What is Entropia Universe? Presently, it is fairly uncontroversial to call Entropia a computer game, but historically its classification has been the subject of some debate. Even today, Entropia's official website refers to it as "more than a game...an advanced 3D online virtual environment with a developed planetary system and one universal Real Cash Economy system." In less formal and sometimes even pejorative contexts, Entropia has also been labeled a casino. The idea seems to be that it qualifies as a casino in virtue of 1) its Real Cash Economy foundation, combined with 2) an apparent lack of correlation between player decisions and outcomes, in other words, the impression that "it's all luck and no skill." Realistically however, it seems almost undeniable that skill plays at least some role. We can easily imagine extreme examples in which poor decisions have a strong negative impact on outcomes; mining in the same place all day (unskilled player) and using level 100 non-SIB weapons at level 4 (unskilled avatar) come to mind. So the interesting question is not whether skill is influential, but to what degree it is. Though perhaps not always in proportion to our liking, outcomes in Entropia are influenced by a combination of luck and skill. Note that this much is also true of casinos. Although randomness is usually woven into their fabric, many casino games also involve significant player decisions, such that their outcomes are influenced by some combination of luck and skill. Players make risk/reward tradeoffs through their money management even in house-banked games, and in pari-mutuel/player-versus-player scenarios, it is also possible to improve one's long term returns by outplaying the opposition. So a legitimate casino isn’t really a “casino” either, in the aforementioned pejorative sense. Still, whether for reasons of legal categorization, psychology, marketing, or whatever the case may be, players and developers have always preferred to classify Entropia as a computer game rather than a casino. So I was quite surprised indeed when I discovered “an advanced 3D online virtual environment,” built on a functional real cash economy, which intentionally markets itself as a casino. Dragon’s Tale (dragons.tl) is just that. Based on Bitcoin rather than fiat currency, Dragon’s Tale allows players to deposit and withdraw BTC, or play for free. The 3D environment is not yet as polished as Entropia’s, but I find it fun to explore nonetheless. Almost any object one might stumble across while exploring is actually a game. The outcomes of some of these games largely depend on luck, while many other games are strongly influenced by player skill, and the cool part is that in most cases, it’s clear which games are which. While some pari-mutuel and player-versus-player games have been implemented, a large number of games in Dragon’s Tale are built on an innovative wagering system which makes it feasible to reward player skill even in house-banked games. Rather than try to describe specific examples of games, I’ll just link to the website’s examples which include pictures: http://dragons.tl/games.php There is also an inventory for storing items used by some games, and a quest system that allows avatars to level up. A bonus called “Dragon’s Treasure” is rewarded during game play, and an avatar’s reward gets larger as his or her level increases, so there is a more direct and transparent correlation between avatar level and returns than has been proven in Entropia. There’s much more to say about Dragon’s Tale, and it’s still early in development, but that’s the skeleton. If you decide to deposit, just exercise a bit of caution with your game play. As in a traditional casino, you can win or lose money very quickly. Entropia imposes game play speed limits (you can only hunt/mine/craft/etc. at a certain speed), while in Dragon’s Tale, the individual is responsible for pacing him or herself. If you want to spend your entire deposit in one click, you can, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I would recommend giving the game a try though, if you like Entropia. If Entropia is the computer game that feels sorta like a casino, Dragon's Tale is the casino that feels sorta like an MMORPG. I discovered Dragon's Tale a few years ago, and have had a lot of fun with it. Here is the link if you want to play: http://dragons.tl/download.php
that is a lot of minigames. A nice idea though to come at life from the other direction. Strangely, a bit OT but I find myself reminded of the way in which EVE and Entropia were heading towards each other. EVE, primarily a game where you play AS a spaceship (effectively) was introducing the idea of character creation (if only as a picture) and had a spin off that was an FPS on a planet. There was no fusion of spaceship piloting and 1st/3rd person planet groundside exploration though. On the Entropia side they were moving from an effective interplanetary Teleport system to something where you had to pilot ships and some ships even allowed you to walk about inside them. To be honest I was amazed when Entropia got there first and even more so when the EVE makers abandoned that development route. Even sadder though, having got there, MA discontinued space development and didn't even heed requests for bug fixes or exploit resolution. Still, I wonder if it will be on the 2018 road map... somehow, with this cryptoshenanigans and the new head honcho I can't helpt doubting it. The courier missions were a nice idea... but then again, soooOOOoooOOOoooOOOooo were many other things. Wistrel
Hmm, crypto seems to disrupt every market it touches. I predict that the direction of Entropia post crypto-integration is quite unpredictable. :P
