Would you (start to) play/deposit in EU as it is NOW?

[Arkhainn]

If active players would not have already invested so much time, money and friends in this game, would they still decide to start to play this game and deposit? Knowing how the game is now, and how it is run?

To clarify as to why I'm asking this question:
After playing other MMORPG's, I became tired of the 1337 shouting script-kiddies and servers closing. Looking around for a better suited game I wound up at Entropia Universe, because it is already running for a decade and has a RCE, which generates a more mature player base.

So I after arriving on Calypso last weekend I was going to deposit, ready to dive into the game. However then this whole 'summon' debacle started, and I came to this forum to find out what was being done about it.
Since I didn't want to log in while there was still a risk of accidentally accepting a summon, and winding up in space, killed, looted and stranded on the space station with no means to get back planet side; I started to read threads.

And although I know that in general forums tend to give a bit more negative view of the situation, because good news is no news. (For example: the news wont report the return of a lost wallet; unless it turns out to be from the Secretary of State, and the wallet contains a picture of him and his not-wife in a 'compromising' position... Then it will be front page news guaranteed.)
I was still surprised to read about so many problems that seemingly haven't been addressed satisfactorily by MindArk. Like this latest abuse of the summon feature is according to the posts here the work of a person who has had several support cases made against him, has been banned for having multiple accounts on this forum, but still has multiple in-game accounts with the same names, has apparently been previously banned from EU for scamming, yet somehow is allowed to continue his (mal)practices?
Is this really an example of how MA generally works?

A week seems a long time to take action, especially without any official statement to the general player base whatsoever; it doesn't promote a safe feeling.
(For instance reading here that it took 6 years to finally perm ban a bot abuser, doesn't really inspire a lot of trust in the way support/customer service is handled.)

This made me wonder: if active players would not have already invested so much time, money and friends in this game, would they still decide to start to play this game and deposit? Knowing how the game is now, and how it is run?
Furthermore: would you recommend new/potential players to play and deposit in this game? (disregarding any personal interest/CLD/LA you might have)

I apologize in advance if this is interpreted as criticism on a game I haven't even played properly yet; this is certainly not intended that way. I'm simply trying to get my doubts dispelled: I like the (basic) game itself, but this aspect of MA makes me hesitant.
And I'm just curious to see what the experts opinions of this topic really is.
Thank you for any (constructive) feedback.

First and foremost, welcome to Entropia (edit: and after reading some of your other posts, to Planet Calypso, as well).

Well, you asked for constructive feedback, so here goes...

I suppose you've come to the forums during a particularly tumultuous time, what with the whole Space Pirates thing going. I haven't followed the whole thing too closely, being a veteran of gaming forums. Since you come from other MMOs, I'm sure you're very aware of how players normally act on forums and such...

In a normal game, the whole gestalt of forum users tends to be the common "the company is greedy and is out to screw me over" position, and so they're a bit paranoid, a bit high-strung, and blow things out of proportion.
This tends to be amplified quite a bit when, instead of just 15 bucks of monthly fees or a couple micro transactions here and there, everything in the game costs, in some way or another, actual real money, as is the case in a RCE type of game.

Just take a look at all the conspiracy-theorizing you'll find in the "loot theory" forum section.

Here's the thing: the real cash economy is the reason why MA needs more time to take action with things such as exploiting and abuse (not to mention, in this particular case, that apparently a fair bit of key personnel were on vacation).

Imagine yourself in the position, not of the one suffering from an exploit, but of one accused to have abused one. After you've invested thousands of dollars in game, would you feel safe if people could get banned with a few forum posts of complaint, a couple of dubious screenshots? And lose all the investment if the ban turned out to be permanent?

But more to the point... yes, I would start playing Entropia just as it is now. I have neither CLDs or LAs, nor any particularly large investment in the game that could cloud my judgement. The game had a rough couple of years (during which I wasn't even playing) a few years ago, but things seem to be decidedly moving in a good direction right now.

Would I recommend a deposit, tho? Well... that's another can of worms entirely. Not for the reason you'd think. If you are truly a new player, I believe you'd do well to hold off on depositing until you're sure that you want to give the game a fair try, unless you're able to view that deposit as entirely disposable and don't expect to get anything out of it other than experience (in the sense of learning the game, not in the sense of character stats) and maybe some skill points.
I would also recommend trying to find a trustworthy and experienced player to be your Mentor (there's a mentoring system in game) to help you with getting the hang of how things work here before depositing, as a proper mentor might advise you in ways to not waste that initial deposit too much (or too quickly).

Edit: Also, about your idea of moving to Arkadia expressed on another of your posts on this topic, regardless of where you start, you can still hitchhike (if you're patient enough) for free to any planet you might prefer. Just keep in mind that, while the Planet Partners on other planets than Calypso might appear to communicate better with their forum population and whatnot, the key issue here (regarding the exploiters and such) would still be the same anywhere, since those aspects are handled, as far as I know, by MA, with the Planet Partners being only responsible for the content developed on their planets. So anything character-related would have to still be handled by MA regardless of where you are.

Be that as it may, feel free to look me up in game if you have any questions or want some help with the (admittedly always rough) start of your career as a Calypso Colonist.
Edit: I actually went ahead and sent you a friend request instead.

Edit: As a closing comment after reading your other posts on this topic, I suppose its fair to make it clear that I love and believe in this game, and one key aspect for it's success is new player retention, so I suppose I do have some vested interest on you staying.

In the mean time, good luck!

 

[valentin]

Impossible to answer I think... But I know that there is at least 1 RCE MMORPG on its way, under development. I'm being excited about it as it is ex-Entropia players developing it. We will have to wait and see what happens there before I can answer your question

That is GOOOOOOOD news, can you send me the Site.

 

[Kitch]

when u just chill out and play the game, no trolls, no politics no rhetoric. its really nice ^_^

sure there are bugs, and perf issues, and management issues. Like umm... every software and company in the world.. ok maybe a lil bit worse

 

[Jin Franka]

It would not have made any difference whether I discoreved EU 10 years ago or today, what I knew about EU or anything else. I would have tried it no matter, because it has a RCE. That´s all it´s about.
That´s why Im still here!
Im not here because I like games as much as Im here because I like hofs
EU is my gambling.
If I want to play real rpgs I go play Baldurs Gate.

And it would be awesome to have a few RL friends in here, but I couldn´t recommend EU to them with a clean conscious. They might end up as me

 

[Arkhainn]

This exemplifies quite well some of the most common attitudes of players towards Entropia Universe

Imo there are three ways to look at this game, depends what you want from it:

1- Online gambling game:
If you're looking for this, than i would say yes. You never know when you are gonna hit that ath.

I don't particularly consider the (very common) comparison of EU to gambling a good parallel, but since it seems hard to avoid and pops up every five minutes on forums, let's tackle it.

A player who wants to see EU as gambling can then go about it in two different ways. He can be that guy who thinks he should be in the World Series of poker and ends up knee deep in debt and resenting either the casino or the other players for his troubles, even tho that makes absolutely no rational sense.

Or he can be the guy that has a poker night with his buddies every week, setting aside some small cash for it that he won't miss should he lose it, and having a good time and some good laughs.

2- 3rd world country job:
Again yes. If you understand the game mechanics and understand the concept of MU you could make some profit. But without a huge investment I doubt you would make more than a few peds/hour.

This type of player is usually a new arrival that decided to start playing after Entropia Universe gets some press about someone getting rich (or spending a ton of money) because of virtual goods. They come to the game with the dream of one day quitting their jobs to make a living out of playing videogames, without realizing that, unless they get a job as an in-house beta tester for a game company, no one will pay 'em to play videogames.

Its a common dream of new arrivals (that sometimes persists even after they have years of experience in EU) that they are (or should be) part of that 0.05%, the statistical outliers, who got to a point where they can make money consistently from normal gameplay. Even Jenna Star Mercury, from what I understand, makes money from land ownership and such rather than from regular gameplay.

Its a statistical outlier for a reason, and, same as in the above example of a poker player losing his shirt because he thinks he belongs in the World Series, the problem seems to be that people really, really don't want to believe that they're average, even tho pretty much everyone is (otherwise it wouldn't be the average )

3- a fun MMOG:
NO. I don't consider a game where the whole concept is to

- select a mob
- autoshoot
- loot
- fap

and to repeat this for 6 hours a day, 7 days a week for 6 months in order to progress, a fun mmog.
(don't get me started on mining)

Ah, here we have the third type. The "There are cheaper MMOs out there" type. You can't really argue with those, it IS true. Non-fantasy setting MMOs are slim pickings (and have the most annoying tendency to bellyflop within a year, tops) but yes, there are plenty of other games that one could try.

The draw of Entropia Universe, in my opinion, is precisely what sets it apart from other games - the real cash economy and the challenge against yourself. I'm not here because of pretty graphics (tho they sure look A LOT better than back in '06 when I first started playing) nor because I want to strike it rich (tho I do, who doesn't?) but because most, if not all, MMOs on the market seem to cater to a public of facerolling lobotomized monkeys, some of which enjoy ranting doom-and-gloom on forums.

I don't enjoy the twitch gameplay of the recent trend of action MMOs (the kind of games people say require real skill - if I had good reflexes and hand-eye coordination I'd have been playing sports in my teens and not playing MMOs, and therefore, wouldn't be here now ) and non-twitch MMO's seem to be all about who can exploit game mechanics better to come up with a particular class/race/build combination that is more powerful, eventually leading everyone to copy it, eventually leading the monkeys on the forum to cry nerf, eventually leading to the cycle starting over again.

Entropia Universe offers a challenge, like I said, against yourself and requires, for successful play, that one constantly evaluates every aspect of one's gameplay - from what equipment you should use for any particular task, to which skills you should start to work on in order to advance up to the next tier of equipment and enemies, to how much you're spending on what, and what you're getting in return... and so forth, that the part of actually shooting the mobs is a VERY minor part of the experience, and one that every other game on the market has, so if that is all I'm looking for in a game, yeah, I'd be better off elsewhere. Heck, might as well still be playing Doom on my 386 if that's all I'm looking for in a game.

There are many games where your greatest challenge is the environment (themepark MMOs and pretty much every offline game), there are some games where your greatest challenge comes from the other players (PVP-oriented MMOs and shooting/racing online games), but I can't think of many games where your greatest challenge comes from yourself.

It is, however, not for everyone, as no game will ever be. For example, someone that has self-control issues (and knows it) should stay far, far, far away from Entropia (just like the guy from the first example should stay out of casinos).

 

[DiabloP]

... and so forth, that the part of actually shooting the mobs is a VERY minor part of the experience, and one that every other game on the market has . . .

So tell me, how much of your time do you spend on researching and evaluating your gameplay (i.e going through forums, sites, entropedia . . . ) and how much of your time do you spend on:

- select a mob
- autoshoot
- loot
- fap
- repeat

sure you might spend hours, maybe even days on research and evaluation, but you'll be spending the rest of the year on:

- select a mob
- autoshoot
- loot
- fap
- repeat

Imo the devs need to bring new concepts in the game to keep it interesting to the third group of players mentioned in my post.

 

[sitram]

This exemplifies quite well some of the most common attitudes of players towards Entropia Universe



I don't particularly consider the (very common) comparison of EU to gambling a good parallel, but since it seems hard to avoid and pops up every five minutes on forums, let's tackle it.

A player who wants to see EU as gambling can then go about it in two different ways. He can be that guy who thinks he should be in the World Series of poker and ends up knee deep in debt and resenting either the casino or the other players for his troubles, even tho that makes absolutely no rational sense.

Or he can be the guy that has a poker night with his buddies every week, setting aside some small cash for it that he won't miss should he lose it, and having a good time and some good laughs.



This type of player is usually a new arrival that decided to start playing after Entropia Universe gets some press about someone getting rich (or spending a ton of money) because of virtual goods. They come to the game with the dream of one day quitting their jobs to make a living out of playing videogames, without realizing that, unless they get a job as an in-house beta tester for a game company, no one will pay 'em to play videogames.

Its a common dream of new arrivals (that sometimes persists even after they have years of experience in EU) that they are (or should be) part of that 0.05%, the statistical outliers, who got to a point where they can make money consistently from normal gameplay. Even Jenna Star Mercury, from what I understand, makes money from land ownership and such rather than from regular gameplay.

Its a statistical outlier for a reason, and, same as in the above example of a poker player losing his shirt because he thinks he belongs in the World Series, the problem seems to be that people really, really don't want to believe that they're average, even tho pretty much everyone is (otherwise it wouldn't be the average )



Ah, here we have the third type. The "There are cheaper MMOs out there" type. You can't really argue with those, it IS true. Non-fantasy setting MMOs are slim pickings (and have the most annoying tendency to bellyflop within a year, tops) but yes, there are plenty of other games that one could try.

The draw of Entropia Universe, in my opinion, is precisely what sets it apart from other games - the real cash economy and the challenge against yourself. I'm not here because of pretty graphics (tho they sure look A LOT better than back in '06 when I first started playing) nor because I want to strike it rich (tho I do, who doesn't?) but because most, if not all, MMOs on the market seem to cater to a public of facerolling lobotomized monkeys, some of which enjoy ranting doom-and-gloom on forums.

I don't enjoy the twitch gameplay of the recent trend of action MMOs (the kind of games people say require real skill - if I had good reflexes and hand-eye coordination I'd have been playing sports in my teens and not playing MMOs, and therefore, wouldn't be here now ) and non-twitch MMO's seem to be all about who can exploit game mechanics better to come up with a particular class/race/build combination that is more powerful, eventually leading everyone to copy it, eventually leading the monkeys on the forum to cry nerf, eventually leading to the cycle starting over again.

Entropia Universe offers a challenge, like I said, against yourself and requires, for successful play, that one constantly evaluates every aspect of one's gameplay - from what equipment you should use for any particular task, to which skills you should start to work on in order to advance up to the next tier of equipment and enemies, to how much you're spending on what, and what you're getting in return... and so forth, that the part of actually shooting the mobs is a VERY minor part of the experience, and one that every other game on the market has, so if that is all I'm looking for in a game, yeah, I'd be better off elsewhere. Heck, might as well still be playing Doom on my 386 if that's all I'm looking for in a game.

There are many games where your greatest challenge is the environment (themepark MMOs and pretty much every offline game), there are some games where your greatest challenge comes from the other players (PVP-oriented MMOs and shooting/racing online games), but I can't think of many games where your greatest challenge comes from yourself.

It is, however, not for everyone, as no game will ever be. For example, someone that has self-control issues (and knows it) should stay far, far, far away from Entropia (just like the guy from the first example should stay out of casinos).

Great post!

It should be posted on every forum and game site where EU is advertised.

You described very well what kept me playing EU over all those years even if I don't play now any other games.

 

[Arkhainn]

So tell me, how much of your time do you spend on researching and evaluating your gameplay (i.e going through forums, sites, entropedia . . . ) and how much of your time do you spend on:

- select a mob
- autoshoot
- loot
- fap
- repeat

sure you might spend hours, maybe even days on research and evaluation, but you'll be spending the rest of the year on:

- select a mob
- autoshoot
- loot
- fap
- repeat

Imo the devs need to bring new concepts in the game to keep it interesting to the third group of players mentioned in my post.

Mm. That's a fair question. My personal experience? Mobs that I already am familiarized with, I'd spend maybe 5-10 minutes in preparation, 1-2 hours select/tool/loot/fap, half an hour analyzing hunt results.
I don't disagree that there should other interesting new concepts developed (its usually at this point in the discussion that someone usually brings up taming ). But there are plenty of things already in place if you don't want combat in the format you mentioned.

Frankly, I don't see that much difference between cycling between tagger weapon/dps weapon/finisher/heals and what most MMOs offer, apart from size of the rotation - say, here we use a rotation with four, maybe five, keypresses while on most MMOs an endgame rotation could have eight or so. Still the same thing, only more buttons pressed.

You could argue, perhaps, about things like raid boss mechanics and such... I can't see how that would ever possibly work on Entropia. Say, you fail to position yourself out of the way of a special attack... "Boss hits you for 50k damage, you're dead and your armor is now completely trashed"... I shudder to think of the complaints.

Other than those 'special mechanics' type of fights, combat in Entropia is exactly the same as in any MMO, and I believe it to be unlikely to change. You don't need to auto-use-tool if you find it boring, and in my experience there are more situations of missing the timing and ending up shooting dead things, and so more uncompensated decay, using it than manually doing each attack. But then, on two hour long hunts, the old nintendo injury starts acting up

What I find fascinating in Entropia, and that so many seem to miss, is that you're really not limited to traditional roles. A number of people, for example, get paid in PEDs to write articles about various subjects for blogs/forums/etc about the game... I think Mindstar started like that, from what I remember. People can be charter pilots, traders, clothing designers, painters, photographers, cosmeticians, hedge fund managers, real estate moguls, and a number of other things (tho not tamers apparently ). So it falls to each player to determine the experience that they want to have of the Universe. This is really fascinating stuff IMO. I can only think of one other game that offers such a vast array of experiences and that one tends to attract perverts more than anything, from what I recall.

Most of those opportunities are tied to game systems already in place, but not all of them... with enough determination and creativity one could even invent a new 'profession' entirely. My point falls back on what I said before: your greatest challenge on this game is yourself. You determine entirely how your experience will be. If a player chooses to limit his experience to only the combat aspect of the game, then, yeah that type of player will probably be happier elsewhere, with more complex combat systems, and it would probably not be an MMO.

For example, I find the combat in games like, say, Assassins Creed extremely entertaining... and sadly, at least as far as our current technology goes, one cannot expect something like that out of an MMO (tho it would certainly be extremely cool if someone pulled it off).

 

[Vedder]

I'd still start to play, and I'd deposit when needed and when I could afford it, to be able to enjoy Entropia instead of doing all the boring stuff for a few peds. That would ruin the fun for me.


And geez, this thread makes me depressed. I wonder why I keep reading it.
And I wonder why so many people who seems to hate Entropia and MA are posting here?


To the mods: Too much off topic bashing here imo.

 

[DiabloP]

Frankly, I don't see that much difference between cycling between tagger weapon/dps weapon/finisher/heals and what most MMOs offer, apart from size of the rotation - say, here we use a rotation with four, maybe five, keypresses while on most MMOs an endgame rotation could have eight or so. Still the same thing, only more buttons pressed.

Other than those 'special mechanics' type of fights, combat in Entropia is exactly the same as in any MMO, and I believe it to be unlikely to change. You don't need to auto-use-tool if you find it boring, and in my experience there are more situations of missing the timing and ending up shooting dead things, and so more uncompensated decay, using it than manually doing each attack. But then, on two hour long hunts, the old nintendo injury starts acting up

I would have to disagree with you on this. MMOs have come up with some really great ideas except click>>autoshoot>>loot>>fap, here are some:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVy6h8h9niU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaO2P41Op78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er3Pxx7b1Rc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ksa3lVqc54

What I find fascinating in Entropia, and that so many seem to miss, is that you're really not limited to traditional roles. A number of people, for example, get paid in PEDs to write articles about various subjects for blogs/forums/etc about the game... I think Mindstar started like that, from what I remember. People can be charter pilots, traders, clothing designers, painters, photographers, cosmeticians, hedge fund managers, real estate moguls, and a number of other things (tho not tamers apparently ). So it falls to each player to determine the experience that they want to have of the Universe. This is really fascinating stuff IMO. I can only think of one other game that offers such a vast array of experiences and that one tends to attract perverts more than anything, from what I recall.

Most of those opportunities are tied to game systems already in place, but not all of them... with enough determination and creativity one could even invent a new 'profession' entirely. My point falls back on what I said before: your greatest challenge on this game is yourself. You determine entirely how your experience will be. If a player chooses to limit his experience to only the combat aspect of the game, then, yeah that type of player will probably be happier elsewhere, with more complex combat systems, and it would probably not be an MMO.

Well yes, but that's how most mmos are. They have many professions in them to choose from. This is not just EU. I would really like to see some more professions in here.
Again some more ideas:

http://cdn1.eveonline.com/CareerGuide/EVECAREERSGUIDE.pdf

 

[DiabloP]

I'd still start to play, and I'd deposit when needed and when I could afford it, to be able to enjoy Entropia instead of doing all the boring stuff for a few peds. That would ruin the fun for me.


And geez, this thread makes me depressed. I wonder why I keep reading it.
And I wonder why so many people who seems to hate Entropia and MA are posting here?


To the mods: Too much off topic bashing here imo.

Why do you call it off topic bashing? I'm giving my perspective of the game after playing for about over a year as the OP asked. And providing some ideas for improvements that I would like to see (again stating my perspective of what i would like to see in the game as the OP has asked).

 

[Arkhainn]

I would have to disagree with you on this. MMOs have come up with some really great ideas except click>>autoshoot>>loot>>fap, here are some:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVy6h8h9niU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaO2P41Op78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er3Pxx7b1Rc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ksa3lVqc54

I'll get back to you on that after I properly watch the videos, but I wanted to clarify the next point right away
I'll edit this post after I watch 'em.

Well yes, but that's how most mmos are. They have many professions in them to choose from. This is not just EU. I would really like to see some more professions in here.
Again some more ideas:

http://cdn1.eveonline.com/CareerGuide/EVECAREERSGUIDE.pdf

That game is actually what I consider to be the one closest to Entropia in terms of gaming experience, but I get bored with all the mucking about in space. I was part of a mining operation there for about six months. Purely a matter of personal preference, I'd rather control an avatar than only spaceships all the time. Last time I checked it, you could only do some in-station walking about but it had little if any gameplay importance.

However, what I was trying to point out, before we get too derailed off-topic (not to mention our discussion currently hijacking May's original post entirely) is that in Entropia, perhaps similarly to what happens in SL and, to a lesser but still comparable extent, EvE, you don't need to be tied down to the career choices provided by game mechanics. I mean, you could come up with an entirely new way to create your own gameplay here.

To name a famous (and expensive) example, Neverdie 'created' the profession of night club owner (that didnt exist before in Entropia) when he first bought what is now FOMA... to the same extent, any player has the potential to invent some completely new way of living his experience of Entropia, and even possibly making PEDs out of it, regardless of an actual game statistic (i.e. nowhere in Neverdie's character sheet was there a skill for night club ownership).

Like way back in the old days, before vehicles, when some people would be hired (or volunteer) to rescue avatars from dangerous outposts... all one really needs is a good idea like that to break new ground here. That is something that normally doesn't happen in other games nearly as much as it happens in Entropia (and SL, I suppose) - thus why it's marketed as an 'universe' rather than a game, and why it shouldn't be equated to a casino, either - and not all ideas need an investment like buying a land area.

I'd rather have that... let's call it opportunity for freeform playing expanded with, say, an actual effort on the part of all Planet Partners to increase social activities (which would have incidentally a very large impact on declining parts of the economy such as tailoring) rather than efforts that focused on making combat into more than the auto-attacking festival that started our spirited debate, even tho I spend roughly 75% of my time in Entropia doing combat.

It could be argued that those activities are of less interest to MA itself (and perhaps this also applies to the Planet Partners, tho they should be making more effort to attract players to their respective planets) since those sorts of activities generate little-to-no revenue in decay.

P.S. I don't think the guy above was talking about us
Oh yeah, and before I forget, its not that I completely disagree with you - anything that improves the game in any of it's aspects is welcome in my opinion, I just disagree that the focus of new developments should be entirely combat-related.

 

[DRDoom]

I would deposit monthly with about the same budget of a subscription.

Maybe after a while I would do a big depo to get some CLDs to 'pay' for my monthly budget.


I don't think I would go mental again buying uber stuff that has a high risk of value dropping.

It has it's shortcomings but it is still a great game if you not in the mindset of "This game is going to make me rich!"

 

[DiabloP]

That game is actually what I consider to be the one closest to Entropia in terms of gaming experience, but I get bored with all the mucking about in space. I was part of a mining operation there for about six months. Purely a matter of personal preference, I'd rather control an avatar than only spaceships all the time. Last time I checked it, you could only do some in-station walking about but it had little if any gameplay importance.

watch the videos first

However, what I was trying to point out, before we get too derailed off-topic (not to mention our discussion currently hijacking May's original post entirely) is that in Entropia, perhaps similarly to what happens in SL and, to a lesser but still comparable extent, EvE, you don't need to be tied down to the career choices provided by game mechanics. I mean, you could come up with an entirely new way to create your own gameplay here.

To name a famous (and expensive) example, Neverdie 'created' the profession of night club owner (that didnt exist before in Entropia) when he first bought what is now FOMA... to the same extent, any player has the potential to invent some completely new way of living his experience of Entropia, and even possibly making PEDs out of it, regardless of an actual game statistic (i.e. nowhere in Neverdie's character sheet was there a skill for night club ownership).

I agree the game offers some really interesting things. Like starting your own planet. The guy who bought the moon, club neverdie . . . giving players a chance to be a part of the development of the game. But the average mmo player is not interested in investing 300K usd in a game. Those type of investments require a different type of audience not the average mmo player.

 

[aia]

watch the videos first
I agree the game offers some really interesting things. Like starting your own planet. The guy who bought the moon, club neverdie . . .

Yeah, that kind of professions are hard to join in to unless you already have a respectable PED card.

The closest thing a normal player can get to owning something like that is a CLD. The CLDs currently only give one part though - part of the profit - you don't get any influence, or perks like first in line for estates (shops/apartments/whatever). Though I understand with the kind of width CLDs has it's hard to divide the influence in a fair way.

When it comes to bigger estates, like the moon, there is no ingame support to share it (for instance to reduce the administration when it comes to divide profits), and the minimum share tend to be higher than an average player can afford.

Btw anyone knows what happened with "Entropia Investment Fund" or what the name was? It was administrated by a player "FUND FUND MANAGER", and they had some common assets like a land area and a hangar. I haven't seen it for a while, and I didn't follow what happened to the land areas.

 

[Arkhainn]

Yeah, that kind of professions are hard to join in to unless you already have a respectable PED card.

The closest thing a normal player can get to owning something like that is a CLD. The CLDs currently only give one part though - part of the profit - you don't get any influence, or perks like first in line for estates (shops/apartments/whatever). Though I understand with the kind of width CLDs has it's hard to divide the influence in a fair way.

When it comes to bigger estates, like the moon, there is no ingame support to share it (for instance to reduce the administration when it comes to divide profits), and the minimum share tend to be higher than an average player can afford.

Btw anyone knows what happened with "Entropia Investment Fund" or what the name was? It was administrated by a player "FUND FUND MANAGER", and they had some common assets like a land area and a hangar. I haven't seen it for a while, and I didn't follow what happened to the land areas.

That was taken way out of context. It has nothing to do with ownership... It was just the 'most famous' example I could give. I knew, way back in the day, a whole lot of players that earned an income (in the sense of funding their gameplay, not in the sense of being able to pay RL rent) thru creative/unusual ways other than killing stuff and hoping for an ATH. Some would be 'reporters' for entropia-related publications, some were artists and photographers that 'sold' their artwork using the carpenting system. The most widely known example today would be the people providing space taxi service or dedicated fapping. Even Neverdie was (or so the legend goes, I never actually met the guy since I joined in the wave of people that came when his purchase of CND, now FOMA, hit the news) just another dude that had to borrow peds for ammo to shoot things with at one point. Except he had a vision of something greater and (from what I recall) took a big, big risk to make his impact on the entropian universe.

Since it'll be taken out of context again, here's the tl;dr: There's nothing stopping people from carving out a niche for themselves that does not revolve necessarily around already-implemented skill systems, as long as they have a good/creative idea. Which is one of the things I find absolutely fascinating about Entropia and wish we saw more of nowadays - rewarding player initiative and all that.

 

[DiabloP]

. . .I knew, way back in the day, a whole lot of players that earned an income (in the sense of funding their gameplay, not in the sense of being able to pay RL rent) thru creative/unusual ways other than killing stuff and hoping for an ATH. Some would be 'reporters' for entropia-related publications, some were artists and photographers that 'sold' their artwork using the carpenting system . . .

Again i have to point out that artwork, photography, reporting . . . isn't what most mmo players are after.

The most widely known example today would be the people providing space taxi service or dedicated fapping

Space taxi and fapping, i've done both (referring to quad a sleip not ms services). I would not consider these a fun thing to do but rather a way of paying for your game play for people that are too lazy to get a rl job.
space taxi you basically stand around twin peaks for hours hoping for a customer to be able to make a few peds out of.
fapping uses the same concept of hunting but without the select and loot part:

auto use>>stop>>repeat (doesn't have select and loot item this time)

Even Neverdie was (or so the legend goes, I never actually met the guy since I joined in the wave of people that came when his purchase of CND, now FOMA, hit the news) just another dude that had to borrow peds for ammo to shoot things with at one point. Except he had a vision of something greater and (from what I recall) took a big, big risk to make his impact on the entropian universe.

One of the main reason for the success of players that started back then was because of the (UL) drops. Basically most of the (UL) amps, guns . . . we have now are from back then. So the players who held on to those gears until now have become quite rich. Giving the vision to new players that they too can become like neverdie today is a bit far-fetched in my opinion.

Basically you should tell new players to play the game if you enjoy it but you are not gonna get mega rich or be able to start something big from in game profits

 

[Arkhainn]

(snip)

So the players who held on to those gears until now have become quite rich. Giving the vision to new players that they too can become like neverdie today is a bit far-fetched in my opinion.

Basically you should tell new players to play the game if you enjoy it but you are not gonna get mega rich or be able to start something big from in game profits

Oh, I don't mean financially, that's why I said it was taken out of context. The only way to make that much financial success is to invest HEAVILY. Very few people are willing to take the risk, or have the means, to do so (that was one of the points of my first reply to you).

Just woke up, finally back home, so I'll be able to took a look at those videos you sent yesterday and get back to you on that. Its quite an interesting discussion so far, but I'm afraid we may be veering further and further off-topic

We should probably make a new thread or something.

 

[Amara Taroon]

That is GOOOOOOOD news, can you send me the Site.

www.aftertimediaries.com

On topic:
Yes, I would start playing and Yes, I would deposit limited amounts.

You need to have realistic goals and expectations, and do not deposit more than you can afford to loose. (has been said before, but worth repeating me thinks.)

 

[dalewj]

I would not start the game knowing what I know today. There are simply too many company problems overall and well why put cash into a negative profit company... It's not twitter afterall.

 

[StrongMinded]

I have been here for quite some time but atm i´m taking short breaks. I keep comping back and if i hadn´t started i would have missed out on all the long time friends i have all over the world from EU. I would start again just to explore but i would start a bit slower then i did 9 - 10 years ago. It´s a great "game" with great potential.. I´m still hoping and wishing that the future for universe will keep evolving and bringing more people in.

 

[May]

Closure.

Thank you very much for all the responses.

Since it has served it's purpose: could this thread be locked?