Planet Calypso player pays nearly $70,000 for virtual egg
by Rubi Bayer 
Feb 8th 2010 at 7:00PM
Filed under: Economy, News items, Virtual worlds
Now another player is following in the footsteps of those two, taking a chance on the mysterious Atrox Queen Egg. David "Deathifier" Storey purchased the egg in a public auction, paying the equivalent of $69,696 for the item. The egg has been around since 2006, and players don't know when it will hatch, or even what exactly is inside. Deathifier is taking a bit of a chance with his purchase, perhaps hoping it will turn the same sort of profit as previous newsmaking purchases in the game.
You can take a look at the full story here.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Scuffles said on 7:21PM 2-08-2010
they still haven't "hatched" that thing yet ....... wasn't it found over a year ago and has changed hands thrice now ?
originally found then sold for $10,000 now sold for nearly $70,000
I'm going to laugh if it is just a game trophy or something
Player1: you say you bought it for how much ? Whats it do ?
Player2: ......... too much ....... and its doing it right now ~.~
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Scuffles said on 7:25PM 2-08-2010
with all seriousness, best of luck with your gambling
TheExplorer said on 8:16PM 2-08-2010
I would laugh if it was a chicken that hatched from it.
A 69,696 dollar chicken
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alucard.3000 said on 1:13AM 2-09-2010
I would laugh even harder if it hatched into a tiny npc that followed him around singing "you got rick rolled" sucker
royale said on 8:25PM 2-08-2010
What the hell is this game? Why do people pay so much RL money for crap?
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UltimateQ said on 9:21PM 2-08-2010
I asked myself the same question, so I am downloading it right now.
Dude said on 8:32PM 2-08-2010
...
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zrektt said on 8:44PM 2-08-2010
Does anyone play this game? I tried to get into it but was lost. I remember having to farm sweat off mobs that were difficult to find, only to be killed with no way of defending myself. Needless to say I uninstalled the same day I installed.
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Halldorr said on 8:53PM 2-08-2010
That sums up my limited experience as well :)
Anon said on 9:22PM 2-08-2010
I played it... It's a money trap.
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Utakata said on 9:59PM 2-08-2010
Lol! *Hatches Aged Yolk* That would be too funny. :)
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niakori said on 10:16PM 2-08-2010
I went as far as beginning to hunt, words can't express my feelings except %%^&$waste of %@&#time...
Anon is right, its a trap.
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Graill said on 11:18PM 2-08-2010
And people that do this kind of thing are allowed to breed?
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devilsei said on 11:48PM 2-08-2010
Watch "Idiocracy", it could always be much worse... =P
Pingles said on 11:52PM 2-08-2010
Laugh all you want, there are some folks making a LOT of money in this game.
If someone made BACK their $100,000 investment that means there are a BUNCH of folks who are pouring money into it.
Not my kinda thing. Looks more like people see it as an investment than a game for fun.
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CCon99 said on 2:01AM 2-09-2010
Somewhere Jack Emmert is licking his chops thinking about his next C-Store sale.
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Kaoy said on 2:34AM 2-09-2010
I actually know a couple guys that play this. One of them has played on-off for about 3 years at this point and is breaking even, by his estimation. He says he has put in and pulled out about $250 over the time he has payed.
The other has told me that he has also played for about 3 years now, and makes around $2000 worth of PED a month. He doesn't pull out very often though, but says if he sold everything at a decent market value he could probably make away with about $40,000 at the moment. He has jokingly says its his holiday and retirement fund.
I personally played for about one month. Its not that I didn't like the game. The maps are HUGE and there is a lot to explore and a lot of interesting creatures to see. Some of them are easily bigger than 9 or 10 players standing side to side. I loved seeing things like that and different places, but I did sort of end up obsessing over how much PED I was spending and making, and knowing its real world value did not help. It made it feel a little like a job to me, even though I was having an otherwise good time. The community is amazing, with several systems that reward more experienced players for really working to help out the newer folk. Honestly, chatting with folks was one of my favorite pass times in the game since the game really does give you a lot to talk about.
You honestly can't judge the game just by hearing how much folks are willing to spend on items. The guy who payed $100,000 on the night club actually makes a living off that club, alone. The space station will take a while to pay off, but its already making money.
I haven't been back since the engine upgrade, but those two tell me the game is simply stunning now. I probably will try it out again some time, eventually. I'll probably want to put a little money down front up first because the week and a half I spent sweating at the start really was a bit of a pain.
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Lobotomist said on 4:52AM 2-09-2010
First - the guy above me : clearly payed viral poster.
Second. I can help but take all this entropia/calypso news with a bit of skepticism.
I mean. Can we really track down and prove this money was actually spent?
Or maybe it is just fake news to encite people in spending money. Cause if a alleged player payed 100.000$ and is now making living from it. That means its a real good investment...
But is it?
Its like for example Ethiopian government posting news that a man bought real estate in Ethiopia for 100 million dollars. And is now making big money from it.
A great way to invite investors...
Suspicious.
And even posting the news that you can not back up. Giving free advertisement for a virtual scam...
You should be more carefull
Kaoy said on 5:44AM 2-09-2010
Actually, I am not. Those guys aren't what you would call 'typical'. The first, like I said, plays on and off. He put in about $20-$40 when he wants to play, and then plays. Since the game is an open market, he can sell what he buys back then extract the cash right out, if he wanted to. The only expense there is is maintaining on the items, and yeah, that can get pricey, but his character is skilled enough to make that money back from hunting.
The second guy? A minor mining mogul, or some such. I only played the game a month, as I said, so I don't understand everything. Apparently, mining is an expensive thing to do in game, so most of what he makes goes back into keeping his work going. He sells land when he wants to extract, I think. There is quite a bit of business in land with the way mining apparently works.
As for me, I really do want to try getting back into it. I played for a short while, but really did think it was fun, in its own way. The community really is that good, though. When everything you do, and any transaction you make, no matter how small, has real money value, people tend to try and be more polite as to not get ripped off. And yeah, old hats can make a lot of PED off of helping new players.
And they did update their engine, I hear. I have seen some stills, and it looks very nice. I think its Cryengine 2, maybe? Or maybe the original Cryengine? Either way, it really does look pretty stylish.
Also, Ebay does not lie. Several things have gone up on Ebay for real money. Its pretty common for smaller things, like parts in bulk to go up on occasion since there is a constant value for PED to USD(10-1, if I recall). The night club and the space station made massive splashes. Gaming websites, forums, actual news sites, and some mainstream media went crazy over hearing that. Thats why you only have heard about those. It's not everyday something sells for $100,000 on Ebay, and most certainly not everyday that thing happens to be lines of code. Obviously, people paying that much are going to make use of their investment and treat it like a business. Thats how guys are making money off these things. They are actively trying to make the best of them.
Lobotomist said on 6:51AM 2-09-2010
This Ebay story. It makes no sense
Company that runs Entropia/Calypso must make profit. There for virtual items in game are sold for ingame currency. You buy ingame currency with real money.
But its not 1:1 - since they are taking small tax on conversion.
This is how they make money.
Now if you sell things on Ebay. They make no profit. And it might not bother them for small stuff.
But 100.000$ who knows how much profit they loose on that transaction?
Why would they allow that ?