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Review from a new player
Rekhyt
Member Posts: 39
First off, I'd like to say I think Entropia is a great game. Its very fun, has great graphics if you turn them onto "high" (or even if they're at "low," its pretty decent).
On that note, I'd like to explain my experience and why I quit after just 4 days.
I started out because a friend told me about how fun the game was, they had been playing for like 3 months. They took me directly to this place called the swamp camp, which is near Port Atlantas (starting area). They told me if i didn't want to put money in, although it was the best way to get started, I can gather sweat from creatures for 5 ped for 1000 sweat.
To give you a general idea of how many hours this takes to get even 1000 sweat: from the start, yes sweating is good to gain body stats, but if your main goal is actually PLAYING the game, you will proc 1 to 4 sweats per gather and you will fail many times at attempting to gather (especially if you use their auto aim feature). You'd probably pay more in your power bill than you get back from gathering 1000 sweat, since it takes hours and you need a semi-decent computer to play entropia.
So i bought $20.00 USD worth of PED, or 191 PED (you get 95.5 PED for $10), to get started as my friend told me.
I bought an opalo (starter gun) and began hunting and mining.
Mining: I scanned and i scanned...I went to pvp areas and attempted mining in those places. My first mining trip, I lost about 10 ped only because i got extremely lucky and hit an "average" crude oil. My second run, i spent 33 ped on probes and got 7 ped back in ore. DO NOT MINE, plain and simple.
Hunting DOES NOT give you enough loot to be self-sufficient. You will spend like 10 ped on ammo, and get 2 ped back on loot (possibly even worse).
You will see these things called global messages. Don't be swayed by them, its just like someone winning at one of the slot machines at a casino, there are thousands of players and only the most skilled get good returns, and even sometimes these people lose lots of money.
i hunted and hunted for four days straight. A nice person in the game even GAVE ME a free set of VERY GOOD armor (seriously...it costs like 100 PED and he just gave it to me, along with a free gun). Still my returns would not cover the cost of ammo. I put a scope, laser sight, and amplifier on my brand new better gun (they were pretty decent ones too, about 30ped each). NOT EVEN TAKING DMG TO THE AMP (which is very horrible, it damages so quickly), I DID NOT RECEIVE ENOUGH RETURNS TO COVER MY AMMO.
So how do you make money in this game? is there any possible way? Yes - scamming...or wait i should call it "being a merchant." The only way to be self-sufficient in this game is to either buy items from unknowing people who don't know the real value of something (when you know someone who buys the same item for more), or trying to win auctions and selling to another person.
In every instance, you are putting your TIME, MONEY, and possibly ENJOYMENT (which is what GAMES are about) on the line.
I love the game, and if it were simply a game with a monthly fee and no in game money to real money transfer rate, then I would definitely play it all the time.
I'm sorry if I've insulted any older players, but this is the perspective of a noob. I spent $20.00, got REALLY lucky by meeting someone who wanted to give me stuff so I would stay (I've given them back their stuff + a little more for wasting their time), and generally every time i came back from hunting or mining, I was scratching my head saying "how can anyone do this?"
The really nice person I keep referring to also bought items from me knowing that he could have probably bought them cheaper from someone else...and I just can't leech off of someone rich in the game
I quit because I realize I don't have the time or capital to invest into this game (if it weren't for my very lucky circumstances, by day 3 I'd have been out of money and ammo and would have been dead in the water basically)
All in all, I say don't bother with this game UNLESS you have ALOT of time, and ALOT of money to spend on it initially. If you meet those requirements, you are one lucky **************** and I would recommend DLing this game and making an account RIGHT NOW. =/
Comments
Hi, and firstly, this is not a long-term rich EU player saying you've got it all wrong.
This is a long-term skint EU player saying "Good Review".
I would say though, your route to continued play may have been the wrong one.
I started in 2005, and sweated and explored for 3 months straight. The planet wasn't as pretty as it is now but there was still plenty to see and learn about, and I wanted to take my time. I soon found out this is not a game for a quick fix, it's a game that rewards patience. Exploring and dying can be counted as valuable research of where to go and what to avoid.
After the 3 months I bought a cheap Axe 1x0 from my sweat cash, and started killing smaller mobs to pay for the axe repair. Over time, I built up armour, some guns and yes, deposited more; but as someone who never knows where his next job IRL is coming from I've never gone nuts, most of my deposits were $20, which lasted quite a while. A few sizeable wins and several years later I am sitting on a $3k avatar, although the worth is irrelevant as I can't imagine the situation where I'd sell up.
$10 doesn't guarantee breaking even, especially at the start, with 4 days worth of skills gained from sweating. It takes time to build evade, combat related skills and more that allow you to use better and better gear. I'd hazard a guess that you were given a set of shogun armour (100 PED seems about right), with that and the cost or repairing an amped gun you need more skills than you had to expect to start covering your overheads.
The thing is, EU gives out real money. If this were easy, it would not work as a business. Games that reward you with fictional gold or unsaleable items can offer faster routes to Uber-ness, EU cannot. It's supposed to be a long road to riches, and that takes a certain sort of person, or at least someone with this advance knowledge.
5 years in, using weapons many times more powerful than the Opalo, a $20 deposit sees me good for a hunt lasting a couple of hours; the loot from that gives me another, and so on, and so on, until it has either run out or I get a fat win (rare, I like to call them deposit-delayers). Those who profit big-time are the chosen few who have both business acumen and tons of time and money to really invest (and this can be done right or wrong too, everyone has their own approach). Better for most (if you have the patience and a meticulous nature) to pay what you can afford and see how to make it last longer each time.
I see it like drinking. The more you do, the better you get. Do too much and you're screwed, unless you're Oliver Reed or Ozzy (k, bad examples, one's dead and one's a bit hazy, but both could pack it away like demons):) Those who try necking vodka for the first time throw up and say never again.
Maybe we'll see you back there one day, happy gaming either way.
"Can You describe the events leading up to your escape?"
"We ran out of beer"
If im understanding the underlined part right, your $20 deposit might end up wasted after a few hours, or with luck provide a few hours extra to hunt? So like a gamble?
To me this game sounds awefully expensive compared to other MMORPGs. The free alternative which is called 'sweating' sounds like the king of grinds.
I have read several player reviews now, and simply cant find the appeal of this game. Is it the gamble of your deposit? Hoping that you will have some good return?
It depends. Some of the "high roller" players pump thousands in every day. People say you can do fine with just sweating but if you want to do a profession other than the hunting and mining you will probably have to make some "adequate" deposits. It can be expensive and inexpensive. Unless you get really lucky with returns and use them "wisely" to progress your character you might spend some cash trying to figure things out. This isn't really a good game for people who have really extreme impulse personalities. You could easily go through a few hundred dollars in a few minutes if you aren't careful. You can drag out $15.00 but you probably won't be doing much.
Quick example.
World of Warcraft - $15.00 a month will give you full access to the game. Level your character 1-80 and have access to all areas and items depending on who you group/guild with.
Don't be terrorized! You're more likely to die of a car accident, drowning, fire, or murder! More people die every year from prescription drugs than terrorism LOL!
Aside the danger of buy impulses, I still dont see the appeal of this game. To me it seems as people invest to avoid extra grind. Which kind of sounds like smart selling lol.
But it also means that the game is not fun on purpose if you dont want to invest. Somehow people get fooled into thinking that not investing money in Entropia makes them cunning or smart, without even realising that they are playing a game that is simply not fun without investing. If then they happen to make a deposit, you know 'just this once', they do exactly what the devs hope you will do.
It looks like the same kind of reasoning that gets ppl sucked into pyramid games. Not that Entropia promises great returns, but with Entropia its more about costs. Somehow they fool you into believing that you get the same bang for the buck as for other games.
Well....
I guess even very wealthy people deserve to have a game tailored to their play styles.
I played some kind of trial or something for this a year or two ago, and to ME, the graphics (and animations) were so bad compared to today's games....I seriously just couldn't do it. Apart from the fact that it seemed like a less compelling version of Second Life to me. I don't like that "game" either.
But....IMO....diversity is good. And Entropia exists for the people that it appeals to that DO have the money to play it. So more power to it. /cheer
Note: Incidentally, even being a total "n00b" in Second Life...I did manage to make 13 dollars REAL money (the Linden exchange rate was pretty good when I cashed in) on selling a few neon tie dye hats that I learned to make from a video on how to make tophats. So...at least in my OWN experience...if I was going to invest in a game that COULD put out real world income...it would be Second Life (from the few choices of such "games" that presently exist).
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
they recently updated the whole graphics engine with the cryengine 2 , graphics are astonishing, but you do need a powerful rig to play on very high.
also i played 2nd life and currently giving EU a second chance. and what i am seing is that in both games, the only way to make a decent amount of money is to make it into a real business. and like all business they have an initial investment, though i doubt the bank will give you a 10 000 USD loan for a business to buy "virtual land" or "space stations" but if you have that cash to spare and the time to run it like a real life business you could live off of it, i used to know a dude in second life who made his living out of it. but he had invested somewhere around 5000$ between buying an island and hiring 3D artists.
i had a little corner of his island (that i paid rent for) and i designed medieval stuff which i sold in my own virtual store that i also designed but this was all amateur level in a little corner of his island, and i would say i was puting somewhere around 40-50 hours a week on it... and at the end of each month i got between 100-200$ profit. this was with 20$ initial investment from my part. luckally i was doing that as a hobby like one would play eve or WoW...(minus getting some spending money at the end of the month)
so i imagine that if you put significant time into it you can get decent stuff.
what does bother me though is that 15-20$ isnt enough for someone who wants to play it casually as a game, specially when i see things worth 3000 PED (thats 300$), i can never see myself buying 300$ armor set. (hell you can get a real life armor for less)
in second life if you put in 15-20$/month it can last you a while and you can buy/do many fun things, though second life is more of a 3D social network and Entropia is more of a "game"
You can actually play well off $20 a month. You just cant powergame for that kind of budget. You'll need to join a guild that supports low level group activities, and watch your PED. Start with small investments and work your way up. Hunt with the group. Dont craft. Sweat, trade, and socialize to balance things out.
Laudanum - Romance. Revenge. Revolution.
Crappy, petty people breed and raise crappy, petty kids.
Hehe this could be heaven or this could be hell
Just dropped in to make this fast note.. you really MUST be into this kind of gaming, EU is rather serious business, and you absolutely NEED to be extremely mindful of all your activities ingame. You must endure sometimes horribly long periods of bad luck, and you must keep your head cool to resist temptation to deposit more than you can afford. Also you must love the absolutely incomparable feeling of Hall of Fame -sound when you loot something grand, and that may be grand in real life currency too.
EU is definitely not for everyone, and I'm not wondering at all that there are so many hate posts here.. me too after 5 or so years playing sometimes hate this 'game' so much I can't quite express it in words lol. But after some break I will come back.. thats the way it is with me
One thing that I think also disturbs people about EU is something that disturbs people about games like Ryzom too. Players in Ryzom continually use ((text)) to deliniate OOC comments. Everything in that game is in character...and the community is quite militant about their desire to bring the roleplaying back into MMORPG.
In EU folks continually refer to the game as a "game" (note the quotations) as if it is something more than that. It isnt. Its just a game. Folks may make money off of it, and support themselves, but that changes nothing. People have been playing poker for years, and more than a few millionaires have been made off of it. It is still a game. EU is no different.
Putting the word 'game' constantly in quotes (or italics or whatever folks feel make it seem special) only adds a bit of creepiness to the conversation as people raise eyebrows and try to figure out exactly what youre alluding to, as if theres something that needs to be hidden.
Laudanum - Romance. Revenge. Revolution.
Crappy, petty people breed and raise crappy, petty kids.
Criticism noted, and accepted.. partly. Yes EU is a game like others, but it has features that tend to blur the line between gaming and real life. Game with ingame real advertisements? Game with real money? Game with persistent world, more so than great many others that exist for you only as long as you pay the monthly fee? Where your actions may have as direct consequences to your life as playing in the stock market? Where taxes are collected? Where you have to be very aware of market to survive economically? Game from which somebody bought a station by mortgaging his real life house? And then later arranged his wedding simultaneously inside EU and his real life home?
To me all that gives a very strong impression of some activity to which 'game' fits less and less well. The concept 'game' is spreading thin these days trying to cover the very vast different things happening in the online world. That is why in EU 'virtual world' is preferred, as it is in some other esp. mmorpg communities.
I used to play EU, and I'm starting to again. I really enjoyed EU before, and I still do, but I'd go nuts if I tried to see it as a way to make money in real life or as anything other than a game. I deposit what I want to, and sweat and explore otherwise. With the ClubCalypto radio station going with music and prizes and lots of people gathered together at sweat camp, it's actually pretty fun just sweating mobs most nights. For gambling? Stick with poker, the odds are much clearer, and you don't have to worry about playing against the house. And if you play EU within a reasonable deposit amount for your budget each month and you still don't like it, then definately play something else.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein