Is Entropia a dead end?

I forgot to mention something. First off thank you for the politeness, especially on a potentially heated topic.

Now I joined PE around 03-04 range. Even then, there was some complaining of ubers and skilling. Some of it boiled down to how much time and/or money some wished to place. The rest was simply, they arrived first and skilled first. I had met some ubers who got to were they were by sweating.

With that in mind, lets assume that those ubers keep skilling. They of course will keep raising the plateau making it difficult but not impossible to catch up.

What we need is a comprehensive economy analyses that takes into account inflation, market value, depreciation, and an economical ratio for cost of living/gaming then and now.

In other words. If we break down the cost per ratio, would it show a decrease or increase in cost. An example in real life:

Here in the US the cost of living and the minimum wage was higher in the 1920's than it is now. At first glance it will not appear that way because the initial cost of some items, say a soda can, would be a nickel. While now it is 75 cents. It would appear that it was cheaper but when GNP and other such measurements are considered. It was more expensive back then.

An example in Entropia, would be sweat. One can monitor economy by the value of sweat. There was a time that one sweat equaled a pec or 2. Now it is less. At another time-frame 1k sweat brought you 10ped now it is 2.5k.

Personally, I feel that EU is looking out for the newbies more than anything. Pec-weapons, free-equipment, quest-rewards, etc...

 

That was an awesome Blog to read. Thanks for sharing =)

 

Narfi,
You seemed to be filled with great info. I admit hunting is my secondary profession mainly because I was not sure how to skill it because I never focused on it. It was harder to sell loot than ore or enmatter. That and I hunted solely for the aesthetic fun of usinf a sword on critters. A not quite, eco friendly, method.

 

That is amazing that you do that for newcomers. Kinda crazy that he was the first to discover that sword and then selling it for 1k is just plain good fortune. Gave you a rep for that ^_^

 

Well, obviously Viperstrike is an awesome person, I'm pretty sure we can all agree on that. Where we may disagree is the value in the investment Viperstrike has chosen to make, but it all really comes down to what we as subjects are entertained by. If I had a lot of money I would have spent a portion on Entropia. Why? Is it perfect? Fuck no, it ain't, and I wouldn't trust MA with a buck, but it is entertainment we cannot find anywhere else - and this is the main problem of today and simple economics: they don't have to listen to their consumers, because they have no competitors.

I just recently came back to EU from a summer break; my fingers are itching for a large deposit (a "large" deposit for me is 5k PED since I'm a student who barely makes it through the month), but since I cannot afford an investment of Viperstrike's kind, my 5k PED wouldn't be enough to sustain my living unless I wish to live like an "eco warrior".

My point is that many players hate on EU because of how expensive it is to play; that said, there's high entertainment to find if one can afford such entertainment, and in such a case I don't consider 25k USD to be a high cost.

We all wish to hate on MA because there's not much else to do but nosebleed ourselves paying for level 8 amps mining or hunting high, but the fact is that MA has given us the tools to do a lot of things. Why is Arkadia's beautiful city empty? There's a bar there. A lot of chairs, yet we hang out at the Querry. Why? Because most players' don't want to do anything else than hunt, mine and craft, and that is the ugly truth. It falls to us as players on how we wish to spend our time in the game; it's free to discuss politics, religion, drugs, literature and any other heated subject that could provide us all with intelletual stimulation - but, alas, you wish not. How hard would it really be to start a book club on classics, for instance? But the players' simply do not want to. This is one thing where MA is not to blame.

Not to mention that most EU participants seem to be over-sensitive Americans' that "wants to play a game and not discuss politics/religion/offensive subjects" (you'd be surprised on what mainstream EU-people find offensive; it's laughable, and the reason I have stayed a freelancer). Well, fuck you, then, but I personally believe that the socialization in Entropia Universe doesn't have to cost money and can benefit the small minded people of Planet Earth - free of charge.

A lot of rambling, and for that I apologize, but I just wish to point out that the responsibility of stimulation without charge is up to the players. If they are too sensitive, too stupid or simply too much interested in spending money, then there's really nothing MA can do; no matter how much art shows they place in the game, or how many beautiful rooms with chairs standing empty. The possibilities of no-charge, stimulating online-time in EU are endless, but the players are simply not interested, so what can MindArk do about it?

With regards,
Divide D. Impera

 

Hi,

awesome post, love it!
Lemme respond to some few points:

Lemme guess - maybe because it's deadly boring hanging around now, doing nothing but chatting?
Lemme compare this to Atlas Haven ages ago:

• We had a music box, and all the time someone was playing the next tune for the local area. Hanging out with Boldar wasn't only chatting, someone had to rise up and start the next tune, any other minute. And even if it was only the same 20 tunes over and over, it was fun.
• And since we all had the same tunes in the local area, we danced. Everybody tried to sync best to the sound, we tried to dance in groups, we really had fun.
• We didn't just stand around showing one of a few boring and poorly animated poses as we do today, we could sit, lay, slide on the ground. It was fun.
• In the end we only had a few simple possibilities more to juice up the chatting. But it worked, and you'd nearly always could join a group of ppl having fun together.

You recognize the common word? "Fun"? Taking away the music boxes and some of the avatar possibilities, even if many was quite silly, changed the game. The "fun" shuddered, ran away, and crouched below a well hidden stone. Where it hides until today, never found anymore.

And the avatars hiccuped, looked stupidly at each other, and went to their boring daily duties, frustrated. A small step for MA, a big disaster for the participants.

Is there anything left besides?
If I want to do an ordinary chat, I use IRC. This (a client) runs on any age-old laptop, I don't need to pay for a full-fletched gamer machine for it.

In EU I just meet too few ppl anymore, and nearly all are firmly caught in the "loot-evaluate-sell" circle - the "happy hanging out" of the old days has lost it's mechanics, and it's meaning. And thus EU has lost a lot of fun.

Offer the mechanics for it, again?

Isn't this the way that MA propagates?

• Spend insane money for the newest, even more sturdy mob, it will loot great!
• Don't care of old or weaker mobs, they'll not drop anything of value.
• Go higher, better, faster! Ignore any fun, it's all about the loot!
• Don't waste any time, get your 10K challenge done before we change the reward!

And you can summarize:

• Give us more money, NOW!

I can stand this, I had a few nice loots and am in the winning zone. I don't withdraw 'cause I don't really need the coin. But for the future of the game I don't see any bright skies. I have decided to risk my few 10K's of PEDs, and watch it until the bitter end.

PE once was such a great game, but it was reduced to the sheer gambling machine of today. I don't even think of depositing anymore. Until somebody will find the one stone, where the fun is hiding below. And is turning it, and will bring fun, joy and excitement back!

Meet you then! Have a good time!

 

THROWING IN MY TWO CENTS
I am a brand new player to Entropia. I started 4 days ago and I have played almost every MMO since Ultima Online ((Yes that far back)) Honestly, I wish I had found this yeaaaars ago... There is something about an adult only cash game that just makes everyone easier to get along with. I've not found one person I dislike in the game and that is really saying something.
As to whether it is dead or not... Who cares. The people that matter still play and new blood, like myself, will always see a good game and come running. My problem was I just never gave it a look, heard of it, but never looked at it. Maybe MindArk should advertise more?? That's up to them.

BOTTOM LINE --- The Game F-in Rocks.


Carpe Diem.

 

They should definitely advertise more, if it hadn't been for an article about the purchase of the asteroid by neverdie on a news site, I would never have known about it.

 

Hi,

Be welcome here! It's good to see new ppl coming in! I really wish that you can keep your enthusiasm, and that we'll still see you here in one more year.

Don't hesitate about posts like mine above - maybe it's actually more easy for new players to be happy with the game of today.
For us old players it's, maybe, too much of "once we could do this" and "once we could that" that blocks our line of sight. And, maybe, the knowledge that the game that we, once before ages, started with similar great verve as you do now, has morphed into another, new game; and the inability to accept this.

You might have a look at old screenshots, it was actually strange back then. Avatars looked strange, the scenery looked very strange, but anything had a certain grim, sinister atmosphere.
With only USD 25 a month you could play quite comfortable, and have a lot of possibilities. Maybe you ran dry on day 20, but then there was a lot of people everywhere, and it was quite easy to sell your loot.
A lot of ppl everywhere - yes. Port Atlantis usually was kind of of a slide show, this many ppl there. And most outposts was populated, and even in the most remote deserts you'd meet another player, once an hour.

Today it's strange again, just in another way. Not anymore grim and sinister, today it's all shiny and polished, we all look like clones of Barbie and Ken, and the cities look like the drug-influenced plan of a shopping mall for 2020, and the scenery looks like an Caribbean Island mostly (Cry influence?). We've lost the "space frontier feeling" that once made a huge part of the game.
And the game became expensive. The valuable loot more and more wandered to the "costly to kill" mobs exclusively, the "cost to kill" of these went up (HP multiplication and regeneration), and the average loot diminished in exchange to very few insanely high loots. Today I have no problem to waste my monthly USD 25 in one afternoon, only grinding mobs well below my skills, just with bit of bad luck.
And selling the loot has become troublesome - ways fewer ppl at the trading centers, and the population spread out over quite some planets.
Today, I have no problem at all to play all day long without encountering a single other player.

Ah, you see? That's us old players being unhappy, dreaming of the things that "we once could do" ;-) Not able to stop whining about the good ol' times when this game was this f-in awesome!

But maybe you understood. And, maybe, in 7 years you'll write similar posts. ;-)))

My best wishes too you, and to all other newcomers! Don't get repelled by the sour posts of us slowly decomposing oldies, read it as it's meant: "You'll be the next one to write such posts, if we can't get MA to make this game more participant-friendly.". In a few years then, or such :)

I don't think it's a matter of advertising. Day by day new players arrive, are trying this, and as long as close to all (but the few hardcores) drop within the first week/ month/ year we'll not get any serious increase in player numbers.

It's the game mechanics, it's the way loot is distributed, it's the way of MA sucking up all money that is spent without carefully calculating eco and effectiveness. It's the "making this game a big hunt for the huge jackpot", instead of providing a cool game for people that appreciate this niche. And this is what made this game enter an ever smaller niche, the niche of the gamblers.

Again my best wishes to you & fellow newcomers. Stay here, find your place, don't hesitate to ask me for help (as long as you find me on line). You are very much appreciated, and I'll go long ways to be of help.

But keep a critical view on the game, watch it developing, decide yourself what's good and what's bad, and articulate your concerns. Don't let you fool by my posts, or by those from the fan-bois.

Participate in the game and in the discussion. Be a part of it.

Thx, and have a good time!

PS: This was meant to explain the negativity of some of my posts to Downrange, to support him and give further information. +Rep added. In my little book it's all of us that make the difference, because without all of us MA would sit on empty servers.

 

EU is R.C.E wise a very bad game.
Seeing the share model on http://www.entropiauniverse.com/entropia-universe/announcements/moon/ you can understand why this game is so bad for almost all people who think they can make money trough this game.

35% of your deposits will end up at the big investors who own the planets or in this case the moon.
Many think that because you can find stuff with mark-up and thus trade smart you can overcome this loss and work towards break-even or profit.

Wrong!

Even if you succeed in getting break-even or profit it means it has to come from someone else his deposit and thus this person will experience more than 35% loss.

So in the end you see what can be confirmed by tons of people who played E.U.
You only loose in the end, one way or another.

Do not talk crap about 15 dollar MMO's because Entropia Universe has proven to be a expensive game with a always loosing formula for regular players. If a game would cost 15 dollar a month it would not take away the option it could be fun.

Have fun!

 

See the link i provided in the post.
To save time : http://www.entropiauniverse.com/entropia-universe/announcements/moon/

I was shocked also to see Entropia admit this share model with the public.
Revenue Sharing

Revenue generated through participant activity will be shared with the Moon Manager as follows:

• Activity on the moon estate by participants recruited by Moon Manager: 35%
• Activity on the moon estate by all other participants: 10%
• Activity elsewhere within Entropia Universe by participants recruited by the Moon Manager: 25%