Sweat, lets talk about it shall we?

I am going to be lazy and just record a small video for Youtube, here is the link making it easier so you don't get a giant wall of text, tho you can discuss in here how you feel about the video and etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kbdaAsspa4

Might post some more video later if I think of anything and or just type out in here, lets hope something good comes along and helps out people who can only sweat to make PED to play EU.

I would also like to see what others think about this, with sweat and what should be done to boost help for free players who can't afford the depo MA wants them to pay.

 

I think there are lots of things enterprising individuals can do to make money in EU. Personally, I give a 2 ped commission to anyone who refers a passenger to my space flight service (if anybody's interested, PM me!). It's not something you can sit down and crank away all day at like sweating, but then again, you can make 2 ped for for just writing a few lines in chat if you happen to run across someone who's looking for a flight.

So that's one way, taking some time to connect buyers and sellers (pilots, colorers, crafters—whatever) working on commission on jobs that the sellers can't or don't want to do themselves.

 

I see a trend of players thinking there should be an easy way to make ped in this game...it is real life money...to the point that any sweat gathered is literally MA giving you money...yes fractions of pennies at a time...but still free money on top of free ENTERTAINMENT...it should not be easy to gain much from this game...just like real life if you want to make money you have to work for it...noone's going to throw money in your lap for nothing...

You saying Mindark is being unfair by not catering to players who do not deposit is ridiculous...players that do not deposit are not helping Mindark in the least except to inflate their numbers..for example: "we have X players in our playerbase" ... granted there may be a bit more to this than that...but the only feasible way you could run a game with real cash economy and cater to players who do not pay to play is if you got all revenue from real world businesses/individuals buying space/advertising in game...which I think would be a good idea but is not how EU is set up or intended at the moment...

I agree that maybe there should be more fun things to do cheaply for new players...I also think sweat is not the answer to player retention...the main reason I still play this game is the people I have met...I will never make any money off this game...and in that I am fine....it is a game...I am paying for entertainment and loving it...sometimes I can't do much due to lack of funds but there is still always something to do...

Anyway I guess that is all for now...

 

Glad to see there are replies coming in and seeing your points of view, mostly my concern with the way things are, is MA is forcing more people to depo and it seems not many people are able to free play, I do know MA needs to make money and every free player is a loss of money, tho not many people continue playing if they have to keep sweating, sofar there are alot of resellers, that's mainly the only down side to sweating tho that's if they want to fly into space to Ark with the sweat, well that and the 1% of players on Ark who care to buy sweat for the sweaters there.

I mostly see there being little to no use for sweat as it once was in the past since ME is almost useless due to vehicles and Snyth ME being in the TT and 90% of the chips I see use the TT ME, tho in the long term not many new players will stay and or will have no choice but to depo, most people after a time give up on the hopes of making any money and just say "I only depo to have fun" that's because they gave up on trying to cash in and or don't care any more, tho there are some who just depo as if it were a pay to play game, tho there needs to be something for the newer player base to get some money, I don't mind needing 1,000 PED to withdraw from the game.

Really there could be a few more things out there, tho I guess we will have to wait and see, tho as of now sweat is the only real way to make any PED on Ark unless you played long before this planet and have skills to use for making PED without needing to sweat, or a fat bank account.

 

That simply isn't true.

I don't know about making a living but it is certainly possible to play to break even or make a little profit no matter what level you play at. In that regard, it doesnt matter what planet you play on.

Yes you probably need to deposit because a reserve of peds is required to deal with the ups and downs of the loot cycle. I have known people who build up through sweating but thats a long and tedious path compared to modest deposits.

Regards,
KikkiJikki

 

It is a pay to play game.

But, we get to decide. I personally love that I can choose how much, how little, and when or if I will pay to play.

Nowhere is it said that Planet Arkadia is F2P. Other companies may give the impression it's F2P, but that's just not accurate as most people understand the term "play".

A wise man recently explained EU this way... Free to explore and socialise, deposit to play the game.

Sweating is just a way to get a little taste of the game.

 

Sweat is the way to bring new ppl together first, when they are spawning first time and don't know nobody and nothing. They can have some fun and socialise with others, new and "old" ppl. They can talk to others in team, asking their questions and getting answers and impressions of the game.

As nathanos said before: sweat is not the answer to make ppl stay, it is only the first step into the game.

We always have different kind of ppl coming into the game. Some are really intersted and want to learn, clear minded that Depo is needed if they don't want to sweat forever. This type of ppl will stay longer, long or forever. Some are of the type "where can I find the free money here...". We all know about them and that they will go away soon.

While Arkaidia is bringing much new ppl into the game, it is like always: Some bad guys coming along with the good ones, trying to make bad business to the noobs. (dumping prices, selling crap for to much PED to them, offering bad service to the newbies, etc.) That happens everywhere, RL or VL and in every game around. The only way to protect our noobs is to really care about them and giving as much game-knowledge to them as possible.


[OT]
At this point a big compliment to all of the Advisors. I can see on the desk beside me what a great (and hard) job they are all doing the whole day.

On Arkadia I can see how close ppl are working together to bring things on a good way. Missed that for a long, long time and really happy to see the old feeling from years ago is coming back.
[/OT]

 

The best thing to do if you want to play EU for free is to sweat till you have a few hundred PED then start trading. Pick a resource and buy small ammounts from players that have to small ammount to sell on the auction due to the auction fee and stack it up to sell on the auction or crafter later for a small profit.

Years back before I could deposit I sweated till I had ~500PED before starting to trade. 2 Weeks later I had over 2k PED just by spending the same amount of time online trading as I did with sweating and that kept me going for quite some time (hehe used mainly Opalo).
So if your willing to put in effort and be a bit creative you can play for free.

Think of it as a time / fun / PED tradeoff. The more time you spend doing boring stuff (trading can be more boring then sweating at times) the more time you can spend having fun afterwards. But like all things IRL not everyone will be able to follow this path blindly and you will need to know what your doing and how the market will change over time otherwise you will mostly lose. Even if you have been trading for years you sometimes make a bad call or someone crashes the market and you lose (lost over 700 PED on Ospra Ingots last week). Trading is on the most part a calculated risk and the higher share of your funds you put in to one resource the higher your risk becomes on that resource.

You can always deposit a small ammount for trading and skip the entire sweat thing. Google market trends and patterns and read up on it a bit, it will help you out a lot if you chose to become a trader.

 

Trading can be very tricky, especially for newcomers, and it can lock up a lot of peds. If you manage to get a few hundred peds and you don't want to deposit and don't mind doing something relatively boring i would go mining instead. Seems Larkin gets a bit over 12% from his mining runs if you follow his thread, and that is even with some arkadian ores/enmatters that have hardly any markup.

 

Yes. Trading is definatly not for everyone and can lock up a lot of PED and can also be more risky then any other profession. But its one off the options if you can not deposit and want to have an income ingame.

 

6 years ago I started as a new player and started to sweat and die and explore. For 6 mths I did just that. I realised then that I loved this game and made my first 10.00 USD deposit. I continued to sweat and explore but no dieing I could shoot the little bastards now. I am now a regular depositer and player and still love this frustrating exciting pain in the ass game. Start form nothing and become something , It is awesome . Good luck to all the new players out there

 

Aww ron you were talking about us weren't you.

 

yeah, from whom else

 

Well you and Milena have been a great help to me and my guys and we are really enjoying the game. So a big Thank You to you from us at Apollo

 

I apologise for not watching all 6 minutes of the youtube clip, but if you can sell 1k sweat for 5 ped on Arkadia, whilst you get about 2.2 ped per k on Calypso, then you are better off on Arkadia (obviously)

Sweat has always been a supply and demand thing, was back in 2006 when I started and still is now.

With the introduction of synthetic mind essence and vehicles, the demand for Mind Essence and sweat is much lower now.

For the price of sweat to rise, it needs to be an essential ingredient in something useful - something that can only come from Mindark.
In the mean time, its something social to do, whilst you chat, learn the game, and you get free skills whilst doing it. If you get bored maybe throw in $20 and get shooting something.

I've done a bit of sweating in my time, I know how it is. Stick it out, perseverance pays off.

 

NOTHING should be done to boost help for free players.

As has already been mentioned, Entropia is free to download, and you can explore and chat for free.

If you want ped to spend on items and/or activities, get a paper route and deposit.

Naht, Naht, Naht... I thought I taught you better than that.

MA doesn't give away money, silly...
It is other PLAYERS who provide the ped compensation for sweat.

 

Wow, looks like Chrome is having a bad day. Here, listen, I started on EU a long time ago, so long ago that I was dropped off from a shuttle at Atlas Haven,with two other people and you got to watch the shuttle fly away and leave you there, and the ads were of a woman in black leather playing a news person and explaining the deposit system.

I played for maybe 2 years as a 'free' player, but trust me its not free. Once as a deal for advertisement for my soc, I walked the beach from Treasure Island City, all the way around and back there gathering ores and fruit, no sweating, but it took somewhere between 6-7 hours on my Saturday to do it.My total of 'free' money? 93 ped, that's it, it lasted me for a couple days doing mining runs until I lost it again and had to think of some other way to get ped, I was disabled and my government wouldn't admit that breathing was necessary to working,( acute asthma), but I hung in there, and now about 8 years later,( I actually lost count) I'm here, disabled with an income and still proud to say that even now, I have played for 8 years and deposited less than 500 US in the game.

If they want to play for 'free' it will take them hours and hours to get one small mining trip in, or hunting trip. If they cant afford deposits, its their only hope, either sweating or picking fruit or looking for surface deposits of ore,(not even sure they still have those), and believe me, MA has controlled the prices on those new people badly, back then I got 2 pec for fruit, try to find that now..lol.

 

I feel envious, I was dumped at Port Atlantis, and there was no woman in black leather in 2006. I wonder how many people tried to work out the controls and ran into the PA wall.
I sure did. I then explored the countryside and was killed by a Combibo Mature and thought "this isn't an easy game". I was right, its not - but its worth sticking with.

Oh and Chrome is ok, I'm biased though - he is a soc mate.

 

Nope, not having a bad day... I'm just tired of people complaining about the low price of sweat because they want to play for "free". If people choose to sweat for a few pennies an hour, all the more power to them... just don't bitch about not being able to do things that the rest of us PAY for.

Well, most days I'm ok.

 

Me too. On a bad day well... we all have them.