Virtual Space Station Sold For $330,000

Pirx Danford writes "The world record sale for a virtual item was surpassed yesterday by the avatar known as Buzz Erik Lightyear, when he acquired a very special piece of property. For the incredible amount of $330,000, the space station Crystal Palace has been won by Buzz in the in-game auction system of Entropia Universe. The player who won the auction is known as one of the best crafters within the game, and like with Chuck Norris jokes, there are a bunch of sayings about what Buzz Erik Lightyear can achieve."

Comments

Just the Facts

[AP31R0N]

http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/off-topic/91003-buzz-erik-lightyear-facts.html

Enjoy

No Cash

[brjndr]

He didn't actually spend $330,000. FTA:

"The auction for the Crystal Palace Space Station in Planet Calypso has sold for 3,300,000 PED. This virtual game currency when converted to US dollars is $330,000."

Apparently he earned all the PED in game.

Re:No Cash

[Pirx Danford]

As you can just deposit and withdraw anytime it is as good as cash ;)

I expect that this sale will replace the old Guinness Book record of 100 000 $ shortly!

Re:No Cash

[YouDoNotWantToKnow]

I was a member of his society ingame and I can attest he definitely deposited quite a bit over the time. Entropia started back in 2000 and he was one of the top crafters right off the bat. That cost him money MindArk really needed at the time when they were just starting out. Look at it as inflation and opportunity cost adjusted money, 30k back then could well be 300k now.

PE Marketing Guy?

[ludomancer]

Isn't this the guy who works for the Project Entropia team? Before he "bought" an island, but really it's just PR for their game? Correct me if I'm wrong, but after I found that out it really irritates me whenever his "accomplishments" make headlines.

Re:PE Marketing Guy?

[YouDoNotWantToKnow]

No, that guy was Jon NEVERDIE Jacobs. Some sorta extroverted DJ from Florida and former MindArk PR guy for the US. He set the previous record by buying an asteroid for 100k $ couple of years back.

Re:PE Marketing Guy?

[JohnKBates]

Actually Jon never worked for MindArk or Entropia. The confusion stemmed from what I think is actually a great program. MindArk often sends players to conferences to speak about the game from a player's perspective. They're called ambassadors. I think that's actually really cool, as it gives people an interesting and meaningful perspective. It was in this capacity that Jon attended some conferences in the past for MA and that led to the confusion. I am the PR guy and I can't bid on things like the asteroid or the space station for that reason. So, I am correcting you since this is a persistent, but incorrect myth. So, you can stop being irritated by him. He actually put his cajones on the line to buy the asteroid. He mortgaged his house and put everything he owned on the line to take what many thought was a huge risk and buy the asteroid, as a hurricane was bearing down on him in Florida. He made his money back in about 8 months and has been doing very well since he is a very extroverted, very savvy marketer and he's done lots of great events and put a lot of personal effort into making the asteroid one of the "places to be" on Planet Calypso. I think that Buzz will do an excellent job with Crystal Palace. Like Neverdie and Deathifier, he is a very well known and very, very respected player. That will be a big plus for him in running CP. Rock on, ya'll.

My Opinion

[YouDoNotWantToKnow]

I have been playing Entropia actively from early 2005 till mid 2008 and I have an intense love/hate relationship with them. Let me list my personal pros/cons:
Pros:
Videogame with real money.
CryEngine powered.
No shards, one world.
Mature playerbase, mostly US/EU.
Stable financials, the company is shareholder-friendly.
They are a registered Swedish banking company.
They have a deal with Chinese Cyber Recreation Development Bureau.

Cons:
Addictive as hell.
Quite random, i would say quite close to poker in variance terms.
You will never catch up with the oldskool players, you would have to deposit million $ to get the same items and skills as top people.
Slow innovation, no new core systems for a long time.
Long term tendency to overpromise and underdeliver.
Low new account growth.

They seem to be content with having low amount of heavily hooked players. This is a conservative strategy unusual for a revolutionary company. However, this may be just the right type of approach to make it work. They will probably end up being bought by Microsoft or someone like that if they play their cards right.

For a scifi game..

[Ka D'Argo]

You'd think they want a broad audience.. I've been really interested in trying out Entropy, but they don't support Vista O_O