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Published on November 19th, 2007 in Features
Steven Crews is an author and journalist specializing in the MMO genre.
The last time I played Entropia Universe, John Kerry was looking like the next President of the United States, and the game was still going by the moniker of Project Entropia.
At the time, I felt that while it certainly had some very novel ideas going for it, I didn’t think that what seemingly amounted to an RMT system with a game thinly layered over the top could long survive.
Obviously, they have proven me wrong.
I will admit to not having followed the game much since then… so, this interview was as much for my own edification as anyone else’s. As such, I would like to apologize in advance to any hardcore Entropia players who have come here expecting me to inquire about whatever the great burning issues of the day are. There’s always next time.
When I arrived at the MindArk booth on the floor of E for All, I was informed that I had my choice of two interview subjects: Someone from Marketing, or Jon “NEVERDIE” Jacobs, who made the news awhile back after spending $100,000 on a virtual asteroid.
I glanced over at NEVERDIE, who presently was gesticulating enthusiastically towards a news camera, his mohawk bobbing rhythmically up and down, the reporter holding the microphone looking on in slack-jawed bewilderment.
At that moment I came to the conclusion that, while I was sure NEVERDIE was a very pleasant fellow and all, I couldn’t quite see what pearls of wisdom there were to be gleaned by interviewing him.
I opted for Marketing.
Unfortunately, we chose a somewhat high-traffic area within earshot of the horrid crooning at MTV’s Rock Band display as the site for our discussion. As a result, the audio quality of the interview came out too poor to post, and only the transcript is available.
The MMO Gamer: Let us begin with my standard interview starter: For those among our readers who may be unfamiliar, tell us a little bit about yourself, and what it is you do for Entropia Universe.
David Simmonds: My name is David Simmonds, and I’m the Business Development Director. My job is to talk to the different partners that are interested in coming in and joining Entropia Universe, whether they’re a full partner or some kind of affiliate, to really look at the different companies who want to come in and join.
There are actually a lot of companies which we’re contacting at the moment, but we’ve been very, very selective on what companies come in. The companies we’re choosing are the ones which have full, exciting content, and services and products which are of use to our users.
We don’t want a three-dimensional website. We don’t want to be that.
The MMO Gamer: Also for those among our readers who may be unfamiliar with the basic concept of Entropia Universe, could you please explain it for us?
David Simmonds: Sure. MindArk, which is the company, develops and maintains a virtual world which is called Entropia Universe. This universe is based on a real cash economy, which means that we’re using real cash inside this world.
It’s very much like when you go abroad. What do you do? You take your American Dollars, and you go abroad and change them into say, English Pounds, and you entertain yourself, have fun, maybe do business, and maybe even make some money. And then what do you do? You change it back into American Dollars. It’s very much similar to that.
So you take your money, put it into Entropia Universe, have fun, entertain yourself, play the game, maybe be an entrepreneur or make money—and we have many entrepreneurs making money inside our world. And then you can take it out by either bank transfer, or, shortly we’ll have a electronic MasterCard which works at ATM machines as well.
So you can go in, kill some monsters, make some money, then go down and get yourself a pizza.
Continue reading the full article here
Steven Crews is an author and journalist specializing in the MMO genre.
The last time I played Entropia Universe, John Kerry was looking like the next President of the United States, and the game was still going by the moniker of Project Entropia.
At the time, I felt that while it certainly had some very novel ideas going for it, I didn’t think that what seemingly amounted to an RMT system with a game thinly layered over the top could long survive.
Obviously, they have proven me wrong.
I will admit to not having followed the game much since then… so, this interview was as much for my own edification as anyone else’s. As such, I would like to apologize in advance to any hardcore Entropia players who have come here expecting me to inquire about whatever the great burning issues of the day are. There’s always next time.
When I arrived at the MindArk booth on the floor of E for All, I was informed that I had my choice of two interview subjects: Someone from Marketing, or Jon “NEVERDIE” Jacobs, who made the news awhile back after spending $100,000 on a virtual asteroid.
I glanced over at NEVERDIE, who presently was gesticulating enthusiastically towards a news camera, his mohawk bobbing rhythmically up and down, the reporter holding the microphone looking on in slack-jawed bewilderment.
At that moment I came to the conclusion that, while I was sure NEVERDIE was a very pleasant fellow and all, I couldn’t quite see what pearls of wisdom there were to be gleaned by interviewing him.
I opted for Marketing.
Unfortunately, we chose a somewhat high-traffic area within earshot of the horrid crooning at MTV’s Rock Band display as the site for our discussion. As a result, the audio quality of the interview came out too poor to post, and only the transcript is available.
The MMO Gamer: Let us begin with my standard interview starter: For those among our readers who may be unfamiliar, tell us a little bit about yourself, and what it is you do for Entropia Universe.
David Simmonds: My name is David Simmonds, and I’m the Business Development Director. My job is to talk to the different partners that are interested in coming in and joining Entropia Universe, whether they’re a full partner or some kind of affiliate, to really look at the different companies who want to come in and join.
There are actually a lot of companies which we’re contacting at the moment, but we’ve been very, very selective on what companies come in. The companies we’re choosing are the ones which have full, exciting content, and services and products which are of use to our users.
We don’t want a three-dimensional website. We don’t want to be that.
The MMO Gamer: Also for those among our readers who may be unfamiliar with the basic concept of Entropia Universe, could you please explain it for us?
David Simmonds: Sure. MindArk, which is the company, develops and maintains a virtual world which is called Entropia Universe. This universe is based on a real cash economy, which means that we’re using real cash inside this world.
It’s very much like when you go abroad. What do you do? You take your American Dollars, and you go abroad and change them into say, English Pounds, and you entertain yourself, have fun, maybe do business, and maybe even make some money. And then what do you do? You change it back into American Dollars. It’s very much similar to that.
So you take your money, put it into Entropia Universe, have fun, entertain yourself, play the game, maybe be an entrepreneur or make money—and we have many entrepreneurs making money inside our world. And then you can take it out by either bank transfer, or, shortly we’ll have a electronic MasterCard which works at ATM machines as well.
So you can go in, kill some monsters, make some money, then go down and get yourself a pizza.
Continue reading the full article here
