EntropiaPlanets Presents: Interview with the New Owner of Dome 1 on CND

DOME 1 ON THE CND ASTEROID HAS A NEW OWNER
By EntropiaPlanets MediaCenter, MindStar9

On Monday, August 9th, NEVERDIE announced that Biodome 1 on the asteroid Club NEVERDIE is now owned by joe jeff xXSqUaLLXx. It not only generated a flurry of congratulations, but curiosity to know more about the man behind the purchase!

Inspired by the news, the EP staff kicked it into high gear to capture the scoop, starting with our MrAdmin who notified MrsAdmin, who in turn immediately connected with Squall. The new dome owner was gracious enough to give us an interview based on questions that our lovely in-house Nun provided, and following are the responses to the questions.

What is your in-game avatar name?
I am joe jeff xXSqUaLLXx, but most people call me squall.

How many years have you been playing EU?
I have been playing "seriously" since April 2006, but created this avatar in October 2004. I had another avatar before when I was younger, but I couldn’t deposit at that time.

What is your age, and where are you from in real life?
I am 25 years old, French, and from the South of France.

What is your main profession in EU?
I am a crafter mainly, but I kinda did every profession to the maximum and ended up being a full-time crafter, with a little mining if I have the spare time.

Up until now, what have been your favorite moments in EU?
There have been so many good moments it’s hard to give any, so I’ll just give an old time good moment when I used to hunt with friends naked (yes, I am talking of in-game :P) with ML35 and no skills. We used decoys hunting big beasts like spiders, and staying alive. That was the good old times and a big challenge.

What have been your main reasons for playing EU?
I have always loved MMORPG’s, and when I heard about EU and tried it, it was just the higher level of it. Nothing came close to it, and I always wondered how a real cash economy and an already great game at this time had even been possible to exist.

I was intrigued by PED tied to USD, and loved the mature community from the start, along with the link to the real world.

What is your general view on Neverdie selling the CND domes separately?
I think that ND finally selling domes separately is a good thing. As it’s been said before, multiple owners caring about their asset, as well as making competitions and whatever else is possible, can only be good for CND itself.

I hope people that get domes will take care of their baby, as I will try, even if there is not really much to do apart from being dynamic on each dome owned.

Most who have been playing EU for a while will know you have been an avid miner at Club NEVERDIE, so was it a logical step for you to try and purchase a dome?
Since the beginning of last year, I wanted to get into land owning. It was like the Holy Grail for me, and one thing I didn’t accomplish yet in-game. I had many opportunities last year, but they didn’t come through for some reason.

My dream was getting a dome more than anything, so when ND started to say he wanted to sell individual domes, I went crazy and started to sell many things. I took a loss just to get fast cash, but in the next days he decided to sell CND as a “whole,” so I thought, once again, an opportunity that won’t happen for me (after CP, after wanting to get Twin Mall and a few things in between).

The sale of CND started taking a very long time, and that’s where I thought I might be able to buy it as a whole by taking out a loan, and getting the collateral I needed as well. When I couldn’t get the collateral for the bank, I thought it was the end.

Then yesterday, after coming back from the beach very tired, I received a PM from ND telling me that the individual domes were up for sale again!

Then the crazy night started. Red Bull ready, a thanks to Lootius (I mean thanks God), and I saw it coming together. I had some spare cash, and after selling many things cheap, I went straight to the point with ND.

I had a few domes in mind, and told him that I had xxxK PED ready, but wanted to know what buyout he wanted for the domes I was interested in.

We finally agreed on a price that I had proposed for dome 1, which wasn’t one of the domes I wanted at first, but one that I wanted more seemed to be on hold for now.

Would you share with us your motivation for buying CND Dome 1? Why Dome 1, exactly? Do you have any specific connection with that dome in particular?
The dome 1 buy was because I used to pass by there a lot when I was a miner, and always saw people around there. Also because of the good speculations from stats provided, even if only for 15 days, and because it’s the first one as well. Actually not that much good reasons I guess :P, but his dome was better than other possibilities I had, and I wanted to get it ASAP.

What plans do you have for the mob DNA in the dome? Will you keep it as it is now with mostly Ambulimax, or will you be adding (or removing) DNA to build up the dome a bit?
I don’t have real plans for the DNA. I think there is no point to keep it, but I will wait to see how it goes as it is. It should probably be a miner’s place only. If I see that it needs to be killed, I will do it when I see that my returns are good enough already.

You mentioned that you will plan some events in order to pull the crowd in. Do you have anything specific that you have planned yet?
I’m thinking of starting a competition very soon, probably based on amount of globals, I’m not sure yet. It needs to be appealing, so I guess the first competition will be tests on my side, trying to find a good balance, and seeing if I get good feedback on it of course. If all is better than I think, then I will lower taxes as time passes.

Will you take any precautions to ensure the deed does not accidently gets TTed? *runs and hides*
No, I will be happy to TT the deed and provide MA with one more free K PED, but if it happens again, it would probably be after a very high party time, and I would have a better chance at throwing myself from my 5th floor apartment than TT’ing it :D

What does the future look like for you in your dreams, or vision for Dome 1?
I think the future is going to be a blast for the EU platform, especially when you look at how our game has evolved, and how many partners are investing in MindArk and building planets.

They will have to bring their own customers and create diversity in the game, and end up making their own advertising one way or another. That we will have 30 planets, each with active populations as much as Calypso, is certainly better.

I believe EU is getting stronger and stronger, and more positive than negative as time passes. Maybe one day it will be the new “WoW?” I am probably too optimistic, but all I see makes me feel this way, so I hope it actually becomes that strong.

Are you aiming for a specific new goal now that your goal and dream for 2 years has finally happened?
For now, my only dream is getting more land in the future, and getting better at crafting. Who knows what will happen along the way.

Tell us what you were thinking yesterday when you realized you owned one of the domes on the very famous asteroid.
When I finally got the dome, I felt relief and happy. I just couldn’t believe it actually happened this time. I was proud and happy, but also scared at the same time, because it’s all new.

How did your friends and soc mates react? (how did 'the world' react in general)
Most people were very cheerful, but I got kinda harassed all times I was on. :P My mates were really happy for me, and it seems that some still don’t believe it, even after reading it.

What did your real life family say when you told them that you spent so much USD purchasing an online virtual property?
My family has known for a long time what I’ve been doing, and some are deep in my world. It took time to make them understand that it’s more than a game.

I mean after all, when I started to take it seriously, just as any real life corporation starting from nothing, it was a long hard path with many stresses along the way, and pressure from all around me. I was really playing to the maximum for too long before showing I’m not just doing it for nothing, and showing proof.

And slowly, I made my family and friends enter my world, but it’s hard to explain it all. It would be long to resume my own journey in the game, but after all those years, I have made something in EU that I never thought would take me this far.

Do you have any good advice that you can share with your fellow Entropians about dreams and goals, etc?
As for dreams, everyone evolved differently from when I played for fun. With time, I understood some things about the system, and decided to try making something in EU. Then I just thought out of the box, grinded hard, and evolved through times to get to where I am.

It was very hard, but anyone can do the same even now. It just depends on how much you can involve yourself. Determine what your real dreams are (making a business in the end, or other factors?), and make sure to get knowledge about the game and not repeat the same errors twice.

One thing is for sure, it was as hard as someone opening a business in real life with almost nothing, and all that without reselling (apart from a little bit I did very long ago when I was just a guy playing for fun and depositing his share before 2006 to survive, but it’s not like I made PEDs out of it :P), and only from pure activities like hunting, mining, and crafting.

Gratz! I hope it works out well for you. I'll be sure to make Dome 1 my first stop on my next trip up.

Ty :) but MindStar made it, I just made the questions and the banner! It's a real teamwork-job So credit to MindStar but indeed also to Squall, for being so fast with the replies :)

His avatar looks stunningly alot like a rl friend of mine, minus the green hair.

Lykke is right ... it was team work all the way.

It started with Peter who alerted Lykke who alerted me on Skype where a decision was made to contact Squall ... so she shot off a PM to him immediately to see if he would do an interview.

When he said yes, then she pulled the questions together and sent them off, but it was getting late for her, so I took over, waited for the responses, and then finished off the interview so that it would be ready for her this morning to do the graphics and get it posted.

Whew, I'm exhausted just reliving that in print.

And ... Gratz again to Neverdie and Squall for the purchase of the first dome (literally) at CND.

huge huge grats dome owner XD

Nice article and gratz squall

Well, well ... I see that one dome wasn't enough.

Congratulations on also acquiring Dome #15

Now ... can you tell us if you're going for any more?