Project Entropia Preview

Project Entropia may be the only massively multiplayer game where the story behind its development is as fascinating as the online world it creates. For the past two months, Swedish designer MindArk AB has been attracting more media attention for what's taking place behind the scenes than for what's going on with the game itself. Although controversy has been present all along--something that's to be expected when you're launching the first massively multiplayer game that uses real-world currency--everyone was taken aback when the company's head office was raided by agents of the Business Software Alliance (BSA) on April 23 in search of unlicensed software.

Character creation is remarkably open-ended.

"When the raid took place, MindArk's staff was forced to leave work and the entire process took about 11 hours," explained public relations officer Marco Behrmann. "The authorities' job in a case like this is to go through the computers, document software installed, but make no judgments. The companies behind this raid were Adobe Systems, Autodesk, Macromedia, and Microsoft."

According to the BSA, hundreds of unlicensed programs were found during the search. Behrmann denies that, claiming that the company has always "been vigilant in keeping record of all licenses." At present, Behrmann says that MindArk is "getting the legal process in motion" and plans to show that licenses had, in fact, been obtained.

Even with the acknowledged "setbacks" associated with the raid and MindArk's ongoing response, Project Entropia continues to move toward its projected launch date near the end of this year. A commercial beta test that has been taking place for the last few months has revealed some concepts that could eventually change the structure of massively multiplayer online games. The setting is the distant future on the planet Calypso, the first habitable world discovered by humankind. You play as a colonist hoping to help transform the planet into a paradise. The gameplay currently takes place on the barren and inhospitable continent named Eudoria. Much of its surface consists of rolling desert terrain dotted by vegetation that hasn't seen rain in years. It is most reminiscent of Australia, a fact emphasized by the use of names like "Outback" to designate certain types of equipment and the natural beauty of your surroundings.

Skill ratings allow you to customize your character.

"The landscape on Eudoria is greatly varied, with a huge volcanic area south of the city of Hadesheim called Mount Cerberus," Behrmann said. "Traveling further south will take you into a massive swampy marsh. Journeying east from Hadesheim, you will have to cross the Tethys Rivers, bringing you into the Chimera Canyon district. These are just a few examples of the variety of landscape on this continent. From any high point, the views are breathtaking."

Populated areas are few and far between at this stage of the beta test. Hadesheim is the only urban center on the current map, although the settlements of Atlas Haven and Jason Center provide rough-and-ready accommodations in the wilds. Tiny outposts can also be found in remote places, providing basic services such as teleporter connections to other areas. Beautiful landscape or not, it's clear that much of Eudoria has been left empty so players can fill in the blanks. The continent is a largely unexplored wilderness waiting for someone to exploit it, something that Behrmann says is completely intentional.