL
I didnt realise China were releasing there planet so early, 2008, thats this year (it is 2008, isnt it)?

Good find Sirhc!

 

[Unity]

I still don't understand how Chinese releasing their own planets based on selling chinese things would effect EU economy?

 

[Midori Fairlona]

Finally an artical that isnt hyping SL
I didnt realise China were releasing there planet so early, 2008, thats this year (it is 2008, isnt it)?

Good find Sirhc!

The intention of the Chinese is to time the launch of their Cyber Recreation Development project to coincide with the Olympics later this year. Whether that is achievable and whether MA are signed up to deliver the planet at the same time is unclear.

I still don't understand how Chinese releasing their own planets based on selling chinese things would effect EU economy?

Because the statements coming out of MA say that travel will be possible between many of the planets. 7 million potential customers could have a big impact on the current malls, for example. Even if the Chinese planet turns out to have restricted access, it will still generate an income for MA. The increased profitability of the operating company can only bring stability to the Entropia Universe as a whole.

 

[Unity]

The intention of the Chinese is to time the launch of their Cyber Recreation Development project to coincide with the Olympics later this year. Whether that is achievable and whether MA are signed up to deliver the planet at the same time is unclear.



Because the statements coming out of MA say that travel will be possible between many of the planets. 7 million potential customers could have a big impact on the current malls, for example. Even if the Chinese planet turns out to have restricted access, it will still generate an income for MA. The increased profitability of the operating company can only bring stability to the Entropia Universe as a whole.

Still, we don't know the price of licensing EU platform to Chinese nor possible annual payments made to MA.
Given the state of China, do you really expect Chinese to be given access to EU and vice versa?

 

[Midori Fairlona]

Still, we don't know the price of licensing EU platform to Chinese nor possible annual payments made to MA.

You said you couldn't see that it would have an effect on the rest of Entropia and I pointed out an effect.

I really don't see your point with the statement above. I very much doubt that MA is licensing Entropia at a loss or even on a not-for-profit basis, so they are expecting some sort of revenue from this deal. However, working on the assumption that plans do go awry, here are three possible outcomes:

• The deal is profitable - the existing Entropia economy is strengthened because investors see an improvement in the long term profitability of MA. Therefore the EU economy is affected.
• The deal is a failure - the existing Entropia economy is weakened because investors see a decline in the long term profitability of MA. Therefore the EU economy is affected.
• The deal breaks even - the existing Entropia economy is strengthened slightly because investors see that MA can expand its brand and market share without making a loss. Therefore the EU economy is affected.

Given the state of China, do you really expect Chinese to be given access to EU and vice versa?

Anything is possible. The barriers blocking the BBC website in China recently came down, and I think the Chinese authorities would be more worried about the contents of that website than anything that could be said in EU.

 

[Droops]

Nice Find Thanks

 

[AkiranBlade]

A rather bold claim there by Frank about Second Life's business model. My personal opinion on Second Life was that it wasn't fun, there was no instant... in you go, skill, progression engine. If it had that, it would have been truely powerful save for the awful lag I used to experience.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, the content is 'fixed' in Entropia. Unfortunate for the fact that true participant creativity is stemmed to a certain degree (Architecture, landscaping, proper clothing design etc.) Fortunate for that fact that we are protected from lude content from persons who really should be locked up.

 

[NightwolfAA2k5]

Nice find! Doesn't really say anything new though, or anything we haven't heard before...

- Nightwolf

 

[Beki]

Nice find! Doesn't really say anything new though, or anything we haven't heard before...

- Nightwolf

For people in the game I agree there is very little there that is "news".

However to the wider world it may be that articles like this kick start something within different spheres of the gaming world or even online traders. As has been said, if the China world, along with Cryengine all goes well it will only make the whole of EU more marketable, hopefully bringing in the extra income from advertisers or licensing to real world outlet malls etc etc. (note the big IF)

If you think back to previous press releases like Deathifier purchasing TI, Neverdie buying the nightclub/hunting domes etc the interest there raised the profile and did have a major effect on getting bums on seats to see what was going on and resulted in 10's of thousands of new accounts, be they 1 month "look sees" or still ongoing users.

If these releases get ppl interested in having a user friendly interface for their online businesses then the growth within the sales/advertising sector can only help boost the economy further. I find it pretty easy to imagine walking into a shop here and having a look at some merchandise and with only a slightly modified purchase transaction (putting in size information etc) buying something which is automatically dispatched to the registered account address having already been paid for from "game" account funds.

Anyway i can say I'm here along for the ride and hope that my ideas/dreams for the future of Entropia are realised ( if only for more loot when hunting )

 

[Sirhc]

However to the wider world it may be that articles like this kick start something within different spheres of the gaming world or even online traders. As has been said, if the China world, along with Cryengine all goes well it will only make the whole of EU more marketable, hopefully bringing in the extra income from advertisers or licensing to real world outlet malls etc etc.

Yeah I agree it was nothing new to me either but like Beki said this article is in a magazine that seems to cater towards more modern marketing, design, and advertising (TV, movies, and web based). I have been getting Creativity for a while and must say it has some interesting articles about the whole creative side of business. Overall I think its pretty cutting edge and I would think people with influence in the industry tend to read it. I was surprised to see an article about Entropia Universe in the frontlines but the more I thought about it I was happy to see it.

The more press about EU the better I say. If MA hypes it up EU they better be prepared to follow through since people in the industry seem a bit wary about another virtual world. Proven success and a growing "spend happy" client base is what EU needs to take to the next step IMHO. If they can show results that XYZ company can make X amount of dollars from being a part of EU then others will follow suit.

I would have never found Project Entropia had I not read a small article in some magazine at my dentists office many years ago. About a year or so later I decided to give PE a try when my internet connection speed was better and here I am today.

 

[Nor Alien]

I agree.. Its good news for all of EU!!!

 

[Tidesong]

Maybe they are trying to reach a different group of people now

 

[timmmers]

I still don't understand how Chinese releasing their own planets based on selling chinese things would effect EU economy?

Entropia Universe. Not Calypso...a universe. that's how, and there are quite a few Chinese around I hear too.

They may not ever get to hunt with us, or mine...but you never know...either way it's a way for them to sell to each other or even to others outside china (if we and other new planets occupants can travel there and buy stuff using peds (which is again universal and not just Calypso)..

Article was an interesting one, hope they follow it up once the chinese and other planets get into orbit (around what I wonder, we have no stars yet do we?).

t

 

[Midori Fairlona]

we have no stars yet do we?

We have Omega 16 Reticulum.

 

[Frigid]

Even if the Chinese planet turns out to have restricted access, it will still generate an income for MA. The increased profitability of the operating company can only bring stability to the Entropia Universe as a whole.

Crap.

That...I didn't think of. I'm all for that.

Howevere, I still don't think we'll have access to that planet in any real sense by having our avatars go there and walk and talk freely.

I am also unsure how such a small company as Mindark is able to meet any deadline with China it may have set *and* make timely, promised improvements to our game...the game that is paying it's bills while it works on other games.