1. Sure it will, most MMO's typically last for a very long time, even as their population decreases, and content grows dull. There's typically a minimal loyal fanbase.
2. I perceive that an increase in auction pages not a good thing, it suggests to me that there are more sellers than buyers for various items, hence the reason many items go without a bid. People "fight" for that tiny market of buyers, some win, most lose. Mindark wins regardless your item sells or not, so you relist but this time you ensure it sells. Increasing the page count may not be a good thing, unless your goal is to saturate a market, to bring pricing down.
3. I'm sure there will be taming and more. There will be useless features, and very cool features. If it involves earning an income for the company, all options are open. The company as a whole, has to take a little from every hobby.
4. In my opinion, there should be less interest in expansion, and more interest in generating interest in the game, to attract new gamers. Already the game seems like a ghost town most of the time to me in many areas, that's a bummer. However, I think financial obligations have Mindark stretched where they have to perform more financially to keep going. Luxury may have to take a back seat to obligation, which suggests to me why we have fund raising in the form of deeds today. I'm not clear why, but ponzi seems to come to mind, where much depends on the newest entries to the world. I personally hope there are no more than what we have today, until the population can grow into what is provided.
7. They would never remove them, no need for that. They can simply modify the payout as they see fit for operation, but it would never drop completely to zero. While we can see now, they will never rise in payout given their current standing, they will only continue to fall unless measures are taken to introduce new people to this game. It will make no difference to Mindark what happens to the price, after Planet Calypso is paid for, the rest is gravy. Like all things, it would appear to be a very slow gradual decline, not a fast acellerated freefall.
Closing:
I've been a gamer for 30 years, online and offline, owned most hardwares ever offered, gamed in compitition, and completed many thousands of titles in my time. MMO's have been some of the most enjoyable experiences to date. Entropia Universe, while beautiful in scope, offers a very high difficulty of gameplay for the average individual, one where they typically will not stay for very long - I perceive this to be a flaw - it largely skews the total of registered accounts, against those that are active. The various environment and actions that make up EU, can be experienced elsewhere independently, but not all at once like it is here within one world. The casino that makes up EU, is highly intriguing for sure, but the game is built on a hope. There is still much work to do to make this a world class title. Yes it is true that fortunes can be made, but most people do not, perhaps they simply enjoy above average MMO playstyle. Graphics, well there's other titles that can beat out EU, both in story and repetitious type nature. Storywise, Final Fantasy 11 and 14 destroys everything story based, and offers scenery to boot. Population, well, I think we can see we are relatively lacking here in EU, compared to most other titles that "only" require a subscription base. That means your financial survival comes based upon subpar participation of community numbers.
With the introduction of land type deeds, it suggests to me that this developer has difficulty finding funding. That's a negative outlook on a title in my opinion. However, this can be a measure of health of the economy, as you most likely won't find these deeds to increase in payout value. If these represent the economy as a whole in partial amounts divided among individuals, it showcases the income trend of the title, which is in decline. As for the economy itself, it amazes me that there's so much "fight" for razor thin profits in this game, especially among the high dollar traders on auction. It's very competitive, and that hurts moral, is if you lose most often, how long will you really stick around?
The bottom line is this for me. I'm from the US, and not once, never once have I ever seen an EU advertisement in my life prior to joining this game. Maybe I'm out of the loop and just missed everything offered, but I've never seen one outside of being in the club, and going online to see it. I've seen every other title out there across the spectrum. It was through my own online research in wanting to try something new, that I tried this title. It was very unfriendly at first, which is why I went away for years. Coming back on and off, it's still not all that friendly. Investing many hours in research, chipping in, playing eco with dozen of skills in the thousands, it's still blah. Maybe it's me, but I expect more "something" from all the hours of research invested, ped invested, etc. If I feel this way, how does the average noob feel, who may not scrape up 5-10 ped in their entire time here? Maybe they try a week, deposit $20, then quit? That's NOT a sustainable game model.
While I don't claim to have the answers, I do know this. This title has the highest learning curve of all titles, with little enticement to keep newbies sticking around. There's that rare gem that's up to the challenge, he'll stick around and invest heavily. Without new blood, you have absent planets, former avatars retiring, and CLD's that continue to decline in value. Without new blood, without the advertising, you have people scavenging off a declining population base. How long does a model like this last? I can't tell you that, I will speculate Entropia Universe, if it doesn't do a massive overhaul of it's advertising campaign, will implode upon itself in the future. Most sucessful MMO's toss out their paying member count, why don't we have anything like this?
I would love for the title to flourish, but I just don't see it as anything but getting by. That said, I've played my piece, enjoyed my time here for a short while, will be moving on again soon. May come back around to keep the account active. "That'" is what I'm talking about, great titles keep people around consistantly.
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, then again it has been silent on caly front for quite some time now.....) Price won't increase too much because of all the alternatives. If there were no alternatives it would hit 2k, now i think 1400-1500 max in 5 years.
