SSHHH - this game is a secret!

[Kitch]

Why is the PR so bad? all my gamer mates have no clue about monria or alan kroms ath the other night? EVERY gamer should be aware of these things?!

 

[sidxx]

why dont you tell them?

 

[dr3w]

Who the hell is monria and alan kroms ath?

 

[Sissi]

Well first of all gratz on your 1 year anniversary!

Well, regarding your question, dunno. Perhaps we are still in closed beta (yes we are the chosen few) and they do not want attention until they go live.

Google tractionpr, that's MA's PR firm, I was especially impressed with their awards...

 

[Art Jennifer]

If they promote the game, gain millions of players. Imagine how quickly the game would fall, with all the bugs and shoddy loot, people would come and go, spreading bad word.

 

[tyk]

Why is the PR so bad? all my gamer mates have no clue about monria or alan kroms ath the other night? EVERY gamer should be aware of these things?!

why? like im jumping from joy because theres a new patch coming to WoW or when i see the top ten biggest wins on unibets 24h list

 

[Kiriku Surgun]

If they promote the game, gain millions of players. Imagine how quickly the game would fall, with all the bugs and shoddy loot, people would come and go, spreading bad word.

Still aiming at the trophy for the mmo'ish platform with the least promotion budget ever! You are so going to win it


Jennifer is right though, it seems to be sustainable as it is right now, and it is not polished, seen as a casino and allot of neg rep from the community due to the massive amounts of flaws, glitches and lack of progress. It would not be smart untill the basics are fixed, for all levels for sure, especially newbees. This game is a hardcore game, they dont seem to understand the casual market. And the casual market doesnt understand this game.

why? like im jumping from joy because theres a new patch coming to WoW or when i see the top ten biggest wins on unibets 24h list

At least you hear about it
Why is world of warcraft such a succes? Not because its good, it was a cheap spinoff from others like everquest which was supreme, it was their IP warcraft, starcraft those titles have a fanbase from years, tournaments and everybody knows blizzard. So what happenend worldwide tv commerials, they spammed the market.
And nearly every first time mmo experiance from a player leaves them with awe well that was true when gaming was not this much accepted and flooded.

First you had to find an mmo lets say on altavista and you got a few hits. People anticipated on games to be released, now there are tons and tons of mmo's every body screaming they have dont things different, well most suck big time and all the others are trying to be one.
Mindark has done some exciting stuff, i believe in that, its that they dont understand 'game' and 'market'. They just do what they think is cool, and expect to draw players in.
Stuff like RockTropia is pretty sad imo, Jazznerd got killed by technogroupie and looted a saxogun(L)

That is like being aroused and get turned off like putting your elite flute adult in cold ice

 

[Kitch]

"Jennifer is right though, it seems to be sustainable as it is right now, and it is not polished, seen as a casino and allot of neg rep from the community due to the massive amounts of flaws, glitches and lack of progress."

Dont agree on this one, when do you want to wait till 2023?
Im pretty sure MA want it to be bigger than it is and want as many members as possible. No company in the world actively tries to dissuade would be customers because they are scared they will find out how shit it is! lol

"At least you hear about it"

So the reason I made this thread is because I am telling people about it and they're like "why haven't I heard about this then?" And to me that seems a bit weird.
Maybe I am getting confused because inwardly, I get the impression MA want to do big and bold stuff to be more famous and unprecendented. But outwardly no one knows wtf is going on

"First you had to find an mmo lets say on altavista and you got a few hits. People anticipated on games to be released, now there are tons and tons of mmo's every body screaming they have dont things different, well most suck big time and all the others are trying to be one.
Mindark has done some exciting stuff, i believe in that, its that they dont understand 'game' and 'market'. They just do what they think is cool, and expect to draw players in.
Stuff like RockTropia is pretty sad imo, Jazznerd got killed by technogroupie and looted a saxogun(L)

That is like being aroused and get turned off like putting your elite flute adult in cold ice"

yeah.. I guess..

 

[Kiriku Surgun]

Dont agree on this one, when do you want to wait till 2023?
Im pretty sure MA want it to be bigger than it is and want as many members as possible. No company in the world actively tries to dissuade would be customers because they are scared they will find out how shit it is! lol

First contact is very important, i am metely visiualizing if I were in their spot. And I would not let potential players get a negative feeling due to some basic stuff that has to be sorted and fixed.
But history tells that MA is not taking to much priority in that part of the game, its like having a michellin starred restaurant hiding in some alley and the door has food and graffity all over it looking like a squat house.

The entrance must be tidy
And when inside, it should not take a translation machine to figure out what is on the menu

Then you can welcome the mass market instead of the niche foodies

 

[JustinStarry]

Well it's a non-US game. So... you know. Most of the MMOs that end up known the most by gamers are ones in the US.

I'm not saying the US is the center of the world. I'm saying its stuff gets strut around the most

 

[aridash]

Well it's a non-US game. So... you know. Most of the MMOs that end up known the most by gamers are ones in the US.

I'm not saying the US is the center of the world. I'm saying its stuff gets strut around the most

yeah. except all those games not out of US, like say Linage or City of Heros from Ncsoft (japn) or Runescape (England), EvE (Iceland) Final Fantasy (Squre Enix, Japan)... this list could get very long and include dozens of Asian games we in the West havent heard of. doesnt really wash does it? once upon a time reasons like that Art Jenifer would have had weight - its not ready, needs refinment. its how many years since CryEngine, they've taken the money for through CLDs... where's the marketing? its not really good enough anymore, there are indie games on steam or even kickstarter with a bigger followings that EU.

 

[Solo4711]

when MAs new CTO arrived his goal set was to double the active player base.

so the path seems to set as slowly increase not mass flooding to say adieu to 95% new arrivals after 2 weeks.

with all the f2p mmos on the market gamer type players are likely to have no problem to try everything out as they pay no initial fee, neither do they need an subscription with an agreement of a minimum timeframe they would have to pay like a 12 month contract would set them fix - nothing needed anymore.

all what is needed is a free emailaccount and registration, thats it. the mmo market is hard these days with lots of players migrating from game to game in dependency what kind of theme they like at the moment.

= churn rate would be too high.

I like the approach of Joakim - seems someone is getting into quality.
MAs business report shows that also.

entropia as plattform with real cash will be measured on quality.

also compare the business reports of the last years. MA has not always been with the rather low number of employees they have now. there where more Mindarkticans in the past.

castle in dresden finally sold = good
SEE payed away = good

it's time now that they get more liquid again to operate and move.

business report shows that the costs on the support department shall be lowered. the lady in charge as CFO knows exactly whats going on. and so they invest in new infrastructure.

they need to expand again , chains and cut offs lead to anger and frust = churn rate increase

 

[~CHOPPER~]

Why is the PR so bad?

MA has a marketing director but his official title is "Easy Money"...

I believe he just drinks coffee and makes paper airplanes while at the office...

 

[Few Scars]

MA have failed in advertising this game. If you ask a random person on the street what Entropia Universe is they will have no idea. Ask them what WoW or EVE is and they will have heard of it. It's October and I have not seen any adverts anywhere.

 

[Lardinho]

There's a very simple reason, this game is a massive dick to new players. The vast majority that try it do not stay and frankly with the month after month debable with 100% progress disciples being unable to graduate, it's hardly surprising.

A big point why people don't bother getting that far into the game is that they are disappointed from the very start due to the ludicrously convoluted UI. Once this changes, I think instantly there will be at least a 5% jump in the number of people who stay a lot longer. It's at least 6 years overdue and had they addressed it at the time things might have been very different.

 

[Dusk]

I think they need to fix the bugs, or at least the bulk of them before advertising this game. Trouble is, I'm sure we (the community) were having that conversation over two years ago.

 

[Haruto Rat]

Why is the PR so bad? all my gamer mates have no clue about monria or alan kroms ath the other night? EVERY gamer should be aware of these things?!

Because the last time MA tried advertising, Port Atlantis Overcrowded! happened.

I for one I'm happy to see MA doesn't try a failed plan again and works on improving infrastructure first (that was what the last VU was all about) - unlike some players who when they fail, try again and harder.

 

[FallenAngel]

when MAs new CTO arrived his goal set was to double the active player base.

first mayor mistake by MA (nope its the last in a huge historical mass of epic mistakes).
a chief technology officer has absolutely NOTHING to do with marketing, unless the product in such a poor state it cant be marketed.
you let professional marketing and/or PR executives plan your marketing (and no hiring some dude you met at a game convention is not a professional, im looking at you traktorPR).
if your drain is flooding do you hire a carpenter to fix it, a car mechanic?

I like the approach of Joakim - seems someone is getting into quality.
MAs business report shows that also.

you like joakim because he is better than nothing at all, no offense to joakim but is a game developer and should be concentrating on developing the game, interacting with the community is not what you let the developer do.
which leads to my question, what are all the many executives at MA actually doing all day if they know nothing of these subjects?

they need to expand again , chains and cut offs lead to anger and frust = churn rate increase

then why did they bring back the mayor frustration of people, poor average loot leading to high jackpots for some (because of some loud gamblers who complain when they lose but also complain when loot is "boring").

the fact that this big loot and big ticket sales is the best MA can come up with as publicity and as a sales and growth promotion strategy tells you all you need to know about the "executives" in charge.

 

[Kitch]

I like the approach of Joakim - seems someone is getting into quality.
MAs business report shows that also.

entropia as plattform with real cash will be measured on quality.

I hope this is true.
I would personally like them to retain the in depth nature of the game even if that inevitably means a lower player base. So I guess that is my first contradiction, I want to keep the spreadsheets and researching, but of the total global potential playerbase available, most of them "just want a game" and most are so retarded that we would proabably get pissed off if they joined here lol

hmmm..

 

[Neil Stockton]

I think they need to fix the bugs, or at least the bulk of them before advertising this game. Trouble is, I'm sure we (the community) were having that conversation over two years ago.

Why? Normally the bugs don't pose a problem to enjoyment of the game. Obviously some do (like the graduation bug that was just fixed), but the game will always have some bugs because it's an evolving thing unlike most games.

 

[narfi]

why dont you tell them?

I do

http://www.onrpg.com/boards/threads/219710-Help!-Looking-for-a-MMORPG

http://www.onrpg.com/boards/threads/219679-Entropia-Universe-New-All-Time-High-(ATH)

 

[Dusk]

Why? Normally the bugs don't pose a problem to enjoyment of the game.

Seriously?

Look around the forum.

 

[RexDameon]

I think they need to fix the bugs, or at least the bulk of them before advertising this game. Trouble is, I'm sure we (the community) were having that conversation over two years ago.

except we've been saying that exact thing for like 9 years

 

[Dusk]

except we've been saying that exact thing for like 9 years

That was my general point.

 

[Naithen]

The game is run by MONKEYS !!!!

 

[Steve_saber]

OK I have to ask...how many of your friends have you recruited to play?? And how many play for more than a month that don't look at you like you're retarded in some way??

 

[Steve_saber]

Why? Normally the bugs don't pose a problem to enjoyment of the game. Obviously some do (like the graduation bug that was just fixed), but the game will always have some bugs because it's an evolving thing unlike most games.

Bugs are part of every game. You are absolutely right Neil. I've personally never played a game especially an MMO that didn't have them.
The difference is, we are still dealing with bugs that have been part of this game for the life (10 fucking years! Lets Celebrate!!!!!!) of this game..even through a total rebuild to a toally new game engine they managed to not only bring bugs over to the new engine, but fix them, then re-fucking-create them on a regular basis...and in some cases fucking enhance them, not to mention the new ones. Hell some they managed to actually port over to new systems!!

Vu, after VU after VU...it's alway amateur hour in EU...and their will always be some newer player to suck MA's ass and say how great it is....cause they haven't been waiting for years for MA to get their shit together.

There's never a shortage of people ready to dance around like converts at a revival meeting everytime MA fuck up a VU then spend weeks getting it back to "acceptable" meaning you can actually stay in the fucking game. Then ignore the rest of the shit MA break time after time after time.

After the last disaster some dude showed up with all kinds of info about the fuck up, and entropians danced in the streets singing the praises at the "new open communication!!!!" Seen him lately? lol

 

[Alice]

edit: warning, this is one of my infamous very lenghty Alice post (IVLAP)
reading all of this will cost you a lot of your time, you may chuckle a bit though
it is all based on my opinion and it is A LOT TO READ
so if you have better things to do, just skip this post
edit 2, added part about AI

they don't use proper marketing cause there is no useful thing about it to market
the only real useful point about EU is the real cash economy
its the biggest pro and biggest con at the same time

now what would you market
"We are the prettiest MMO",
err, nah, not really
you got cryengine and that doesn't look too bad but there are games who look similar if not better with lesser means often enough

"We have tons of people!"
actually they used that, using their amounts of created accounts
they've yet to release actual active player data as far as i know (maybe i missed it)
like how many ppl are online per week
but be honest, it won't be millions

MMO wise, nothing to market
maybe RPG wise

"We have a rich story"
not at all, actually the stories they came up with were forgotten or brought to strange and unsatisfying endings
like the egg story, that was on hold like 4? years before there was some Feffox (great name btw, a feff shagging the trox queen, sigh), big shootout, over
and now? uhm

"We have fun levelling up"
not at all
its grinding 101
actually its rather grinding 0.5
in pretty much every RPG you have two main thrives, one i come to after this point, the other being "i wanna get stronger"
now in EU, you don't get stronger really
sure, you gain skills and can unlock new weapons, BUT
this allows you to kill the stuff you clicked dead in a similar manner than back in the pre Diablo days faster, not necessarily more efficient (thank god they brought auto use tool)
if you move up mob wise, it doesn't matter that much in term of gameplay if you kill an atrox with say something like Apis level, or a exa using an opalo (your costs explode tho, but thats another point i come to later)
id say if youre a hardcore gamer you can prolly get to a decent HP level within a year or two, 150 HP makes a decent difference hunting wise in efficiency, but that's pretty much it
you WILL keep clicking things dead, much like on day 1, maybe the weapon sound differs and it sounds more like ratatata than pew pew and tschuip tschuip, but it doesn't change

one more for hunting before i go into other professions
"We have a great AI"
not at all, when a 5m robot comes at you, firing its laser and then suddenly it is stopped by the mighty blue flower infront of him, well, thats strange to say the least
Indie games programmed by like 5 people have better AI, take minecraft for examples
you can change the landscape there, remove and put blocks down, ie you have a changing environment
mobs are able to find you and attack you even in that changing environment (i think the area where they can do that decently is around 15-20 blocks/meters) and its far from perfect
STILL, they don't come straight at you just to be stopped by some block in their way, they get around it


i used hunting for this example cause its the most interesting of the standard professions
in mining your tools don't even change, you can go deeper (which you don't notice gameplay wise), you can equip amps (which you don't notice either, except return wise), you nowadays even use the same tools for ore, enmatter and treasure
in the best case the skin of the tool changes (like ark and caly ones)
but funniest here, skills mean basically 0 change gameplay wise (miners may disagree, im mostly a hunter, but feel free to point out where mining skills change your gameplay drastically)

crafting, well
you stand in a (prolly sticky) room all day without a chair, clicking "craft", or use the autocraft feature and go productive things like making coffee, watching paint dry or play proper games and come back to see the result
skill effect; you change the cos and can use "bigger" blueprints
you will still do that in the (prolly sticky) room, prolly with autocrafting

what else is there
tailoring?
the 2000 active (or w/e) people won't need clothes everyday, so your crafting is pointless

coloring
see above + terrible hurdles to skill up to use decent paints (is there actually another player who can use black paint by now? i lost track)

shipping people to planets
can't comment on that one really, but if you just got a quad and fly for 40 min to a new planet (give or take), prolly on autoflight, i wouldn't put it into the "interesting" aspect really
you prolly will do similar things like when using autocrafting

pirating
uh, seems to be fairly tuff, fairly much competition, but i can't comment on it
interest and action wise prolly one of the better examples

taming
ah yes, the taming, when was it supposed to come back? dec 2011? lol

mentoring
IF i would start here properly the text would become even longer than it is
but lets do it shortly gameplay wise
you tell (often ungrateful and impatient) newbies how the game works and 90% of them quit in a matter of 2 days (if they last that long), 5% more during a week, 3% will never finish mentoring, 2% you can get lucky with
it is not a very rewarding profession necessarily, and i don't speak of itamz or pedzzz
its hard often enough, tough and often enough undervalued
newbies often enough expect free stuff from you too (you have to pay them to allow their heighness to accept you as mentor or something)

i think thats the most thingies, maybe i forgot one or two, but you can prolly find more

the only "special" stuff we have are pretty much mindforce chips
the useful and fun ones so rare you can't get your hands on them, but even those pretty much useless for the use you would need them for


so you won't get "stronger" as such, or gain funny new abilities
whats the second RPG point

"i loot new funky stuff, better swords, armors and lotsa stuff!"
yeah, not really
isn't even pixie fairly hard to find nowadays?
if you find any weapon or armor, its L very likely and not necessarily good as that either
what you get is tons of oil (not that much needed in crafting), colors (see coloring, but demand is very low, pretty useless), skins/leathers (see tailoring and coloring), extractors (to extract the "pattern" of skins etc.; see tailoring and coloring), tier upgrade stuff (pretty useless, not that many people tier their unL stuff up cause its pointless using 99% of it), enhancer craft stuff (similar, enhancers mostly worsen your effectiveness with a few exceptions)
or in short
you usually get stuff noone wants really and everyone else does too, so the market is flooded with useless nonsense
do you new funky stuff?
can't say I ever did loot wise
oh, in team i looted angel foot guards M once i think
so yes, i guess you do (been playing like 6 years then or more )
but yeah, i guess you can loot awesome and epic stuff! (every ~5 years, you just need 50 years for a useful armor set!)

what else is there, crafting we already had with new bps, but its a profession i can't comment on

mining, something out of ordinary
biggest pro there, treasure hunting, you can get armor of angel level i think (thats pretty good) and something around shogun level i think (thats good too), well and vases, cant have everything, but they're fairly pretty #D
but otherwise, mostly meh

coloring, you don't get new stuff and unlocks are far ahead, tailoring too

shipping people from A to B, you don't get new stuff either really (except you gotta buy a new quad when your old one i shot to bits)

pirates, you get lotsa new stuff!
ok, that was a bit ironic
note that i am against lootable pvp, but i gotta grasp for straws here


all in all, RPG wise
you don't get stronger really, you don't learn new abilities to kill your foes quicker and you don't find new (useful) stuff

so imo, as MMORPG, as massive online role playing game
it isn't that massive multiplayer, it's hard to say if its a RPG as such, but its online at least

one thing game wise that's not just RPG oriented, is the exploring
from my opinion the world for exploring was more interesting before all the vehicles and the boring cities that came with CE2
STILL, for a new player there is enough to explore
it is mostly a fairly empty and boring exploration without many highlights tho, but it is there
you basically have nothing of it but of seeing new landscapes, prolly get chewed by troxes and stuff on the way, BUT, exploring works decently


the only thing left, RCE
now how do you market RCE
"we have real cash economy, our economy is based on real money!"
"ah, so i will make money from you"
"no, of course not, than we would go bankrupt"
"ah, but i can make money?"
"sure, but you gotta take it from other players, like with services or as dirty reseller (sarcasm from me)"
"ah, but that basically means that just a few people will actually -make- money, usually i have to pay?"
"pretty much, yes, isn't that great!"
"ah, yeah, i go play some real F2P game"


so to summarise, what to market EU with, the massive online role playing game
"You can run around in a fairly empty and boring world for free!"
and the most important one:

"WE ARE ONLINE!!!"

 

[FallenAngel]

they don't use proper marketing cause there is no useful thing about it to market
the only real useful point about EU is the real cash economy
its the biggest pro and biggest con at the same time

i take issue with this part of your comment, you are right in many ways, except one, a professional marketing team would of done some research and would of been perfectly placed to market this game to a large audience that has been screaming for this type of experience for years. there is even a specific genre this game would fit in that is hugely popular at this moment in time, which is why it surprises me that even the clueless managers at MA dont realise this.
to me it is completely obvious how MA should of marketed this game because my background is in marketing and PR, and because nobody in a management position at MA seems to understand this subject or their own game and its USP they have gone on a multi-year rampage that is diluting their "franchise" by copying other games instead of marketing it properly and completing and improving its own designs and missing systems. this should of been done back in 2009, or even earlier, when the existing players were more positive.

 

[Naithen]

edit: warning, this is one of my infamous very lenghty Alice post (IVLAP)
reading all of this will cost you a lot of your time, you may chuckle a bit though
it is all based on my opinion and it is A LOT TO READ
so if you have better things to do, just skip this post

they don't use proper marketing cause there is no useful thing about it to market
the only real useful point about EU is the real cash economy
its the biggest pro and biggest con at the same time

now what would you market
"We are the prettiest MMO",
err, nah, not really
you got cryengine and that doesn't look too bad but there are games who look similar if not better with lesser means often enough

"We have tons of people!"
actually they used that, using their amounts of created accounts
they've yet to release actual active player data as far as i know (maybe i missed it)
like how many ppl are online per week
but be honest, it won't be millions

MMO wise, nothing to market
maybe RPG wise

"We have a rich story"
not at all, actually the stories they came up with were forgotten or brought to strange and unsatisfying endings
like the egg story, that was on hold like 4? years before there was some Feffox (great name btw, a feff shagging the trox queen, sigh), big shootout, over
and now? uhm

"We have fun levelling up"
not at all
its grinding 101
actually its rather grinding 0.5
in pretty much every RPG you have two main thrives, one i come to after this point, the other being "i wanna get stronger"
now in EU, you don't get stronger really
sure, you gain skills and can unlock new weapons, BUT
this allows you to kill the stuff you clicked dead in a similar manner than back in the pre Diablo days faster, not necessarily more efficient (thank god they brought auto use tool)
if you move up mob wise, it doesn't matter that much in term of gameplay if you kill an atrox with say something like Apis level, or a exa using an opalo (your costs explode tho, but thats another point i come to later)
id say if youre a hardcore gamer you can prolly get to a decent HP level within a year or two, 150 HP makes a decent difference hunting wise in efficiency, but that's pretty much it
you WILL keep clicking things dead, much like on day 1, maybe the weapon sound differs and it sounds more like ratatata than pew pew and tschuip tschuip, but it doesn't change

i used hunting for this example cause its the most interesting of the standard professions
in mining your tools don't even change, you can go deeper (which you don't notice gameplay wise), you can equip amps (which you don't notice either, except return wise), you nowadays even use the same tools for ore, enmatter and treasure
in the best case the skin of the tool changes (like ark and caly ones)
but funniest here, skills mean basically 0 change gameplay wise (miners may disagree, im mostly a hunter, but feel free to point out where mining skills change your gameplay drastically)

crafting, well
you stand in a (prolly sticky) room all day without a chair, clicking "craft", or use the autocraft feature and go productive things like making coffee, watching paint dry or play proper games and come back to see the result
skill effect; you change the cos and can use "bigger" blueprints
you will still do that in the (prolly sticky) room, prolly with autocrafting

what else is there
tailoring?
the 2000 active (or w/e) people won't need clothes everyday, so your crafting is pointless

coloring
see above + terrible hurdles to skill up to use decent paints (is there actually another player who can use black paint by now? i lost track)

shipping people to planets
can't comment on that one really, but if you just got a quad and fly for 40 min to a new planet (give or take), prolly on autoflight, i wouldn't put it into the "interesting" aspect really
you prolly will do similar things like when using autocrafting

pirating
uh, seems to be fairly tuff, fairly much competition, but i can't comment on it
interest and action wise prolly one of the better examples

taming
ah yes, the taming, when was it supposed to come back? dec 2011? lol

mentoring
IF i would start here properly the text would become even longer than it is
but lets do it shortly gameplay wise
you tell (often ungrateful and impatient) newbies how the game works and 90% of them quit in a matter of 2 days (if they last that long), 5% more during a week, 3% will never finish mentoring, 2% you can get lucky with
it is not a very rewarding profession necessarily, and i don't speak of itamz or pedzzz
its hard often enough, tough and often enough undervalued
newbies often enough expect free stuff from you too (you have to pay them to allow their heighness to accept you as mentor or something)

i think thats the most thingies, maybe i forgot one or two, but you can prolly find more

the only "special" stuff we have are pretty much mindforce chips
the useful and fun ones so rare you can't get your hands on them, but even those pretty much useless for the use you would need them for


so you won't get "stronger" as such, or gain funny new abilities
whats the second RPG point

"i loot new funky stuff, better swords, armors and lotsa stuff!"
yeah, not really
isn't even pixie fairly hard to find nowadays?
if you find any weapon or armor, its L very likely and not necessarily good as that either
what you get is tons of oil (not that much needed in crafting), colors (see coloring, but demand is very low, pretty useless), skins/leathers (see tailoring and coloring), extractors (to extract the "pattern" of skins etc.; see tailoring and coloring), tier upgrade stuff (pretty useless, not that many people tier their unL stuff up cause its pointless using 99% of it), enhancer craft stuff (similar, enhancers mostly worsen your effectiveness with a few exceptions)
or in short
you usually get stuff noone wants really and everyone else does too, so the market is flooded with useless nonsense
do you new funky stuff?
can't say I ever did loot wise
oh, in team i looted angel foot guards M once i think
so yes, i guess you do (been playing like 6 years then or more )
but yeah, i guess you can loot awesome and epic stuff! (every ~5 years, you just need 50 years for a useful armor set!)

what else is there, crafting we already had with new bps, but its a profession i can't comment on

mining, something out of ordinary
biggest pro there, treasure hunting, you can get armor of angel level i think (thats pretty good) and something around shogun level i think (thats good too), well and vases, cant have everything, but they're fairly pretty #D
but otherwise, mostly meh

coloring, you don't get new stuff and unlocks are far ahead, tailoring too

shipping people from A to B, you don't get new stuff either really (except you gotta buy a new quad when your old one i shot to bits)

pirates, you get lotsa new stuff!
ok, that was a bit ironic
note that i am against lootable pvp, but i gotta grasp for straws here


all in all, RPG wise
you don't get stronger really, you don't learn new abilities to kill your foes quicker and you don't find new (useful) stuff

so imo, as MMORPG, as massive online role playing game
it isn't that massive multiplayer, it's hard to say if its a RPG as such, but its online at least

one thing game wise that's not just RPG oriented, is the exploring
from my opinion the world for exploring was more interesting before all the vehicles and the boring cities that came with CE2
STILL, for a new player there is enough to explore
it is mostly a fairly empty and boring exploration without many highlights tho, but it is there
you basically have nothing of it but of seeing new landscapes, prolly get chewed by troxes and stuff on the way, BUT, exploring works decently


the only thing left, RCE
now how do you market RCE
"we have real cash economy, our economy is based on real money!"
"ah, so i will make money from you"
"no, of course not, than we would go bankrupt"
"ah, but i can make money?"
"sure, but you gotta take it from other players, like with services or as dirty reseller (sarcasm from me)"
"ah, but that basically means that just a few people will actually -make- money, usually i have to pay?"
"pretty much, yes, isn't that great!"
"ah, yeah, i go play some real F2P game"


so to summarise, what to market EU with, the massive online role playing game
"You can run around in a fairly empty and boring world for free!"
and the most important one:

"WE ARE ONLINE!!!"

Well you totally nailed it ! Well said ! The only thing i would add is the nickel and dime changes they make after ever vu that is designed to take more money out of your ped card in small and totally annoying ways eg: like changing the speed of mobs reaction when thier shot and how fast they run at you, why change it ? Just to cause your armor more decay and lower the value of long range weapons.Or how about an oldy but goody when they tweaked looting and made you fire an extra shot when you didnt want to = increase in waisted ammo.I could go on and on about thier tweaks to the ped card over the years.You just cant market that !