There are actually quite a few barriers to entry for Entropia Universe. First is the complicated install; many people might balk at giving their address, or give up on the massive download. Mine actually froze once during the download process and had to be restarted. Second, the inability to play outside of full-screen mode, or even minimize during play. If you want to do anything at all on your computer outside of Entropia Universe, you've gotta log out-- period. There may indeed be a way to run it differently, but for the life of me I couldn't find one, which brings me to the third hangup-- the controls are positively arcane, even for an experienced gamer; I can't imagine that newer or more casual users would find it accessible.

However, Entropia's users are both adept and enormously supportive-- one could, theoretically, deposit oneself in the middle of the world without any clue, and a kind individual, or a collective of more experienced users, would explain things to you until you got it. It's surprising how many experienced users will so readily obligate themselves to new ones through the mentorship program, but it's a wonderful aspect.

Technical issues aside, Entropia's entry curve is still enormously steep. The degree of limitation that non-paying users will experience can be frustrating-- especially with the illusion of being able to change it. Inevitably, you could-- by sucking sweat off of field monsters over and over and over again until you'd saved enough for a gun. Not exactly the most entertaining way to spend time! Some gamers, though, actually enjoy such patently imbalanced odds, and appreciate the process of scraping their way up from zero. With a mentor's assistance, broadening the gameplay a little bit is possible on a much speedier timeline. Still, it's hard to tell whether really complex, sustainable gameplay could ever become possible without paying dollars, even with the ability to earn them.

In fact, the ability to earn real-world money is the pivotal fixture of Entropia's self-marketing; links to news stories abound describing people buying and selling Entropia property for tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, but this is definitely somewhat misleading. Earning PED is often a matter of luck in scoring good loot, and since in-game items rapidly wear, break and require repair and replacement, keeping up earning potential is in itself a constant expense. At best, highly active users might break even, earning back their de facto cost of play, or minimizing incurring further expense after a certain point.

While the majority of the chat interaction revolves around sale and trade, it seems likely that the users who enjoy Entropia are more interested in its play mechanics than earning potential-- I met a lot of serious, hours-per-day users in my travels there, who simply seemed dedicated to the game. Hard to pinpoint, then, what's the biggest draw for them-- whether they're the type who love the typical accumulation grind, or whether they merely enjoy Entropia's exceptional, engaging setting. If you're going to role-play a fantasy colonist or shoot the breeze, though, you might be out of luck-- socialization isn't common, and despite an A-Z list of copious, variegated emote animations for your character, they're rarely used.

Overall, though, Entropia has an addicting re-visit value, shortcomings aside, simply because of the sheer number of things to see and do. I spent plenty of time just hiking the landscape by myself; the map is absolutely enormous, and that only covers the single continent I visited. Since your map isn't marked with any locations you haven't actually been to yet, the feel of exploring beautiful uncharted territory makes the experience almost like a free-form adventure game, even when you're alone.