EU is becoming so anti-social...How can it be improved?

[Ludvig|MindArk]

Ironic perhaps, but we're not doing that chatting in-game, are we?

So set up an event or meeting spot, get people together and discuss it?

After that we can have a storytelling party (been thinking about hosting one but I haven't been able to figure out a good way to do it yet, since writing is a bit slow and voicechat is not used by everyone + perhaps not strong enough... also, would have to be able to get rid of disrupting ppl without risking interruptions by PKers).

 

[Coelacanth]

This topic derailed quite nicely. This topic is about the social aspect of the game; not re-inventing the crafting system or something. In that light, I found a few quotes particularly humorous, though irrelevant and taken out-of-context just for shits 'n' giggles.

"master baiter gear"

Do you think I'm stupid? I know this. It couldnt have been more obvious there, Captain Obvious.

I like the point about how EU could come up with some ideas to get players to do things with a common goal...I guess like the robot attacks back in the old day, everybody would show up to defend a town from an invasion. It would've been a lot more enjoyable if the performance wasn't worse than a slideshow in Powerpoint, but hey--it was fun until you crashed.

 

[SpikeBlack]

One of the things I used to do was mob running. Unlike the swamp camps where mobs were like fish in a barrel a few of us would go to Camp Pheonix spend 5-10 minutes collecting a mob train and bring it back.

We'd guide newbies from PA to Camp Pheonix where they'd meet a few high level players and other newbies. We'd talk while waiting for the next mob train to arrive and have a laugh when everyone got wiped out by an AOA, spider or Goki.

When I arrived at the new evolved Swamp Camp for the first time with a spawn point right next to it all I could see were people complaining, no chatting just people saying 'Heal me' or accusations of scamming.

Killing off Camp Pheonix ended a lot of the out of soc socialising for me, sure there was the ambu swunting place but it just wasn't the same.

And since the vehicles, as others had said, tp runs are non-existant especially when you get vehicles from newbie missions or people just fly there avoiding any mob difficulties.

Many of the improvements to EU have been for the individual player but have been to the detriment of the social part of EU.

Right now I'm not sure how it could be brought back. Voice chat might be good for some but with regional accents or disabilities it's not always an option or as good as the text chat, especially if you're getting multiple people talking and you can't tell who is speaking.

With sweat getting such a low price now, it was 1.4pec per bottle when I started, I can't imagine bringing back the Camp Pheonix style of mob training would be of any help. And the new arrivals area has taken away the option of telling the new arrivals how to move about and what things are.

I do believe that any solution would have to be totally free and not based around any profession.

One of the few times we've seen people group together to discuss things were during the notes event but in the end that often meant people just turned up for the special loot.

Maybe they need a puzzle style event again something really difficult to solve that anyone can try, the difficulty being setting the problem and players announcing the answer on one of the forums and it ending up who can click the answers the fastest. RT tried something like this in the Thing area but even that ended up as a list of instructions on a forum.

Getting people to engage their brains rather than their trigger finger might be the only answer.

 

[itchi]

Animal Oils and other parts used for crafting only make sense to sell if you can afford it to store until you have enough to get a little profit from selling at 105% unless you have a PED card that has at least 10k or even more on it so you don't have to TT the 300PED loot to repair UL weapons/amps UL Armor or even buy a new L weapon/armor etc.

But what will people do with 100k Wool? Gamble and click Fedora Hats or other clothing parts that will never sell in the amounts they craft them. So my guess is that 50% of the crafters click 102amps just for the ATH or some big HoF or maybe for some BPs. None of the crafters I know sell the 4539 pants they just crafted because nobody will buy them and the auction fee is money spend for nothing!

Crafting is, if you have the BP and the PED on your card, the only way to make some regular PED without a big risk compared to hunting mobs that today dropped a nice gun with high MU but due to the adjustments from MindArk/PlanetPartners can be dropped by another mob the day after. THIS makes it so hard to make profit from hunting.

So why would they make crafting cheaper? So you can sell you stuff instead TTing them? The average depositor maybe deposit 100-200 euro/dollar a month and can never afford to hold items long in storage because with the average return of maybe 60% you will run out of ammo/ped after 2-3 hunts that maybe each cost you 1-2k ped ammo/repair etc. The rest of your time you spend with chatting or see how others hit 38k here and 54k there and you wonder why you are not the one hitting the jackpot.

It all is a perfect adjusted system where only the bank wins which makes me bring in the casino / money losing part that has a massive impact on the behaviour of people and those, that make a living with their greed or the fact that they just have more money than others. Until it is like this, there will never be a global EU wide community where everyone will be happy. This is what money makes of people - greedy baxxxxx.

What u are saying is common sense for many eu players.Save up a stack then auction. But you gotta look from the main stream mmo player's point of view. New players are not gonna invest that much money to save up stacks. Games like wow and other mmo, ppl all have a hunting profession and a side crafting profession. I'm not saying that hunting should be a winning profession or anything. Just make crafting more appealing and use more hunting loots. Perhaps use animal oils, sweat, fruits, etc. for some sort of healing potions call it medicine or whatever. Bank still wins and makes use of hunting loot promoting more interactions. At least noobs wont feel like their peds are disappearing for no reason. Right now there are not enough crafters, or buyers. Too much sellers. People eventually realize that it is useless standing around shouting selling ____. Again the game is basically discouraging player to player interaction. On top of that, it is also not encouraging player retention. Along with shops being charged tax so that shop price and auction price are pretty much the same, there are no reason to go shopping at malls or gather at big cities to make trades causing the low population in cities for socializing. Try thinking from a mainstream mmo player's point of view. We been playing eu for so long that we start expecting new players to understand how eu works. forgetting how to appeal to the mainstream mmo players. More players means more socializing.

 

[Viperstrike]

What u are saying is common sense for many eu players.Save up a stack then auction. But you gotta look from the main stream mmo player's point of view. New players are not gonna invest that much money to save up stacks. Games like wow and other mmo, ppl all have a hunting profession and a side crafting profession. I'm not saying that hunting should be a winning profession or anything. Just make crafting more appealing and use more hunting loots. Perhaps use animal oils, sweat, fruits, etc. for some sort of healing potions call it medicine or whatever. Bank still wins and makes use of hunting loot promoting more interactions. At least noobs wont feel like their peds are disappearing for no reason. Right now there are not enough crafters, or buyers. Too much sellers. People eventually realize that it is useless standing around shouting selling ____. Again the game is basically discouraging player to player interaction. On top of that, it is also not encouraging player retention. Along with shops being charged tax so that shop price and auction price are pretty much the same, there are no reason to go shopping at malls or gather at big cities to make trades causing the low population in cities for socializing. Try thinking from a mainstream mmo player's point of view. We been playing eu for so long that we start expecting new players to understand how eu works. forgetting how to appeal to the mainstream mmo players. More players means more socializing.

I agree a lot with what you have said here itchi

There is a big learning curve/mindset adjustment involved to get into Entropia Unvierse properly.

The mainstream MMO gamers will find this one of the hardest tasks of all.

 

[Coelacanth]

We been playing eu for so long that we start expecting new players to understand how eu works. forgetting how to appeal to the mainstream mmo players. More players means more socializing.

I don't think EU is targeting mainstream MMO players, and I'm actually glad for that.

 

[Viperstrike]

I don't think EU is targeting mainstream MMO players, and I'm actually glad for that.

I would wake up in the morning and reassess that,
I think they are targeting anyone and everyone at present

Well as far as the google ads are concerned they are!

I have met a lot of wow/everquest players over the last month through the newcomer initiative and also a lot of free to play gamers, unfortunately the free to play ones will probably drop out 99.99% of them.

A few people under 18, but most are above.

Just on a side note, I took out a record of how much I deposit each month from the initiative as I think it was scaring a few. Now they only know I at least deposit 2k ped a month and not the 6 to 10k ped as originally stated.

 

[NevadaJake]

I asked on EF about this a year or two ago and the MA official answer was no plans for it to return, there was a more recent reply on this forum stating it was planned to return (think it was in 2013)

Fingers crossed!

I miss sitting and laying down too. Please let us chill out again!

 

[Mad Mike Hoare]

Try thinking from a mainstream mmo player's point of view.

I showed EU a RL friend of mine and he lost interested right at the beginning when he figured that either he has to regular deposit or make a living with boring sweating. After approximately 10 hours of playing (which is nothing compared to many others) he lost interest and didnt see ANY fun in exploring anything if he doesn't have a gun and armor.

EU has lost it's "adventure" character long time ago. And most people just play to get the PED back they lost during the last 7 years playing (which will never happen unless they hit a big ESI, sell their skills and equipment).

This is how it is.

 

[Pirx Danford]

I have read that in a lot of posts now and I would like to point out that its plain wrong.

Caring about and providing systems to enstrengthen the social aspects is NOT catering to "regular MMO players" it is catering to people.

You, me, everybody!

This silly argument "its bad because its regular" is annoying and false.
Regular MMO players use air to breathe too, will you stop breathing now?
They use mouse and keyboard... and so on.

Sometimes when something is common its not "unhip" to copy it. There are only so many ways to do something the right way, sometimes even only one way.

 

[DaisyColdFinger]

@ OP

No youre just getting older and less tolerant etc

Ahmen

DCF

 

[Svarog]

Antisocial?? People kill people there!!

 

[sostoned]

Do you think I'm stupid? I know this. It couldnt have been more obvious there, Captain Obvious. You {removed} on your thread couldnt handle someone with opposing viewpoints coming in and presenting them on your thread. You {removed} wanted your area to bitch and moan unopposed, and want to vilify me because I had the temerity to come in and tell you {removed} that you were wrong.

Frankly I'm glad you ragequit on your silly complaint thread. I'm not holding back on you or your type anymore. Why? What good does it do to hold back? You {removed} never stop complaining, never stop moaning, never stop acting like victims. You want to think you are the victim of something? The only thing you are the victim of is yourself. You have full control here. Grow up and act like it.

By the way, its spelled funny. It might be wise to spend less time smoking weed, and more time studying.

Dang, youre an angry dude

I at least know why im angry. Would be great for you to find out why you have this real bad behavior, it can possibly make your life less hell.

Good luck in your life with no friends

btw, im pretty offended by this dude, in real life i would have punched his face
it would be a good thing if mods would be a bit tighter with this angry troll

 

[safara]

I Agree with many posts in this thread and in my mind it boils down to fragmentation.

Too few players split out across too large a space.

Too much changing things, places and vibes that were not broken.

 

[jaydub]

Join our movement...

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/...ty-have-enough-cohesion-to&highlight=cohesion

Brick

 

[jaydub]

I come to the forums....

Time & time again, I've read players' criticisms of EU, and the lack of social interaction is a common complaint. The old-timers, and even the not-so-old-timers, fondly remember a time when the game was a lot more social and a lot more player/avatar interaction happened. So the question is, how can the game increase social interactivity between players, and what things negatively affect social gameplay?

Here are some thoughts on what might've contributed to the downfall of social interaction...

1) Auctions: As auctions effectively put to death traders & merchants as a profession, so too did they negatively impact player interaction. Players don't trade nearly as much as they used to, which means much-decreased interactions to discuss item info & stats. People just stand around like deaf-mutes by the auctioneers, often completely oblivious to any nearby conversation. Auctions are a useful part of the game so you can't just eliminate them.

2) The elimination of the avatar speaking gibberish. It was cute to listen to, and made anybody within earshot aware that a conversation was happening. I don't think I can recall when we stopped gibber-jabbering, but it's so conspicuously absent, there's nothing but profound silence in most cities. I say "Bring back the gibberish!" because it can't hurt, didn't do anything bad for the game (to my knowledge), and in its own small way, was a positive feedback for making your avatar talk...it was fun to listen to.

Feel free to add your thoughts & suggestions for ways to get more social interaction happening in EU.

...for my gibberish! Seriously though...bring back gibberish.

Brick

 

[jaydub]

This is the beauty of societies...

maybe money is a part of the problem..
at the beginning there was not so much need to be careful not to get scammed, there been less beggars and stealers, there been more ppl giving away little things to newbies. now you always fear it´s just an avatar who is there to make money. there was more trust and ppl didnt think about giving free pixie parts to newbies they meet randomly. today nobody has anything to give and often dont have time to help / stick around with others/newbies. it´s quite rare at least.

even if you want to give something or organize a free tp "run" - even the newbies are scared and dont trust, fearing it could be a trick to scam them.

i think a part of it is the real world community/economy because everyone has less and less time and less and less money. on the other hand it might be the advertizing that you can make money here, it might also attract the wrong ppl.

...it creates a group of people that you can get to know and trust like an ingame family...you still have different people at differing arms lengths but you really can get to a point where u trust a certain group of folks...THANK YOU TO GLOBAL ALLIANCE and all who currently are my mates!

Brick