Player earns 650,000 USD playing MMO "Entropia Universe"

I'd never even heard of the game Entropia Universe until a few days ago. After hearing that a player named Neverdie sold a piece of land in game for 650,000 dollars, I quickly started looking into it. Apparently it's an MMO that features a real economy. You exchange real money for Project Entropia Dollars, or PEDs, which can be cashed back into real dollars at anytime.

So how did this player manage to earn over half a million from playing? Back in 2005 he purchased an asteroid for 100,000 USD and over the years slowly built on it and turned it into what he calls "Club Neverdie". Other players pay him PEDs to be able to hunt or mine on his property and other rent small areas for themselves. He reportedly earned back his 100,000 after 8 months. He then sold Club Neverdie for the 650,000 dollars.

Monday

Over the weekend I made a few changes to the blog. I added some pages at the top for separate categories, I'll try and make it better looking eventually. But it works for now. I tried adding a few gadgets but they all sucked. I added an icon but for whatever reason the site hosting it made the transparent pixels black. Anyone know how to upload an icon into blogger?

I might end up doing something on Age of Empires 3 next week since I bought it this weekend. Did anyone else buy it? It was a promotion for Microsoft's "Steam". I don't even know what it's called, it says "Games for Windows Marketplace". Which is a dumb title.

But yeah, I'm not really motivated to write today. I had an arguement with my not girlfriend. Here's a protip, no matter how reasonable or calm you try to be, don't ever tell a girl she's doing something wrong. I'll update tomorrow or Wednesday.

After I get finished reading all your blogs, I'm going to spend the day playing Starcraft 2. I might get back into playing LotRO or some other MMO. Maybe World of Warcraft since Cataclysm is coming out soon. Or maybe get started on Age of Empires 3 or whatever popular game I feel like being able to tag this post with to get better searches.

[Review] Haven and Hearth

I wanted to do something on this game for a while now but I never got around to it before, so I figure I'd do something quick about it before I spaced it completely.

Haven and Hearth is a java based MMO in development. It's unique in that there are MANY different aspects that meet and merge into one game. Basically it's a farming-hunting-fishing-crafting-village building-survival-fully PvP game, quite a mouth full. The game is in what the devs describe as "playable alpha" so it's still under a lot of development, which is both good and bad. The client and some game aspects are unstable and there are a lot of imbalances, but on the other hand, the game gets updated and changed fairly often.

Watch their outdated trailer, it'll give you a better idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v72vZb2FL5M&

A landscape screenshots of my fort before it was destroyed.

Everything in the game is player driven. There are no quests, no NPCs (outside of hostile animals) and no shops. Players start off in random spawns and need to find resources and learn skills to survive, and it's tough. You're expected to lose a few characters in the trial process of starting out before getting settled. After learning to feed your character and survive, the next step is to build shelter. Building a house and surrounding it with a palisade wall will keep out animals. Once you have a safe spot, you need to CLAIM the land around your house. This will make it so other players can't steal your things without learning the PvP skills and leaving traceable scents. Once all that is set up, you're ready to explore and find other players and make your mark on this digital world. Not all players are friendly however, so be careful.

All in all, this game is amazingly genius. I personally can't wait for it to blossom into a finished game. If you wanna check it out here's the link. Just don't get too attached to your creations, as they reset the maps for testing periodically.

http://www.havenandhearth.com/portal/

LotRO celebrates it's annual Harvest Festival.

A few days ago, Middle Earth began it's autumn celebration "Harvestmath"in the online MMO Lord or the Rings online. Players can now enjoy a variety of fun and interesting mini games (dancing and playing tricks on towns people) and side quests, as well as explore "The Haunted Barrow", a MMO style haunted house.

Entrance to the Haunted Barrow

Players can take up quests that lead into various wings of the Barrow and uncover all sorts of "spooky" secrets in return for tokens that can be traded for various cosmetic items.

Oh look, the ghost is a just hobbit with a sheet.

The Barrow acts as a maze, full of moveable walls, trick doors, and spooky "traps". The traps aren't traps in the normal sense, but places that trigger events that scare your character, such as bats flying around his head or spirits holding him in place for a short while. It's not too hard to navigate but it takes a few minutes to get used to everything.

I wonder what's in the barrel...

OH GAWD IT'S HILLARY CLINTON

Anyways, it's nothing too serious. Some fun quests and mini games that offer decent costume cosmetic rewards and silly emotes. There's also the option to raise reputation with the Inn League or the Ale Association, so there's a ton of things to keep you busy. It does a good job of providing a change of pace compared to normal game play. Being new to the game, I was pretty impressed.

Also, for anyone who plays and hasn't found it yet, there's a fake wall in the basement that has a little something special waiting for people who find it. It's not that hidden, but in case anyone if looking for it...

The right part of these barrels is the hidden door.

And as a side note, Lord of the Rings is now free to play. It's limited, but you can enjoy the game without paying anything and enjoy most of the features. If you're upset at the recent fail of FF14 and need an MMO to hold you over for Cataclysm, I'd recommend giving this a shot. Despite what you'd think, it's actually a good game.

EDIT: For some reason only the first picture is linking correctly, hopefully I can fix it later but I'm frustrated with it now.