Entropia Universe bidding war leads to $12,000 payout for newbie
by Seraphina Brennan 
Jun 5th 2008 at 4:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, Entropia Universe, Events, in-game, News items, Virtual worlds
But this is the reality for Timon "Stuka" Miles, a relatively new player to Entropia Universe, the game where the fictional currency is linked to real world money, akin to Second Life. Stuka's fortune stems from a piece of DNA from the extinct "Letomie" monster -- an item that can resurrect the creature if all of it's DNA fragments are found inside of the game. After a brief placement on the Entropia Universe forums, Stuka moved the auction to the official in-game auction house where it attracted the attention of Zachurm "Deathifier" Emegen, owner of the 26,000 real world dollar Treasure Island, and Jon "NEVERDIE" Jacobs, owner of the 100,000 real world dollar space station.
Entropia Universe's bidding system operates on a "five more minutes" function, where if a bid is placed shortly before the close of the auction, five more minutes is added to the duration of the sale to prevent sniping. NEVERDIE and Deathifier went back and forth for more than two hours before NEVERDIE logged out of the game when he would normally place his bid. The auction closed with Deathifier paying 127,271 PED, which equates to over 12,700 in U.S. dollars.
NEVERDIE had intentionally logged out of the game (no glitches or crashes here, folks) and just wished to add a bit of a flair to an already tense bidding process.
Deathifier has confirmed that more fragments of DNA will be needed to construct the Letomie, so this is not the last we may see of insane bids and DNA fragments anytime soon.
[Via PINKY, Entropia Universe News]
[Thanks, Mike!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rational said on 4:53PM 6-05-2008
The most amazing thing about this is that there are people playing Project Entropia with so much cash to throw away.
But then the big question is, how does one cash out from PED to Dollars? You don't! Paper value in-game is difficult to transfer over to the real world without deep discounts in value.
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Mike Stafford said on 2:31PM 6-06-2008
Actually, it's real simple. You click the Withdrawal button. 3-6 weeks later, you get a check.
They also have "debit" cards, although it's been touch and go with them for quite some time. If you have one though, I've heard priority withdrawal requests take as little as 14 days.
John Capital said on 10:22AM 6-11-2008
Mike is quite correct. Entropia is designed with cash deposits and withdrawals in mind. It's literally as easy as pressing the withdraw button, stating how much you want to take out, (remember 10 peds = $1 plus expect a small withdraw fee) and just wait a few weeks. Folks are depositing and withdrawing cash into and out of this game every day.
I love the fact that I don't have to hassle with selling something on ebay and then meeting some bloke ingame, etc. etc. Even the withdraw fees don't bother because they're quite small and considering you're often dealing with country to country bank/wire transfers, I totally understand the need.
Colin Brennan said on 12:31PM 6-06-2008
@Mike:
So, your post has actually gotten me interested in Entropia... I entirely blame you. =P
But, I'm interested in how you can break even in the game. I'm not looking to make money, just looking to enjoy what I can, but it seems very hard to break even with my mining equipment deteriorating and the ores I'm finding only selling for little PED.
Any tips on what a standard player can do to at least stay around a break even point, so they don't have to continually feed money into Entropia?
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Mike Stafford said on 2:31PM 6-06-2008
There are options. The main thing you want to do is educate yourself on the mistakes others have made. That's where EntropiaForum comes into play. Seeing as how they are not moderated by Mindark, a lot of information is placed there.
I'm not a miner, so I'm not fully qualified to answer your question here, but from what I'm understanding, mining as a whole right now is down. With high skills and high end equipment, it's easier to break even because you're pulling harder to get--therefore more sought after by crafters--minerals and enmatter.
When it comes to mining, technique is *KEY*. I've found that minerals travel in veins and double bombing usually leads to higher finds. Also mining on Neverdie's asteroid adds a completely different dynamic to the system; higher concentrations, further apart, but bigger overall finds.
A one time deposit of 1000 PED (100USD) has allowed me to profit enough to enjoy my high end longblades for indefinite amounts of time because I found a method that works *for me*. It's possible to work the game so you can play, but it's often not the same for everyone.
Sweating starts off slow but the higher the skilltree progresses, the bigger the mob you can sweat, yielding more of it. Not to mention the skills you gain...that you can then sell off, but it takes time.
:)
Mike Stafford said on 2:37PM 6-06-2008
I should also mention one thing I've noticed about Entropia, every time there is a major development in the game (CryEngine 2 in this instance) Mindark pulls PED back into the system (effectively increasing their revenue, and lowering the loot pool return) until the development process is complete.
You will notice return isn't as friendly before a major release.
John Capital said on 10:38AM 6-11-2008
First off, huge congratulations to Timon "Stuka" Miles, for making such a find and getting the most out of it. (Insert "results not typical" disclaimer here.)
Let's be honest. Entropia is designed to make profiting as hard as possible. It has to be, otherwise Mindark, the company running it, couldn't survive.
As far as Mindark is concerned, breaking even is profiting, since that would mean they can't keep any of your money.
I look at Entropia this way: No other game (that I know of) will let me play for a year or 3 until I get tired of it, sell my stuff to other players and LEGALLY withdraw what's left. (which can be much more than you expect.)
In other words, no other game is designed to give me a huge rebate when I'm done with it. :) Currently, were I to sell out now, I'd get ~75% of everything I gave to them for the past 2 years. I'm quite ok with them keeping the other 25%.
However, with that in mind, Colin, let me just say that making any profit or breaking even at the beginning is almost impossible. However, as your avatars skills and equipment improve and you get better, it does become easier (but still quite hard) to break even.
Like I said, just enjoy the game, deposit only as much per month as you are comfortable playing, and when you decide you're done, cash out and enjoy your rebate.
Happy hoffing.
Minas alh Lhander said on 4:23PM 6-17-2008
There are many ways to play Entropia.
Some people see it as pure entertainment and/or social, and are happy to "throw away" some of their extra cash on their favorite hobby to have fun with their friends.
Some people treat it as gambling, doing high risk stuff looking for that next ATH (I don't recommend that)
Some people put a lot of thought in it, try to play as economical as possible, and "beat the game". If you're really patient, there is even a way for constant but slow profit, collecting "sweat" (a basic and highly sought resource), which is free to do, but very slow.
Try come up with theories, and enjoy discussing them, to try get an edge.
Some people try to provide a service to other players.
This could be anything from collecting resources for crafters, be a "hired gun" or medic, arrange events and competitions, teach newbies the way of the game, arrange sight seeing in the world take people to new outposts, make art, decorate apartments, or design clothes, or do avatar modifications. Only your creativity is the limit.
Some people treat it as an investment, buy Land Areas, Shops, Spaceships, and other sure sources of revenue, or high end gear and skill, and hope it will give them an edge.
Most people are a combination of all the above, and more.
The great part is that you are free to choose exactly how much you think its worth to spend for it, and when you tire of it, you can take most of it back out, or with some luck and "hard work" a bit of profit.
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