Why Games Matter: Entropia Universe

The technical term for the next generation web is MMORPG: massively-multi user online role-play games.


Online Real Estate

In virtual realities, such as Entropia Universe in the same
way people invest properties in a distant country. Interestingly, one can do online
marketing there and retrieve PED monetary units (Project Entropia
Dollars) directly with a debit card from real ATM at a convertible exchange
rate, just as you can retrieve money from an ATM abroad.

Furthemore, there are online department stores where you can order stuff to arrive
at your real door steps, as well as online auctions.

The funny thing is that people are not taking it seriously because it's
classified as 'gaming' but I think it will turn out to be much more powerful
than the web/might be the next level of your virtual lives

The only difference with the web is that the experience is much more real
and the graphics are beyond anything you have seen on the web.

Sure, you don't have some of the upsides of our world (taste of wine,
basically all other senses), but also many of the downsides (physical pain,
sickness etc). But given that we process 90% of our information visually the lack of
other senses might not be a big downside for many people.

Some participants opening night clubs, buying land with the ability to tax. One guy is allegedly making off his virtual night club $15,000 a month.


Part of me is not taking it very seriously, and the other part of me is thinking: You can't dismiss virtual reality, just as you cannot dismiss music playing from a CD being inferior to live music. For, if people are enjoying it and willing to pay for it, it is just as real.

Wear and Tear
Moreover, everything in this virtual reality is programmed to depreciate and
wear away, just as the Second Law of Thermodynamics (Entropia) has programmed much of
our world to depreciate and wear away. Your car breaks down, the apartment
needs repairs. The only difference is that characters in that world called - unlike
in ours - are immortal. Ie, they are the only things programmed not to
depreciate, or die off so ventures in that world are in some way less
dangerous. For instance, it's very hard to die in an online car accident.

Also, it possibly provides a venue to play out business ideas before jumping
into them in the real world. You can see what are the perils/dangers in
investing in real estate or owning a property, you learn how to sell things
to people, how to advertise etc...I think that alone would be beneficial for
many would-be enterpreneurs.

Also, it has the same illusion as all immigrants arriving to a new country, or students starting their first year for that matter: "Here I can start from all over, from the scratch. And I'll work my way up"

Recently, when talking to a woman who is part of this game she confessed why she was attracted to this particular world over many others. She gave two reasons:

(i) This game is not violent, or at least the violence is not the gist of the game as in many others;
(ii) If you screw up, you are not punished severly, you can always try again;

Not sure what you think of this but I have a suspicion it's really going be
the next level of the web and e-commerce. So if you want to be an early
adaptor, check it out. It just requires downloading a special browser and
off you go - there is no joining fee.

When joining, you can design of your character the way you want (for
free) - so if you don't like your real world body, you can choose better
looks in this world. You can make yourself skinnier without spending a
single penny on diets or going through the trouble of exercising. You can
only guess how women in that world look like.