Virtual Worlds are Hot right now

[timmmers]

I guess that those MA really want as customers, has no problems to
upgrade to a new PC, with latest technologies. They can afford it.
Sadly, rest of us can have issues with it though...

Now, this is where I started to wonder what their actual target market is a while ago. We are (apparently) on average worth a dollar per hour while playing...so doesn't that make player numbers (active ones) very important compared to how rich they may be?

I wonder how many of us would even be here at all if buying a new machine or serious upgrade was required just to have a look at EU in the first place....as it soon will be for many folk for a while? A case of "move along, nothing you will be able to see here" maybe?

t

 

[Joat]

Now, this is where I started to wonder what their actual target market is a while ago. We are (apparently) on average worth a dollar per hour while playing...so doesn't that make player numbers (active ones) very important compared to how rich they may be?

I wonder how many of us would even be here at all if buying a new machine or serious upgrade was required just to have a look at EU in the first place....as it soon will be for many folk for a while? A case of "move along, nothing you will be able to see here" maybe?

t

I think they are happy with any kind of player, rich as poor. Doesn't matter.
But what do matter is the capacity limit system has.
Just think of how excisting system would be, if there were 400k active
per day, instead of, 40k today? Would be chaos.
So, what are they forced to do?
Get x amount of depos from fewer amount of active players.
Hype items, create vast show-off loots, aggressive PR when it comes to
just economy. There are many "tricks" to get large amount of depos
done by a few amount of players.
In a perfect world, they had most probably wished system were created
so every account were active. Sadly they are restrained by capacity
in system to have it this way...

It all depends on what level of graphic people want. CE2 can be slimmed
so even older system can handle it. But how fun is that, see almost no
effects at all? Quite dull I guess. I want +mid in settings at minimum,
we'll see if my system can work it out...

 

[CBB]

u re all wrong

reading discussions about the planet, pricy shit, resellers, ce2, the new planet, investments and the view from players that look at that development from their current mind set to gaming in EU

MA is looking bigger.

the current set up is nothing but a mere show case. We are all lab rats testing.
and what do we show then u ask ?

1. a virtual world with a fixed currency, unique, with rl banking interface.
potentially very intresting for compangies, microtransactions, and tons of other games, employment, virtual offices, the china deal, and so on
2. the creating of virtual value, that it is possible to have a virtual item worth 10k dollar. (and that people buy it !!)
3. the development of franchises on different worlds.
4. graphic possibilities with cry egine.
5. gaming possibilities and eu as testign ground
6. the future of communication, net2 and so on


EU isnt the future for MA, the future is hosting a Rl cash system in virtual worlds and providing the platform and infrastructure for hundreds of worlds to be developd by franchises, beign that a game or a compagnie or a chinese compagny with virtual offices, or a university with a virtual college.

profits will come from the hosting, consulting too compagnies that wanna franchise or rent a planet and from the movement of money in and out of these worlds through MA s "ped" system


that is the future, at least if i was MA manager that would be the plan i present for future.
If our current planet would be their goal or the current game, we would see much more effort on that front. All we see is movement towards the mentioned points. U only got to ask yourself why we dont have a ingame mailsystem or tons of other crap. or unfinished storylines,
Its a minimum effort on that part. Its the development of the platform and the showign off possibilities too third parties anywhere in the world, thats the future

i ll post this as a new post, wanna know what u guys feel about this

 

[Ozi]

reading discussions about the planet, pricy shit, resellers, ce2, the new planet, investments and the view from players that look at that development from their current mind set to gaming in EU

MA is looking bigger.

the current set up is nothing but a mere show case. We are all lab rats testing.
and what do we show then u ask ?

1. a virtual world with a fixed currency, unique, with rl banking interface.
potentially very intresting for compangies, microtransactions, and tons of other games, employment, virtual offices, the china deal, and so on
2. the creating of virtual value, that it is possible to have a virtual item worth 10k dollar. (and that people buy it !!)
3. the development of franchises on different worlds.
4. graphic possibilities with cry egine.
5. gaming possibilities and eu as testign ground
6. the future of communication, net2 and so on


EU isnt the future for MA, the future is hosting a Rl cash system in virtual worlds and providing the platform and infrastructure for hundreds of worlds to be developd by franchises, beign that a game or a compagnie or a chinese compagny with virtual offices, or a university with a virtual college.

profits will come from the hosting, consulting too compagnies that wanna franchise or rent a planet and from the movement of money in and out of these worlds through MA s "ped" system


that is the future, at least if i was MA manager that would be the plan i present for future.
If our current planet would be their goal or the current game, we would see much more effort on that front. All we see is movement towards the mentioned points. U only got to ask yourself why we dont have a ingame mailsystem or tons of other crap. or unfinished storylines,
Its a minimum effort on that part. Its the development of the platform and the showign off possibilities too third parties anywhere in the world, thats the future

i ll post this as a new post, wanna know what u guys feel about this

I totally agree CBB, and a much more interesting universe it will be when it gets there. I say strap yourselves in because this universe is on the verge of massive growth in the next 5 years. The amount of talk about virtual worlds is growing by the day int he media which can only be a good thing for entropia. MA need to ensure they are getting their hands on enough capital to grow EU at a pace that keeps them at the forefront of Virtual Worlds.

 

[BlackHawk]

There are virtual worlds and there is Entropia. Nothing is even close. RCE implemented in a game is not so easy as it may seem. I would bet that we will not see competition soon. Or ever. Simply because to implement something like that you need a strong mathematical model. This model needs to be implemented and tested. That is expensive. Loot system in EU is a masterpiece. To keep in balance the activity of EU and not ruining the game is a very hard work. There are millions of things that can go wrong. EU had the tests done back in PE. That is in few years. Loot system was bugged for a long time. Bugs mean huge loses for the company, even if it may seem that they don't lose anything. Not to mention that a new company would have to many things to reinvent. Such a project would need minimum 15-20 million dollars just to make it start and go wrong. Is cheaper for anyone to buy a planet in EU. The system here works.
A virtual world is not just a 3D place where you can chat. That was SL. Some made some money out of that, but how much can you chat? Most users need to have fun, but you eventually get bored doing nothing. SL is like mental masturbation... The real thing is EU.

 

[Sirhc]

MA cant get many people involved simply because its a gambling enterprise...
Same reason Mcdonalds doesnt put ads in casino's and sex shops

McDonalds does put Ads in EU though.

 

[Triton]

second life sucks, I don't want ppl in Entropia Universe who are only chatting...BAN THEM !!! they are weak !!!! chatting is for the weak !!!

Hell yeah!!!

Although my loot has been damn weak lately erm....for the last couple of years atleast... and its getting worse...We need more weak ppl to deposit so the loot gets better!

 

[Joat]

Some more thoughts from me, and yes, not saying it as facts.

I often see people wonder why this and that isn't developed.
It's quite simple, MA isn't a gigantic company. The staff are around 30,
where most are non-developing staff (like marketing).
So even if they do want to develop tons of things, they are restrained
by amount of people working in developing.

They can't hire more people than what they can afford to, and I guess
don't want to get too big either, since the bigger a company is, the harder
it get to run it smoothly.
The (active) playerbase can't be too big either, since system can't handle
too many active. The day it can handle +700k active at once, it will be a
very interesting time. So what to do to at least try increase the amount
of active players with current system?
Split them up in different systems. Even thou' players will be able to
migrate between worlds, they will still be on different systems.
I hope interest for EU gets so much bigger that both system can
expand playerbase so much so both system are maxed in capacity.

To have visions for future is a must for a company. But the visions must
be realistic, and not become a victim of megalomania.
When I first saw that they should expand as they try to, I thought
they did have become victim of megalomania. But not today, now I
only think it's interesting to see how big they can become.
Time will tell if it gonna work out as planned.

One thing I think is quite interesting too, is the amount of PED that is
tied up due to different reasons. Like the lootpool, how much does it
contain in average? The larger the better, I guess, since MA says they
backup every PED in EU with USD, so if the lootsystem are balanced to
contain, lets say 10 million PED, (just as example) they can make 35k USD,
(before tax) just by that. These money can be used as sponsoring
different events, like LANs created by players...
My guess is that when system contain too much against what balance
is set to be, lets say system has 12million instead of 10, the larger
loots become bigger, while average will stay as it has been before.
So it doesn't matter if eco is decent or really good, average will be same.
So everyone who don't get any of those big loots must play on as they
have done before, most will do a depo to be able to continue.
The depos must remain as a steady flow...

 

[Fin]

EU has created a bit of a niche but no one is following. its reasonable to argue that no one can, since any attempt to replicate it would immediatly have half of EU avatars falling over themselves to get the Hyper Heal Units and MkX Vanquishers in the hope they will be as lucrative as EU items, which would put people off from the start and it would be still born.

...which might also turn out to be a problem for the new planet, if indeed it does have some different weapons/mobs/skills etc as well as many of the existing ones.

 

[CBB]

yes the radiointerview clearly shows there are problems in that field.
the developers want new players to have a good fighting change, and ma wants o keep their current customers happy too.

thats difficult if u let both planet be accesible and gear used on both.

i cant wait too find out how they make that work

 

[billairboy]

When the Cryengine is up and running smoothly, i guess we will see a marketing blitz from MA.

 

[Ozi]

When the Cryengine is up and running smoothly, i guess we will see a marketing blitz from MA.

But where???? and how? I wonder if MA will do something themselves or let the new planet owners do it all.

 

[kygon]

The big question: is Mindark doing enough to establish the relationships and attract the investment to grab a frontrunning position in the space?

I hate to sound like a fanboi but considering MA managed to established itself when virtual worlds were NOT cool and NOT hot and when RCE wasn't even considered , I'd say YES

one thing that would have made me say no would have been its shitty dated look but with Cry2 MA is positioned with much more market knowledge than ANYONE so much so that a new startup would be better placed saying they had had consultancy with the highly experienced MA lol

 

[Sarah Hawkwood]

I see all this V Worlds as a copies of SL. They will probably become new versions of web sites, with 3D and some socializing stuff (just like community portals were used to, just without 3D). For me, as a gamer, there is no point in registering into them, unless I wanted to create a nice looking website to advertise something. Yes, you can make money on this, but just like you can make money on your website now (as a virtuall business card, advertising space or virtual shop). The revolution may come only when it is as accesible as WWW now. You do not need to register to use internet browser. You just switch the computer and use it. Why should I register in this or that virtual world? Just to try? I don't have time to try everything anyway. I even tried several online free games just to find that they all are to simple or boring to my liking. What I need is informative function of the Internet and some good game. EU already gives us gaming aspect, if they added more functions (like built in web browser) it could be even better. Socialising aspect is here too. Also custom content. Yes, many things are not perfect, but hell, would many of us miss them if there were no custom content in EU? I don't suppose, as majority of Entropians are here for gaming, for hunting, mining and crafting. All other stuff is just nice add on for ppl used to virtual worlds and virtual socialising.

 

[Jamhot]

But where???? and how? I wonder if MA will do something themselves or let the new planet owners do it all.

If i know MA the latter will be the answer , they're shrewd marketing dudes!


Jamhot

 

[PeachBoy]

Mindark capital value 250 millon of dollars

Google Capital Value 250000 millon dollars

And still ppl say they cant make the same project?? can do and better with 11000 millon of dollar to buy any crazy idea arround the net.

 

[Uni]

I see all this V Worlds as a copies of SL. They will probably become new versions of web sites, with 3D and some socializing stuff (just like community portals were used to, just without 3D). For me, as a gamer, there is no point in registering into them, unless I wanted to create a nice looking website to advertise something. Yes, you can make money on this, but just like you can make money on your website now (as a virtuall business card, advertising space or virtual shop). The revolution may come only when it is as accesible as WWW now. You do not need to register to use internet browser. You just switch the computer and use it. Why should I register in this or that virtual world? Just to try? I don't have time to try everything anyway. I even tried several online free games just to find that they all are to simple or boring to my liking. What I need is informative function of the Internet and some good game. EU already gives us gaming aspect, if they added more functions (like built in web browser) it could be even better. Socialising aspect is here too. Also custom content. Yes, many things are not perfect, but hell, would many of us miss them if there were no custom content in EU? I don't suppose, as majority of Entropians are here for gaming, for hunting, mining and crafting. All other stuff is just nice add on for ppl used to virtual worlds and virtual socialising.

Having a custom avatar and fancy clothes is one of the most important things for VW users in general, it has advantages also for EU.
It adds to cash flow, makes loot pool little bigger again or rises some prices
of basic hunt loot.It's certain that it won't lower nubmer of players, but the oposite.I think thats the reason MA makes all these changes

 

[Zefram]

Mindark capital value 250 millon of dollars

Google Capital Value 250000 millon dollars

And still ppl say they cant make the same project?? can do and better with 11000 millon of dollar to buy any crazy idea arround the net.

You are just missing an important point here.
Mindark uses their "250 Million" Dollars solely to improve EU and what its all connected to it. They exclusively work on a virtual universe with an RCE and that since a few years already, with a vast knowledge on how to maintain it.

Googles does a lot of things amongst setting up a copy of SL and they surely will never spend ALL of their resources on just one project. Of course google could buy any other project for a few billion dollars, like they did with youtube for example after realizing their google video didnt went as they expected and youtube had much more hits.

But thats not the point. The fact is that no other Virtual Universe is comparable to EU, because those "competitors" are just 3d versions of myspace and co. They just address these kind of persons that have nothing better to do than to be registered on 15 different social networking sites and check them all day long, so why not a few more 3d ones

EU addresses these people in a way too (and with some improvements like ingame emailsystem etc. could even more), but also catches the interest of the gamer and the entrepreneur.
I may sound like a fanboi here too, but for me thats an unbeatable combination and even when the competition like google starts to realize that they forgot something important in their worlds, MA has still the advantage of the knowledge on how to maintain a real cash economy live for over 6 years. And that imho is the hardest part in this undertaking and gets heavily underestimated by the most of you !

 

[Ozi]

Mindark capital value 250 millon of dollars

Google Capital Value 250000 millon dollars

And still ppl say they cant make the same project?? can do and better with 11000 millon of dollar to buy any crazy idea arround the net.

The logical thing for someone like google to do is simply to buy a stake in Mindark and work with them. The first step is for MindArk to get their IPO done.

 

[kygon]

Mindark capital value 250 millon of dollars

Google Capital Value 250000 millon dollars

And still ppl say they cant make the same project?? can do and better with 11000 millon of dollar to buy any crazy idea arround the net.

the .dot com bust showed ppl that you cant just throw millions of $ at something and expect something good - I wonder what expertise they actually have , I can see it now "we make good search engines, cant be much harder"

 

[aridash]

The logical thing for someone like google to do is simply to buy a stake in Mindark and work with them. The first step is for MindArk to get their IPO done.

you dont need to be public to be bought.

come to think of it though, what on earth has Google got to do with any of this? they are a ad agency attached to a search engine, MA/EU is a game/content provider. there is no cross over beyond adverts which is hardly relevent.

 

[Sarah Hawkwood]

Having a custom avatar and fancy clothes is one of the most important things for VW users in general, it has advantages also for EU.
It adds to cash flow, makes loot pool little bigger again or rises some prices
of basic hunt loot.It's certain that it won't lower nubmer of players, but the oposite.I think thats the reason MA makes all these changes

Ofc, what I meant was that building something on socialising only will not work in a long run. When all medial noise lowers down, ppl will go and look for something to do actually. Looking good is ok, but when there is something else to do. Looking good as the only goal is pretty boring...

Plus, I'm pretty sure that Google and other companies working on VWs now are not planning their enterprises as something lasting forever. They will build soap bubble of "being cool" inside one of them, get advertising money (and not only advertising money) and when the hype goes down, they will rebuild it with a different name...

 

[xaph]

Just a thought very open to comment .
Yes Google can affililite with the strong in this field, but only if there is a negotiated path for profiting via web browser type applications. They may have the capacity to install MMPORG'S but I suspect the prospect of and installed package of the propensity of Crytopia/EU may be too much at this stage. Particulary if it was on offer to every man and his dog to download, its free to forget .

That being said biggest losses would be big for MA or others , if they were that inprudent to accept a Google deal (or other) to share bandwidth cost and download server capability to supply such packages.

Given that I doubt that MA of any other MMORPG would commit as they are likely to be taken over by Google (or other) with financial failure
EU.

Just an exerpt of ideas

Perhaps a bubble within yes...

 

[tedt]

Yes there's a LOT of competition coming.. There's more money to be made in the games industry then in the entire Hollywood movie industry.. So be wise and think about where you want to invest Do you trust MA? ... I didnt stop investing here for no reason

 

[CozMoDan]

I agree, it seems like almost everyone, with the fact that more players are better for all of us and them also. Of course we have to hope that MA does not get greedy on us and they remember the old adage " A constance dime beats a rare dollar" Ten percent of a billion dollars is way better than 50% of 100 million. I don't think trying to get more from current players is the solution and I kind of think that may be MAs thought also. The engine gives me that idea. I don't think any of us hardcores would quit playing if the engine never got here so I would say MA is doing that just to attract new players. I also hope that when the new players get here the loots will go up, not only because of the infussion of new money but because of an adjustment of the payoffs by MA. Within reason I do believe that more payoffs generate more players but I do not wnat it to be at the expense of MA going broke or really not making enough money to justify the investment.

As for the new engine and hardware needed. I just bought a new, what I call, a cheepy laptop, 804 USD before taxes, add another 50 USD for taxes. HP with a nvida 8400 and 256 megs deicated memory. It runs EU fine and I did run CE2 demo and that also looked very good. I have an older machine with an ATI 9800 PRO and 256 megs and it runs EU fine and I would think it would also do fine the the demo, although I haven't tried it yet. But to let all know how old it is I just replaced th MB battery and they last about 5 years. So I think, and I hope, that hardware will not be the main issue.

What I think is the main issue you ask? To me it is the slow start of the game. Let me explain. It takes, IMHO, a hardcore gamer to start with sweating and skilling and getting killed and sweating again and repeat. Then buying the wrong guns and not be able to kill anything big and so on. I know about the mentors but one doesn't that when he lands and there are those that would take advanage of others. And just the complication and many, many fassits of the games can be overwheming. All the learning takes time and a lot of FPS players will get board quick. They like fast paced games and killing sanbbies are not. I hope all see my point. The bad thing is I don't know what can be done about either. It is so much like RL that you could say 1 year in EU is like 10 years in RL. You start as a baby and learn and progress and by the time you are 3 (30 in RL) you can get around nicely if you have paid attention. Some will never learn and some will learn faster but in the end it still takes an amount of time and that is unlike any other "Game" I have ever played.

 

[Sirhc]

the .dot com bust showed ppl that you cant just throw millions of $ at something and expect something good - I wonder what expertise they actually have , I can see it now "we make good search engines, cant be much harder"

I would think most big companies would have learned from SL. The spent quite a bit of money setting up their prescence there only to have those areas turn into ghost towns overnight. Its sort of like our Ad screenies in EU. They are there and do catch people's attention to the point of being annoying so in some respect that works and brings in some additional revenue for EU.

Virtual Worlds are supposed to be an escape from everyday life just like MA states. So smart advertisers and companies are better off spending money on getting simple brand recognition in games of all types. So in EU don't try to sell us an iPhone on the vid screen but make up some iCom device that fits our virtual world and plaster Apple all over it.

To me virtual worlds are close enough to reality that I can identify with my avatar but not so close as real life. Its a way of letting me pseudo live out those day dreams I had when I was a kid about all my favorite Sci Fi movies.

I don't mind the corporations trying to bridge into virtual worlds so long as they integrate into the virtual world they set their sights on. If I have a super efficient and useful iCom device in EU that might make me think about an iPhone in real life.

If virtual worlds are going to be successful the corporate world is going to need to take some imagination classes before they see a dime of my paycheck. If not I think many companies suffer the same issues running their own VW as the corp sites did in SL.

 

[Joat]

I would think most big companies would have learned from SL. The spent quite a bit of money setting up their prescence there only to have those areas turn into ghost towns overnight. Its sort of like our Ad screenies in EU. They are there and do catch people's attention to the point of being annoying so in some respect that works and brings in some additional revenue for EU.

Virtual Worlds are supposed to be an escape from everyday life just like MA states. So smart advertisers and companies are better off spending money on getting simple brand recognition in games of all types. So in EU don't try to sell us an iPhone on the vid screen but make up some iCom device that fits our virtual world and plaster Apple all over it.

To me virtual worlds are close enough to reality that I can identify with my avatar but not so close as real life. Its a way of letting me pseudo live out those day dreams I had when I was a kid about all my favorite Sci Fi movies.

I don't mind the corporations trying to bridge into virtual worlds so long as they integrate into the virtual world they set their sights on. If I have a super efficient and useful iCom device in EU that might make me think about an iPhone in real life.

If virtual worlds are going to be successful the corporate world is going to need to take some imagination classes before they see a dime of my paycheck. If not I think many companies suffer the same issues running their own VW as the corp sites did in SL.

I can only agree.
The thing is, I'm in EU for entertainment, I want less of RL-stuff visible in
the VW, since it creates a quite "dull" feeling. I want to see shiny nice
spacecraft, not an obsolete Toyota (even thou' in another place and time
it had been nice. )
Stick to basic storyline, create things that fit that one and as Sirhc said,
when I see company name and a futuristic item, I might look at what
they have to offer in RL.
Sadly thou', since I'm in EU for entertainment, this goes for my money too.
I depo to enjoy some hours of fun, not lose them in less than one hour
just because my type of gaming isn't fit the "dynamics" in EU. Give me
more fun per ped spent, and I'll for sure depo more. Stick to storyline
here too, and raise funfactor a lot, and many of people that has "quit",
will most probably come back too. Ok, I guess we have to wait until
system has capacity for it, but when it does.... please, do it!!

 

[blubalou]

... So in EU don't try to sell us an iPhone on the vid screen but make up some iCom device that fits our virtual world and plaster Apple all over it.

...

I don't mind the corporations trying to bridge into virtual worlds so long as they integrate into the virtual world they set their sights on. If I have a super efficient and useful iCom device in EU that might make me think about an iPhone in real life.

.

Ukash weapons rule!

I live in the USA., so I'm out of luck, but I made a real effort to see if I could make a depo via Ukash just so I could get one of these guns for free.

Well said Sirhc.

 

[Ozi]

I would think most big companies would have learned from SL. The spent quite a bit of money setting up their prescence there only to have those areas turn into ghost towns overnight. Its sort of like our Ad screenies in EU. They are there and do catch people's attention to the point of being annoying so in some respect that works and brings in some additional revenue for EU.

Virtual Worlds are supposed to be an escape from everyday life just like MA states. So smart advertisers and companies are better off spending money on getting simple brand recognition in games of all types. So in EU don't try to sell us an iPhone on the vid screen but make up some iCom device that fits our virtual world and plaster Apple all over it.

To me virtual worlds are close enough to reality that I can identify with my avatar but not so close as real life. Its a way of letting me pseudo live out those day dreams I had when I was a kid about all my favorite Sci Fi movies.

I don't mind the corporations trying to bridge into virtual worlds so long as they integrate into the virtual world they set their sights on. If I have a super efficient and useful iCom device in EU that might make me think about an iPhone in real life.

If virtual worlds are going to be successful the corporate world is going to need to take some imagination classes before they see a dime of my paycheck. If not I think many companies suffer the same issues running their own VW as the corp sites did in SL.

I totally agree. I am more interested in seeing a Virgin Space Craft, or CAT Miner bot/digger, or Browning .45 BLP, or band aid FAP etc. With imagination there is lots companies could do to integrate their brands into EU without their exact products. The players of EU are smart, they can get the link between the in game Apple iCom and the RL iPhone.

I think EU being set in the future really suits companies that wish to portray themselves as being leading edge and forward thinking.

 

[aridash]

Yes there's a LOT of competition coming..

i disagree, i think theres only one poorly backed competitor. there are many virtual worlds of course but the underlying "RCE" just isnt being developed by anyone else, they see revenue comeing from two much easier to manage routes, subscription or the sale of money.