...I agree. This is why we need to cut this time in half, or else we scare away non-depositors. Doing so is severely limiting our economy to depositors only, and although they are our top spenders, you still are dismissing a huge chunk of potential income....
Crone's recommendation to go to the nearest psych does not change at 4 ped per kilo; that's 2 ped per hour and equals a value of $ 0.20. Crone does not see any sweater for longer than the first couple of hours as potential income. Those are free to play players. It doesn't really matter how Crone looks at it, they cost money. If not directly from Crone, it costs MindArk money, which they will immediately charge to Crone or others.
saying "People sweating for 5 hours are insane" and then turning around and saying "but for those people crazy enough to do it: I'm still going to undercut you" is a bit backwards, don't you think? It's this mindset that causes new players to leave. And, like it or not: every time a player walks, so does a few potential sales. It's basic retail practice.
It's not backwards at all. Sweating for a long period of time with the sole purpose of hunting for 15 minutes is crazy. The fact that those sweaters are willing to sell for less, does not mean they are being undercut, it just confirms the earlier assumption they should see a psych. That doesn't change the fact anyone paying 2 ped / kilo is currently paying too much.
You keep saying they have more ped -> they will buy crafted weapons. A good mentor would tell the sweating disciple to spend his ped wisely and use that rubio he looted on the last run. His 20 ped ammo, no need to buy a gun at all, will last for 1 hour. If the disciple cycles through his loot in a good way it will last for a couple more hours. If the new player decides the weapon is too small, the mentor will tell him to get a tt gun to avoid mu.
The assumption that a better funded sweater will buy a crafted or looted weapon for that matter, is incorrect in Crone's opinion.
A customer that has no money to spend is no customer. Also basic retail practise.
There will always be people selling for less, this is true. But those people need to view that as a Mistake, like someone selling a gun for too low would. If we can foster that kind of environment it would benefit us all.
Paying too much for your purchases is counted as bad business. It could even be counted as bad management which is punnishable in case of bankruptcy.
That's not true, because you're not factoring in the change in player retention that the increase will have.
They are non depositers. If they buy your goods it is financed with ped from other players who are not buying your goods. Their hard earned dollars are being used by free to play players. Therefore they cannot spend it themselves.
Let's say that right now, 1 out of every 10 players stays.
Paying players and maybe 1 out of 1000 free to play players.
Let's say that person sells 5 k of sweat to you at 2 ped, and buys two things from the auction house for 10 ped. Money gone. everyone nets a loss.
Crone assumes you meant Trade Terminal here. It's not a loss, the guy goes hunting, he loots stuff.
now, lets say three out of every ten players stay.
That is triple the amount of players generating (eventually) 2000 free to play players paid for by 1000 players that care to deposit their hard earned dollars.
The next part is where you actually explain your statement, Crone is sorry for breaking it up in very little pieces.
Those three sell 5 k of sweat to you, each, for 20 PED. then, they buy things from you instead because they have more money, netting you a return right away (for argument, let's say this return is 90%).
This part is something Crone does not agree with. The new player sells the trader/crafter his sweat for 20 ped (3 players, 3 times) and spends 18 ped (90%) of that at a new gun to hunt with? He can now buy 2 ped ammo and shoot for 5 minutes, including using the teleporter from Twin Peaks to the hunting fields? No, the new player still uses his rubio or the no mark up tt gun and buys ammo.
Or did you mean the new player buys a gun from the trader/crafter and the crafter only gets a 90% return on that, meaning another 10% loss? Either way, these are very bad deals.
then they go hunt, and sell you their loot because they got a good deal from you, which you use to craft a vehicle, which you sell on auction, which nets you another 20% in profits.
A newby should(!) sell you the sweat at 4 ped per kilo and see someone else for the lowest price for his new gun. Which obviously is the no mark up gun from the TT or the rubio he looted on the run he did from your overpriced sweat.
Now the new player stays, you make your money (because YOU got their sweat money and not the TT) and everyone wins.
If you go out hunting, the large part of your consumed ped is ammo. This comes from the TT. Unless you use melee weapons. Then the highest costs are repairs. The largest part of the sweat money, which the buyer paid twice as much for goes to the tt still. The only change is: more ped went to the tt. Although in Crone's mind this isn't a bad thing. Loot is filled with ped that went into the tt.
So far the sweat buyer paid for the entertainment of the free to play player. Nothing has changed except for the buyer to pay for double the time.
At the heart of this, the idea is that we want the traders to get the money from sweat and not the TT. When that happens, profit happens.
This is where Crone disagrees. The sweat money wasn't there until you paid for it. Sweat has hardly and value up to that moment. The newly recruited player will spend most on ammo at the tt, one could argue about the ped spend on the new gun. Although according to Crone that will go to the tt as well. Assuming he did not loot a gun yet.
The fact that MindArk doesn't care about new players isn't that relevant. WE are the business holders. Not MindArk. If we want sales, WE need to focus on customer retention.
That would be like a business saying "Well my business failed because the government doesn't care about ensuring my business is successful". Entropia is a free market. We should start acting like it.
Now this is where your post, in Crone's opinion, is really off. We are the consumers, not the business holders. Some of us treat it like a business and thrive by making ped, others treat it like a game (or casino) and thrive in entertainment value. Part of marketing is knowing your customer. 1000 of the customers are paying customers, 1 of the customers is a free to play customer.
Crone is very happy with those free to play customers he has, they stand for the possibilities of Entropia Universe. If Crone's disciples decide to be a free to play disciple, Crone will encourage that and will give advise that will lead to just that, long term sweating is not part of his advise ever. Sweating leads to exit, with few exceptions.
A working business model would focus on... wait for it... the paying customer.
Entropia is a free market, Crone agrees, up to a certain limit. In a free market with unlimited resources prices will go down, always. Entropia Universe is a market like that; free market and no limit on resources. When prices reach the borders of a certain bandwidth MindArk steps in and takes appropriate (or not) action. This is done by someone they call a balancing manager. Here is the limit of a free market. This is what Crone calls devine intervention in our little universe. This also happens when items are won during an event. These prizes are actually the equivalent as a government adding money to the economy by just printing it, which, if not done carefully leads to deflation. Wait.. did the prices of high end items drop recently?
Talking about MindArk's concern with player retention is kind of an excuse. As traders, we should step up and do our part. If even half of us did that, could you imagine the change? If you want to make money, don't lean on MindArk.
No excuse here, fact. MindArk needs paying customers, not enough paying customers, or even unbalanced numbers will have an impact on their profitability, which will impact the game, more and more server issues as a result. Paying players will leave and there will be no Entropia Universe left. Maybe this is a bit an overreaction, but it draws a nice picture everyone can understand.
If half of the traders would buy at 4 ped per kilo those traders will be broke soon, they buy buy buy, but do not sell sell sell. Sweat is not a necessity in our little universe, there are substitutes. Maybe for the repairers amongst us sweat is a necessity. Crone would imagine that profession is killed by a higher sweat price.
And exactly, if Crone wants to make money he does not lean on MindArk, no, MindArk leans on Crone... and every other paying player. Thank you everyone to make this game possible.
Hunting and mining will always net a loss.
You should get a mentor, the link to Crone's mentoring thread is below.
This loss is made up in sweat for new players, which keeps them in the game. I know that seems like a "broken record" response, but, well.... you know.
In essence you are saying that paying players should pay more for sweat (or products depending on sweat) to keep non paying players in the game longer, this to facilitate a higher income from the same players that you have been and will be sponsoring for a longer time. In short you are paying for your own goods, money out > money in since part of your sponsoring ends up in the tt for ammo. Then Crone did not calculate substitute goods (that do not depend on sweat) that suddenly became more attractive.
In short, keep players in the game and make them buy from you and it compensates for the sweat bump while netting you higher volume which translates into profits. Simple as that.
Ah, you make them buy your goods? Crone would recommend every player to sell for the highest price you can get and buy for the lowest price you can get. It's a free market afteral.
I'm doing that right now. And, it's working for me.
Everyone has his own tricks to make some ped. Crone heals people or just deposits.
However, I only sell to people who refer to themselves in the first person. It's a personal business ethic of mine - so let me know how that goes, then message me on world and we'll talk.
Racism, discriminating!
How can Crone ever not be Crone?! Crone did not expect an attitude like this from the socialist you are showing above.
Thank you 
