Don't let the selfish ones ruin it for you. Some have been around for a long time and have experienced the game when people (not just your socmates) knew your name and cared what you do.I gotta say as a new player (been playing about three weeks). It took about a week for me before I realized I probably do not want to continue this journey. I'm still debating on that.
Pure, shameless greed. People don't want to share the pie, its like they consider it some secret only they know. In a way, free advice here (good advice) is like free money. Whoever suggested you go to the oil rig should uninstall. That's a sure way to get a new player to quit. How stupid.What you guys are saying is absolutely true. First of all, the players in this community that I have experienced are at minimum not helpful, and truthfully it feels like purposefully unhelpful. This feels like a big secret society. I go to the oil rig because that was the advice I got. I get sniped 3 times in a row.
I still consider shops/malls to be one of MAs greatest failures. They made all these shops within a system that doesn't inherently promote their use over the auction house. It's near impossible to run a store against the power of the auction house. You would need to sell goods that are rare, rarely needed, incredibly high value, very specialized, or custom. I owned a shop for quite some time, selling all kinds of things, but the other problem is just the inaccessibility of the shops in general. Auctions are everywhere. Shops are not. It was an MA cash cow.I fly or walk around, and see shops that are all but abandoned, and likely not selling anything. I see people offering healing services for free. I see banks that no one goes into, with areas within to sell items and nothing is on the shelves.
Sweat was already a pretty rough way to get started back in 2006, even with generosity from wealthier players. Now, to me, I find it to be absolutely inane. I would never recommend someone start like that. It's painful. If you can afford to, you need to put in even a small sum. Your enjoyment of it will change dramatically. And you need some REAL advice on being efficient about it. If you can't, there are other ways, perhaps any kind of services in need.I see people sweating and complaining about it, trying to outsell each other by .01pec and still no one is buying. I see forum post after forum post complaining about bad loot, and I can certainly say I have not had any good loot. My returns are nowhere near 90% (and I have spent hours and hours reading tutorials about how to do this).
As for loot, people do need to remember that, at the end of the day, this is a gambling kind of entertainment. MA may advertise it as your fortune awaits! But the house always, always wins. If you play the game as its base (hunting , mining, crafting), you will be expected to pay them.
If you are trying to make money, look away from the basic game play. As I mentioned above, you will be paying MA for those, never believe otherwise. Seeing someone else hit big is hard to swallow but know that while they hit big, 1000 other people lose. The money has to come from SOMEWHERE. So anything that costs decay, or ped to do to earn money, will involve investment. I know there used to be services (I've been gone a while), for example booking flights, or helping connect players with rare items, for which players charge commission. These are "player services". They are the only TRUE way to make money without investment. Unfortunately, with greater functionality (multi-channel chats), these roles are also going away. You really have to think up something outside of the box, find a niche. Sadly, MA has taken a lot of those away as they "bettered" the game.I try to search out ways to make money to at least sustain playing this game. I quickly find out, you have to have super high levels to even have a shot at that, and those people are writing on facebook about quitting the game because they cannot survive. (Hairstylist and designer, wont say names)
I do a little crafting and alot of research about crafting. Surprise, get super high levels and then it's a slot machine.
I was here before the missions started. I don't really put too much energy into them. In a way I feel they confuse the crap out of new players. I'm sorry this part was a pita. Know that they are NOT a requirement for you to do. I hear there are other missions too, that don't cost anything. They help give you some direction. But do know that before missions, we just go into the world, got dumped into Port Atlantis (which looked A LOT DIFFERENT back then) and we just wandered around until we found our place in this world. You don't HAVE to do missions.Above all of this though, I explore planet calypso and it feels ULTRA, ultra, disjointed. None of the missions make sense, some of them even incomplete....
And MA support has always been slow and largely unhelpful. But take heart. The game has made changes to fix some very common support things. I remember once I got a global inside a rock and was told that this was all part of the "realism" of the game. Needless to say I didn't get my global. I wasn't pleased. And now you can summon claims! Progress.
Find a good mentor, someone who isn't a selfish @#!%. Explore. If you can, put in 10 bucks and BE CONSERVATIVE with it. I agree: it's lost a lot of its sparkle. Frustratingly, it's really on the players now to put some of it back. Because we all know MA is too busy with... something.
/ramble