We have a problem - let's solve it!

[Thark]

Hey,

sorry for off topic before!

I dunno what to do to make EU popular but if anyone has a good idea, I'm very willing to put some efford into it to help!!

I wish PE would grow once again and I sincerly hope that that would benefit everyone. I'll try to stream every now and then or post in some thread about our beloved game. Again, sorry for off topic, I'll watch this thread closely and will join any good effort to help this cause.

Regards
Thark

 

[tribalwind]

" people thinking this is a scam (as in this example) and just generally being misinformed about Entropia (if informed at all)"

Yea, but nobody is willing to share info,and nobody seems to know for sure how the game works.
Support can't give any information..
(they told me :"At low level play most players are inexperianced enough to understand the economic hits they are about to take hence its quite hard to achieve good Eco early on but it is possible if you are understanding of the ingame rules of Entropia)
It's "Dynamic" that s the answer to everything ..

How players are supposed to gain more knowledge ? some kind of enlightement? Where are the "ingame rules" explained ?
I play when i can for a few years, i still don't know why i global or not, and why i global big or loose everything.
I keep asking myself, looking at avaiable datas... no clue !(who knows why he hit few thousands ped?)
More information could help players to stay, and play more.
(Have fun with what you can deposit and "play eco" ...its quite obvious and useless information, with 50% return and no global, and seeing price of "eco stuff").
---------------
"the retention of them, and their rate of deposit" .
Here too, what community can do ?

Lowering Markup doesn't help anyone. giveaways..it s quite limited.
last month i deposited ~1800 ped, this month ; ~2500(since the 5,and i got 400 ped today) ... and it doesn't work well..
Of course after two months, i am not willing to deposit anything more, cause i can only play for a few hours "seriously"... it s unsustainable.
killing argonauts young or mining unamped is not interesting ,sorry, and since it s all capped ... where is the hope?
The big globals on low level monsters/stuff used to stimulate activity...now without a thousand peds and equipment, there s nothing really interesting.

So, it s a good question, but community is not the problem, and player don't spend more or less because of community..
The only thing i see is perhaps organizing hunts, promoting shared loot monsters, crafting and mining are solo activities.. there s not much to do about it. (it fail too bad, the player quit for weeks or months).
More informations perhaps here too.
Its not that people don't want to play, it s just they can't afford to play... socializing if you can only afford a few hours each month, it s not easy...and it s getting worse after first few weeks.
(loosing constantly doesn't make people especially happy.)

 

[HardWrath]

Seeing people like Da, SIBUK, and others active again made me realize something.

In Project Entropia, the atmosphere was more of an open sandbox, meaning here is a box of sand... go figure out how to have fun with it... And that's exactly what people did. When I was new, SIBUK and others were doing fun stuff but they were making their own fun. Who remembers Boris? Who remembers the line of people across a quarter of Eudoria piggybacking Araneatrox all the way to Hadesheim? How about the oil barrel castle, Dirpi mob trains on Camp Phoenix, WoF, Pink Saturday, fashion contests, or any of the endless player created fun things?

Back then, people in EU weren't such pansy ass cry babies either. Mob trains were epic and they were fun.

These days, if you mob train Twin Peaks, threads get made in the forum, people send in support cases whining, and MA potentially will send warning emails citing the ToS and EULA regarding harassment and destroying the game play experience of other players.

I just bought a tank today, that I'll eventually sell, but we were having a lot of fun with it in Twin Peaks.... It also found it's way to both Oil Rigs for some mayhem.

I was amazed with a couple people who were clearly very upset that I had bought a tank and were pissed because I had the audacity to have fun with it, especially in twin peaks. Go suck a dick... Wtf... It's a damn video game and it's a tank with a big gun, what do you think is going to happen? Everyone and anyone who requested access to the guest list was given access, that gun was shooting non stop, I even found a way to get the tank air born... And of course I'm going to position it just right so once I lure a bunch of people into the Twin PvP Ring, I can go run out to my tank, fire inside and blow everyone up, over and over.

Tank owners in a video game aren't compensating for anything, we aren't polluting the environment, and no one's game play is being ruined by any reasonable measure. Don't get pissed off because others are having fun. How about you either join in or go about your own business without making dumb comments in the chat?

These days, everyone is so hyper sensitive and they think everyone has to only hunt, mine, or craft, follow the structure of the missions, they think that PVP is morally wrong, and that the oil rig should have a fucking line where everyone takes turns without shooting. Please kiss both sides of my ass.

Make your own fun. It can still be done... Everyone else can go ride an Itumatrox.

Thanks

 

[ermik]

I soo agree with you Hardwrath, what we see ingame is a few things.

1. The new guy

Follows forum with total focus on eco hunting punies, will rage quit if he looses a pec due to lag.

2. The frustrated veteran

After having too much fun the last 5 years and realised there isnt a fixed "dumbass" payback from all stupid mistakes this guy is really bitter, instead of trying to have fun in a less lvl 9 amp kinda way he just login to see his gear drop in value.

3. CLD player

This is most likely a version of the frustrated veteran, who after selling his Jaguar armor and ml35+Doa Rjme with a huge loss invested what was left in CLD in an attempt to get back what he lost, now sitting and whining cause noone generates revenue.

4. The entitlement generation

I want free stuff, i want free oil, i want eco gear, free events, nice hofs ( from cycling 15 ped / week on argos )

MA is putting EU through some changes atm, its been goong on for some years now and the end result will be interesting to see.

Price on gear atm suffers from people willing to buy waiting for "a better deal" instead of acting. People still want to buy, but their mindset is focused on the deal itself, not the usage value of the item. This is a psycological thing caused by seeing value on gear drop for so long.

How do we get back to where we were?

Try to have fun.

 

[Wollongong]

I soo agree with you Hardwrath, what we see ingame is a few things.

1. The new guy

Follows forum with total focus on eco hunting punies, will rage quit if he looses a pec due to lag.

2. The frustrated veteran

After having too much fun the last 5 years and realised there isnt a fixed "dumbass" payback from all stupid mistakes this guy is really bitter, instead of trying to have fun in a less lvl 9 amp kinda way he just login to see his gear drop in value.

3. CLD player

This is most likely a version of the frustrated veteran, who after selling his Jaguar armor and ml35+Doa Rjme with a huge loss invested what was left in CLD in an attempt to get back what he lost, now sitting and whining cause noone generates revenue.

4. The entitlement generation

I want free stuff, i want free oil, i want eco gear, free events, nice hofs ( from cycling 15 ped / week on argos )

MA is putting EU through some changes atm, its been goong on for some years now and the end result will be interesting to see.

Price on gear atm suffers from people willing to buy waiting for "a better deal" instead of acting. People still want to buy, but their mindset is focused on the deal itself, not the usage value of the item. This is a psycological thing caused by seeing value on gear drop for so long.

How do we get back to where we were?

Try to have fun.

I am going to follow Narfi's approach, in order to attract people with the balanced story about what this game is. That way, they won't turn into 1-4, but into 5: people having fun

 

[ermik]

I am going to follow Narfi's approach, in order to attract people with the balanced story about what this game is. That way, they won't turn into 1-4, but into 5: people having fun

Go for it, i welcome more fun ingame.

 

[anonim]

The big globals on low level monsters/stuff used to stimulate activity...now without a thousand peds and equipment, there s nothing really interesting.

I feel that's part of the problem with keeping new players.

Most of us here remember the 6-9k cornu, the 8k argo, the 10k+ baby trox and we continue to dwell on them. Now when the most you can get from a baby trox is is like 1k or 300 for an argo or cornu who can blame the new guy from feeling disappointment and thinking that the golden days of this game have passed.

Then the new player starts reading further and finds out that the loot was changed to offer a smoother curve for overall better returns but people still bitch, moan and cry all over the place about shitty returns on runs and no MU on the stuff they looted or the ever so boring OMG CLDs have lower returns each threads or the ohh crap my uber items are not even worth half of what they used to threads.

If by some miracle the new guy decides to overlook those threads and reads further what does he see .... hmm ... ohh yea the omg it only took MA X years to do something about taming or the where are the melee amps you promised us or the threads about MF needing more love on the high end of things and maybe amps as well.

Regarding events I think that WOF was a wonderful idea and so is the migration while the MM rewards only hurt our already fragile economy. If anything we need WOF to be brought back and 1-2 more migration like events during the year and less MM like stuff.

The small payer events don't hurt but won't have an impact as profound as an interplanetary WOF event for example.

As for event prizes, I realize that the MM set needs to be finished and how the set distribution was spread over the years was a good idea but MA should not give out additional UL full amor sets, faps, weapons, attachments, CLDs, only cloths(as the WOF jackets but tailored for that specific event) and consumable items(skill boosts/dna) or (L) stuff.

There's too much hate and bitterness in this place, some is well deserved, some is exaggerated, some is just retards that have nothing better to do than jump on the hate train without any solid reason.

If you really wanna do something for this game on the community side of things start begging the admins to do a forum wipe so all this poison and bitterness goes away and makes room for a fresh start and even that will be just a bandage.

 

[SpikeBlack]

When I started many had the same feeling of the golden age had passed us by, item drops were slowing - skilling had been nerfed twice to slow people down and improve longevity of the game - sweat was only selling for 1pec per bottle where only a few months before it had been 4pec.

It's the community that keep things together which came from us making our own fun and rules. As costs and amounts of ped people are cycling has gone up that community spirit has faded away as people become more and more bitter and frustrated.

The planets are having issues because they're having to fit into a universe that already has established rules. They can't benefit from the years Calypso had which were less restrictive in loot and skilling.

 

[Dan59]

I feel that's part of the problem with keeping new players.

Most of us here remember the 6-9k cornu, the 8k argo, the 10k+ baby trox and we continue to dwell on them. Now when the most you can get from a baby trox is is like 1k or 300 for an argo or cornu who can blame the new guy from feeling disappointment and thinking that the golden days of this game have passed.

Then the new player starts reading further and finds out that the loot was changed to offer a smoother curve for overall better returns but people still bitch, moan and cry all over the place about shitty returns on runs and no MU on the stuff they looted or the ever so boring OMG CLDs have lower returns each threads or the ohh crap my uber items are not even worth half of what they used to threads.

If by some miracle the new guy decides to overlook those threads and reads further what does he see .... hmm ... ohh yea the omg it only took MA X years to do something about taming or the where are the melee amps you promised us or the threads about MF needing more love on the high end of things and maybe amps as well.

Regarding events I think that WOF was a wonderful idea and so is the migration while the MM rewards only hurt our already fragile economy. If anything we need WOF to be brought back and 1-2 more migration like events during the year and less MM like stuff.

The small payer events don't hurt but won't have an impact as profound as an interplanetary WOF event for example.

As for event prizes, I realize that the MM set needs to be finished and how the set distribution was spread over the years was a good idea but MA should not give out additional UL full amor sets, faps, weapons, attachments, CLDs, only cloths(as the WOF jackets but tailored for that specific event) and consumable items(skill boosts/dna) or (L) stuff.

There's too much hate and bitterness in this place, some is well deserved, some is exaggerated, some is just retards that have nothing better to do than jump on the hate train without any solid reason.

If you really wanna do something for this game on the community side of things start begging the admins to do a forum wipe so all this poison and bitterness goes away and makes room for a fresh start and even that will be just a bandage.

Apart keeping new players MA had another problem.
That is how to move ppl who are after years skilled enought and have right weapons to hunt small trox, cornu or argo to consume and pay more.
For that they made loot rebalance by removing many interesting things from small mobs loot ( ores, items, parts of gear...) what is probably more importamt then sporadic big hofs.
So all those ppl with right gear and right skills had to move on biger mobs and here is part of payment.
Need new gear but EU is driven by scarsity to keep MU and ofc MA dont think to drop new good weapons for biger mobs. Instead they offer more fun for more payment by using consumables as result of tiering system.
As soon wide player base will adapt and be skilled / geared enought to play efficiently MA will repeat process like in spirale evry time higher, if necesary introducing evrytime biger mobs and moving good items loot to those new top mobs.

I looted imk2 from umbranoid female joung wery long time a go. It was mob from 150 to 250 hp depend of male/female or maturity. Other ppl looted mod fap or mod merc from mobs with similar hp like fefoids, formicacida or similar.
Today that is simply not possible. Last mod fap droped from dasp wich is faar from being newcomer frendly in range of small trox, argos ect lol.
Ofc newcomer can deposit 20k usd for fap, 15k usd for weapon, another 15k usd for armor and about 70k+ usd for skills if he want to enjoj all areas of hunting and maybe will be able to win mayhem fap on some event...

You sugest forum wipe in other words you sugest to lie to newcomers.
Maybe even better to make blogs wich will be revised by admin/mods before posting and without possiblity of replyes?
But that could be dangerous bumerang because lied/misleaded/pissed newcomer/customer can do a lot more damage by spreading negative words arround than any EU addicted moaner on local forum.

As comunity - we shud addvertise fun pat of EU better than investment and earning possibility or playing for free.
In the end EU is pay to have fun or pay to win environment with additional RCE and investments options.

 

[Wollongong]

Please remain on topic. This thread is not about the game mechanics, but about the way the community can improve things. So how can the community incenticize?

 

[Ast]

Please remain on topic. This thread is not about the game mechanics, but about the way the community can improve things. So how can the community incenticize?

Hand out the rewards MA failed to give. MA used to run those RX unit events. Before those events I remember Gorgeous Gorgeous Babe posting a pic of him/her standing in PVP3 with piles of stuff dropped on the floor. It became a full out pk-ing war, lots of fun. This can be done by the community.

 

[ermik]

Dropping more items really dont seem like a solution either.

 

[Ast]

Dropping more items really dont seem like a solution either.

Well this universe is full of frustrated veterans how would you get them to play? the only event i see is the overcharged weekly / monthly grinder. This isn't the event for the 2 hour playing passerby nor do i see a lot of "frustrated" veterans jump on it. (According to fluske's boss Fluske has no right to be frustrated. Only happy grinders there)

Maybe the new roadmap with the return of pets is gonna restore some of the old glory. Allas, these are all things MA/ game mechanic related.

Only thing i can come up with is community generated events with fun/great prices.

<removed>

 

[fluske]

i need to talk to my wife

 

[anonim]

I was being ironical with the forum wipe that would only solve things for 1 week at most till the old threads get recreated

Hearing Dan say that all the nice stuff has been removed from smaller mobs really puts a tear in my eye even though I suspected that for some time now

I do agree that we should advertise our huge, unique, wonderful, environment that has brought me back to entropia thought out nine years and two avatars, at some point I realized that F armor is much cheaper and maybe we should advertise that as well but for that we need more happy people and also something for the upset ones to hope for.

Bottom line is that we need to have better interaction with our MA overlords, both in game and on forum, no matter the topic(whether game related or regarding the last episode of Game of Thrones).

IF MA keeps putting out info like they did with the "Communication and Development Roadmap" release and sometimes surprise us with unexpected things, no matter how insignificant might they be, then we'll be able to move forward with more ease, ultimately attracting more players and keeping the existing one a bit more motivated and more likely to take out their credit cards and deposit some more.

 

[Wollongong]

Hand out the rewards MA failed to give. MA used to run those RX unit events. Before those events I remember Gorgeous Gorgeous Babe posting a pic of him/her standing in PVP3 with piles of stuff dropped on the floor. It became a full out pk-ing war, lots of fun. This can be done by the community.

Why do you think this stopped? And how can we return to that mindset?

 

[thoreau]

Just to add. The issue the op talks about (getting people to play and stay) isn't new. Here is a post from 2008.

Having dinner today with a friend who I haven't seen much of lately. We spent some time catching up and talking about work and family. The issue of gaming came up.

He said that is is very bored with his current game, let's call it Devil2. I told him a bit about EU and told him I'd help him get started if he wanted to play.

He asked me, 'Are there a lot of cool items in the game?'

I talked a little about the economy of the game and uber items and such but I tried to keep it real. I told him that most people exist with mid-level gear and it is very rare to get a 'cool' item in a loot.

'What about rings and bracelets and jewels and stuff?'

I explained about the jewels that are in the game and how they aren't really what he is thinking of. No rings and jewelry. No items that give any buffs or items that can be applied to existing items (upgrades.)

'What about really cool armor?'

'How often do boss monsters drop uber items?'

etc...

I spent a good deal of time talking about how EU is different. I explained how there are no level caps - no class limitations - how the challenge to be economical and still have fun it part of the game for many players.

He said, 'Listen dude, I'm not playing a game where all the monsters drop crap. I want to get awesome stuff. I want to say, 'Wow! this is a freakin awesome sword.''

Fair enough. EU isn't for everyone.

But the conversation got me thinking and I called my nephew. He and I used to play EU together 3+ years ago. Back when Longus were slow and two noobs working together could take one down with a couple of Jester D1s.

He is now playing a popular MMO. Let's call it AlwaysQuest2. I asked him what is favorite thing to do in the game was. (I knew the answer)

'I like to look in the broker (auction.) I like to look at all the jewelry and stuff and figure out what would be best against different bosses.'

I knew this answer was coming. I have played this game with him and we often talked about the wide variety of different items in the game.

'Any interest in playing EU again?'

He asked me about the looting now. I told him that usually it is stuff for crafting like oils and hides and such. He then told me something right along the lines of what my friend said. My nephew said, 'I like when I kill a monster and he drops something cool and useful. It's a double bonus if it is something that my character can personallly use.'

Now I know that EU has thousands of different items. And I also know that EU is not for everyone. But there seems to be a class of 'gamer' that likes to see cool and useful items in their loot.

I can imagine that many people download and install EU and spend time learning the game only to get hides and oils in their loots. They might think about to their previous game where the loot contained jewelry and more items that were useful in some fashion.

To make a long post short, my friend won't play EU because there really isn't a lot of cool stuff in the loots. I wonder how many others think the same thing.

So, to answer, maybe they need to fix items in loot.

 

[Wollongong]

I think this too is a matter of changing the mindset. This game is not AlwaysQuest, nor is it Devil2. This game is a world in itself, and it would be good if people were "educated" about that.

You don't ride your horse to flying school and then compare the experience of the Cessna with your fullblood Arab. You treat it for what it is. If we were to get "cool items" then the whole premise of the complex economy is undermined. Well, no... actually blown up.

And no confusion here: if they want to kill one mob and get the awesome uberitem, then they do indeed need to play those other games, which you can finish in a few months. If you join EU with that mindset, then yes, you will probably be dissappointed.

That's the whole point: we need more players who understand that what they are signing up for is a totally different experience!

 

[narfi]

why do we play this game? Simple answer: we have the money and we just like spending it in this type of game.

That is my point, tell people about the parts that draw you to it, and tell it to people who would enjoy those points. The thing is just because this isn't x game or y game doesn't make it a bad game, it makes it a different game. A different game with some great aspects to it, focus on those, not on what someone who doesn't like the game dislike it.

Just to add. The issue the op talks about (getting people to play and stay) isn't new. Here is a post from 2008.



So, to answer, maybe they need to fix items in loot.

If you feel that there are not items in loot you should hunt zombies for an hour. (just saying)

If you feel that there are not cool things in hunting loot, then perhaps you should tell your friends that like resource collecting games, since that is what it is.

Would you promote Tetris as the best on-line flight simulator?


Edit: I am pretty sure the point of this thread is NOT about what should change in the game, or what is wrong with the game. The point of this thread is to figure out what is wrong with how we present the game to others, and how we can change not only their mindsets about it, but our own as well.

We all have this ideal Entropia pictured in our head, and feel that unless it conforms to what we think it should that it has failed. The truth is that it is and has been developed and offered to us to use, it is up to us to figure out if we will use it and how we will use it.

If you are only going to eat salad, why did you grab a spoon?

 

[Wollongong]

Edit: I am pretty sure the point of this thread is NOT about what should change in the game, or what is wrong with the game. The point of this thread is to figure out what is wrong with how we present the game to others, and how we can change not only their mindsets about it, but our own as well.

Yup, pretty much sums it up.

 

[Ast]

Why do you think this stopped? And how can we return to that mindset?

Well we weren't going to talk about game mechanics

 

[Spawn]

Just to add. The issue the op talks about (getting people to play and stay) isn't new. Here is a post from 2008.



So, to answer, maybe they need to fix items in loot.

I went hunting on Toulan and got 77 weapons in loot in 3 runs of 300 ped. Weapons that are relly really cool for a new starting player.

 

[Wollongong]

Well we weren't going to talk about game mechanics

Our mindset is in no way controlled by game mechanics, or any external influence for that matter. Our mindset is controlled by us, and us alone.

 

[Pretto Loco]

I think EU has lost a lot of rl female players.
AKA the loss of the "human touch" in the community and the initiatives for stuff to do that just are for fun and interacting with people.

Maybe we have to try and get them back?

A complementary idea to the community event schedule:
Add photos of sexy ubers in undies and big freaking guns to the community calender

One for each month. We could even have an event where people have to gather points to get into the calender. The Calender Hunt.

Spread this calender as a pdf over facebook, raptr, Playfire, Duxter.

 

[Pifometre]

I think EU has lost a lot of rl female players.
AKA the loss of the "human touch" in the community and the initiatives for stuff to do that just are for fun and interacting with people.

Maybe we have to try and get them back?

A complementary idea to the community event schedule:
Add photos of sexy ubers in undies and big freaking guns to the community calender

One for each month. We could even have an event where people have to gather points to get into the calender. The Calender Hunt.

Spread this calender as a pdf over facebook, raptr, Playfire, Duxter.

As EU is for adults, we should be able to have sex for free ingame, that should calm down a lot of players after successive shitty loot returns and bring a lot of internet porn addicts.

 

[Pretto Loco]

As EU is for adults, we should be able to have sex for free ingame, that should calm down a lot of players after successive shitty loot returns and bring a lot of internet porn addicts.

The question was what we as a community can do.
If this is what you would like to see, then what could you do as a community member to make a thing like this happen? Maybe open Pifometre's Strip Club in Chugs hideout . They have done bootlegging there previously so why not a strip club?

 

[Wollongong]

I think EU has lost a lot of rl female players.
AKA the loss of the "human touch" in the community and the initiatives for stuff to do that just are for fun and interacting with people.

Maybe we have to try and get them back?

A complementary idea to the community event schedule:
Add photos of sexy ubers in undies and big freaking guns to the community calender

One for each month. We could even have an event where people have to gather points to get into the calender. The Calender Hunt.

Spread this calender as a pdf over facebook, raptr, Playfire, Duxter.

It's at times like these that I wish I had persevered at learning how to code. But alas, it's not my forte...

I love the idea of an event calender, but it should be somewhat open, so that approved Event Organizers can chuck their events on directly without moderation (and others would be moderated). Does Google support such a thing? Might be worth exploring.

 

[Dan59]

The question was what we as a community can do.
If this is what you would like to see, then what could you do as a community member to make a thing like this happen? Maybe open Pifometre's Strip Club in Chugs hideout . They have done bootlegging there previously so why not a strip club?

I think ND tryed somethiung when owned foma.
He offered job for good looking avas for his club but was highly criticised.
Also PP of NI - he hired one woman - RL expert in sociology and psychology to talk once or twice a week with players about dating, problems in love and their fantasyes and to tell storyes.
There was some succes with this things.
But best sucess EU had with warious DJ party, with miss EU, with car race and ofc WOF.
Maybe we missed to advertise this evvents more with pics, vids or comments on warious blogs?

 

[Pretto Loco]

I love the idea of an event calender, but it should be somewhat open, so that approved Event Organizers can chuck their events on directly without moderation (and others would be moderated). Does Google support such a thing? Might be worth exploring.

You are right. The pdf idea won't work. And every schedule glued to a webby I have seen in various gaming communities have not been used very much. What you need is an almanac app with instant notification when something new is going on. And ability to add something quick. This would allow for small stuff like requesting people for a swunt or whatever. I have not the slightest idea how this would work. But I guess something like Google Calender hosted on a site where peple can subscribe to the calender feed.

Google Calendar Data API
Developer's Guide Overview

Maybe we missed to advertise this evvents more with pics, vids or comments on warious blogs?

An event feed app hosted on a site would reach much further today I think.

 

[Wollongong]

I think ND tryed somethiung when owned foma.
He offered job for good looking avas for his club but was highly criticised.
Also PP of NI - he hired one woman - RL expert in sociology and psychology to talk once or twice a week with players about dating, problems in love and their fantasyes and to tell storyes.
There was some succes with this things.
But best sucess EU had with warious DJ party, with miss EU, with car race and ofc WOF.
Maybe we missed to advertise this evvents more with pics, vids or comments on warious blogs?

This sounds like the things which happen alot on SL. Perhaps we should recruit new players there