It is all about the LOOT

May be you have read comments from people claiming that Entropia Universe has no gameplay. Everything is about the loot. Everyone plays to make profit, have good loot, get global, score a HOF or receive ATH. If there weren’t the loot and the dream that you can get rich playing no one will play the game. May be even you think the same. And maybe you are right. In the end this is real cash economy game and everything you loot can be sold for real world money.

But something (that was before my eyes for years actually) strike me lately while watching EVE Online videos. Actually while reading the comments bellow the videos. Big portion of the post are actually how many ISK (Inter-Steller Kredits, the in game currency of the Eve-Online universe) per hour everyone is making. The satiation is actually way worst than in Entropia Universe. Soon you will stop caring about the fun and all you care will be how much ISK you are making per hour. You won’t play how you like it, but how you read in the internet someone was making butload of ISK. When you don’t play EVE you will calculate every hour as lost ISKs. And that why a lot of hardcore EVE players seem to overheat and quit. It becomes like real life job in china factory. You are forced to be as productive as possible. Every month you must make more ISK than before. Maybe someday you will be able to buy PLEX (a 30 Day Pilot License Extension, an alternative to paying for your account with cash), but then the price of the PLEX will go up and you must work even harder to make even more ISK. Some are making second and third characters; some are paying for second and third accounts just to make more and more ISK, where is the fun in that? And while this is what can make old player quit this also can make new player don’t start the game at all. You are thinking “OMG this dude is making 1 billion and I can make only pennies, I’m never gonna have a chance.”

But let’s not look only at EVE Online. If you look at Diablo it was always about the loot. Even before the RMAH (Real Money Auction House). Even in Diablo 2 people were replaying the same thing over and over again just for the chance of good loot. Diablo 3 was the same. Grinding 8-10 hours per day just so you can loot little better item. And people are doing it no matter if they are playing online, offline, solo or coop. They grind for hours just for that split second of good feeling getting good loot.

I’m sure it will be the same for Star Citizen. Everyone will try to make as much UEC (United Earth Credits) as he can. There will be tons of guides and videos how to do it. And the person with the most UEC will be proud of himself for achieving that.

So in Entropia the loot is very important, because it is actually real money, but it is actually not as important as in other games. A lot of people actually don't care about the loot. Or the return %. Or how ‘eco’ are they playing. There are 13 000 000 results in Google for “how to make isk in eve” and 47 000 results for “how to make PED in entropia”.

I’m not sure what was the point of this post, but just something to think about next time discussing THE LOOT. And play as you like it for ISK, PED, GOLD, UEC or just for fun. You are the master of your game time.

PS: Sorry for the overuse of “actually”. Sorry for other bad writhing too actually.