I was playing MMO´s since the late 90´s, and went through all the big titles. I had great times there. Then i moved onto newer MMO´s.

But all the newer games sucked in the end, or were to easy, or the same old again, or lacked a solid playerbase, or went on life support soon after launch, or had a kiddy community (WoW), so i was almost done with MMO´s, because i didn´t felt like going back to the old, yet still great titles.

Then i discovered Entropia Universe for me.  If i was to describe it in a few words:

An unforgiving and harsh since fiction universe, where only the filthy few of the most experienced, patient, intelligent and persistant players can make a fortune, without ever depositing real cash.

You must know that in EU, ingame currency translates directly  into real cash in a ratio of 1:10 (and vice versa), and you can always deposit real cash into the game, or withdraw ingame-money  from the game and have it transferred to your bank account in real cash.

EU has no monthly fees, so you can DL and play it for free. Although 99% of the current player base needs to deposit to make significant advancements in the game.

However, if you have the potential as described above, you can be successfull, or even make a fortune, without ever depositing. I never paid a penny, and am playing only since a few months, and my account is already over 450 dollars worth, that i could transfer to my bank account if i wanted.

The game offers so many opportunities, and has so many features ALL other MMO´s can only dream of.

Here´s some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDzzjKjh9uI&feature=player_profilepage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECNogYNSS9Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIGgTORkzMU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuvZuIyPxGY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBpuI3phF6A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGwkGYbbMP8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjNh_eP8zgw&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sri9opbSzI&feature=player_profilepage

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bsQaSC1QHE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_fGaTbTbhU

Shameless advertising - can't make $450 in a couple of months without paying a penny... You should be hapy to 'earn' $0.45 in a couple of months, hoping some one indeed wants to buy that sweat from you...

Well, sort of describes real life gambling, (which this title has oft been ascribed to) where there might be a few people who can make money, but in the long run the house is the only real winner.

I play games for fun and relaxation.

I dont play games for real cash and work.

This game is a shameless moneysink. Literally.

Originally posted by Reizla

Shameless advertising - can't make $450 in a couple of months without paying a penny... You should be hapy to 'earn' $0.45 in a couple of months, hoping some one indeed wants to buy that sweat from you...

as i said, only the filthy few can make a fortune ;)

Entropia Universe is definatly a game that polarizes those who try it.

You either love it or hate it.

You love to hate it, or hate to love it, but regardless of which you are, it brings out strong emotions in those who play.

I have only seen the 2 extreme openions presented here, so let me offer a middle ground which is more logical for a majority of people out there.

First Ill give the two options already presented and my thoughts on them, and then ill present my own option.

1. Play for a few months free and make a couple hundred usd.

Yes it is possible. No it is not likely that the average idiot reading this will be able to acheive it. This game is the ultimate challenge, and without work, dedication, and research doubters can easily prove them selves right as failures.

2. Play for a few months for free and only have earned <1 usd.

The only way this is possible is if you do not log in, or if you log in and stand afk or chatting the entire time you play without actually attempting to do anything.

You mention sweating, which is a common activity for earning free peds, and while it is the most social activity, it is certainly not the fastest way to earn peds.

Even sweating 1hr a day for 3 months and selling for the lowest market prices you would still earn between 5 and 20 usd.

There are other free activities that allow you to explore the map more and gain ped faster. (between 2-5 ped an hour on average)

So say you take the low end of that and play 5 hours a day (more realistic numbers imo) then you would have gained 90 usd in 3 months.

This is not very much, but a smart person will start investing it as soon as they have enough and start turning each ped into more ped in an exponential growth of money.

3. My opinion.

Treat it like a normal game. Forget about your own greed and treat the challange like what it should be. A challange!

Play 1 week for free to lean your way around.

Spend what you would on a normal game box. ~50usd

Play and invest with that 500ped to start earning more.

Each month deposit 15-25$ same as you would for a subscription.

Play and invest with that as well. But budget your ingame activities so you are never spending more than your 'sub fees' each month.

This will always keep your 500ped of 'box price' on your card or in invesments earning you more.

Each 6 months spend an extra 50$ like you would for an 'expansion' and add that to your 'investment' fund.

Play smart, learn the markets, learn the tiniest of details of every activity you want to persue.

Remember its a game and your playing for the fun and the chalange.

As mentioned some people play to relax. If you are one of those people then you will want to play the more social aspects of the game and less of the grinding and investment activities. (its free to hang out and smoke your dope :P )

Alot of people play games for the challenge though, alot of gamers now are from the older generation where competition ment something and you played sports to beat the other team, you trained hard, and played harder purely for the opertunity to prove that you are better than your oposition.

That is what this game is about in the ultimate mmo where money is on the line, and your wins translate to RL cash, and your losses prove that you are not the bad ass internet god you thought you were.

(ok that last little bit was said tounge in cheek ;P )

My point is, play with reasonable expectations, study hard and learn what you want to do, this isn't a game for children, its a game for competitive people to really have a chance to enjoy themselves with a difficult challenge. (the ultimate challange of competing against real people where the stakes are high enough to actually mean somthing)

Good luck and have fun :)

If you ever need assistance ingame starting out, look me up on the ingame mentor list and add me.

narfi

ps. they just added the opertunity to purchase shares of Planet Calypso ingame with an estimated pay out of 27-30% annualy payed on a weekly basis. Those shares are 100$ per share so each share should bring in 20-30$ a year even if you dont log in. (but thats not really in the scope of starting out in the game unless you have alot of rl cash your wanting to invest)

Originally posted by Kyleran

Well, sort of describes real life gambling, (which this title has oft been ascribed to) where there might be a few people who can make money, but in the long run the house is the only real winner.

 

While there are certainly ways to gamble in this game (even fairly high stakes gambling if you want,) You would be an idiot to do those activities starting out.

The problem i see is that alot of people who put down EU want the high stakes wins of gambling, but not the risks.

The beauty of entropia is that you can choose any level of risk vs. reward activity you want, and by studying the markets, and studying the trends, you can make choices that eliminate a majority of the risk while still keeping a higher chance at the rewards than you would just flipping a coin or throwing dice.

If you ignore the depth of the economy and how everything in the game affects everything else, then you doom yourself to failure.

narfi

Theres gambling features, yes. But it's not a gambling game. It's kinda silly how the majority of people who "hate" the game hate it mostly because they do not make a profit from their loot.

You do NOT make money off the game! If it were that easy, the company would be bankrupt! You ONLY make money off other people during trades, OR you "win the lottery" by getting a random huge loot from hunting/mining. But this lottery pool is built from all the money we spend of coarse. But it is NOT gambling.

"Spend what you would on a normal game box. ~50usd

Play and invest with that 500ped to start earning more.

Each month deposit 15-25$ same as you would for a subscription."

THIS.

Think of WoW. Pay $15 a month and you kill creatures and grind with no value return. It's worthless virtual currency being returned to you. That's a 100% steal from Blizzard. With Entropia, at you least you in return get entered into that lottery and you can perform trades and services for others for pay (like people would charge a buck ot two to fly you to taxi you to different planets. It's a virtual world. Everything in the game is real because it has money to back it up. That's the exciting part. You don't get that platform in other games.

So while Blizzard forces you to pay $15 no matter if you play or not, Entropia does NOT force you to pay. You pay what you want for your own level of entertainment. Try $15-20 a month and you'll see you get a kick out of it. And that money stays on your account forever! It's not going anywhere and you're not stuck in any subscription or anything.

OK so you're not concerned about the money making part now... what makes this game fun?

You kill monsters and level up your skills. You can mine for ores. You can craft. You can trade. You can drive a humvee. You can drive a boat. You can fly a chopper. You can fly a spaceship. You can visit other planets with that ship. You can socialize. I find the game worth it just by talking to guild mates and flying around for fun.

A lot of people play this game strictly for fun, as in, not worrying about investing more than the average mmo game monthly price, just for hunting or mining. Some people find it fun to use real life entrepreneur skills to buy land or estates and make money, or playing the market. 

As for graphics and immersion, it's a truly beautiful game with the Crytek 2 engine.

I'd recommend anyone to give this a shot. Toss in $5 if you're low on cash. Just be smart with your money and don't buy everything you see on the list. Just like in real life, you want to research before you buy. This game DOES force you to be smart with your money. But the main reason being is because you paid for the credits yourself. As in WoW, it's carefree because you already paid the "ticket" to get in the game and you don't think beyond "gold coins".

Originally posted by Staatsschutz

However, if you have the potential as described above, you can be successfull, or even make a fortune, without ever depositing. I never paid a penny, and am playing only since a few months, and my account is already over 450 dollars worth, that i could transfer to my bank account if i wanted.

I also play entropia universe, and enjoy the game, and will keep playing the game for yrs to come...

I agree with most of what you've said in your post... but making $450 in few months ...without depositing.... i've hard time in believeing it....

Don't give false expectations... it's a great game and say it as it ...but not false hope of making fortune without depositing or investing in the game...

 

If you dont know anything about the game I'd suggest to read again Narfi's post above... I think that's really how one should treat the game...

I'd like to add one more thing... this game needs patience and perseverance .....enjoy

Originally posted by forest-nl

I play games for fun and relaxation.

I dont play games for real cash and work.

Very well said and I agree. Glad people are enjoying EU but to me it just seems to much like some sort of ptramid scheme...

It might feel like so if you dont' know the game dynamics and economics..

Personally, I think the game demands both  knowledge and skills... to be successfu.

By successful i mean... to be able to play the game at an advanced level for free....and may be make some money (the last one very hard wihtout investing in it) !

Originally posted by forest-nl

I play games for fun and relaxation.

I dont play games for real cash and work.

#2 this. If i'd want to make 450$ i'd go work for a few days and not play a mmo =)

Originally posted by forest-nl

I play games for fun and relaxation.

I dont play games for real cash and work.

+1

This.

Sorry Entropia Universe is one of worst F2P games out there. Cash grab. I have enough connection with money in real life to have to think about money while I play a game, cause there is connection between game / cash shop and real life money.

Originally posted by fenistil

Originally posted by forest-nl

I play games for fun and relaxation.

I dont play games for real cash and work.

+1

 

This.

 

Sorry Entropia Universe is one of worst F2P games out there. Cash grab. I have enough connection with money in real life to have to think about money while I play a game, cause there is connection between game / cash shop and real life money.

 

 

how I try look at it is that the ingame currency isnt connected to RL money - dont care to be worried about the money Ive already spended.....and it is not a huge money drain but you do need alot of patience, if loot drops is bad you stop your activity, then if I do loose afew ped personally I start sweating, dead boring, but in the low levels atleast it works quite well to regain....if want to do the high ped activities Im sure the money goes down with alot more than just afew peds...

dont expect to play for free as it have been said before in the thread, it is not free ...unless you want to spend the time sweating your mind out, with a bunch of, usually, dead negative people, in a sweat camp who expect people to pay for their game time....finding fruit, stones and the sort of free resources around the world Ive found slower than sweating, but guess Im doing that part wrong, reading Narfi...but they hard to find as a new player as they pop on screen slow, so easy to just run past and miss something were on the ground, also ofc need to know how it looks like....

this game is a huge money drain only if you dont learn about the game before you play...or just is plain impatient....personally I love it right now....dont treat it like a casino unless you want to throw money out of the window....

yes, play the game within your own budget and think of the money you put into the game as gone. This way, if you make some money back you will be very happy and won't worry about loosing real money all the time. The last few months I did not deposit a lot of money and I am on a slow run as it come to hours spend online but before I did deposit and probably a lot according to some poeple, but it was all money I could miss and it gave me a hell of a lot more playing time then any other game I bought in the last 7 years (which is not to many to be honest because I usually get bored pretty quick with any other game).

As said in this forum meny time before, download it, try it for free for a week or 2 and see if you like it. Then you might wanna invest (maybe not an acurate term, but people use it in the game all the time) a few $ to buy some basic equipment and REALLY try the game. Don;t be affraid to ask A LOT of questions because it has a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it it is a great game.

It's ONLY a money drain if YOU make it a money drain.

My point of view is, yes I play this game strictly for fun. But as in WoW, I pay $15 and only spend 3 hours that month, that is $15 down the drain. With EU I can pay $15 and that'll still be there a year down. (I'm setting WoW as an example of all sub-based games) WoW Money = open account, EU Money = play time.

In EU you spend $15 for ammo/mining gear. You get 70-90% back in loot. It doesn't go down the drain as fast as other games.

With WoW, you get a rare loot. Okay you can keep it or sell it for gold. In EU you can make a few bucks from that loot.

Yes EU isn't for eveybody. Some don't see hunting, mining, crafting, skilling or winning a small lottery every once in a while is fun... But to me that's the beauty of it and I have a blast. I control my spendings and it doesn't have a toll on my wallet.

My friend just paid a month subscription on EVE Online for me. And heck I love that game, but due to the busy holiday season, I spent less than a few hours on it and I felt it was a waste of my friend's money. My 100 peds are still there in EU however.

The debate isn't whether this game is more expensive than another game, but whether it really is FUN for the amount of money spent. This game has no minimum or maximum payout requirements to this game. But $15 is a good bar to set since most MMOs use that, so if you still don't think it's more fun then other MMOs, then that's your answer.

Fenistil made a point though. This is probably one of the worst F2P game there is. And that's because it wasn't designed to be a F2P game. It's possible but not designed for it. The F2P feature was designed to give people unlimited time to play their game, unlike time based subscriptions.

Originally posted by Staatsschutz

Originally posted by Reizla

Shameless advertising - can't make $450 in a couple of months without paying a penny... You should be hapy to 'earn' $0.45 in a couple of months, hoping some one indeed wants to buy that sweat from you...

 

as i said, only the filthy few can make a fortune ;)

In EU the mmorpg's 1% reside :D

I was a beta tester for entropia, and played at release because of the $1 million dollar gem promo they launched with they said that hidden somewhere in the game was a gem worth $1 million, within 2 months that promo just kinda faded away and any threads asking about it were removed.

Even on top of the deception and bugs the game launched with I stuck it out for a few months at first you actually could make good money just sweating and selling sweat., but those days are long gone.

I ended up investing $350 in gearing up as a miner, extremely boring but I stuck it out and ended up doing ok at one point I was probably up close to $5000 in account value. Hitting some monster jackpots early on.

However all the lies people will tell you aside the game is 100% a casion and all about GAMBLING, and very much like a cruise ship in that they put the tables in your favor on the cruise out, but turn the tables drastically in thier favor once they have you hooked.

This is the reason they only allow you to have one account and you can get in trouble and have your account seized if they find out you start a new account., they only want to give those jackpot odds to the newbies to get them suckered and hooked.

Anyway all that aside to be fair if you can control your natural instincts and those addictive juices with all the bells and whistles that attached to hitting jackpots, just like casinos do, and manage your money and watch the markets you may make a little scratch.

When I cashed out my account I got around $950, but most of that was on items I bought cheap when the game was first released that are no long able to be aquired in game.

Like others have said its not really gambling at all, your just paying to play a game simple as that.

All p2p mmorpgs out there charge for the game say $50ish then $15 a month and you have no way of maknig any of that back yet you dont mind at all..

With this you could do the same but you play smart you might not have to pay much at all. When i played a few years back i just fumbled around with mining and i hardly had to put any cash in..but because you can do this you guys call it gambling? 

I just viewed it as a standard p2p MMORPG and it can actually be quite fun and i have been meaning to give it another go since they moved to the new engine..