2012-13 v. Now

[Rocket192]

Hey all, I stumbled upon the CLD payout tracker today, something I hadn't paid much attention to until today.

Prior to this, about two weeks ago, I stumbled across an auction page tracker on entropic planets and had been making a note to update it myself once a week now.

To the point then..
In 2012-13 the average CLD payout was around 4.4ped/week... For 2015 we're hovering around 3.2/week
The pages on auction in 2012 was roughly 1050-1100 on calypso, and is now around 750.

What does everything think has changed so greatly to produce these results? Why was the game bringing in so much more revenue back in 2012? Aside from a shrinking playerbase, which is a problem in itself.

I should note that when I say revenue I'm talking about CLD payouts and auction pages. We all know MA had a good year last year, which I think is in part due to the new web shop and starter packs, and surge of newer players, and of course our beloved explosive projectiles IV bp.

Just looking to here thoughts, and maybe someone with some pull at MA may simple across this and like some of the feedback that they see.

 

[Ace Flyster]

The day I see a tv advert, is the day I know MA will be here forever!

Google adwords is sh*te.



Rgds

Ace

 

[Magnus Mag]

i saw lots of ppl stop playing or highly reduce their ped cycled lately due to shrapnel and expl...
less ppl playing and less demand for ressources...

also it seems MA doesn't care much about eu atm...
the fun for me and others is not that high anymore...

the thing with auction is that the demand just not high anymore with expl + shrinking playerbase..
if you have to lock some hundred ped ores for say 105% with chance of not getting sold it gets often tted..

in 2013 they also introduced "modified" loot...
alot didn't like that also..

so in general i think lots stopped or reduced gameplay because they are not satisfied

 

[Rocket192]

i saw lots of ppl stop playing or highly reduce their ped cycled lately

also it seems MA doesn't care much about eu atm...
the fun for me and others is not that high anymore

I will agree that it seems like they're putting too much effort into compete instead of keeping EU going as a first priority.. But maybe they just see EU as doomed to bring in revenue and need compets to keep themselves afloat for a while until they have the resources available to tamper with EU. Could be back asswards, but us players are always left in the shadows.

 

[Magnus Mag]

I will agree that it seems like they're putting too much effort into compete instead of keeping EU going as a first priority.. But maybe they just see EU as doomed to bring in revenue and need compets to keep themselves afloat for a while until they have the resources available to tamper with EU. Could be back asswards, but us players are always left in the shadows.

if compet is success why even go back to eu? why tamper?
and what happens if compet is no success?

i hope that eu will become awesome and player filled again...

 

[Harmony.]

Well in the past i looted enough stackables to fill 30 auction slots, now i'm happy if i can fill ten.
while i now have at least double the turnover i had back then.

 

[warmdogg]

This is more a question about calypso than the universe as it seems the data you have is very Caly specific. However I would be very interested to see a total page count for the university and how its distributed and how that tracks over the year.

Edit: also interested to know if trade channels would have effected these figures also

 

[OZtwo]

Nothing all that big has really happened since 2012. I remember the main reason I joined EU back around 2011 was because this odd game I heard about on CNN! Not sure how many others came in at that time due to the hype given over NeverDie. Mindark has tried many times to make it to CNN again with lootable space (yes) and then the Monria Moon without much luck. Also the main issue, with this being a RCE, is that the world right now really doesn't have the money it had back then to be spending on such a game.

Also you have to remember that we now have the new chat system so a lot are using that over the AH.

 

[Rocket192]

http://www.entropiaplanets.com/wiki/AuctionTracker

Auction is missing a lot of data, but as I've said, I'm trying to update it myself every week.

But we have the CLD payouts to infer economy condition from at least on calypso.

What can be admitted is that the trade channel definitely has had at least some impact on the auctions..
And also it seems as though more players are on RT and Ark than in the past, maybe because of the crapnel in most mid-upper level mobs on calypso.

But what we do know is that resource demands are down, markups are down, and the playerbase is generally down. And an increase in 50-100 players in ark and RT is probably too small of a sample to account for over a 1ped drop in CLD payouts.

 

[forgo]

This is the same trend annually that happens around fall, especially in the off time between migration and Halloween mayhem.

In previous years I was glued to the auction buying whatever bps I didn't have, I have seen it get to 700 some pages almost every year since 2012 at this time of the year.

Same with the CLD... I remember one of those years it was 2.8 or something same period, people came here...claimed the downfall of the game... and a month or two later MA posts the HM stats imagine the PED cycled on some of those mobs, how much PED it took to loot an essence, and how many dropped, and these numbers weren't even done.

Here is a couple of threads I found to show roughly the same cycle:

showthread.php?265429-Future-of-Entropia-Universe 9-12-14 1000 total auction pages all planets


Here is a good one from 2013 in november ... shows about where we should be in a couple months again @1200

 

[Gardian Angel]

EU isn't for sure the main priority for Mind Ark for sure.I saw this since my account was locked because of a misunderstanding between MindArk and PayPal.This happened 33 days ago,i get 2 reply to support and since 30 days no answer from them despite the fact that I sent four replies.I've been palying EU since 2005 ,I get a old avatar with many many many deposits via Credit Card.There is no complaint against me since I start playing ,dispite of all etropia support got no plans to write any message that you let me know the status dispute.
I can't do anything just wait for MA mercy.Who knows how many ppl before me It went through a similar thing...of course they quit playing as long as you have no control and no power to manage or access your account only if MA is agree with that.
And if it's all about so it would be good but return from hunting/minning/crafting is very poor.Items loose they value every day.Are very poor chances to get your money back if you buy a item around 2k-3k$ after 1-2 years,so everywhere loss big amount or $.Many have found it beneficial to have fun by playing a game you pay 10 $ / month instead of EU where only you fool yourself believing that you will ever be able to recover at least the amount of money invested,not speaking about getting a profit.

 

[Meg]

Should have a separate auction house for avatars under 3 months in the game: no auction fees and the ability to bid pec. I see very many new Green Dots around but they don't use auction since any small amount of low mob loot is quickly rendered pointless by auction fees.

No doubt that would get exploited fast...

Anyhows -
agreed that more will trade via chat than last I was active
agreed that only a few crafts are viable and this will reduce MU - if the stuff sells at all

These nano thingies removed a lot of player market utility. All I see is hof after hof on afk ammo clicks. I'm sure it also loses ped for many but that's still just grinding TT stuff and still does nothing for the player market.

 

[GoNi]

To the point then..
In 2012-13 the average CLD payout was around 4.4ped/week... For 2015 we're hovering around 3.2/week
The pages on auction in 2012 was roughly 1050-1100 on calypso, and is now around 750.
... snip ...
/QUOTE]

More activity at other planets, especially Arkadia seems to have increased activity lately.

That drops CLD revenue.
Look at AUD payouts lately, very nice performance there.

More trades in direct P2P due to a lot new tradechannels, that reduces number of auctions.
Much easyer to sell P2P these days, saving the auction fees.

 

[ZPF]

I just don't see the logic in destroying the economy the way MA did.

A few years ago back when MUs were much higher, was MA hemorrhaging money or something? Or are they just completely apathetic to the health of the economy in EU as long as they are getting huge deposits from mega-gamblers and EP IV crafters?

Those are the guys funding the game right now. Most people have realized that hunting/mining/crafting for 90% TT return is pointless when most things sell at 101 and 102% markup.

 

[minim]

I just don't see the logic in destroying the economy the way MA did.

A few years ago back when MUs were much higher, was MA hemorrhaging money or something? Or are they just completely apathetic to the health of the economy in EU as long as they are getting huge deposits from mega-gamblers and EP IV crafters?

Those are the guys funding the game right now. Most people have realized that hunting/mining/crafting for 90% TT return is pointless when most things sell at 101 and 102% markup.

this.. Since 2012-13 things have only gotten worse in therms of loot and they are chopping more and more markup items out and giving us things we cannot sell for markup (ammo/shrapnell). Making those EP blueprints to cut the mining markup (and some of the hunting). Looting a shitload of guns like ELM among other items makes the hunters not need crafters/miners and vice-versa. They also made a lot of stuff where you buy your goodies from MA instead of players (rings, mindforce faps and so on) that before would have been looted. Since the basic system is the same with a return at 95% ish using maxed gear and removing the markup they remove the players that before made a lot of money on other players and withdrew the money out of the game. Now the players loose money to mindark instead of to other players since most pay less markup to play and loot less markup.

This doesn't work forever tho we need sunshine stories ^^

 

[whiteknut]

Yup sky is falling, lets create few more of these threads, that will sure attract new players.

But on serious note, there are more auction right now that there were last year same time, the CLD payout this year is higher than last year. Prices on many UL items are higher than last year same time.

As some posters here already said, it has been similar for the last years BUT i am not saying it should stay the same, some nice PR tricks could fetch in a lot of new players. (Like CND and Treasure island sales) I joined only because i read about it in Guinness world of records book. I know advertising these days is expensive, but maybe MA should skip next few big updates and invest the money into some sickass advertisement campaign (4mil USD for 30 second SuperBowl halftime advertisement would maybe too big to handle, but something on the same level). 30 seconds about stay at mothers basement lowlifes becoming a selfproviding businessmen, or gamblers that are banned from casinos, because they know how to beat the system joining EU..(as many have compared EU to poker and etc)...

To conclude : EU is doing good, but could be doing even better.

 

[Wollongong]

The day I see a tv advert, is the day I know MA will be here forever!

Google adwords is sh*te.



Rgds

Ace

Actually, when done right, Google AdWords is one of the advertising media with the highest eco...