[Tryon]

I’m not sure how many people have heard of this game (as far as I know, it’s been kept pretty quite even if it has shown up on cnn.com) but I was keeping track of it until I found Jumpgate. It’s a sci-fi MMORPG based on a planet in the distant future with plenty of high (and low) tech goodies to play with.

Completely skill based system with extensive support on tools and equipment. Basically, you can play any manner of a character from a hunter stalking the indigenous wildlife with a knife to a high tech gadget technician.

Vehicles are included in the game (land and air based, AFAIK) along with an interactive environment. Pre-existing cities can be added to as player numbers increase and begin moving out into the rural areas. Basically, Mindark is toting this to be a “virtual universe” without limits (literally).

I’d have to say that the most interesting facet of this game is the in/out of game economy system. The game is free, game access is free and there are no charges. The in game economy engine was designed to mimic real world economy with supply and demand factors along with rarity of items taken into account. The REALLY interesting part is the game economics. If a player wishes to have more in-game cash, he or she can buy it. Also, if you strike it rich in the game, you can cash your in-game earnings back into REAL DOLLARS (as opposed to selling your character on eBay). I’m not sure of the conversion ratio for dollars to Project Entropia Dollars (PEDs) going into the game, but it’s 10PEDs to 1 USD coming out of the game.

However, there’s a catch (isn’t there always a catch?). Almost all professions will require some kind of equipment in order for that player to do what they would like. As in the real world, equipment breaks, is lost, gets destroyed and needs to be repaired/replaced. So, while it may be possible to score a motherload in mining, you could just as easily lose it when you find out that your ore hauling truck broke an axle.

Anyway, I’m bringing this up because the game is currently in its commercial open trail where Mindark states:

[Burner]

I had been keeping an eye on this for a little while but I kinda forgot about it as of late.

[MajorFreak]

i heard of it. apparently you BUY with real cash gear and stuff, and i'd call this game equivalent to russian roulette with your credit card (but that's just the cynical muffy talking - so take a grain of salt with that)

[Rainy13]

No, that's not Muffy Cynicism speaking, that's common sense - for I hear that voice too, warning of 'bad things' if I even contemplate playing such a game.

Bet it'll have a *very* devout following, all addictive gambling-types. I wonder how they'll get around the 'It's an online gambling game that's pretending to be a MMORPG' argument. Perhaps no one will notice? What kind of payouts does this place expect to see?

Bringing RL money into a game like that... the cynic in me sees WAY too many problems involved. Imbalance and server crashes and PKers, etc all hitting you not just in the fun, anymore, but in the pocketbook? *shudder* I don't think so.

[Hiigaran]

erm, also, you'll get people who are obsessed like this guy:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/04/05/everquest.suicide.idg/index.html

Imagine how often that might happen when you loose all your money playing a GAME?

Oh, and about the EQ thing; it is really sad that people get obsessed like that to the point of killing themselves, but Sony Online and Verant did absolutly nothing wrong... IMHO

[Rainy13]

If that lady was smart, she'd probably push for labels saying that the game is addictive (which it is) but I'd argue that she's a COMPLETE MORON for not checking up on her handicapped son at least 1-2 times per TWELVE FARKING HOURS if he's a depressive, mentally unbalanced kid.

People who blame their bad parenting on others PISS ME OFF!!! *scream* How about some mucking accountability? Responsibility? *sigh*

[Hiigaran]

The general feeling among most human beings is that it is ALWAYS someone elses fault.

I mean, come on, tell me you have ALWAYS said it was your fault, when it was, and NEVER blamed something you caused on something else.

Heck, that mom might as well sue the parents of the developers of EQ. "If you people hadnt of had sex, my son might be alive right now!"

Right. Isnt america wonderful? she shouldnt waste her money on a lawyer

[Guest]

Hmm...what game could become a real second job?

Ok... Well... Looking at the readme and such, it looks interesting... Perhaps another variant of SW:G before it comes out. Looks like there is mining/processing ore, manufacturing, and hunting. Geee... Not many options, eh? :rolleyes:

[BaadF00d]

Well, *if* the game has a closed economy (and bloody hell you dont want a matter farming like incident here so its going to have to be a damn well locked down economy) there are a number of benefits of a game like this.

Basically you pay for your play - griefing is a real problem as griefers inflict actual monetary damage on their targets, but at the same time it does sort out people abusing either new accounts - or very old accounts that theyre cancelling ala the Cmd_Cain (ongoing) incident, as, to do any action in the game requires a monetary input, and vetran players canceling their accounts would be far more likley to withdraw their money from the system as $, rather than spend it all in an orgy of destruction.

Of course - its going to be interesting to see if the game actually works - Given Savants assertion that the combined experience at Themis is that closed economy games havnt worked.

[Guest]

If I was going to make a closed-economy game like what PE represents, I would have the players' money be pooled and the various things that make players money would draw from this pool. This would mean that there would probably be very few that would actually make money at the game - if set up right. But the balance comes in to make it fun enough for noob players to put some hard-earned RL cash into the game to keep going.

They are putting it up for a vote next week: Do you want to reset the money/exp, or do you want to keep it?

As someone had pointed out on their boards, this is a win-win for the company. If reset, they lock the money going out (you can't withdraw), thus they keep it and earn interest on the real money. If they don't reset, then those whom have lost money due to bugs and whatnot are out of that money/items. Now, the company doesn't take any money from the pool, just a fee off the top (for $10 US it is $0.45). That is all they take to pay salaries and such. They have somewhere around 50 programmers working on it.

I have a feeling the majority would be to reset skills to 0/all the money they started with - and they will have a better idea on how to make money when the game goes live too. There is an in-game voting booth to allow players to vote. Number of votes is dependant on money you've put into the project and skill levels.

As a noob player - expect to sink some money into the game, especially if all you do is kill creatures. I'm needing to find a creature that is fairly easy to kill (don't dull the blades or use much ammo), but has a high pay-out. I've seen some messages go up that show people getting over 50 PED (over $5 US), but they are not that frequent - not even once an hour.

If you want to mine - expect to toss a lot into the game. Most vets recommend taking at least 50 detonators (at 1 PED each) to go prospecting. It often takes at least 40 before finding anything. Then it is all skill based - so the better your skill the farther you can see when you detonate the bomb. The better your ore extraction skill is, the more ore you should be able to extract per site. But at $5 US a pop to run out and loose at least half of it, doesn't make it much fun for me - but then I don't think killing a creature will be much more profitable either (but the fun lasts much longer for the creds).

There is talk about setting up so that you can be a landlord, and just about any other occupation that you can think about. Literally creating a virtual world.

It is in open beta, so if you want to pay... er... play, you can. Just know that you have to toss at least a couple of bucks into the game just to get some fighting equipment. Just be ready for some serious lag (if you are in the US), because it is based out of Switzerland. They are not looking at a shard type setup, but perhaps they could make some of the seamless world be in various parts of the real world - thus those that live in other parts of the real world could experience this without so much bumping and jumping (makes me nauseous).