What are we waiting for?

I apologise if I don't sound enthusiastic in replying to your questions on Entropia Universe, but here it goes ...
To keep the negativity down in my reply, I will treat you with a small video example.

MindArk and their game Entropia Universe = Carbon Cell Battery
ie. Past its end of life market due date and an expensive model of game to develop and operate (run)

Other EPIC MMOs developed over the period since EU existed = Duracell.

 

This! > http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/star-citizen-wip-review-development-direction-progress.11463/

Is going to be the new Duracell Ultra ...

 

Looking back to my Entropia career and seeing the current state of the game it almost feels like they going to just let it continue to bleed.
And since new people coming in every day and the game is certainly not bad for new avatars that not mind spend at least $100 up to $1000 in the first year before they realize it is a potential money pit instead of a money cow.

And having the 100/200/300K HoF potentially dropping is for sure planted much hope for some still fighting for such a drop, even after after spending $10.000 / $20.000 / $30.000 or more.

But Entropia has at least become a great showcase on how to do some things and on how not to do some things.
Great learning for everyone in the end.

 

I can't for the life of me get past everything I've read by MA with any semblance of understanding as to what the future direction is, as there is no cohesiveness involved whatsoever (IMO).

The Think Tank needs reinforcement, because if the structural integrity gets any weaker, we all know what happens at that point in time ... just sayin'

Wish I could have been more helpful Wistrel, but it is what it is ... not all bad of course, but there's way too much that isn't good to have a decent balance.

 

Think MindArk is sitting back and waits till another investor wants to step in with a planet partnership.
And besides that the job of seeing a occasional planet fail is part of the routine from time to time...

 

Warning, long post! I did try to keep it short, promise! lol

Hi,

It might be time for a little more effort to be put into responding to the topic at hand
Not wanting to rub anyone the wrong way of course. (Though I probably will)

Referred to as a legacy system, Taming still to come on an undefined date >
Taming the waiting since 2009 >
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?174243-Taming-the-waiting

Melee Amps have been asked for several years now, even referred to being implemented before 2009, that is more than 5 years ago. Now they have some poor attempt at a melee amp range. There is still a lot of development to go into them really to be an effective weapon enhancer for hunting with for any reasonable period of time.

Question/Post 45 ... May 2007, Game director answer > YES Melee Amps coming >
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?66126-Q-amp-A-Answers-(May-07
MasterMesh starts a small poll on Melee Amps 2011 >
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?208068-Melee-amps
And mid 2013 after some very nice ranged Amps types are released >
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/f...8-When-are-going-to-see-some-melee-amplifiers

Next Island, had much hope going for it like Toulan which is in a similar boat present day >
Doomed shortly after the HYPE faded away and trying to be sold off >
1> http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/next-island-gains-additional-funding.7194/
2> http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?224877-Next-Island-Sold
So what will happen now with Next Island 2012 >
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?232482-Next-Island-What-now
Desperation sets in by the general entropia fan community, Ways to save Next Island 2013 >
http://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/showthread.php?255003-Easy-way-to-save-Next-Island

There is so much more about all of the listed above ... Taming, Melee Amps, Next Island ... yet I am trying to keep this post as short as possible. Let us continue ...

Cryene is an interesting one, they are financially stable with the resources to WAIT IT OUT so to speak.
However and whatever is holding them back (Mostly MindArk's lack of promised development achievements from what I have read from Cryrene sources so far with what they have hinted at over time).

Cryene has been in SOFT launch state for ~ 1 year, the first game I have heard of in history to have been in such a state for so long. Not Alpha, not Beta, but a fully released SOFT launch. Most games, eg. The recently released Elder Scrolls Online go into soft launch for the period of 1 week or less.

Maybe I should leave it upto Lykke this time around to comment more on the future of Cryene.

Toulan, another hyped planet, fails in many respects in what it is hyped to deliver, experience wise from the feedback coming from the Entropia community thus far. Fanboy/girls and skeptics alike. I wish them luck though and will hold back further feelings on how it will likely go, instead I will watch Toulan's progress.

Now in response to, Narfi's post above,

I know you love Entropia Universe and are very heavily financially invested with a large space ship, nice equipment and all that good stuff. However your response was very weak and shallow which was somewhat disappointing having come from you.

Maybe Entropia Universe is "primarily" the extent of your gaming experience. idk. But ok, your choice.

With that being said and not wanting to offend, I wrote about your comment "The first ATH from the arkadia underground" as being part of the commonly hyped mentality and sickness that is very much a part of Entropia Universe and its culture once you have been a part of the community for some time.

You probably do not even conciously realise you are doing it to be honest, most do not realise ...

We all know MindArk and their designed system will drop an ATH or 2, or 3 eventually, but the poor suckers who had to gamble a lot of "Real Life Money" to make that happen is quite sad. Fact remains that the money for these ATHs do not come from thin air, it comes from real people with real lives and quality of life attached being diminished in so many cases due to their lack of control or being trapped by the suffocating grasp of the Entropia Universe designed system's sensory stimulation and hope of gaining something bigger.

The next point though "For all my eventing to pay off and finaly own some LAs", I do wish you all the luck and godspeed with. I know your a passionate and hardcore Entropia gamer and love playing and investing into Entropia Universe, so let no one, including myself take that away from you. You have the money IRL to do as you please and you have been lucky in your experiences to date in Entropia (problems aside), so I say all power to you and go for it buddy and will be the first to Grats you when you achieve it!

Moving on to the rest of Narfi's post,

"To be honest, we have had lots of changes and additions and improvements over the last few years"

Please do not insult my intelligence! Even with a big portion of the Entropia community voicing loudly and in a very strong fashion for the last 5+ years ... Most of whom have moved on a few years ago mostly in disgust ...We only now see some developments occur, however, we have had NO developments in Entropia what-so-ever that can be considered ground-breaking, or even passing wind to that extent, developments in the gaming arena.

From the OP, and stated correctly:

Again, not wanting to offend you Narfi, but I probably will;

You show for a fact that you have very little experience with "other games" and "gaming technology" due to your lack of exposure and experience with the mentioned; Your too cooped up with your daily involvement in Entropia Universe;

Which is fine, whatever rocks your boat, as long as you are happy at the end of the day.
That is the main thing, Don't Worry Be Happy!. (See end of post)

"They have created a system that allows for spur of the moment events by any PP without needing MAs involvement"

Your out of touch, this can be found in the majority of MMOs as a standard feature for the player to do themselves for many years now. Who wants a developer/PP telling a player they can only do such style events on the developers/PP timetable, not on the players timetable ... That is just irritating!

Again due to lack of experience with other games and gaming technology ....
So not really a fault, just an unkowing is all;

Which brings me to my final point, HOPE!
I almost hope that the growing pains are over and we enter a couple years of stability in what is becoming a pretty sweet and fun game. (I do love the not knowing though :P )

Stick with it, You will be alright, the (comment) is what is keeping you stable in Entropia from what I can see and that is only a small deduced opinion from what I know of you, which is very little, other than the few chats we have had and watching your blog over time, your posts on various forums etc.

For a lot of us ..

HOPE is not enough without ...
Some FAITH & CREDIBILITY in the company behind Entropia Universe, MindArk.

Highlighting this response in full, especially the last bit ...
Hence the state under my avatar pic since day one of this forum.

"not all bad of course, but there's way too much that isn't good to have a decent balance"

As promised Narfi, here is something for you :) Hope you like it!

 

Hi Narfi,

I thought I would give you a small example of present day standards and upcoming developments in gaming and gameplay.

Sorry if I offended you initially, but there is so much more to showcase down the track with the Witcher 3, Halo 5, Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 3, Star CItizen, etc ... There are exciting times ahead for 2014/2015.

A few small developments in gaming technology & gameplay;

At least you now know where I am coming from in my reply to you. I posted these earlier today here >
http://www.entropiaplanets.com/thre...coming-title-to-be-reviewed.11471/#post-68813

Please note: Game is still in its PRE-ALPHA state.

To be totally honest about it, you can't compare Entropia which has mechanics from the late 90s in gaming technology at present and graphics models & textures from pre-2k that are not even half complete, flora that looks like it come from a game from earlier than the 90s etc.

Sorry but Entropia, fun and entertaining? WTF! (Maybe for you it is, which is fine)
But so was Pong back in its day and the Lesuire Suit Larry series way back when ;)
It lives up to a very low and shallow gaming standard/rating/metascore.

And then this quoted from here Post 6 >
http://www.entropiaplanets.com/thre...ns-financial-investment-wip.11464/#post-68686

In reference to this Post # 3 >
http://www.entropiaplanets.com/thre...elopment-direction-progress.11463/#post-68575

Then there is the captivating and well thought out storyline that is well connected.
And the LORE to backup the storyline ...

Entropia has bugger all of a storyline and LORE to back it up! The storyline it has is disconnected, like the writers at MindArk/PPs have major thought disassociation going on in the majority of cases, especially with regards to Calypso.

McCormmick can explain how bad the storyline disassociation and disconnectivity is in Entropia Universe in great and fine detail.

Unofrtunately truth be told, there just is not the mechanics in place in the Entropia Universe "platform" to be able to support what is needed for a proper cohesive storyline, Period!

Eg ... Storylines (Witcher examples) >
http://www.entropiaplanets.com/thre...coming-title-to-be-reviewed.11470/#post-68818

Eg ... LORE to support storylines (Elder Scrolls Example) >
http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/elder-scrolls-lore-video-series-thankyou-to-shoddycast.11479/

Even the upcoming Star Citizen is coming together on several fronts in bringing all its systems together with storylines for each area, eg. Various factories, to produce Spacecrafts using blueprints being one;

Eg. Anvil Aerospace is one such industry in Star Citizen with many more on the horizon >

Just a few small examples anyway. Lots more to show, but don't want to turn this post into a video documentry on upcoming and present day gameplay and gaming technology.

Again I hope you now know where I am coming from in my initial reply to you. The intention is not to offend, but to get you to open your eyes, rather than being an Entropian hermit and letting MindArk woo you into believing Entropia Universe is something special in terms of gaming & gameplay;

If you want to be an Entropian hermit gaming wise because it is what you enjoy and all you know, then fine. That is your choice and I respect that. For others however by today's gaming industry standards, please don't say how awesome Entropia is ..

Entropia Universe is an insult to the gaming industry in its current state.

Read the STEAM comments here of what people think of the demo video for Monria >
Woo! Looks great, until they sign up and hit the gameplay and what it is really like.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/comments/204570488

Eg. So true ... when looking at todays A rated titles ...

Cheers,
VIper.

 

It is what it is....

Think that about sums up my feelings on the whole thing. Been here far too long to really expect things to move at anything faster then a glacial pace.

EU kind of fits in my gameplay activity as a casual game that runs in the background whilst I do other things. So I don't expect great things from it. I liken it to something like Candy Crush Saga on the mobile phone, which is a silly game you can play for a few minutes on the train.

One thing I would say given how long I've been in EU (10 year+) is that over that time frame it has become cheaper to play. I still remember burning through my first 100PED deposit in perhaps 5 minutes trying to kill one mob. No loot and my cheap TT weapon had already decayed and needed to be repaired.

I think the reduction in the costs to play is a positive development.

Onboarding of new players also seem to be a lot better as well. There are more guides. In the old days people appeared all over the map and were totally lost. So there is better structure now.

However, I suspect my time in EU will grow less and less again. Not because I don't play, but because with the arrival of AUD I'll be pulled back into the speculation side of things. And you don't really need to play every day if you're just trading or speculating on deeds or other things.

If I have some dedicated game time, then I tend to be playing other things such as The Secret World or some single player game that has indepth storylines like Thief or Deus Ex.

Personally what I like MA to do is sort out stability issues and fix the bugs. I seem to get strange lag every few minutes and teleporter crashes for no apparent reason. A recent interview with David at Arkadia mentioned a lot of issues with events recently might be caused by off-planet items, but both MA or Arkadia can't find which ones causes that.

 

Well just for an update, SC is gaining roughly $1 Mil USD every week "on average" from gamers like us.
Here is an update from my last less than a week ago. Each stretch goal comes with new surprises too.

Here is what the $ 41 Mil USD stretch goal included > Post 14 & 15 >
http://www.entropiaplanets.com/thre...elopment-direction-progress.11463/#post-68705

We will be able to explore many fully developed worlds/colonies etc :) Not just space!

 

I'm waiting for the real world to implode. I think that will make some people happy! But I have my doubts!

 

In all fairness with regard to storyline ... Cyrene has the best storyline of all planets and since I worked as an official on the Cyrene Writing Team for a year, I know more about the storyline than is published at this time. It is massive and exciting, and I am hoping that Ed follows through with his plans as such, because it's just that good.

Arkadia also has an awesome storyline, and while there was a bit of a break in between episodes, they picked it up recently with the opening of the Underground and it continues to be really great.

Those are the two planets I would say are cohesive enough with their storyline and lore. Calypso is absolutely fragmented and broken with no cohesiveness whatsoever (IMO), ROCKtropia really has no storyline and while the theme is "Rock" ... everything is such a mishmash, it too is fragmented and all over the place.

Monria and Toulan have good themes, but I have yet to visit them, so not able to give an informed opinion as of yet. However, I did like the two PDF files of Volume 1 and 2 that Toulan released before the launch, and it will be interesting to see where they take the storyline and how they deliver it.

 

The future - we can only speculate on, just as we arrived at the present by only speculating on things in the past. Mindark will do whatever the hell it wants since the virtual universe is provided 'as is' just like a fancy gizmo that looks like it cost a million bucks that you find at a garage sale only to later get it home and find out it's nothing but a paperweight since it doesn't work. When CLDs came out a LOT of activity in game creeped to a slowdown since those buying the deeds wanted a passive income instead of having to deposit. Now that the new deeds are here from Arkadia Underground, I suspect that the same type of thing will be going on (at least that's my 'game plan' for the time being :) )... so would not expect any big improvements this upcoming year as Mindark and Planet Partners may get lucky to 'break even'... If anything, most planets might start downsizing like Rocktropia did recently to lower monthly server rental fees in hopes they can just stay in the game another year til they get to break even point... Will it all slowly fall apart and the game cease to exist? Only time will tell. I don't suspect that that will happen in a year though if it does happen... by the TWENTY year anniversary, maybe though?

 

MindArk has made sure work on keeping some people in the project and designing ways to keep people motivated and Entropia minded.
The potential PED that could have been paid out by some people has ended up as virtual assets that roam profits from the platform to these holders.

Image Akoz en Co paying out the 1,500,000 PED, these same kind of people selling all their assets and telling openly also about their disappointments over the years.
No, MindArk making sure people are stuck in game that can cause a wrong tidal wave of new independent creativity and exploring new roads regarding game-development and game-play.

Image the collective power the people could have that have wasted... Uhh invested big amounts of money, be it in any virtual asset with the crown on the PP system.

It is times for people to open their eyes and trow of the chains that have kept them in this limited creativity with a questionable past and future in my opinion.

PS. People have opened their eyes, much more people than are currently in game.
Tens of thousands of people have played Entropia over the past 10 years, only a handful left of those for reasons very obvious.

 

MA is perfectly aligning them self for the next stage of evolution.

To add in "what are we waiting for" i would like to present this video.
It almost perfectly blends in with what is happening with EU on a spiritual level... (yeah call me crazy!)

Not going about the violence btw, people will not get hurt with a potential downfall.

Those who follow certain projects, those with their eyes open for more will recognize the pattern that is developing for some time already and that it is coming to a certain climax that we will all going to face one way or another.
This counts both for the virtual as the real world as there is even today still a decent degree of dis-order in society as a whole.

 

Well GL with it Narfi, you have obviously not gone through the threads I have posted on this forum properly so far, which includes in count over >10 released games in the here and now and under <5 unreleased some of which are in early access stage development where you as the gamer playing the game can contribute to the development process to a large extent.

There is only a couple I have hyped and of these few I am involved in playing some of them already in their early access stage of development, hence hyping them.

Dragon Age 3 and Witcher 3 aside, these are hyped as I have played the full extent of part 1 & 2 of both these games so know what to expect from 3 to be even better in terms of groundbreaking advancements.

Each to their own I guess, whatever rocks you boat. Your right I do not like certain aspects about Entropia when playing a game as paid for entertainment that undeniably reseemble that of a casino/poker machine, no matter how you want to try and explain it.

It only takes one to read a few threads on PCF to knwo what I am talking about. If I want to gamble I goto a casino, I do not wish to play a game with what is termed a dynamic (aka gambling) RCE system attached.

Never the less, I am happy that you enjoy Entropia, it is your passion, so stick with it :)

In response to the rest of your reply about Entropia, I guess I can sum it up with this song:
Not all is bad in Entropia, but there is not enough that is good for a decent balance ...

 

Hi MS9,

That is great for Cryene, including what is still to come. Arkadia, I have to agree Dave Dobson is very talented in many respects as is his team, but storyline there still seems very disjointed.

Rocktopia is non existent, but hey, we all made up storylines as we went in various games years ago.
I spent most of my time on Calypso trying to follow its storyline etc, bleh no more to say.

For the most expensive and overly exorbitant mmo, it has achieved very little in my opinion, it has the worlds highest churn rate for an mmo and hypes the rce concept (not to mention, never has or will publish its online userbase statistics) failing to tell people that it is actually a dynamic version that resembles very closely a casino/poker machine loot mechanics wise .. However this is the true rason why the game has survived so long imho, people just love to gamble, Period!

The psychology behind the gambling aspects of Entropia Universe ....
MindArk, the first company to put the bull (BL) into the middle of gaming (GAMBLING).

Sure you can play the game without gambling (as much) where it become unnoticable - boring levels of doing stuff on a very low level ... eg killing snablesnots, etc.

However scale it up to mid levels of gameplay @ level 40+, eg using LC35 laser sniper and eco armor setup, then your looking at roughly $5 an hour in gameplay costs when averaged over 20hrs or more since the system is dynamic in what it returns, with your turnover PED rate at roughly 500 ped/hr for the period or more if you play in an uneco fashion.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/3608469.htm