EntropiaPlanets Presents: Star and Skippie - Moved on to pastures new

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Star and Skippie – moved on to pastures new​

Far away, at the North West edge of Amethera, or more precisely, on Outback Land Area #46 at 190/623 on the land called Proteron Pasture, a small jump North West from the Oshiri Teleporter, you will find long black necks sticking up over the landscape. From a distance, they appear to be casting long shadows in the sand, and they will move slowly but confidently towards you before they hit with their long necks and sharp teeth!

Yes, I sound horrified, and I am. These black giants don’t like Nuns, though we should have the color in common. They don’t care if you are in some secret pact with Lootius; they have their own agenda. Speaking of secret pacts, that is exactly what Star and Skippie closed when they decided to join forces and combine loot and knowledge to create one of the very few Entropian-made Proteron DNA parts in our Universe and buy a land area to hold their new pets.

I meet them at their ‘Hunting Lodge’ on Proteron Pasture, and I feel quite special being invited on this fine day by these two gentlemen when they open their door and their thoughts to me. I am placed in one of the deep lounge chairs, while Skippie opens up a bottle of wine and Star places some snacks on the table.

It is cozy, but we have an interview to finish, so I ask both of them to tell me a little something about themselves.

“I like Pie,” Skippie says first, and both Star and I look at him, quite surprised by his statement, while I try finding the right papers. “Ok, Skippie”, I say slowly. “I believe we all like Pie”. Skippie grins widely, sits back in the big lounge chair and take a swig of his red wine!

“My name is Jenna Star Mercury,” Star begins the conversation “and I’m originally from Michigan in the US. I’ve been playing for a total of 9 years!”

Wow, I didn’t even know Entropia Universe was that old. I ask Star what made him start playing this Universe and he replies: “I yahoo’ed a search for ‘Video games for money’”, he laughed. “With the risk of sounding less than humble, I was always better than anyone I knew at console games from Nintendo onward. I'd graduated from University and didn't have a job yet so I thought maybe I could make some extra cash playing games. One of the first hits was a game I'd never heard of called "Project Entropia". I was instantly hooked after my first login. I still get the chills thinking of that excitement when I first logged in and made my avatar”.

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I look at Skippie, who is still busy sipping his wine and eating a handful of peanuts in such a hurry that I cannot help but think he must have thought they were small baby-pies. “My name is Darth Skippie Boobie and I’m from South Carolina in the US,” he says and continues: “I created Skippie on November 31, 2005, so coming up on 5 long and exciting years now” (Note from the editor: Noob).

“And how did you start playing?”, I ask Skippie.

“My roommate at the time found out about Project Entropia on an IRC channel from a friend, after hearing about the CND sale. I remember coming home drunk from work at the bar and watching him create his avatar. I told him to enjoy his dungeons and dragons shit and went to bed. The next morning he was still up playing PE when I woke up. I created an avatar that I figured I would use for a day or something. My friend quit playing after two weeks, and well, here I am!”. Skippie’s face turns into a big grin, again.

Being property owners is not new to the two young (Ed: *cough*) guys. Both Skippie and Star have owned some kind of a property in the Universe before this land area.

“I own a hangar and have had several land areas including society owned lands from Land Grab. I currently own no other land areas at the moment”, Star elaborates, with Skippie continuing: “I used to do event promotion for Rei’s Formidon Valley and Neomaven’s land holdings a bit when I was a noobie. I was the second owner of the Port Atlantis Mall, for a bit. Prior to Proteron Pasture, I haven’t owned a land personally but cK did have a couple nice Land Grab claims”.

No doubt I am sitting together with a couple of experienced guys when it comes to owning property and doing in game business.

“So tell me the big secret”, I try looking mysterious. "How did the two of you meet in game?”. Skippie starts: “I believe I met Star in 2006, probably at CP or otherwise I am sure we ran into each other at the rig or trying to buy some piece of gear. I remember meeting Menace 2 Society on a Drow takeover of the rig one time. Not sure if he was there or not, but let’s just say that attempt was rather short lived”.

Star shakes his head. “To be honest, I remember most people I've met in EU for longer than I probably should, but for some reason can't recall the first time Skippie and I met. For me the first time I can think of involved me offering some advice, in a somewhat arrogant manner, while we were at Crystal Palace auction. I believe that I typed quite quickly in English and he was able to keep up with it. He also shared similar humor and the jokes didn't just go over his head like they do with most players (even of American origin)”.

They both laugh and Skippie pours some more wine into the glasses. Skippie continues: “Well, earlier this year, Rei founded Universe United (a merger of cK and M2S) and Star and I became society mates. We’ve been friends for a while and hunted together at big events for a few years. We were very much NOT friends a few years back. Usually when two assholes like us meet, either they will fight to the death, mate, or buy a land area together”.

“He he,” Star grins. “We still give each other shit in society chat. No inaccurate comment goes without a fair bit of harassment. We've met in real life for Beers on one occasion but are looking to have some Baby Back Ribs in the near future in celebration of the Proteron Rib purchase. It is true, though. Skippie and I were hardly buddies early on. I thought he was quite annoying and could never have seen this coming a year ago. It really turned out that we had a great deal of business and humor in common. The best part of this all is that our personalities don't often clash when we discuss things. If there is something that needs to be fixed, neither of us is shy about bringing it to the table”.

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They look at each other and give one another a big cheer. (Ed: Skippe and Star, sitting in a tree...). So, being best or not best friends and all, how did the two of them come up with buying a land area together and place proterons on it, I wonder.

“Well, I discovered the second part of Proteron DNA and we talked about what to do with it”, Skippie starts out, “The next day Star discovered the third part of Proteron DNA and we went from wanting to sell our parts to wanting to keep our parts. We had a partnership in theory pretty much that day. I spent the next 3 months looting almost 30 parts of Proteron DNA personally and Star put out some significant investment to looters and also looted plenty of parts, as well. Eventually we got it done with the help from Mirandax. I can say there were times in the process where we definitely felt it was never going to happen. But I have thought all along that our best opportunity as hunters was to loot and NOT SELL the parts to a land owner but to become land owners ourselves and get paid residual income for our loots”.

“Yes, I remember you looted the Proteron Blood at CP, Skippie, and I instantly inquired about it as an interested party”, Star laughs. “The next day I turned around and looted a Proteron Eye from Daspletors. The prospect of a partnership was the natural progression from our combination of what was then considered good fortune but turned out somewhat negative. The parts we had were highly valued until many began to drop. I did a lot of purchasing parts prior to the influx of many more parts into EU (I also did some looting of parts including many Eyes). This left me with a substantial hole in my pocket. Skippie took the route of looting parts and probably made out a bit better than I did (although he bought many parts also). Really, it became irrelevant when we were the only two people with enough parts to get the job done on this DNA; it takes a LOT of parts“. They toast together, and then give one another a high five.

Skippie jumps in: “About 50% of the parts needed to make the sample were looted and the other were purchased. Some were bought for waaaay too much money while others were acquired for literally tt. And I believe it was pretty much the plan to make DNA. Although both of us received offers in the 50-100k range for the parts we held at various times, neither of us felt it was the best opportunity for us personally”.

Star interrupts Skippie: “No, we kept all options open at any time, Skippie. It shifted often and I was in constant MSN, Skype, and Forum messages to try to figure out the best use of DNA parts and/or DNA. Investors were possible, DNA sellout was possible, and DNA on land sale was possible.”

“Let’s agree that the Proteron land area has cost us a fist fulla dollars”. Skippie grins a huge grin and they both start grinning and thrust a first into the air.

Star and Skippie own the land area 50/50 – so their income is also shared 50/50. It requires a nice set of trust and calculations between two people with so much money at stake. They explain that Monday is payday. At this moment it is Skippie who has the deed for creation of Hunting Events and Star holds the shed deed for Ammunition refills. Star will also be in charge of the resurrection of his old land area’s mining event "Z-Games". This way they have an equal burden and that makes sure that neither get overworked.

MindArk yet didn’t make it possible to share a property, and my next question is if the duo thinks that MA should provide more options for dual or multiple ownerships.

“I suppose”, Star says. “It is really hard to trust others in these situations. I know multiple ways to do it though currently even without their system”.

“Well, who knows”, Skippie adds. “When land was only worth 10-20k back in the day this was never a problem for most individuals that wanted to own land personally. When land went to 200-300k a lot of ownership groups and funds popped up. And while Star or I could have afforded to do this each separately, we preferred the partnership. Plenty of estates have been co-owned in the past and will continue to do so. As long as there is trust in the relationship of owners and both people want to make money there’s nothing wrong with it. I was very impressed with Star’s attempt to buy Crystal Palace last year and how professionally and quickly he amassed 3 million PEDs to bid for it with”. (And so was I, the Nun thinks to herself, and kicks out the editor from the Newsroom).

Skippie continues with a more serious tone of voice: “I’m not sure MindArk would be any more interested in dual ownership of items than they are in a rental system. One thing I would like to see is where land owners could issue a stock (an actual virtual stock, something like an event ticket or diploma) and set a dividend rate, etc. Owners of the stock would then receive regular payments from the land management system. If you owned 5 of the 100 shares, you would get 5% of the revenue daily on a tax message or something”.

“Ah, of course it could work”, Star interrupts. “I have many ideas!”

But do you believe there’s anything FPC can do to help out the small land owner, who may have a land area but no DNA or where the land is only able to populate with Neconu?

“My personal opinion”, Star leans forward and says seriously: “I believe that the small land owners in this game haven't really put the effort into acquiring the DNA they need. I have some great ideas for a 2nd land area again if I get my hands on one. More DNA would only make other land area owners with prized DNA upset. It is a delicate and difficult balance”.

“Well, obviously the problem with land ownership is that there’s too much land and not enough quality DNA”. Skippie takes another sip of wine. “Missions was a nice reward for Argo, Molisk, Merp, Atrox, Daikiba, Corn owners however. If MA is concerned that land owners are not making enough money, they could release more exciting DNA samples. Why we don’t have mobs on lands like Goki, Snarg, Tantillion etc, I’ve never understood that, personally. We have a Maffoid land, where’s the Feffoid land? What’s the harm in DNA for something besides Neconu being available?”

“So, guys, what happens if another proteron rib loots?” I smile at both!

“Not really sure. I'd hope they'd give us a bit of time before a 3rd drops with what this cost us”, Star says and Skippie continues: “I think the real question you want to ask is… what if another Proteron Rib loots… to me? Obviously I’d like to see a land area with Matures - Guardians somewhere in game. It would also be nice to beef up our currently existing spawn”.

Star and Skippie’s Proteron land area has an incredibly low hunting tax (1.99%) and I am interested in knowing whether the tax they set is reasonable profit wise, if they want to keep it low and what their overall opinion is to the taxes used on land areas in general.

Star says: “I wanted to set it at 0% for a LONG time. I suppose we both felt we should at least get something though. I never liked hunting anywhere over 3% taxes”.

Skippie nods and continus: “Well most problems hunters have in EU these days are that anything that loots real markup is taxed. There is nothing wrong with 4-5% tax, but my thoughts are that if people will hunt twice as much on a 2% land as they would a 4% land, then I as the land owner am making the same money and my customers are much happier. Don’t forget we are hunters, and as a hunter I really want to provide a land that hunters will appreciate. I appreciate it. Thanks me”. Skippie takes yet another sip of wine and continus:

“I am going to start doing events in November and raising tax to cover the expense of prizes may or may not become necessary. But one thing for sure, for 2% tax, the prize you get as a hunter is currently is like winning any other land contest you’ve ever entered without having to screenshot anything or beat anybody. A 1-2% savings on tax over 3 months is a tremendous savings and prize on its own. At 2%, everybody wins”.

As we are probably all looking forward to the new planets in future, an interesting question is if they will have land areas which will work like the ones on Calypso.

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“I’m excited about new planets, sure. And I’m 100% certain they will have land areas. ROCKtropia already does. I’m particularly excited about Planet Cyrene, and personally and I can’t wait to see what MindArk does with hangars” Skippie looks at Star, who replies: “I don't think that our DNA will travel to other planets, but I do think that land areas will come on other planets. It is a natural progression in my opinion. I'm not sure how successful this land area will be with the introduction of new planets, but time will tell I suppose."

“Lol”, Skippie suddenly starts grinning. “As a Motörhead fan I’d love to buy Lemmy’s Castle, but I met Lemmy and he’s a great guy and he seems rather happy with it”. Ha ha ha we all laugh and I turn to Star: “What about you, Star, would you buy land areas on other planets?”

“You know the answer to that I'm sure ;)”

And yes, I’m sure we’re all sure about that one. But owning a land area must be a lot of work? Skippie briefly tells me that once you put it together there can be no work or lots of work. Most opportunities in EU in estates are opportunities to succeed or fail based on what you actually do with it. “Dunno what I’m talking about”, Skippie suddenly says. “But look at banks? Obviously you need to keep the fertility stocked, but contesting, promoting the land itself, providing items at the shed for your customers and generally keeping the land area relevant are all part of the job. Star and I are splitting that work load pretty much 50/50."

Star nods and continues: “It can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. Much like anything in life, the more you put in, the more you get out. Some land owners add fertilizer and then disappear for 6 months. Good event owners add fertilizer, update threads, advertise, make events, and sometimes fill out front-page article interview questionnaires ;)."

OHH, I feel he is hitting on me lol … but that is okey, when you become a VIP you have to get use to busy cameras and paparazzi stalkers like me :D

“Skippie, I know your lovely girlfriend is also playing the game - what does she say about you buying a land area?” I look at Skippie with a smile and Skippie looks back and says with a serious mine: “My woman don’t tell me what to do with my assets! Hee hee! She’s very excited but she hates Proterons!”

“HA HA”, Star bursts out in laugher. “ILhava is sick of Skippie asking if she wants to hunt Proteron!”

Skippie looks surprised and angry at Star, but just for a short second, then he bursts out in laugher as well.

“Our socmates said Gratz though,” Star continues: “No one had a real clue until we mentioned we were in together on Mirandax's Rib. I was still debating up until I saw the final Buyout Mirandax posted for the Rib. If she'd asked any higher I don't think we'd have bought it”.

Skippie adds: “I think most of our socmates knew we were up to something. Only a couple was shocked when we did it. And I think they were more shocked that we actually completed a Proteron DNA than they were in our ability to buy a land area”.

I've heard you mention some events earlier. Perhaps you will lift the blanket a little and tell us what we can expect to see from you in future?

“Skippie is in charge of the hunting events for the most part”, Star starts out. “I'll take the mining events. Z-Games are on its way and are due to restart November 1st. It will encompass Atami's LA 45 and our LA 46. The first prize will be the option of PED OR a hunt with Skippie, Star, and/or Atami. It should be an entertaining event for miners."

Oh that sounds exciting indeed, and Skippie tells me that they are planning a big multi month contest for early 2011, as well.

“I am going to begin to offer some hourly events soon through the event management system”, Skippie explains. “Everything from Uber Most Loot events for folks with fancy guns to High Single Loot events where anyone can win with one lucky HOF. I want to give people the ability to loot their own items as prizes in event windows. I’d like to give away a106s and stuff like that for reasonable ticket prices and see what happens."

“He he, Is there anything that we didn't plan?” Star adds with a smile. "We didn't buy Pie", Skippie replies quickly!

I can't stop laughing, these guys are crazy!

It all seems to be a pretty good plan they have though, and the land area looks awesome – well as awesome as a Nun can have a look at it before dieing that is. I decide to leave the party, the bottle of wine is empty anyway – and the two guys need to get back to all their tasks around the Universe.

I must say I personally take my hat of for people who have the courage to explore the possibilities in the Universe – but sometimes it requires more than faith; and that is a big ass loot in the pockets. These guys seem to have both and I wish them the very best on the behalf of EntropiaPlanets, as I step outside in the dusty Outback and decide to go for one more Proteron with my head held high and the Delta/Beast armed and polished… I run, I shoot and I… fail... ooOoo well, the ATH has to wait for another day then :-)

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Thank you Star and Skippie for a great interview and insight in your thoughts and week day, and thanks for the wine too, though I hardly got any





(Disclaimer: Peter is the editor, and I spank him when I get home )