Q&A: Mindark CIO Marco Behrmann

Virtual world Entropia Universe opened its doors in 2003 and offers participants a middle ground between the 'real life' world of Second Life and the gaming environment of World of Warcraft.

Developed at Sweden-based Mindark, the virtual universe recently signed a deal with Chinese online entertainment company Cyber Recreation Development (CRD) to push its presence in Asia.

silicon.com caught up with Mindark CIO Marco Behrmann to discuss the Chinese deal, what Entropia can offer businesses and what the future holds for virtual worlds.

silicon.com: So how does the Entropia Universe differ from the likes of Second Life?
Behrmann: Entropia Universe is a virtual universe based around a real cash economy. We are unique in the aspect that we have a fixed exchange rate to the US dollar with our virtual currency – called the Project Entropia Dollar (PED). The exchange rate is fixed with 10PED to $1.

But the unique feature here is not that you enter real cash into a virtual system, it is that Mindark also has a system in place to withdraw virtual funds into real funds based on the same fixed exchange rate.

A lot of big businesses are setting up virtual offices in Second Life - what's your strategy to attract companies?
Having the fundamental safe and secure framework for the real cash economy, as well as a basic storyline where avatars build up a virtual society, is something that most people and businesses will find very interesting and want to take part in.

When we add real companies to Entropia Universe we don't want them just to have a three-dimensional ad space or a three-dimensional web space standing inside Entropia Universe.

We want the company to be an active part of the storyline and add content to participants within Entropia Universe as well.

So if BMW wanted to open up a virtual showroom in Entropia, as it has done in Second Life, what would you say?
If BMW were to enter Entropia Universe then we would want vehicles with the BMW brand and that also have some sort of performance bonus compared to generic vehicles.

In other words, a participant interacting in Entropia gets not just the usual BMW advertising message but an experience and BMW gets feedback on its virtual motors.

How will the China deal impact on the virtual universe?
It's going to have a big impact and will attract 150 million people.

Entropia has a vision of a universe with several planets within it where everything is completely open. So if you join Calypso, the virtual world's current planet, you can travel to a Chinese planet or any other planet that some of our future partners will open up.

The deal is also predicted to provide 10,000 jobs in China – what are all those people going to do?
The 10,000 people will come in various forms, such as developers and content creators. It will also include people who set up virtual jobs and create businesses and trading opportunities within the Entropia Universe.

Are they paid in PED?
No, we don't pay any of our participants; it's what they can make in the universe.

The people who are expected to work will be normal people, not associated with CRD or Mindark. They have Entropia Universe as a platform for creating their own entrepreneurial visions and ideas.

As a relatively new player in the virtual world market, what have been your biggest challenges?
The biggest challenge would have been moving alone into the Asian market.

There are a lot of legal and cultural differences and having a partner like CRD is very suitable for us because it creates a win-win situation: CRD knows its own market and has access to a platform that is ready to be used immediately to build their own vision.

Where do you see Entropia Universe in five to 10 years' time?
We want Entropia Universe to be a big part of the way people communicate over the internet in the future. The human mind is set to interact in a three-dimensional environment and the web at the moment is two-dimensional.

We believe 3D will be the way of the future when it comes to communicating over the internet.

We have a grand vision that in 10 to 20 years' time Entropia Universe will be a better place to be than the real world.