Planet-Calypso
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Planet Calypso 2010|2 update adds 80 missions
It may be a MMO about planet colonization, but we dare you to look at the title of Planet Calypso and not imagine a neverending Jamaican party resort. In any case, the Planet Calypso team is pleased as punch to announce its 2010|2 update, which includes a whopping 80 new missions. You may recall that the 2010|1 update introduced the mission system back in February of this year. 20 of these new missions are dedicated to the mysterious Cyclops volcano (which also appeared with the 2010|1 update), with the remaining 60 devoted to the "Iron Challenge" of finding and exterminating the local critters. The latter is done, to quote the patch notes, "in order to raise awareness of firearms issues." The 2010|2 update comes with a few other additions, as well as a trunk full of bug fixes. You can read the full patch notes over at the Planet Calypso site.
Planet Calypso's David "Deathifier" Storey talks about his purchases
MMOs are a big business these days, and even though they're not real items, a lot of the goods within a given game are worth quite a bit of money. This is transparently true of Second Life, but hardly limited to it -- witness, for example, the real-world price of EVE Online's ships. Or, take David Storey, alias Deathifier, alias "that guy who spent a whole lot of money on Planet Calypso items in auctions." And he's spent quite a lot of money -- in the game world, he owns both an island and a staggeringly expensive egg with a yet-undisclosed purchase. So why did he buy it? As he puts it in a recent interview available on Forbes.com, the same reason people make any expensive purchase -- because it makes you feel good. According to the interview, it's not as if the investment has been a poor business decision. The virtual island he bought in Planet Calypso for $26,500 brings in roughly $100,000 a year, as he uses it for a rare game preserve and taxes local hunters. The full piece has more information on his outlook and business practices, as well as a brief overview of the markets of virtual worlds and MMOs in general.
Planet Calypso debuts their new mission system with a bang
A literal bang, actually. Not only has Planet Calypso updated to version 2010|01 (their new system uses the year and update number, rather than version number) but they've also had a small volcanic eruption that's changed part of the map. Blizzard, eat your cataclysmic heart out. While the newly re-terraformed area of Cyclops has been visually improved by the team and patched in under the 'guise of a volcanic explosion, the version update also brings the anticipated mission system to Calypso. The mission system, which is in a public beta, more or less, is only currently offering 5 tutorial missions to newbies landing on Calypso for the first time. Once you complete those five missions, be sure to offer your feedback in the survey that pops up at the end. That information will be used to make more missions for higher level players, so don't be stingy! Also, there's fish. Remember those fish we showed last time? Yeah, those fish. If you value your ankles, you'll watch where you swim.
Planet Calypso welcomes their new community manager while looking to the future
The team over at First Planet Company, the minds behind the MMO/Second Life hybrid Planet Calypso, have recently welcomed a brand new community manager onto their staff -- Hanne Einan Gulbrandsen. Gulbrandsen is the game's first dedicated community manager, bringing the virtual world in line with the company practices of other MMO companies. But, while Gulbrandsen settles into his new office and title, First Planet Company has also detailed their development roadmap for this year -- going over future additions such as vehicles, a new questing/mission system, and the addition of fish to the world (as shown above.) The mission system will finally give Calypso MMO style storyline quests, offering players a new way to play the game and experience the planet's lore. How these new quests will impact the game's real money-based economy will be interesting, especially if doing them offers in-game rewards.
Planet Calypso player pays nearly $70,000 for virtual egg
Planet Calypso continues to bring in the big spenders. At the end of December, word got around that a Planet Calypso player had won an auction for the Crystal Palace Space Station, paying $330,000 real world cash for the item. A few years ago, another player mortgaged his home to pay around $100,000 for a virtual nightclub in Planet Calypso. Hold off on the laughter, though: the nightclub wound up turning quite a profit, and the space station looks to be well on its way to the same. 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.
Man buys virtual space station for 330k real dollars
Welcome back to Joystiq's Flip This House, finding you the best deals in gaming real estate! This week, we're looking at a doozy of a fixer-upper: it's a beautiful space station called the Crystal Palace, with multiple fine amenities, including four bio-domes (full of alien species to hunt), Trade and Revival Terminals, a working auctioneer, and the universe-famous Stahlsteiner's bar. In case you haven't figured it out yet, it's a virtual place, and did we mention the asking price? 330,000 real world dollars. That's what MMO Planet Calypso (formerly Entropia Universe) player "Buzz Erik Lightyear" paid to "own" an in-game hub. As you can see above, he paid 3.3 million "Project Entropia Dollars" for the virtual real estate, and those PED were purchased with real dollars -- 330k of them. What does he get for his money? The station is one of the nicer setups in the virtual universe, and since players pay PED to shop, hunt, and hang out there, "Erik" can set tax rates on the payments, and turn fake bucks back into real cash. We're not sure how much real cash (depends on where he sets the rates, and that will affect the place's popularity as well), but it'll probably be a while before he can ... flip... this... house! [Thanks, Kreyg]
Crystal Palace Space Station auction tops 330,000 US dollars
Remember a while back when we mentioned that the Crystal Palace Space Station went up for sale in Planet Calypso, marking the start of another insane bidfest to claim what could be a very real source of income? Well, the auction is over and the winner has been declared -- Buzz "Erik" Lightyear has taken control of Crystal Palace for the very, very hefty sum of 3,300,000 PED. For those of you who want to know the real world value, you're looking at a cool 330,000 dollars. While this seems insane (and it probably is, to some degree), Mr. Lightyear will be looking at revenue coming in from the hunting conducted on the space station, plus the purchases made there. In short, this space station is a walking money generator, especially as it's the only place to find alien body parts used to make high-end armor. All Buzz has to do is let the station run, set a decent tax rate, keep it stocked with things to hunt, and he can take all the PED he earns and translate it into cold, hard cash. For all of the bidding insanity, check out the full coverage of the auction over at Entropia Planets.
Patch 10.6 for Planet Calypso brings item enhancements and a new critter
The hybrid virtual world / MMORPG Planet Calypso has recently leveled up to version 10.6 and has introduced the brand new system of item enhancement to the game as well as the winner of a community contest.Item enhancement is very much like it sounds -- a way to upgrade and customize your weapons and armors -- but it works more like an item leveling system than a crafting component. As players use items, they will now rank up into tiers. Tiers upgrade the item itself, but they also unlock spaces on the weapon called sockets. Players can add connectors onto the sockets to further customize the item's statistics, but be careful! Connectors can break during the use of an item, but they can be stacked to minimize damage.Also, the large Proteron has made an appearance on the planet! The creature is the result of the community "Create-A-Critter" contest, so congratulations are in order for Apsara Sofia Rozenkreutz! Congratulations!For all of the patch note goodness, check it out on the main site.
Who wants to buy a virtual spacestation?
You sir! Can I interest you in this pristine virtual space station? No? Ma'am! Over here ma'am! How would you like to live amongst the stars in a brand new virtual space station? If you think this post is a silly post, then think again. Planet Calypso (formerly Entropia Universe) really is auctioning off one of their virtual space stations to their players, making this the third time that a major piece of Calypso property has been auctioned off to a private party. This time it's the Crystal Palace Space Station that's up for auction, one of Calypso's long time prime off-world hunting grounds. What makes this auction so newsworthy is the fact that it will be conducted through Planet Calypso's auction systems using PED (Project Entropia Dollar), which basically makes the virtual space station worth real money, as the PED needs to be purchased by the player with real world currency.
Go out and steal oil in Planet Calypso's 10.1 update
In a move to make our virtual lives eerily more like our real ones, the First Planet Company has re-opened the oil pumping station on Planet Calypso with patch 10.1, offering all players the chance to make a quick profit by grabbing oil from the pump -- if you can make it out alive, of course.The pumping station is not only in the middle of the wasteland, but it's also surrounded by angry NPCs (the wastelanders) and it's right in the middle of an open PvP area. Sure, you can make a tidy profit by grabbing oil from the station, but you have to be efficient and sneaky about it. Otherwise, you'll just end up with a bullet in your back and your blood mixed with the oil.
Blue Mars: An interview with Avatar Reality's CEO, Jim Sink
As Blue Mars goes into a scaled, open beta, interest has been rising in Avatar Reality's virtual environment. Inevitably, it's compared to Linden Lab's Second Life and – rightly or wrongly – will probably be wearing that comparison for some years to come. Certainly, Second Life users have found the environment intriguing so far. It seemed only proper that we sit down with Jim Sink, Avatar Reality's CEO and find out a little bit more about Blue Mars.
Rumor: Blue Mars to go into open beta on September 2nd?
According to an anonymous source, the new virtual world game on the block, Blue Mars, might be entering into open beta on September 2nd. What does this mean for you? Well, it means that another CryEngine 2 MMO might be making an appearance soon to do battle with Planet Calypso.Currently we are unable to confirm the exact time of the opening of the Blue Mars open beta, but we can confirm that the game has been shut down and is being prepared for the "public beta" according to posts on the forums.Blue Mars is the middle ground between Second Life and Planet Calypso. Where Planet Calypso acts as a game with a real money economy and Second Life allows all users to create content and change the world to their preferences, Blue Mars signs up and approves select developers to create content for their world. Standard users will have the ability to open up small shops and/or purchase living quarters (at the developer's preference) as well as interact with the games and events the ruling developer sets up for their players.
The second golden age now occuring in Planet Calypso
CryEngine 2 is pretty. Really pretty. So pretty, in fact, that we added a rainbow to the above picture, just to amplify the already intense pretty with more pretty. Ronnie James Dio would be proud of us today.But, if you haven't guessed, Planet Calypso is back online and is proudly sporting their new graphics engine with glee. Did you know that this is the first time the night ever passed over Calypso, as they never had a day/night cycle before? Now you know.Also, as promised, today marks the opening of The Second Golden Age of Calypso event along with the upload of version 10.5. During this event, special rare items will be dropped throughout the world. These items will only be available for this event, so if you're an avid player of Planet Calypso or were looking to give the free-to-play game a try, now would be a pretty good time to do it.However, you don't have to rush if you don't want to. The Second Golden Age will continue all the way until Christmas, so that gives you a good four months of event time to rack up all of those special goodies.[Thanks, Dargon!]
Planet Calypso, formerly Entropia Universe, converts to CryEngine 2
In just two days, Planet Calypso, formerly Project Entropia and Entropia Universe, will be shutting down for a major patch of epic proportions. The game will be undergoing a graphical refit, moving from their old graphics engine to the new CryEngine 2 -- the same engine that powers Crysis and upcoming virtual world Blue Mars. Old and busted, meet the new hotness.The new version of the client, version 10, is now available for download before this whole conversion process takes place. The servers will be shut down on Sunday night/Monday morning at midnight UTC as version 10 is deployed to the servers. The servers will be unavailable for a few days, as the First Planet Company does a full diagnostic on the servers to make sure everything is good to go.
New MMO announced from the Entropia Universe platform: Planet Calypso
It seems Entropia Universe has fully embraced the "world building" aspect of its virtual space. Evolving from a virtual world to a virtual world development platform, MindArk has announced the creation of a new subsidiary named First Planet, which will operate, develop and market a new MMO entitled Planet Calypso. Since this MMO will be created through Entropia's guidance and tools, it will be built on the Entropia Universe platform and be considered one of EU's planets. The scope of First Planet won't stop at Planet Calypso, though. It has been created to "solely focus on platform development suitable for a wide range of industries interested in utilizing the opportunities of the 3D internet." Other upcoming planets include Creative Kingdom, China Recreative Dreamland, Next Island and See. Find out more information on the press release and MindArk's plans with their upcoming platforms at Worlds in Motion or the Entropia Universe website.
The 2008 Massive Multiplayer Online World Championships
Friday, November 23, 2007 will see the opening of this year's Massive Multiplayer Online World Championships (MMOWC), the first part of which will take place in Club NeverDie, which you'll recall was bought by Jon 'NeverDie' Jacobs as an investment, for $100,000. This year, the finals will be held in Miami, Florida, on Sunday, December 16. According to the press release, "Gamers who make it to the finals will have the option of an all expenses-paid weekend trip to South Beach, FL, where they will be filmed in a hot new reality show, hosted by superstar gamer NeverDie. The champion will win a land Area on Planet Calypso in the Entropia Universe worth more than $20,000 USD. The land area will feature hunting and mining taxation rights, which will provide the winner with a profitable real cash monthly income."Sounds like NeverDie is making the most of his investment. I wonder if he'll offer the winner some low-APR bank loans as well?(Note: Although the referring article consistently reads '2008' for the date, it's obviously going to be 2007)(Via businesswire)
