Interview: MindArk Discusses China's Upcoming World in Entropia

MindArk recently announced a deal with China's Cyber Recreation Development Corporation to expand its online universe, Entropia, to include a virtual planet dedicated entirely to the People’s Republic as a part of the 11th five-year economic plan for Beijing. MindArk told VirtualWorldsNews.com that they’ve set a year and half goal to roll out the world, but they’re already established many of the ideas that the project will be based on. The world is projected to create 10,000 new jobs, hold a maximum capacity of seven million concurrent users, and generate one billion dollars annually in revenue. We spoke with John Bates, Entropia Universe Evangelist, and David Simmons, MindArk’s Business Development Director, about the goals of the project, the technology, and censorship issues within the world. Editors Note: Don't miss our interview with Metabirds and Centric on Second Life and HiPiHi in Asia

"We’re thrilled about this," said Bates. "We think that there are some things that make the Entropia Universe very special and very positive. We think a lot of those things are highlighted by the fact that China chose us. Number one, there's the tremendously secure and safe nature of Entropia. There’s no gambling in Entropia. No porn in Entropia. There’s a real cash economy backed by the dollar. And the entire system has been built from the ground up to be secure. The ultra secure environment makes it an ideal place to invest."

The world will be targeted at Chinese users uniquely, but will eventually allow for interplanetary travel and commerce. "There are a lot of reasons for that," said Bates, "mostly the dramatic language difference, but it’s really interesting. The place that this partnership began was with a group sailing this ship from the East Indian Company trade days, and they sailed to Shanghai and had a celebration. MindArk was part of the Swedish delegation, and we began our negotiations there. The original trade between Sweden and China, was very lucrative, but expensive and dangerous. That’s the same way it will be in the new world. Not only will people be cyber-pioneers, but in the world they’ll be actual pioneers."

MindArk has touted the creation of new jobs and the technology to work from home as potentially decreasing pollution from carbon emissions, but it's not entirely clear how that will work yet.  Bates hadn't received details, but anticipated that "they’re talking about in-world jobs as well as content localization jobs and other jobs working with it. There will also be a whole opportunity for entrepreneurs."

When asked about creating entrepreneurial spirit in a communist country, Bates said, "It would be naïve of me to say that it’s not going to be different. There’s the 11th five-year plan for social and economic development in Beijing, which this is a part of. It’s my impression that there is something about the culture of China that encourages entrepreneurial spirit despite whatever the government has going on. I think we’re going to be mind boggled."

However, David Simmons told us that the Chinese branch of the business already has 20 companies ready to come in to initialize trading. Bates also added that Entropia does present the advantage of using a real cash economy. Entropia's currency system is tied to the dollar instead of fluctuating user demands, like the Linden.

Possibly the biggest advantage, though, is the size of the world. It can hold seven million concurrent users, and MindArk isn't worried yet about reaching the cap. "We’re not even speculating about maximum capacity," Bates said. "It’s not going to be tomorrow, but it will be very soon. We just hope technology will have gotten better. We anticipate it being the fastest of its kind."

That sort of speed in China requires hosting within the country, though, as all external Internet traffic must pass through a bottleneck of government-controlled gateways.

David Simmons confirmed that the world will be hosted inside of China. "The specification of what’s happening is difficult," he said. "Well, what can we say. They will be hosting the servers inside. It’s just such a massive thing that they’re looking at with seven million continuous users. But it will be one universe."

As other companies like Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have discovered, Chinese hosting leads to increased government control and censorship.  MindArk, however, is optimistic. "It’s very simple," Simmons said. "It’s not undercover Chinese censorship as I think a lot of the speculation is saying."

When asked about the example of censoring Google searches for Tiananmen Square and what would happen if users wanted to build a recreation, he responded that "A lot of the Chinese censorship is over gambling and pornography. In Entropia Universe, we don’t have gambling and porn. We’re taking control of our world. The world government and economy, we’re taking care of it. What happens in other worlds that give over the code to users is that it becomes like the real world, a sort of anarchy and chaos."

Entropia allows only limited user-generated content, so it seems as if inherent limitations might prevent some censorship issues from ever arising. "Right," said Simmons. "And once you give Google to everyone, they can access everything on the Internet. I really don’t want my daughter looking at pornography on the Internet. And I think we all do a sort of censorship. But China wants to move forward and expand into the modern world. If they begin to use it as a tool of censorship, that won’t be as effective."

Simmons explained that The Cyber Recreation Development Corporation, which is partly owned by the Chinese government, will be coming out with its own rules and regulations soon, and MindArk can't comment until those are available.  "Basically it will be an extension of Entropia," he said, "and they will be running their own planet and deciding a lot of what happens."

Joey Seiler
www.VirtualWorldsNews.com
joey (at) showinitiative.com
(512) 535-8650
skype: joey.seiler.vwnews

Comments

[Anonymous]

"A lot of the Chinese censorship is over gambling and pornography. In Entropia Universe, we don’t have gambling and porn."

Entropia Universe is a GAMBLING game!

[Jeffrey Pope]

HiPiHi, Entropia and Shanda all coming into the Chinese market with platforms within the next year is strong indication that the Chinese goverment is more interested in participating in VW's rather than attempting to establish all encompassing controls over them.

Either way, this is going to be one interesting market to watch :D

[Genuine Entropia Universe Participant]

The entire concept of Entropia Universe is based on gambling PEDs (US Dollars) in various games of chance in the hope of greater returns, based on unknown and secret random algorithms.

If Entropia Universe isn’t supposed to be an online gambling service, what is the purpose of “Global” loot messages advertising loots received over the value of 50 PEDs, the “Hall of Fame” and “All Time High’s” other than to encourage players to gamble their PEDs (US Dollars) in the games of chance that are the Hunting, Mining and Manufacturing professions in pursuit of that elusive win?

The driving dominant factor for successful outcomes (a win) in the three playable professions in Entropia (Hunting, Mining, Manufacturing) is nothing other than a series of hidden random algorithms that determine a profit or a loss, with unknown and secret odds.

The obvious nature of the game is that the ‘House Always Wins’ at the expense of those paying for the privilege of a chance to spin the wheel/roll the dice/pull the lever/click the mouse and gamble on striking it lucky.

[Billy -- In Game Name]

When you open a business, it is a gamble, drive a car, have dinner, roller skate. Most everything we do in life is a gamble this universe is for entertainment for fun. Moreover, that is what I get out of Entropia Universe. I am happy with this virtual world and with what MA has done to make this the best virtual world on planet earth. Things are just getting better every year and with this news, I believe that the sky will be the limit.

[David]

I think that MindArk will discover the hard way that their goals and those of their local "government backed/ owned" partner are not the same. MindArk will be aiming to get a lot of new users out of China with the goal of making a profit; while the local partner is talking about job creation, building GDP in a virtual economy, being part of the latest five-year plan etc ... and I bet profit (at least for the foreign partner) is a long way down the list of priorities.

Government controls on what are considered to be permitted economic activities, such as no porn or gambling, may mean that Chinese users prefer to play on the foreign servers rather than in the domestic world. (It will be interesting to see if users with a Chinese IP address are even allowed to access the foreign servers once the local servers are launched.)

MindArk should have tried to close a deal with a private company with whom their overall goals would be more closely aligned.

[Genuine Entropia Universe Participant]

Billy, unfortunately you seem confused here about the specific meaning of the verb “to gamble” in this context.

Gambling in this context has an economic definition, referring to "wagering money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods".

Roller skating, or driving a car, does NOT involve wagering money with the primary intent of winning more based on an indeterminate outcome.

The Manufacturing/Crafting “profession” in Entropia is directly analogous to playing a Slot machine, in that items of real value are gambled with the intent of producing a gain/profit given unknown odds. The actual in-game system involves nothing more than dragging virtual items of a specific value into a window, pressing a button and then waiting for an algorithm to generate a random outcome of either a win or a loss.

The exact same thing also takes place in the Hunting and Mining “professions”, however, this time virtual ammo or virtual mining probes (which have a real cash value) act as the casino chips/coins, and an unknown random algorithm generates either a profit or a loss in terms of the loot received (which has a real cash value) when a creature is killed or a mining probe dropped.

The only purpose “Global” loot messages, the “Hall of Fame” and “All Time High’s” serve is to demonstrate how much one may win, and to encourage players to spend PEDs (US Dollars) on these so called “professions”.

[Wistrel]

Yes the manufacturing is like a slot machine but even with that, its a slot machine that you can influence with skills to increase your chances.

The manufacturing, I grant you, is largely naff but there is a point where you have to ask how much fun you have had over a time period and whether or not it is worth the money you have lost. Personally for me, with something like hunting, I find the amount I "loose" to be perfectly acceptable given the amount of entertainment I have had from that money.

Comparitively, every time you go to the cinema you "gamble" that the film may or may not be worth the money you pay.