I have been thinking about this over the last two days. I wrote a brief highlight piece about the sale/auction of the Entropian virtual land property, Crystal Palace.

As mentioned in our article and the one posted by Entropia Planets, Buzz Erik Lightyear, a player on Entropia, the MMO with a real cash economy, placed the final bidding blow at just about 3.3 Million PEDs (roughly $330,000 USD). That is quite a sum for a virtual property but I am sure it is every bit worth it and Buzz will likely pull in some good income off the property in the years ahead.

Crystal Palace Station

Crystal Palace Station Common Area

Now what does this mean to us on Project Planet Postmoderna? The dynamics of the Virtual World, MMORPGs and the Gaming Community (inclusive of Social Network Gaming) in general has evolved a lot over the years. Payments through everything from per/month subscriptions to pay-to-play-up or free-to-play (which really is barely-free) drive the games. The Real Cash Economy games are those that give players ownership in their avatar (s) and their property. The game(s)’ governing company receives a good part of the revenues derived from player transactions within the game but, the general idea is that the economy is driven by the player community. Needless to say, ownership of virtual property is a new market and very hard to grasp by people that don’t play in these gaming entertainment arenas.

Planet Partners in the game Entropia are companies that are leveraging these concepts to build their own planet. Ownership of these planets, sub-games of the Entropia Universe, pay parts of their revenues (about 60%) to Mindark, the owner of Entropia. This may sound like a lot to give up but it covers access and usage of the already established Entropia Universe’s RCE model, Mindark’s CryEngine2 license and usage of the Development Kit for the game. Basically, this allows investment in the development of a new world property without reinventing the wheel.

Yes, there are trade-offs to this arrangement (eg. limited customization of the game) but that does not mean a lack of opportunity. After all, it’s not like an Entropia Partner Planet has not established an open-door and dialogue with Mindark for possible development of the Universe. Why would Mindark not want to take advantage of that especially if any ideas can make the game better, keep the valuable existing player and fan-base and bring in countless potential future players and account-holders.

Why us? Well, do the math. If the average player generates (based on Mindark published statistics) $1-1.50/hour (USD) of play in revenue to the parent company and Mindark, what does that mean to the total potential revenue that a creative Partner Planet can bring in? An immersive storyline, content, fun-factor and economic opportunity can do a lot to keep an existing player base and add to it. Over time, that can be a lot of money, not only to Mindark but to the Partner Planet.

Now, the other side of a commonly voiced debate is why not do this on our own? Well, a lot goes into building a brand new game and we are starting from practically nothing. In the case of Entropia we don’t need to reinvent the wheel and are in many ways, merely buying a franchise. Yes, if we start from scratch and do it all ourselves, we have more room for growth and creative expansion, but that will cost a lot of money and expertise that we don’t currently have.

We at Planet Postmoderna think we have have lots of great ideas as do say many people with like projects and dreams…lol. Still, I think we actually have something here (or I am just all-out crazy). However and regardless how great our ideas may be, we need to find funding to make anything happen or this will just be a “tortoise and the hare race” in which we are the tortoise. Odds are we will finish this race but how long will that take? I don’t know. Will the opportunity still be there to take advantage of or will we be cast to the side by a constantly-evolving industry and an embarrassing lack of financial backing? At least one thing I am rich in is persistence.

We are building a demo of our initial POI (Point of Interest, in case you didn’t know that). The idea is if we can do that, we can sell the concept to investors, players and the community alike. There may be a better and more direct approach to making this happen than this but getting investors is not easy. I believe in the idea of “show-and-tell.” I also find myself asking (actually often), if I just need to do this to prove to myself that I can do it. Pride, selfishness, you name it. I probably have all of that. My wife says I have NPD (Narcistic Personality Disorder) and maybe I do a little. Determination at all costs, that’s me and, sometimes to a fault I know. Nonetheless, I am determined and if it takes me years to do this on my own, I will. Hopefully though, the right people are watching this project and someone or several people will come out and say, “let’s help; let’s make this happen.”

So here’s to the good reasons for doing this project. Here’s to more victories like Crystal Palace. Here’s to Planet Postmoderna.