Comments on: Money supply, game play, and Project Entropia

By: Jobe Cipher Angelo

Jobe Cipher Angelo — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:22:21 +0000

I’m 6 months old in Entropia Universe, spent like lots of real cash, earnt back just a small %, the fact is I enjoy the game, and I will look at it as a game, all the time. It means, I gave myself a rule…

To spend on the game only the 10% of my real-work cash earnt that month. So, if I need “more cash” in game I just try to “work hard” in real life so for example, last month I earnt 2000$ in my real life work and I spent just 200$ in Entropia. That’s all Entropia it’s an entertainment, nothing more.

PS.: if you want my autograph just for study purpose find me at Port Atlantis, hanging around… pretending to be a newcomer sometime or in the welcome area

By: Cuyler Adamson

Cuyler Adamson — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:38:51 +0000

Josh, i think the exploitation is that the game advertises to the players that they can make serious profits from the game, when this is true it is on a very small scale. Few players will make money, and the ones that do won’t make much at all. I’ve been doing research on the game and the way i see it the 2 ways to make a profit are painfully slow for a very small profit without spending much or any money or painfully slow for a small-medium profit with a huge investment into the game. The mainstream game supposedly is built so you will almost always be spending more money than you’ll make.

By: Josh Siedler

Josh Siedler — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 13:11:29 +0000

I haven’t played the game, but I can see some real flaws in this guy’s thinking. It’s a game where you can go in and look around for free. It’s a huge world and takes a lot of resources to operate, so the money for service has to come from somewhere.

I really don’t like his definition of exploitation:

According to the parent company’s Nov. 2005 prospectus, the company projects that they’ll pay out 1.4 M Swedish krona to their users in 2005 – about $175K – which is just 5% of their 28 M projected operating income. (Ouch, guess I was right about the exploitation.)

Most games you don’t have the option of cashing in on your in game credit, so even creating a conversion process is a gratuity, even if it might be difficult to amass any large portions of wealth.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 20:09:29 +0000

This Entropia Universe is much like a casino, to the point Swedish gaming authorities should look harder at its mechanisms. It is quite like a casino in that the only money available to players, is money from other players after MA has taken their Rake. So there is a constant need for new customers/depositers to put more money into the system.

The churn rate is about the same as most games, but their retention is mostly due to economic reasons of the players. In too deep to quit, as selling your skills off can be cost-prohibitive also. So it’s Pyramid Scheme combined with Casino, a dangerous mix for addictive personalities who enjoy the feedback of global achievement. In other words, those who like to see their name broadcast via Globals/HoF’s/unlikely ATH’s, are the ones staying.

There’s of course the smart ones who buy minerals and energy matters for low prices, and resell in bulk to Crafters for higher amounts. These folk can bring in a lot of money in a day with the assistance of online resources which track the selling price of every item going through the auction in game. So yes, there are ways to make money, but only if your the lucky type or willing to not play just sit and buy/sell.

By: Dawid

Dawid — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 08:57:41 +0000

I have been playing for about 3 months now and have put $30 into the game. I will continue to deposit $10 every month for about a year, this would cost the same as WOW or Second Life.

I view this as buying time rather than spending money, because all the deposited money is still there to be withdrawn should I choose.

$10 = 100PED and it takes really really long to obtain 100PED from sweating, for it takes about 1 hour to earn 1-2PED.

http://news.com.com/2061-10797_3-6124572.html

Read the article from the above URL, this guy earns a lot money, but Entropia is a just like real life very competitive and a fight to the top.

By: Ripley

Ripley — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:26:07 +0000

I have currently been playing PE for about 2 months and although luck isn’t always on my side, I love it and will not be considering leaving.

The price increase in items sounds true to real life with prices constantly rising in the ‘real world’. I think the reason people are tending to leave as soon as tehy’ve started is because they aren’t getting any assistance from other players. I have to say that was one of my biggest problems when I first started, but then I got a mentor who has helped me out immensely.

Perhaps if you are wanting more new players to stick to the game, then think about becoming a mentor and giving them a break as there is a hell of a lot to learn when you first start playing.

By: Beggerman

Beggerman — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 09:18:57 +0000

After playing entropia for 8 months, the latest VU (version update) has really kiled the game …. allow me to explain. The first thing a player does in Entropia is collect sweat from animals and sell it to other players and indeed is how I started the game. The latest VU has taken the cap off this activity – resulting in nobody buying the players sweat. I have seen new players trying to sell for 3-4 hours, logging off and never returning. Result new players leaving very quickly and the starting town “Port Atlantis” looking like a ghost town.
Secondly the new VU has made everything — harder— crafting,hunting,mining— resulting in older players leaving daily. The ones who are stll playing have raised their prices on tools, weapons, etc, that are bought by players of lower lvl coming into the game, to keep their costs covered. The result is that prices are becoming untennable – MA hve priced them out the market.
The other reasons people are leaving (including myself), are the following….

a) – Over the last 6 months prices for raw materials have increased on average 10%-15%.
b)- With increased raw material costs and lower crafting success rates, this has resulted in items within the game increasing to incredulous prices.
c)- Auction rigging, reseller madness, and scamming are becoming common place now- as unseeing players try to cope with the increasing costs within the game.

Currently no new players are staying around, prices are constantly going up, older players are leaving daily. The main increase I noticed was for space flights to the asteroid. at first the price was 16 PED(1.60US one way), then 20 PED, and now advertised at 25 PED…. all witin 6 months.

RIP Entropia — The Gamers Lost- Beggerman ;-(

By: Light Bug

Light Bug — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 22:59:58 +0000

I have not deposited a dime into PE and have a good weapon, some armor, ammo, and have some PEDs stored up for a rainy day. What you got to learn to do is be patient for your first weak and try to drain sweat from animals, by doing this they will of course attack you (which builds up your defenses) but will eventually give you sweat that you can sell to others. I “sweat” while I hunt, helps me break even, on every hunt now. I have been playing for about a week and have not spent a dime.

By: macaulus

macaulus — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 11:20:22 +0000

Yo
Project Entropia, or Entropia Universe as it is now known ( as of today i think) is a great game but again, be aware, your points, or views are valid john k, trading though, not hunting is a way to offset your exuberant hunting bill, also the way the skills are now faster at the start, it rewards you more. Still trading, if done correctly, wsith th emultitude of stock market style info is a valid way to play and socialise and make cash.

My positives on Project Entropia are that theyre are more adults online as opposed to world of warcraft, which is very kid orientated probably because of the real economy, as well there aren’t nearly as many beggars, lik WOW.

My negatives are the decay and ammo cost if you hunt, and the withdrawal from ped back into USD takes 90 days. Apartments cost me a lot of money, they very rarely hold there value.

By: Einstein

Einstein — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 15:18:26 +0000

It’s perfectly possible to make money in PE, there are many ways to do so some are easy, some aren’t.
The easy ones generally require a big money investment to buy for instance a land area (can easily costs 10 000$)
The hards ones don’t require big investments, but do require time and intelligence.
There are many examples of people (older and recent) that never deposited, or very little and are now profiting on a continual base.

That’s one of the main attractions of this game to me, that you decide yourself how much you are willing to pay for it, there are people that deposit 1000′s of $ to buy all the top gear from the start, and there are people that set themself a limit of 10-15$ a month and try to slowly work they way up.