By Nicole Hamlett

Entropia Universe is garnering a lot of attention lately because of the millions of dollars in Real Money Trading that occurs in game. They showed up to Los Angeles for this year’s E for All and I had the opportunity to talk with Jason Peterson who runs the largest Entropia forum on the net; Entropia Forum.
This community just hit one million posts on the forums and is very active in spearheading the publicity that is generated for this virtual world. Jason or Neomaven, his Entropia persona explained to me how people are making the big bucks in this universe and while even though you can play for free, it’s worth the twenty dollar investment to really get ahead.

Unlike Second Life, the content in EU is not user generated. All of the items within the world are generated by the Entropia team. However, slowly but surely, there are user items making their way into the game. One instance is the new billboards or art pieces that can show user art or videos. Players can upload art and sell pieces to other players or charge for video viewings. One real world artist sells his art for $50 to $60 US per piece. I hear that he’s making a very good living.

Jason decided to make a leap and bought a shopping mall in game for $35,000 real world dollars. It took him eight days to not only make his money back but to also gain a small profit. How does this continue to make him money? He receives a “ 2.5% tax” from all of the items sold in his mall, netting him a tidy sum each month. This tax will go to him forever basically. So the initial investment is definitely proving to be intelligent.

I wonder however, if there is still room to grow within this space. Jason seems to think that there is. A recent press release stated that Neverdie, the entrepreneur to makes $20,000 per month on his in game club, just signed a deal to be an “in game” banking lender. If you have the determination and the big ideas, it’s definitely possible to make the cash here. In two years, Entropia Universe has reported that the amount of money traded in game has gone from 150,000,000 to 350,000,000 US dollars.
You can find out more about Entropia Universe and the community at http://www.entropiaforum.com  While you’re there, check out what Jason has on the horizon. Call it a Myspace for the Entropians.