MindArk: "One million users simultaneously logged on to our system 24 hours per day."

Tass · Jul 31, 2011

MindArk: "One million users simultaneously logged on to our system 24 hours per day. This assumption is conservative."

Well, this asumption is also more than 10 years old. Considering it took those 10 years to achieve 1 Million registered accounts it turned out not to be "conservative" but ultra-optimistic.

Sometimes it's worth looking back. I chose this thread title to catch your attention for the EU History Project (one cannot have enough projects at a time, right?!?). The goal is to collect bits of EU history and make it available for everyone.

So far there is nothing more than this thread and a rather empty project wiki page and I would like to ask you to contribute to the one or the other (wiki link: EU History). Everything is of interest: nerfs, features, events, sales, media coverage, announcements, incidents in and around EU, etc.

At least 100 contributions per person. This assumption is conservative. ;)

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EDIT 2 Sept 2011: Since the original post a lot has happened already:

The amount of information is growing.

Preview on how history will be displayed: EU History Timeline

Tass · Jul 31, 2011

Ok, I don't want to withhold MA's business concept as of 2001 containing the title of this thread:

Business concept and business model

Background
The concept design of Project Entropia was initiated in 1995 and was performed by one group of engineers in Switzerland, lead by Benny Iggland, and by one group in Sweden headed by Jan Welter Timkrans. In 1997, it was decided that a new company should be founded with the purpose of implementing the concept designed by the two groups. The company, MindArk AB, was started in 1999, with the purpose of bringing the work of the two groups together, and to finalize the development of Project Entropia.

Market position
This platform, or Universe, will take the internet to the next logical level of the future. Everybody: ordinary people, companies, e-commerce, and nearly every other conceivable use or user of the internet will benefit and make use of facilities and functions provided within the system named Project Entropia.

With the risk of being seen as too pretentious, one could compare the potential and the uniqueness of Project Entropia with products like "Windows" or "Netscape" and thus compare Mind Ark AB to what the companies Microsoft and Netscape were like before the launched their products.

The two statements above will be further explained and substantiated in the following passages.

Project Entropia
Project Entropia is an on-line three-dimensional world - Universe - that only exists on the internet. Millions of users from all over the world will be able to simultaneously enter this universe through their personal computer, in the form of a character created with their personal preferences.

The only things needed to enter this universe are a computer (just a normal personal computer), a connection to the internet, and some client software.

The client software is provided absolutely free of charge, and users will be able to download this software from multiple sites all around the world. The software can also be distributed on CDs bundled with various magazines. Under certain conditions, we actually encourage further copying and distribution of the client software.

Features and attractions
Project Entropia is directed towards creating a dynamic and ever expanding virtual 3D universe, with the formation of complete societies where adventures, challenges, and social functions, may be performed alone or in a group with friends.

When the user has logged on to our supercomputer server system, she or he will enter a computer generated 3D world with a character of her or his own choice and design, she or he will have the option of seeing the world in a first person perspective or in a third person isometric perspective.

The initial world in which she or he enters, is made up of varying environments like cities, villages, mountains, forests, deserts, caves, lakes, rivers, islands, etc. The world is designed with the thought in mind to appeal to both genders, and to a wide spectrum of potential users of varying age and preferences.

In order for the Project Entropia universe to function, with its complex interactions involving massive amounts of users, an extensive set of rule systems has been implemented. Similar types of rule systems, although not as extensive as those implemented in Project Entropia, can be found in massively online RPG games such as Ultima Online, Asheron's Call and Everquest.

Users will be given a great measure of freedom to develop their own style, skills, attributes, careers and status. The society of the Project Entropia Universe is democratic; all users have the chance to vote on priorities of any future developments within the Project Entropia Universe.

The graphics are extensive and detailed, up to a level not hitherto achieved in on-line virtual reality worlds or in computer games available at present.

Users will have a wide spectrum of activities to perform in this world according to their interests. A few examples: explore, socialise and make new friends, solve mysteries, get in contact with people sharing the same type of interests, run businesses, invest in the virtual stock market, use strategy, go on adventures, gamble, buy things intended for use in the virtual or real world, measure the users skills with other players, gain social status.

The user will grow fond of and identify himself with her or his virtual character, which will gain and increase skills, attributes, reputation and social status as a reflection of her or his actions and experiences.

The rules and regulation system of the above-mentioned parameters are of utmost importance. Game balance and the general acceptance of the game depend on this, so a lot of effort has been made to ensure the functionality of these systems.

What really places Project Entropia in a division by itself is our unique self-sustaining economy system (patent pending). The currency used in Project Entropia is convertible to any major currency of the real world. This means, that if for example one user by solving a quest has found a buried treasure containing valuables or cash and if she or he chooses she or he can sell the valuables and transfer the money to his or her real world possession. Most items in the Project Entropia Universe, which have some use, have a value and can either be bought in shops within the Project Entropia Universe, be traded with other users, or perhaps be found in the environment.

Some examples of what can be bought or sold are: flats, houses, shops, furniture, decoration, clothes, jewellery, weapons, armour, ammunition, "mind-force items", etc. At the stock exchange market, various business and companies within the Project Entropia Universe may be bought or sold. Casinos are the places where users loose or if they are lucky win money. The rules of real world international casinos apply here.

To make the streets of our cities even more interesting we will let companies from the real world set up shops, department stores, and supermarkets where they can display their products in 3D and reach an extremely large and well defined market. Project Entropia has incorporated a specially adapted e-commerce software module to support this type of function. Real world companies will also be given the opportunity to display advertisements etc. like in a real world city.

Technology
We are at the absolute forefront of what software and hardware technology permits.

All software and hardware structures are modularised. The impact of this is easily explained with a few examples.

Software: the 3D engine is easily changed, when better versions become available and as the computing capacities of home computers increase, thus permitting the enhancement of the graphical experience.

Hardware: our supercomputer server system is easily scalable. In fact, when the server system shows tendencies of slowing down, due to the sudden influx of a few hundred thousand additional users entering our universe, all one needs to do is to remotely activate a few extra processors to increase the computing capacity adequately.

Business model
The model shown below is intentionally made with conservative (pessimistic) figures, still showing an enormous potential in generating massive revenue, comparable and even surpassing the most profitable companies in the world. We are not talking about some distant future either. The following figures reflect our lowest expectations of what we expect within a few months after the start-up of the Project Entropia Universe.

Calculations are based on the following:

One million users simultaneously logged on to our system 24 hours per day. This assumption is conservative, keeping in mind that the client software is absolutely free; there are xxx million users on the Internet increasing with yyy users per day. Existing communications systems (such as ICQ) have already millions of users, although they only provide one compared to thousands of features included in Project Entropia.

Users stay on for one hour. This assumption is conservative compared to on line games like Ultima Online, Asheron's call, and Everquest, where the standard user is often logged on for several hours at a time, even though these games only offer small portions of what can be experienced in the Project Entropia Universe.

Each user is willing to spend one USD per hour. This assumption is extremely low compared with what people are willing to spend on quality entertainment, games, and gambling.

In summary, the important feature of the business model is that Project Entropia will be provided to users for free. This is a revolutionary approach, which is assumed to make participation interesting for hitherto never reached numbers of simultaneous users.

The massive participation, simultaneously over the 24 time zones, will make the real world interesting - in addition to the virtual world, but self-standing. Activities carried out, deals made between participants, and equipment bought - for use in the real and in the virtual world, will generate a cash flow and profit stream for the operators.

Real money spent in the virtual world will generate cash flow, handled by the operators. Such sums may be assumed to be large. Just as an example, if one million simultaneous users, each connected for 1 hour, spend 1 $ (per hour), this generates a cash flow corresponding to 106 * 24 * 365 * 1 = 8,760,000 $ per annum. This is a huge amount of money: one percent of this amount corresponds to 87 million $ per annum.

Near future development
The continuous development of the universe of Project Entropia is essential. New attractions, geographical regions, space and new worlds will be added at an ever-increasing rate. When technology permits, we will enhance the sensing experience of our users, like an ever-increasing level of detail in viewing. This is to keep our users entertained and to distance any potential competition.

To speed up this development process we will distribute certain development tools, free of charge to any company that wishes to develop any further attraction in the Project Entropia Universe. This system could also encourage a possible future competitor to instead join us in our efforts to develop and enhance the functionality of the Project Entropia Universe.

Competition
It is the unique combination of concepts, which sets Project Entropia apart from any existing competition. The main and most important factors we would like to point out here are:

self-sustaining economy system

free client software with free distribution of client software

free 3rd party development tools

one single virtual universe where anyone wherever she or he may be geographically situated in the real world may interact with any of potentially millions of other users

The open platform and free 3rd party development tools make it more efficient for a potential competitor to use our system to build his applications rather than to try to compete on the basic infrastructure issues.

No other company has utilised any of the above points on the Internet to the degree we have, let alone tried to combine these key factors to create a virtual universe with the potential of Project Entropia. Some experimental 3D virtual worlds do exist for the purpose of demonstrating available software development tools. Some commercial and successful on-line games exist and a few more are to be completed within the next few years. However, Project Entropia has a time advantage on any possible future competition of at least a few years considering the complexity of the system and patents (pending) of Project Entropia. Management

Visions of the future
The Project Entropia Universe will become a parallel virtual universe to our own where people will find all sorts of safe but close-to-reality or pure fantasy entertainment possibilities. The technology of the real world is under constant development and this will inevitably lead to a situation where less and less people are needed in traditional production. We foresee the possibility of the Project Entropia Universe generating large volumes of "virtual jobs" which may be quite as interesting, challenging, appealing, and as well paid as jobs in the real world.

Summary
A few so called "massive-user" role-playing-games (RPG-games), intended for game play over the internet and a few experimental virtual reality worlds have been launched to date and a few more are under construction. A few browsers, like Netscape and Internet Explorer, exist, but are mostly suitable and initially intended for presentation of text and two dimensional presentations. However, none of these utilise the full potential of the internet as Project Entropia does. What sets us in an absolutely unique and exclusive position is our unique marketing concepts, free distribution, free use and our patent pending self-sustaining economy system. This, together with our concepts of continuous dynamic expansion, quality and professional management, not only relating to our virtual world but also to our company MindArk AB makes us confident that our Project Entropia universe will take net-economy, e-commerce, socialising, and gaming, etc. over the internet to a new level of the future.
Click to expand...

RAZER · Aug 16, 2011

So, when was the bankruptcy, right before gold was it?
Wasn't there then, so maybe someone can help out here.

RAZER · Aug 16, 2011

OK did a search

MindArk (the old MA)

Company formed: 1998-08-14
Company registered: 1998-08-28
Bankruptcy completed: 2006-10-25
CEO: Jan Welter

2001 is the only year listed (with some big losses), so it might have been 2001 that they filed for bankruptcy

The new MindArk is called:

MindArk PE (my guess is PE = Project Entropia)
Company formed: 2003-02-05
Company registered: 2003-02-17
CEO: Jan Welter

Then there is:

AR Universe (no idea what this does)

Company formed: 1998-08-14
Company registered: 1998-08-28
CEO: David Simmonds
chairman of the board: Jan Welter

last but not least

EU Support & Operations (support in Mexico I guess)

Company formed: 2008-09-01
Company registered: 2008-10-10
Chairman of the board: Jan Welter

With all the above companies I come across the same board members (people I have never heard of before) but I guess that's nothing special.

Tass · Aug 16, 2011

Great! Go add it to the wiki ;)

Iirc EUSO is more like support for MA/PPs and tech stuff like servers. Support in Mexico is http://www.ilunova.com, also providing cheap programming, ingame assets etc. I'm sure you know the Mexican Chair People.

RAZER · Aug 17, 2011

Will do, sir !

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Thorn · Aug 19, 2011

I need to hook up my old hard drive. I think I still have the original MA issue tutorial on there. Need to check it.

RAZER · Aug 19, 2011

that would be nice to have !

RAZER · Aug 27, 2011

Added the stuff I found in the wiki and also some additional stuff. Still not sure about the exact date MA filed for bankruptcy.

Tass · Sep 2, 2011

A little preview on how history will be displayed: EU History Timeline

Cool?

RAZER · Sep 2, 2011

yes cool !

Tass · Mar 13, 2013

Milestone reached today:

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