Renting Gear System Solution

[Xanato Xan Kaso]

Here is the real answer which MindArk doesn't want to give because they are afraid to appear greedy:

"The Economy of Entropia hums and churns through the active grinding of the majority of participants. The potential to loot a very desirable and very rare item plays a significant role in incentivizing hunters to grind large quantities of mobs over extended periods. We believe that if we were to make it easier and safer for participants to "rent" these rare and highly desirable items, we would in effect discourage grinding and this would have a significant impact on the overall economy of Entropia.

"For that reason, it was decided long ago that we at MindArk could not support such a system." - MA

"Edit" Mindarks Income instead of 'economy of entropia'

 

[jambon]

As mentioned in the past, there are no plans to implement any system for renting/loaning items. I believe this stance is also very unlikely to change, for many reasons (for example, it would be devastating to the ingame economy).

Actually if it was thought through this could very much benefit the economy.

A) Yeah, ok I suppose MA makes a killing in auction fees from people listing and re-listing this super high cost items in auction. But I think you could make a lot more via taking a fee on these P2P loans in the wild (or at a terminal?). Because you would see a lot more turnover of people loaning items on a day to day basis rather than flipping it in auction a couple times a year. You would also earn across a wider set of gear price ranges that cater to different player budgets. No need to lock up 1000 peds of your bankroll on overhead of some UL gear you're only going to want for a few days or even a few hours. Also funds locked in gear overhead is less funds to actually hunt/mine/craft with.

B) UL guns/gear offer no real stability to the "economy" as you put it because it's not an ongoing cost like limited weapons offer. Once the item is sold to a player, that's it, they own it. It markup doesn't really benefit the economy (or MA) at all at that point. And if that player logs out for 6 months it sits in their account doing nothing. However, if they were able to loan it out during this time they could earn some money on the rental (which could be rolled into further hunting at a later date) and MA could earn a small fee as commission on the P2P loan.

It's WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN.

• Low budget players win because their money goes further without having to pay the upfront cost for owning UL gear for a short period of time. Better chance of user retention.
• Higher budget players win because they get another means of income to supplement their gameplay and offset their gear costs which could lead to a healthy markup support on high-end gear knowing that their investment can be supplemented by renting it out.
• MA wins because they now have a new stream of income in the game by taking a small % of the proceeds of each of these loans.
• The economy wins because it's another means of a steady flow of cash between players hands and into gaming activities such as hunting.

Renting gear will never become efficient for the long term so players that have a need will still buy this gear to own it.

IMO This game is in need of some upheaval of the old ideals of a sustainable economy like this if it's gonna last another 15 years mate.

 

[Xanato Xan Kaso]

Actually if it was thought through this could very much benefit the economy.

A) Yeah, ok I suppose MA makes a killing in auction fees from people listing and re-listing this super high cost items in auction. But I think you could make a lot more via taking a fee on these P2P loans in the wild (or at a terminal?). Because you would see a lot more turnover of people loaning items on a day to day basis rather than flipping it in auction a couple times a year. You would also earn across a wider set of gear price ranges that cater to different player budgets. No need to lock up 1000 peds of your bankroll on overhead of some UL gear you're only going to want for a few days or even a few hours. Also funds locked in gear overhead is less funds to actually hunt/mine/craft with.

B) UL guns/gear offer no real stability to the "economy" as you put it because it's not an ongoing cost like limited weapons offer. Once the item is sold to a player, that's it, they own it. It markup doesn't really benefit the economy (or MA) at all at that point. And if that player logs out for 6 months it sits in their account doing nothing. However, if they were able to loan it out during this time they could earn some money on the rental (which could be rolled into further hunting at a later date) and MA could earn a small fee as commission on the P2P loan.

It's WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN.

• Low budget players win because their money goes further without having to pay the upfront cost for owning UL gear for a short period of time. Better chance of user retention.
• Higher budget players win because they get another means of income to supplement their gameplay and offset their gear costs which could lead to a healthy markup support on high-end gear knowing that their investment can be supplemented by renting it out.
• MA wins because they now have a new stream of income in the game by taking a small % of the proceeds of each of these loans.
• The economy wins because it's another means of a steady flow of cash between players hands and into gaming activities such as hunting.

Renting gear will never become efficient for the long term so players that have a need will still buy this gear to own it.

IMO This game is in need of some upheaval of the old ideals of a sustainable economy like this if it's gonna last another 15 years mate.

This is what I have been saying and why I started my rental service. There is a market for it. but a lot of it is player mindset and lack of a safe ability to do this type o trade, which is what I am trying to create. Maybe if mindark doesnt want to program a bunch of stuff and be lazy about it, they can just sell some Licenses like with the bank to make official rental services that mindark will keep a close eye on to allow trades without collateral. They already take back peds that have been charged back across multiple accounts (like I said they only do things that affect their bottom line) So if they want to be cheap and not program a full rental system just allowing a few avatars to run rentals like the banks run loans would allow the void to be filled as long as mindark will stand behind those players if people try to scam them and undo any 3rd party sales or trades of the items.... But it would be soo much better if they just programmed a system anyone could utilize.