Clearing up all Chinese questions

[Nirfu]

I often read in posts here that there will come hords of chines on Calypso. People debating how it will impact on the economy, lag, loot etc.

This is the facts we have from MA:

Full article: The MMO Gamer » » Interview: David Simmonds on the Business of Entropia Universe

The MMO Gamer: The last time we had a chance to speak to MindArk, you were planning on a large-scale expansion into China. How has that been going?

David Simmonds: That’s been going great. With the expansion going into China we’re incorporating the CryTek 2 engine. You can go on the website, entropiauniverse.com, and see the Flash. It’s amazing. The new graphic engine is so realistic.

When we introduce the Chinese planets, and when we open up space, the CryTek engine will be include in that expansion, as well. This is expected to be middle to late of next year.

Another exciting thing which is happening, we’ve got game developers—which you would think would be competition to us, another game developer—but instead of them making their own platform, and making their own game or virtual world, they’ve chosen to come to our virtual world and use the Entropia Universe platform to build their own planet, which will have their own rich content.

We are a universe, we’re an open universe, so all of our users will be able to go and visit these planets. It’s going to be really exciting. This is just one of the partners we’re talking to, there are a lot of different companies that are interested in opening up their own presence inside Entropia Universe. But, as I said before, we’re very careful with who we take in. We’re not a three-dimensional website, but we want our users to be interested and want to come in.

The MMO Gamer: In terms of the Chinese expansion, is everyone playing on the same server, or do Eastern players have their own separate worlds from Western players?

David Simmonds: With the Chinese planets, because, maybe you’ve read, they’ve estimated that within two years they’re going to be having 150,000,000 accounts and 7,000,000 concurrent users. That’s very ambitious.

The MMO Gamer: Yes… it is.

David Simmonds: They will be hosting their own servers. But, as I said, Entropia Universe is an open platform, so you will be able to travel to these different planets. The Chinese system is really exciting, it’s not going to be one planet, they’re going to have education, ecommerce, gaming, of course, and there’s going to be a lot of different planets you can go and visit.

Some of them will be harder than others for a normal person to visit. That means it’ll probably cost more money to visit some planets than others. You’ll have to travel in space, exactly the same as you would in the real world—hopefully—in the future, we’ve got a lot of planets to go to, some are harder to get to and some are easier.

The MMO Gamer: So if the Eastern and Western worlds are linked together, will the PED [Project Entropia Dollar, the game’s unit of currency] hold the same value in both areas?

David Simmonds: Absolutely. As I’ve said before, Entropia Universe is an economic platform. Any partner which comes in and uses our platform will have to be under the umbrella of Entropia Universe.

The MMO Gamer: How do you anticipate that working out? Taking into consideration the income disparity, and the fact that the Yuan is currently trading at around 7:1 to the US Dollar?

David Simmonds: We’ve been talking to the Chinese, and as far as we can see there’s not going to be any problem with that. I’m not really sure—haven’t really thought of that—but, as I understand it there’s going to be no problem.

The MMO Gamer: In terms of some of the censorship requirements of the Chinese government, do you anticipate there being any problems on that front?

David Simmonds: No, we don’t. Every game, or real-world country has different types of censorship, America included. In our game we have certain things you can do, and you can’t. In the real world, we have to have rules and regulations so it doesn’t become anarchy and chaos, and we can see that is what happened in some virtual worlds, as well.

From what we can see, from some of the press releases coming out of China, they’re going to be using Entropia Universe as their platform to come out into the Western world.

The MMO Gamer: So, in other words you don’t anticipate any problems getting through the Great Firewall of China?

David Simmonds: Absolutely not. The company which we’re working with, CRD, is partly owned by the Chinese government. So we’ve got absolute confidence that there are no problems going forward. It’s really exciting for us.

Conclusion:
They will host there own servers, probably build an own solar system.
We have to use some spaceship or similar to travel there and the same for them to go here (if they are allowed). That will of course cost, so it's more or less for rich players. Like today, not everyone goes to CND or Crystal Palace

It looks like the chines Yuan will have the real value compared to dollars. This means maybe that they will earn more in RL money from this, if they earn... But to play you need a PC, a good PC, and money, so I doubt that it's the farmers on the countryside that will play.

it will happen in mid 2008 and they will get the CryEnigine from start.

I'm sure you can get much more out of this but some things is for sure. there will NOT be an Chinese invasion to Calypso and there planets and our will NOT share the same loot pool since it will be hosted on there servers.

And as some of you allready know, there is another company using the EU platform to build there own game, the same will stand for them.

Some thoughts about hosting your own planet. Are you forced to use the dynamics? Could I get my own planet with other loot settings, no armour decay, a sweat cap, no limited items, no amp nerf, and clothes that look good even at 1% repared? If soo, who will join me for this challenging project to create a Old Calypso?

[PW3CKA]

The most of what im interested is if the new planet use same skill system as our ( so your skills will be usefull there ), and also as i read it, i hope it will not be just another stupid second life, with markets and these thinks :XXX
We will see >X, surrely it will be interesting

Also what do you think, will our skills be usefull here ??

[ACEwoK]

as long as it doesn't completely screw up what we currently have, i really don't care what they do. All I'm concerned with is my investment, and my level of enjoyment. If that stays the same or gets a bit better then great, if not then it will be time to pull up sticks and move, simple as that.

[endermigne]

Have I understood that correctly that MA will do China, planets, CryTek in one single VU???

Don't get me wrong here but that sounds like waiting for VU 10 before the usual problems are solved.

[cevaliao]

If they do plan on doing all this in Mid 2008 it is going to be one hectic year. New Engine and multiple new planets seems like a good evolution of EU. That is as long as our gear, items and skills can be used on those other planets. And if those other planets offer items/mobs that Calypso doesn't and vice versa than it should definitely increase the trade market and the economy as a whole, and of course be good for Pilots. Hmmm...who knows though it could just be very "ambitious" and it seems like that is too many changes all at once, and where are the cashcards?

Emery

[Returns_Again]

Originally Posted by cevaliao

Hmmm...who knows though it could just be very "ambitious" and it seems like that is too many changes all at once, and where are the cashcards?
Emery

Ahhhh, the cash cards...

[Mooze]

Soooo ... will the new planets be Sci-Fi like Calypso, or will this be up to the planet's owner ?

It would be strange to have planets with an heroic-fantasy-manga theme or even a "21st century" theme.

I hope that Entropia Universe won't become a copy of SecondLife : a universe without any logic in its design.

[Thorn]

I`d love to check out that flash demo but every time I have tried it`s taken so long I give up before it even starts to load. I seem to get that with every teaser they put out. Then again I get that in game alot too. Loot lag has been horrible. I mean come on there can`t be that many people trying to view it all the time. I reserve further comments on Entropia Yeniverse for now.

[Vorg]

Originally Posted by endermigne

Have I understood that correctly that MA will do China, planets, CryTek in one single VU???

Don't get me wrong here but that sounds like waiting for VU 10 before the usual problems are solved.

Don't get your hopes up over old bugs getting fixed in some wonders supper patch. I've been in more online games and betas then I can remember. Seen a number of betas go live. Old bugs generally don't get fixed. At best they get replaced by new content code. Sometimes a bug is found and fix when stumbled over while adding new content or fixing a major game stopper bug. You are more likely to see whatever is bugged removed, disabled, or covered up in some way to reduce the bug reports.

[Nirfu]

Originally Posted by endermigne

Have I understood that correctly that MA will do China, planets, CryTek in one single VU???

Don't get me wrong here but that sounds like waiting for VU 10 before the usual problems are solved.

IMO you have to start to look at MA as company in two parts.

One that provides with the technology and one that do the Calypso world. The technic part has licensed the technology to the Chinese company, that company will do the content for the Chinese players and deal with the server park in China. Same with that other planet comming. Maybe what we see is that MA moves more and more to be a provider of technology to join the EU platform. Maybe start to see Calypso solarsystem more or less like the test bench it is more than a game.