Real Cash Economy Vs Subscription Game Economy.

[Dark Cat]

One thing I always wanted to know people's opinions about and one thing that we were never allowed to talk about back on EntropiaForum is what the exact difference is between playing this game here with an RCE, and it's counter-part, any subscription game in which people buy things in-game for real-money even though it's not an RCE.

Before we go any further I want to quickly state that I am not much of a gamer, EU is the only game I play and even then very rarely compared to most others here. I've never played any other MMO and as a result I'm very under-educated about them, but there is this one thing that has always confused me, so let me lay it down...

A lot of people say what makes Entropia so unique is the fact that is the only true (popular) RCE game that exsists, but then, I keep seeing these articles here and there about people paying $2,000 or whatever for a WoW "+10 sword" on Ebay and it makes me wonder why there is such a difference in what we do here?
Ansche Chung, bless her, made her fortune over in 2nd life, then tried to make it here and failed. Was it because this was a game that actually used real money as opposed to 2nd life that just had obsessed people buying things for no real reason? As such she wasn't able to make the leap into this arena? When you think about it, even though all our PED is backed by a $ amount, doesn't it end up being in the same ball-park? The only real difference is that we don't have to pay a subscription fee, while the others do.

If someone in WoW is willing to pay $2,000 for a "+10 sword", and someone in here is willing to pay the same amount for a particular weapon, even though it's actual TT-value is only about $10, is there that much of a differnece with the WoW sword that has no "TT value"?

I used to laugh at people in these other games that bought items that weren't real and had no real money value to them, but when you consider the markup of certain items in our own game, are we not doing the same thing?

So what makes us so different? Your opinions below please....

Cat.

 

[Atraie]

Its both different and the same.

And ya i never understood the people who bought stuff like that in other games for real cash. But its the same in entropia i don't understand the people who will spend 10k on some skill chips, or something similiar. (with the exception of land, i understand that completely)

But, it really boils down to income level. If you are of modest income where you are spending a large portion of your paycheck on gas/food/housing/etc, its a lot different buying a $2000 item then someone who is taking home a couple hundred k. That 2k to them is just a night out on the town. Its the same as someone who only takes home 30k, gping out to dinner and a movie.

There is no difference at that level of expendature. On the lower level tho is the huge difference between an RCE and a subscription based game.

 

[aridash]

unless i've missed somthing, the main difference is that in Mindark's RCE concept (and in SL) there is an official policy of allowing deposits and withdrawals of cash for purchases. in other virtual worlds this is frowned upon at best, seen as cheating and outlawed. "Gold" in most other virtual worlds is traded on the grey market, through ebay and web portals, involving paypal payments and and meetings in game to fullfill the transaction. you dont transfer $100 direct to Blizzard to see your account's gold increase.

as an aside, Anshe failed/less-than-successful for two reasons. first she didnt understand the game which she was a newcomer to. second she jumped on a particular new bandwagon, the banks, which is on the periphery of the game. her previous success was in simple virtual real estate and having first mover/early adopter advantage. had she applied the effort to trading valuable virtual items instead im sure it would have been more successfull.

 

[XeroX2]

SL is a RCE too so no big differnece there apart from the fact that the linden$ are not at a fixed exchange rate. For all those other games the only difference is that it is not legal to trade for real cash in them.
Just a little story here... I once had a disciple who wanted to earn some money and he even was quite sucessful with it after some time. Then suddenly he quit entropia one day and I asked him why?
He said Entropia is just not profitable enough in comparison to other MMOs.
So he makes a living in germany now by watching over some bots on his 2 PCs in various MMOs and selling the earnings to the black market. Personaly I sometimes feel that this tells a lot about the dream MA is trying to sell to us. However I allways prefer to stay on the legal side and I guess the punishment for that is getting like 80% returns in Entropia.

PS: NO I would NOT like to earn my money watching some mulit box clients of a certain MMO running on a few screens... I guess that must be why I am at university.

 

[Mega]

In other MMO's you could sell currency and items for real cash but it was not officially allowed. There was a grey market (and still is to a degree) for cash for items / currency in various MMO's. Ebay eventually banned such trades but you can do a search and still see advertisements even today. Many if not all MMO companies could ban accounts for trading for real cash, so it was a risky endevour (both for the buyer and the seller).

Entropia and Second Life are the first MMO's I have heard of that expressly allowed and encouraged real cash for virtual items trade. The difference between the two for me is that Entropia has gameplay and 2nd life has erm virtual fishing? (and virtual ****ing)

 

[Hotei]

I also know very little about other mmorpg games.... however I don't believe in any of the other games that you can turn a profit by game play if you buy a certain weapon. Trading an item, sure you can make money there... buy low and sell high.

But in EU a combo of MM and mod fap can, with a little knowledge, actually help you make money by playing the game. I don't think a +10 sword or whatever can do that.

Just thoughts.

Hotei

 

[Staffas]

in alot of MMOs you can aquire alot of ingame currency at the top lvls, this can then be sold on to other players at the black market for real cash. for examle as a max lvl in a specific game I can aquire a reward for a quest that is 1000 times larger than what a lvl1 player get (basicly for the same playtime).

The diference between EU and non RCE games is that in non RCE games your outcome for killing some mobs is always higher than the cost of killing it. Always, even from lvl 1 with vendor weapon (same as TT weapons), therefor a tool like MM (or a "+10 sword") is only used for braging rights in PvP or to kill mobs faster (good for raids and large group quests too).

A "10+ Sword" (Uber item) in most games deal realy high dmg, as in good for PvP and it also helps killing mobs faster, or just killing harder mobs, faster killing is more ingame currency.



What makes EU different from other MMOs out there is the RCE, that it is legal to do buy, sell and trade with real cash ingame in the form of peds. You can acually use your credit card and bank account for legal approved transaction in and out of the game.
If you would like to buy ingame currency in any other MMO (almost all of them) you have to go through some 3rd party website with no guarantee that you accually recieve what you paid for. And if you dont get the ingame currency that you paid for you can not complain to anyone.
Same things with items (other than provided from the MMOs official shops), if you pay for it and dont recieve it, you can never complain to anyone.

Oh, and if you buy anything in a MMO that does not have a RCE, you can not sell it again (for real cash) without breaking the rules, risking your account and your "investment".

Basicly the difference between EU and a normal MMO is the RCE, the legal (and secure) rights to trade for real cash ingame. with the added fun of big funky real cash value loots paied out by the game itself (a 100k ped HOF is real cash, dump it in the TT and cash out if you want to, this you can never do in a normal MMO).

I also think that a big differnce is that a normal MMO takes about 1-3 months to get to max lvl and then it is time to either start over or move on to another game. While in EU there is no max lvl, and if you feel like lvl 100 is enough in hunting you still have lvl 100 mining and crafting to go for.
But that has not realy anything to do with the RCE part of it

well thats my

 

[thoreau]

In other MMO's you could sell currency and items for real cash but it was not officially allowed. There was a grey market (and still is to a degree) for cash for items / currency in various MMO's. Ebay eventually banned such trades but you can do a search and still see advertisements even today. Many if not all MMO companies could ban accounts for trading for real cash, so it was a risky endevour (both for the buyer and the seller).

Entropia and Second Life are the first MMO's I have heard of that expressly allowed and encouraged real cash for virtual items trade. The difference between the two for me is that Entropia has gameplay and 2nd life has erm virtual fishing? (and virtual ****ing)

Just for completeness - Everquest 2 has had a server with a real cash economy for quite some time. Players can buy and sell currency, characters, items, etc.

https://exchange.livegamer.com/eqii/

All totally legal and sanctioned by the developers. In many ways, it is more of a 'real cash economy' because the value of the 'Plat' is not a fixed ratio to the dollar. It floats based on supply and demand.

 

[XeroX2]

Just for completeness - Everquest 2 has had a server with a real cash economy for quite some time. Players can buy and sell currency, characters, items, etc.

https://exchange.livegamer.com/eqii/

All totally legal and sanctioned by the developers. In many ways, it is more of a 'real cash economy' because the value of the 'Plat' is not a fixed ratio to the dollar. It floats based on supply and demand.

yeah that one was the reason why I looked into EQ2 free to play for a while... but then suddenly they seemed to run out of voice actors... is that allways the case? Or was that just the early stage of the F2P version?

 

[Futurama]

The biggest and most important difference is that in subscription MMOs usually you get stuff for nothing aka you can farm money, items (oh and btw, items rarely have limitations how many can drop).

 

[Candice]

Yes, Second Life is an RCE which many people don't know. And today there are always at least 40K people logged in at any one time. That goes up to 80K or more at peak times. I made some money a few years ago buying and selling virtual land and took $200 out of the game leaving about $100 in game. You don't have to pay anything to play, but for $10 a month you get a house and L$300 a week. I pay by the year so it costs me $6 a month. You can also deposit if you want more money in game. Clothes are cheaper there, my outfit in EU cost around US$10 and if I take it off and put it back on it decays. In SL I have many outfits that cost $1 or less. I started EU putting around $20 a month in once I decided to play for real and not just explore like I did for the first two months. Now I put in $30 a month because my weapons cost too much to play for less.

Most people in SL use it as a social club but you can make anything you want limited only by your RL skills (SL is not a skilling game) and sell it for whatever people are willing to pay. Clothes, vehicles, weapons, houses, etc. The first one takes time and energy the second one is free. When people buy they buy a copy that costs you nothing. There are some there making an RL living by selling in SL. If you buy land you can subdivide it and charge rent. I rented an apt for over 2 years for L$100 a week. I got rid of it when SL decided to give free houses to premium accounts. SL is very relaxing to me. I love to explore. 99% of what you see was made by the players not Linden Labs. And unless you go to a combat area you can wander forever without dying.


Have fun,
Candy
Kit Young in SL

 

[Miles]

Microtransactions

I think the bigger point is being missed. In EU, each and every action costs some amount of money - the micro transactions that drive the economy are far different than in a subscription game. There, you pay and you play. Here it is your activities that cost money, not your time.

Completely different.



Miles

 

[Wizlawz]

i think each has it's pros and cons but im no novice at that.
Sl, i was there manymany years ago, my pc culdnt handle it at that time, so i did not get a chance to enjoy it, then not so long ago i saw a vid for cheats on SL making everyone crash, i stayed away.

i do play a P2P relm, its pretty cool, more bang for the buck i think.; but not able to withdraw so wotever currency is made stays in the realm.

i like having the play for free with option to deposit especially when there could be a chance to withdraw.

there is another realm i play that is play 4 free, but have option to buy weps.clothes,etc,but cant withdraw, its like buying the game i guess in a sense.

eh im a gamer i play what i can when i can, variety , yeah, i like variety; i will go from fps, to something like this , to something else. but what i really like is "free roam" or open play, idk what the real name of this style is, but you get what im saying.