Entropia Universe player Jon “Neverdie†Jacobs is a high roller. According to fan site EntropiaPlanets, Jacobs has just sold a virtual asteroid space resort, bio domes, a mall, and a stadium to player John Foma Kalun for the princely sum of $335,000 USD. This isn’t the first time Jacobs has made headlines for pricey online transactions. The online entrepreneur originally purchased the asteroid space resort in 2005 for $100,000 USD, which he named “Club NEVERDIE†after his avatar name. It seems like Jacobs’ investment paid off.
Like Second Life, Entropia Universe is a virtual world. Although you can download the game’s client and play for free, it encourages players to convert real world currency into the game’s virtual currency. Project Entropia Dollars (PED) are required for everything but the most basic starter items.
If you think grinding in everyday MMOs is boring and repetitive, you’re lucky that you don’t play Entropia Universe. Instead of ‘grinding,’ the game has ‘sweating.’ Gathering sweat and collecting fruit and dung are a few of the lowly activities that players can engage in to acquire items that are worth selling to other players for PED.
Here’s the list of free activities from the Wikipedia entry for the game:
- Using the service as a 3-D virtual chat room or exploring the virtual universe.
- Using an in-game process called "Sweating" or "Sweat Gathering" to extract bottles of "Vibrant Sweat," which can then be sold to other players for PED or changed to items. The 2010.06.03 VU release may introduce 2 new types of "sweat".
- Collecting "fruit", "dung", and 6 sorts of precious rare stones which can be sold to other players to raise funds.
- Performing numerous "jobs" for other players – for example, acting as a trader, or buying pre-defined amount of crafting materials at specified rate for crafters.
- Performing several missions (quests) that can be completed without any in-game equipment or money.
- Trickery: cheating, and stealing.
- Finding abandoned items or PED lying on the ground.
- Begging, which is largely frowned upon.
Above: “Gamer Chick,†a song about Entropia Universe from Jon “Neverdie†Jacobs, the former owner of the ultra expensive asteroid
Earlier this year, Entropia Universe developer MindArk AB announced that the game has a cash flow of $2.4 million dollars from player transactions in its 2009 financial report.
[Source:EntropiaPlanets]
Nov 12, 2010
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