If you spend any time on the internets, you know they're Serious Business. In fact, many things are Serious Business, but right now I'm talking about virtual worlds. As I've been discussing here periodically, I've been working on Worlds in Motion, CMP's new site with a focus on the virtual worlds space. Not so much Second Life stuff (unless it's relevant); the idea is industry-oriented info geared toward enterprise involved in, or interested in entering online social networks, games, 3d chat interfaces and so forth. Seems to be the direction things are headed. Pretty soon there will be virtual worlds just to sell you soda.Your eyes glazing over yet? Well, the fun part is that to some extent MMOs are part of my universe now, too, especially because they all have their own disparate virtual economies. In that vein, I recently checked out Entropia Universe for part of my ongoing Online World Atlas-- a little bit at a time, the idea is to chart all of 'em!
Anyone ever played Entropia? People are so serious in this game. Its big selling point is its supposed "real cash economy"-- money you make in-world actually does have a real cash value, and stuff you earn can be converted back to bucks. Theoretically you COULD turn a profit that way... but keep in mind how much you probably would have to invest to keep a character healthy and strong enough to loot the big monsters or manufacture the big products. Not just money, but time, too-- maybe that's why people play for 7 hours straight.
It was actually kinda fun, and definitely good-looking and immersive as these things tend to go. Anyone who actually knows me or has been reading this blog for a little while knows I'm historically not a big fan of playing with other people and their dinky avatars. I've always played games to get away from other people, yanno? So it's a big adventure for me to dive headfirst into these experiences, but I'd be curious to know what people who are, say, hardcore at WoW would think of Entropia.
I don't play WoW; if Blizz would, say, comp my subscription, then sure, but if I have this issue where I fail massively at monthly debits. I can never get it right; it's like my bank account is stealthily subverting my best intentions, tricking me time after time into boarding the one-way train to overdraft city. Stupid hand-to-mouth NYC existence. But I digress-- check out my tour and review of Entropia Universe, and lemme know what you guys think: Does it Suck?
