'Next Island' sci-fi MMORPG with time travel

[jefferiestubes8]

http://www.nextisland.com/

Next Island is the latest company to launch an ambitious virtual world. But this sci-fi adventure paradise comes with an interesting twist: time travel. The company is announcing today that it is building a world in MindArk’s massively multiplayer online virtual universe, Entropia Universe.

Next Island will be the “planet” going live in the virtual universe. Its private beta begins in less than 30 days.
The back story is that the rich people of the world buy a set of islands and then create an isolated paradise hidden from the rest of the world. One of the islands has a portal into time which can be used to visit places


That means it has licensed virtual world technology from MindArk, whose technology is behind Planet Calypso, which until now has been the only virtual world in the Entropia Universe.

They can create, purchase and trade virtual goods within the world, which lets them cash out, converting virtual money into real world money. That’s because Entropia runs its own virtual bank, which has been recognized as a real bank by Sweden (Entropia Universe is based in Sweden.)

It will be interesting to see if the world takes off. Virtual worlds have been in a funk during the recession, with many of them dying off before launch. Much of the excitement has now shifted to social networks such as Facebook, where social games are simpler and less complicated than 3-D worlds like Second Life.

November 23, 2009
http://venturebeat.com/2009/11/23/n...d&utm_campaign=Feed:+Venturebeat+(VentureBeat)

The article goes into more details and has two screengrabs.

I'm not sure after the Beta period how this will work if you are officially 'playing' Entropia Universe and must have an Entropia account or if you are playing 'Next Island' and have only a Next Island account.