Reflections about Entropia Universe in 2012

Many years ago I was kind'a into games. I have played AoE 1 & 2 for years, mainly solo, and often on my local network with friends. I game could last over 30 hours straight! I've also wrestled through many of the the need for speed versions, those were a major upgrade after the old games that some of you may remember, Grand Prix II & III, and the old Test Drive.
Counterstrike was about the same time era as AoE2. Hell I even still remember the cheat-codes. After the initial Total War series, something changed. The internet become more important for games, and I heard something about Entropia.

I read up about Entropia and man, was this something big! It took quite some time to download and install it, but of course that wasn't a problem for a specialist like me. Finally I could launch the game. Creating my avatar was already something huge. I had never done such a thing, and it looked like a big responsability, because I realized it would remain the way I created it. I think I devoted half a day on that. When I logged in the next day to discover a new world, it wasn't as easy as I had expected. It took me about 2 full days before knowing that, and how keys had to be mapped, takling to other people, etc. I followed the noob stream, and noticed what they were doing: obtaining bottles from a creature. It was not a good idea to take on a berycled, those were terrifying, you would die, and have to wait for like 20 minutes before having full health again, so that you could continue. I discovered faps a few days later, and learned to drown birds as a means of escaping. Ah well, having sweated a few days, sold them at reasonable prices, someone told me about the trade terminal. Man, those things had guns in them! Unfortunately they were over my pedcard, so I decided to deposit 20 euro. (I only discovered auction after about 3 months in-game lol, I thought the 'auctioneer' was an avatar that they were all talking to.)

That is how it started.
In those days when you had a starter rifle with amp, some ammo, you could hunt with it till out of ammo, tt your ammo, and hunt again. You could repeat this cycle over and over and over again. After a week or more, your peddies were downcycled so much, that a new deposit was required.
Then I found out about markup. I started selling things to people who wanted them, for more then they were worth! It felt a bit like cheating on people, but it seemed common practice. By doing this, a 100 € deposit lasted months, and one could even make reasonable profit. The only reason to deposit more, was, if you wanted a more powerful weapon, or better gear, or skills.
When an old friend took me to hunt my first feffoids, for the first time I saw GOLDEN coins in my loot. The feffs gave sometimes 3ped, sometimes up to 6 ped each. That was awesome! I could start saving money to buy better armor! Even after repairs there was some peds left.

From those days, my avatar grew bit by bit, mobs eating my ammo, and me eating a chip from time to time. (And MA eating my visa).
I've been at the top in tailoring, which required some investment, but then the system was changed (clothes minimal condition, and later textures) and all of my investments became pretty much worthless.
I've been at the top in the championsleague, but then the system was changed (vu10) and these were no longer possible.
I've participated at the top levels in events such as landgrab, (system got changed)
I was, according to my teams, a pretty good beacons' leader, but then the system got changed.
I became a top10 hunter, but then the system got changed. My skills became worthless, compared to what they were at.

Bottom line 1: investments rendered almost worthless time after time after time
Bottom line 2: future prospects of income diminished time after time after time

I loved the EU-concept, stranded on a distant planet, taking a week to discover one or two new teleports. Being 'uber' to get within 2 minutes at a newly created place (new switzerland) with my TP chip lvl5, just after the servers went up again...
But then the sytem got changed, vehicles were introduced.

Oh and about L-stuff? I hate it. I grew up in EU with using an EP21, upgrading to an EP22 later on. not maxed? still breaking-even and profit! My generation hunted with weapons, with having 1/10 stats! And guess what, imo it was more fun then it is today. Today we have a rediculous amount of weapons, armors, blueprints etc. Why? Solely for the purpose of introducing new stuff and keeping people busy. It is absolutely rediculous. Why do we need 7 different fap lines, with each 12 or more different faps? What is the use of that? I was perfectly happy with the fap5-10-15-18-28-50-90-110-adj-imp-mod.
It seems today's Entropia economy is getting as rediculous as our real-live economy: producing producing producing, selling selling selling, to make more money, to buy more stuff, to make more money, to buy more stuff, to make more money, to buy more stuff...
IRL you can see this in companies that sell absolute rubbish.
In EU you can see that in the L-market.

There is a difference between 1) managing a virtual world for the well-being of the virtual world, and 2) keep putting old wine in new bottles to keep people busy/entertained, and their peds stuck in storage.

Now it has come so far that, whatever you do, hunting, mining, crafting,...
Everything that is profitable, gets the cream taken off with a spoon. Unless you know something that MA doesn't know YET, or unless you are the best of the best of the best in what you do, profit is almost impossible. (except the happy few ath'ers, or the ones with the most expensive gear who can take the big event prizes) I also start to think that most people who claim to profit, with a few exceptions, are liars that lie to boost their ego's.

EU used to be, that with a certain amount of money, you could play for ages if you didn't throw the money away. Today it is as such, that it is extremely hard, even for people with better game knowledge and gear, to break-even.
In the old days, depositing was for upgrades, gear or skill, and very little for playing. Today, it seems impossible to play without depositing, while this was relatively easy several years ago.

After having played EU for several years, playing old-school games seems clueless, waste of time, and stupid, since you can use this time to develop your avatar instead. That is one of the things that has drawn me back time after time to EU.
Now I discovered the sole thing that can draw me away from EU: developing myself and my family. After all, when you turn of the computer, the skills and gear of that avatar are utterly useless. Real life skills stay!
I started caring less about how much 'virtual stamina' my 'avatar' has, and more about training again for my next black belt

Maybe I have been fooled, maybe I was foolish enough to think, as many of us have, that I could make a living here, but to me it seems those cards have already been distributed at the beginning of this world.

In the meantime, the holocaust goes on on this planet. What has EU changed for me? Quite a few things, but not many of them are positive. Actually there is one: I now understand better how many people react socially, and about their greed and ego's. Consider EU a virtual test-field for this

Anything else I want to add while I'm at it? Not much, except that I've been typing for about 30 minutes now, while I could have been in my bed catching up on so much needed sleep.
goodnight

Naomi NP Polder