Monria - Call of Cthulhu meets Entropia Universe

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TUESDAY, 5TH NOVEMBER 2013, CTHULHU IS COMING TO ENTROPIA UNIVERSE

In April 2013, MindArk's MMORPG/Virtual World Platform Entropia Universe hit the news with the sale of an in-game property in the form of a "newly-discovered" (not yet released) moon to a group of players for $150,000 USD. The buyers were granted extensive involvement in the development process of the moon, and the end result will be released on the 5th of November 2013. An exciting surprise is that the new game world called "Monria" is based on the Cthulhu Mythos.


(CC-BY-SA, Source: http://deadliestfiction.wikia.com/wiki/File:Cthulhu-rlyeh-rising.jpg)
Cthulhu Rising

WHO IS CTHULHU, AND HOW DID IT BECOME THIS MYTHOS

In the summer of 1926, American author H. P. Lovecraft wrote probably his most famous short story ever entitled "The Call of Cthulhu." Cthulhu is referred to as a cosmic entity, "a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind, hibernating within an underwater city in the South Pacific called R'lyeh."

Over the years, Lovecraft expanded and refined the fictional world around Cthulhu. Other authors picked up the style and setting which ultimately led to the "Cthulhu Mythos," a shared fictional universe within the sub-genre of Lovecraftian Horror of which Monria will be another chapter.

HOWEVER, WHAT DOES CTHULHU HAVE TO DO WITH ENTROPIA UNIVERSE

Entropia Universe is a multi-world MMORPG/Virtual Universe Platform in which the individual game worlds are developed and managed by separate companies. However, the worlds in the form of planets, and now also planetoids (technically planetoids and not moons since they are not connected to any one planet) are all related through a common in-game space environment. The planets also share fundamental game systems, a large number of skills, items, and probably most importantly: an economy system.

In the case of Entropia Universe, it's a Real Cash Economy (RCE), which means the in-game currency PED (Project Entropia Dollars) has a fixed exchange rate of 10:1 to the US Dollar. Players can deposit money into the universe but also withdraw money from the universe to their bank accounts. This rather special feature has been the basis for many sales of virtual properties for large sums of real cash money, such as Crystal Palace Space Station for $330,000 USD in 2009, or the Asteroid Space Resort known as Club NEVERDIE for $635,000 USD in 2009, after he original purchased the asteroid for $100,000 USD in the Fall of 2005..

(CC-BY-SA, http://www.entropiaplanets.com/wiki...l_of_Cthulhu_-_crater_with_lunar_habitats.jpg)
Monria - crater with lunar habitats.

ENTROPIA UNIVERSE + CTHULHU = MONRIA

The latest in the series of real estate sales is Monria. About 87 years after H.P. Lovecraft wrote "The Call of Cthulhu," on the 1st of March 2013, MindArk announced they would be auctioning a newly-discovered moon in Entropia Universe. Although the planetoid was referred to as a moon, it became a new marketing/revenue model fitting between the regular planets run by Planet Partner companies and regular land ownership on planets. The planetoid (moon) is listed as a premium estate developed by MindArk, and owned and marketed by investor players who receive a share of the revenue that their investment will generate when populated.

Norwegian player "Modified Akoz Power" and a couple of other players jumped on the opportunity and won the planetoid (moon) at auction for 1,500,000 PED ($150.000 USD) and became the first ever owner of a planetoid (moon) in the Entropia Universe. However, this was not the first time Akoz had successfully managed an investment group. Previously, he led a team of investors that purchased the Medusa’s Head real estate on Planet Calypso for 300,009 PED ($30,000+ USD).

Akoz is the Investment Group Fund Manager, the avatar who will hold ownership of the Monria Estate Deed, and will also act as the liaison between the Monria Team and MindArk. The other players co-owning Monria are:

• Mikass Keer Masak - Romania
• Joe Jeff xXSqUaLLXx - France
• Pinthas Schmenke Dorian - United States

From April 2013, the Monria Team has worked with MindArk conceptualizing Monria, collaborating on the setting based on the Cthulhu Mythos, and regularly provided previews such as this one:

(CC-BY-SA, source: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/wiki...-_luxury_apartment_windowed_swimming_pool.jpg)
Monria - luxury apartment with windowed swimming pool.

Now, after months of hard work both by the Monria Team and MindArk, Monria is entering its launch phase. From today forward, veterans of Entropia Universe, as well as new players becoming pioneers of Monria, finally get the chance to visit this exciting addition to Entropia Universe Platform and start exploring its locations, creatures and stories. Future short-term updates will add a few initially missed bits and bytes, and additional polishing to complete the Monria experience.

For those who are excited to uncover Monria's secrets and explore this new environment together, a "First Look Expedition" organized by EntropiaPlanets.com is leaving for Monria as soon as the servers are back online after the version update. An "In-Depth Look" expedition will follow as soon as Monria is considered complete, which should be by next week, when it's finally time to find out what exactly the "Deep Space Extraction Corporation (DESC)" might have disturbed by digging through the vast underground caverns of Monria.


(CC-BY-SA, Source: http://www.entropiaplanets.com/wiki...e_Call_of_Cthulhu_-_player_figthing_Shubs.jpg)
Monria - player fighting Shubs.


UPDATE: First video available just 2 hours after launch:

Further information:

• Monria official website
• Monria on the wiki

This article is released under CC-BY license.