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What a waste of a great setting/universe.
QuarterStack
Member RarePosts: 546
So, it's always irked me that every video I see about this game revolves around "making money" in some way. I wondered if that was just cynical content creators taking advantage of what EU is most known for - its real cash economy and of course the chance at huge paydays in the forms of "HOFs" (Hall of Fame drops worth potentially $100s or even $1000s of real money).
Looking past that, I noticed that there really is a *lot* more to this game than that. Without even leaving Calypso for one of the numerous other planets, or space stations, or space itself, there is a huge variety of ways you can play the game, content to do, etc.
So, I figured I wanted to jump in and actually *play the game* as a game... not as a slot machine, which is what most people seem to see it as. I took the approach of wanting to deposit $15 a month, as I would a normal sub fee, and then play intelligently, play "economically" but not obsessively so, and experience and (hopefully) enjoy the content I'd otherwise never see or hear about.
For about a week, I dove in and was enjoying myself. But then it came to a screeching halt, more or less in the span of a single day.
I'd gotten a mentor. I don't know whether I'd call that a mistake, or a blessing in disguise, because what followed is what deflated my interest and enthusiasm, bringing my time in EU to a quick end.
As I said, I wanted to experience the game *as a game*, not a "slot machine" to "get rich quick".
The problem, and what my title references is that all this cool content, these interesting systems and such are all undermined by MA's efforts to drain your wallet constantly.
I wanted to do a Mission that's given to you early on, but found quickly I couldn't because the requirements would drain my PED card really quickly, and the rewards would not even remotely reimburse it.
I then noticed how so many of the missions involve expending large quantities of ammo, or mining probes/equipment, etc. All of which, again, costs real money.
Of course, there's Eco Hunting. For those unfamiliar, Eco Hunting is basically "Min/Maxing" expenditures and gains/returns while hunting, or mining. You want to use the most optimal weapon, on the most optimal enemies, etc, so you either break even, or at least aren't losing too much. This, of course, limits your options in terms of equipment and content/targets, which in turn limits the gameplay available to you - unless you want to continuously dump money into the game.
After hearing "don't do that, it's not worth the return", "don't do that, it's not worth the return..", "ignore that mission, it's not worth it" enough times, it suddenly clicked why seemingly everyone I see streaming the game on Twitch spends all their time hunting/mining or crafting. It's why people seem to only care about going after that Global or HOFF... It's not limited imagination or interest.
It's that because of MA's awful, money-sucking design, it's pretty much *literally all you can do in the game without draining your account*.
I mean, if anyone's looking for an example of how to build a vast, deep and very interesting universe, with literally *worlds* worth of content, and then undermine it completely with over-zealous monetization.. Entropia Universe is all you need to look at.
Unless you have tons of money to throw at it, then I'm sure it's great.
Like the title says... What a waste of a great setting/universe.
If someone could make a game like this, without ruining it like MA has, I'd be all over it.
Looking past that, I noticed that there really is a *lot* more to this game than that. Without even leaving Calypso for one of the numerous other planets, or space stations, or space itself, there is a huge variety of ways you can play the game, content to do, etc.
So, I figured I wanted to jump in and actually *play the game* as a game... not as a slot machine, which is what most people seem to see it as. I took the approach of wanting to deposit $15 a month, as I would a normal sub fee, and then play intelligently, play "economically" but not obsessively so, and experience and (hopefully) enjoy the content I'd otherwise never see or hear about.
For about a week, I dove in and was enjoying myself. But then it came to a screeching halt, more or less in the span of a single day.
I'd gotten a mentor. I don't know whether I'd call that a mistake, or a blessing in disguise, because what followed is what deflated my interest and enthusiasm, bringing my time in EU to a quick end.
As I said, I wanted to experience the game *as a game*, not a "slot machine" to "get rich quick".
The problem, and what my title references is that all this cool content, these interesting systems and such are all undermined by MA's efforts to drain your wallet constantly.
I wanted to do a Mission that's given to you early on, but found quickly I couldn't because the requirements would drain my PED card really quickly, and the rewards would not even remotely reimburse it.
I then noticed how so many of the missions involve expending large quantities of ammo, or mining probes/equipment, etc. All of which, again, costs real money.
Of course, there's Eco Hunting. For those unfamiliar, Eco Hunting is basically "Min/Maxing" expenditures and gains/returns while hunting, or mining. You want to use the most optimal weapon, on the most optimal enemies, etc, so you either break even, or at least aren't losing too much. This, of course, limits your options in terms of equipment and content/targets, which in turn limits the gameplay available to you - unless you want to continuously dump money into the game.
After hearing "don't do that, it's not worth the return", "don't do that, it's not worth the return..", "ignore that mission, it's not worth it" enough times, it suddenly clicked why seemingly everyone I see streaming the game on Twitch spends all their time hunting/mining or crafting. It's why people seem to only care about going after that Global or HOFF... It's not limited imagination or interest.
It's that because of MA's awful, money-sucking design, it's pretty much *literally all you can do in the game without draining your account*.
I mean, if anyone's looking for an example of how to build a vast, deep and very interesting universe, with literally *worlds* worth of content, and then undermine it completely with over-zealous monetization.. Entropia Universe is all you need to look at.
Unless you have tons of money to throw at it, then I'm sure it's great.
Like the title says... What a waste of a great setting/universe.
If someone could make a game like this, without ruining it like MA has, I'd be all over it.
Comments
If you want to spend hours standing in a circle around mobs, with a gatherer on "auto-use", so you can sell their "sweat" for like $1 per 1000 bottles, more power to you.
To me, offering that as "an alternative to spending", is as good as saying "don't bother".
At first I thought, "well then why don't you stop focusing only on trying to get Globals/HOFs, and just do something else?"
Now I know why.
Sadder still, according to people who've been around since early on, the game wasn't always that bad. MA used to embrace the idea that players themselves bring value to the game in terms of a community and others to play/trade with. Somewhere along the line, they decided that was no longer important, and went all-in on monetizing every last dark corner of the game.
My friends and I were on the last real beacon mission, part of VU 9.x. The VU 10 game showed promise, them staff elimination happened.
Alpha AG Geek
Founder- Manticore Society