Ideas to bring in some more players

ok, I am new and juss had a idea going on in my mind, after nearli reading every post in this thread... ;p

My idea is to revamp the sweat system a bit for Arkadia. In noob/sweat camp areas, put a terminal named "newbie terminal" or "newcomer terminal" or something.

So the current system is sweat, and sell to players via chat-vertising. My idea is to allow new players to trade their hard earned sweat for a fast decay mining and hunting equips from the "newbie terminal".

This way the newbies can experience things.
For example it will require 5000 sweat for a newbie gun(L), that can at most do opalo damage, but the decay would be around idk, 10 - 20 kills. And 1000 sweat for certain amount of ammo.
-2500 sweat for a newbie finder(L) -fast decay
-2500 sweat for a newbie extractor(L) -fast decay
-1000 sweat for 100 newbie bombs
-same 20 for ore, 10 for enmatter
Now the newbie finder(L) max depth let say is 200m, and restricted to a max deposit hit of 25ped.
tweak the chances of the newbie finder to find things, so it will find Is, IIs, IIIs, some IV, V(global), VI(hof), VII(tower), VIII/IX/X(atf)
these will be posted on the "NEWBIE HALL OF FAME" ;p get there hopes up, get them to deposit, get them to be not wanting to be on NEWBIE HALL OF FAME, and wanna be a depositor.

Same goes for the mobs the newbies will be hunting with their newbie guns.

Ok, now here is another idea to tag along with this idea, is to allow mentor back. If a newbie have a mentor, he getz a 5% or w/e % discount on the newbie terminal. So instead of 1000 sweat for ammo or bombs, itz 950. yay!!!, Now watz in it for the mentor, well if the newbie hits one of the global or above for the NEWBIE HALL OF FAME, the mentor gets 5% dips, so if newbie hit a V(newbie global)(3-4.49) and got 3.5ped total, the mentor will get a 0.175 or 18pec or 17 pec up or down w/e. And of course newb 3.5 will subtract by the amount the mentor took away. FUN eh?

The chance/probablitity for globals and above for newbie hall of fame is the same as the hall of fame, so itz like super crazy lucky to hit a X(atf) deposit, or hunt loot. Get my drift?

This will get the newbie to sweat, learn, think more, and hopefully stay, depending if they like the "style" of the game, hunting/mining. And the mentor should inform them of the other more advance jobs, like crafting, beautician, etc.

So the choices for the newbie will be, gather sweat and chat-vertise, or trade it for newbie stuff from "newbie terminals" to try things out.

Ok, what if the newb got enuff to buy a Z1 finder!, omg he will keep sweating and juss use newbie bombs, and have better depth. Well, we can juss make the newbie bombs onli work with the newbie finder, problem solved.

If the newbie dun like the style and quit, yay we eliminated a "kid" out of the game, if the newbie stays, we know he got the rite/same mind set as the current population.

So what do you all think of this idea?? And point out the flaws as ruffless as u can ;p. i m here to listen to ya'll reasonings.

 

Very intersting ideas and i like it...only thing is that alot "old" player would try to sell their sweat at those "Newbie" Terminals....they would need a skill cap to use it........but sadly they would try to make a own "noob" avatar.......it is difficult to make sure that only "real" newcomers can profit of this terminals ......and ofc it would be better if the newbie can sell only maybe 20k sweat maximum....to make sure they think about to hunt/mine serious

 

Please correct me if I am wrong, but here is one issue I see ...

If I recall correctly a lot of these "noob" stuff was available on Genesis for Calypso. Arkadia's was not working when I created my avatar during planet launch back in May.

Therefore, once Arkadia's Genesis is working properly, a new player will already have all the chances to try out the different professions and already had a good introduction to the game, plus a fair amount of free play time. So when they TP onto the real Arkadia, they should already have the mindset of having to deposit to play the game.

I really do not see the benefit from having "Genesis" on Arkadia.

jc

 

A genesis rookie finder does what you're describing but it costs only 24 sweat (at 2.5ped/k). Trying out a few (<50) bombs is not a good way to experience mining... because of the randomness, only a fraction will see a good return. Sweating is great for skills and socializing, but it's a really slow and boring way to make a living in EU, and it contributes almost nothing (other than sweat) to the community and the economy.

Wouldn't it just be simpler to encourage newbies to deposit? After all, unlike the other planets, Arkadia isn't billed as a free-to-play planet

I'm seeing more and more beggars showing up in Arkadia, and I don't think that's a good thing for the planet. And by beggars, I don't mean people dressed in rags I mean people who are constantly asking other players for free stuff. Now, I'm sure some of them aren't old enough to own a credit card, and that could be part of the issue. But being a non-depositor doesn't mean you have to be a beggar. There's one person who has repeatedly asked me to give him bigger and bigger items for free just because he's "poor", even complaining when I refused to buy something off him for 300% more than the item was worth (a tt item, btw). Those players who expect something for nothing are the ones who take from the community but never give anything of value back. On the other hand, I've also met new players who likewise don't want to deposit but who are going to use their brains to make peds (...and not their VSE mk1). And these are the players who will eventually be contributing things of value to Arkadia and its community (making a profit at the same time).

The only free things I give to new players are vehicle rides and chat. I'm totally willing to help out new players, but if I give them an item, it's because they earned every ped of it, not because they were "poor". Unlike in RL, avatars don't have to eat.

So I guess this post isn't about bringing in more players, but about how we need to correct the noob misconception that "peds are free in Entropia", as quickly as possible in order to keep noobs from getting discouraged and quitting when they can't sell their sweat.

 

I didn't read the whole thread so I'm not sure if this has been suggested already but here goes. I think that arkadia should ignore the sweating system and instead create equipment and mobs that a noob can go on for a while with a $10/$20 deposit. The strategy of calypso telling noobs that they can start as non depositers and sweat their way to riches simply isn't true, and never will be. The reason people try this game and leave so fast is because being told to sweat for 3 hours, and only getting enough ped to hunt for 5 minutes (if that) causes enough frustration and the feeling of wasted time that they just give up. Instead telling new players that they can spend the same amount of money as a discount normal game to play for a day and get a real feel for EU would give them a chance too see if they like it, and then decide wether to stay or not. It IMO would retain better as new players would actually get to experience the game instead of just quitting from frustration at hours spent sweating for dissimal returns.

 

Im playing Entropia now for more then year but i am only doing it frequently and if i do i am mostly just exploring. Someone who played realy much could reach my skill levels in a week i think . SO i am a kind of experienced noob my real home is Second LIfe so i am looking on Entropia from the position of someone who frequently goes do another land fo ra vacation. I am not sure t about the numbers in Entropia but when ever i log into second life i see that there are at least 30.000 most of the time up to 60.000 active players online. even if i would gues that 50% are bots that makes still a big number. An there are several places that are as busy as Twin Peaks is. When i Log into entropia i never get the feeling that there are 5000 people online but i may be wrong .
So what could one do to drag more people and make them stay ?

1) Don't act like a greedy A###### (censored)
----------------------------------------------
Entropia for me seems to be managed by people who try to drain every single Penny out of my pocket .
For example I could not beleave it when i realized that everytime i change clothes my clothes decay 2 PEC.
I love to dress up in Secondlife and real life and i would love it in entropia too, But to do this you normally will
Put on different combinations of clothes, finding out which one fit together and which don't. Doing this in Entropia would meen
to quickly drain my PED card. And the explanation to reduce lag by this is rediculous.
So i decided to get one set of clothes in Entropia and never change.
In second life i spent at least 20 times more for my clothes having an invetnory of several thousand items (naturaly many shoes )
I think if a new player comes to Entropia and realizes MA does only have $$$ signs in their eyes they quit.
And when i saw that most clothes i like would cost me some 1000 PED i thought "they must be nuts !!!! for this money i will go shopping in RL not in a virtual world )
Second Example is that you have to pay for the usage of voice .. something you can get for free at sooo many places.

2) Give people the impression that you are honest
Looking at the whole system , for me it seems to be strongly designed to hide the r true costs for you. When i realized i need a excel sheet and a may be a database to find out if i made a profit on a hunt ( or more probably how much i lost ) i was really strongly thinking about quitting because this normally is the behaviour of someone who wants to rip you off.

3) It is ridiculous that in a future world there would be a way of transfer money and goods, that was last actual in medival ages.
You really have to meet someone face to d face to transfer money to them or give goods to them. In second life i can put a item or money on someones profile and they get it when they come online.

4) Stop trying to make the communication between players as hard as possible !!!!
I cant beleave that im not able to leave a massage to someone who isn't online .. not even to soc members and friends ?? hey this is a future world ???

5) make it possible for someone who starts new to may be deposit 10 USD and live with it . I meen .. the lowest mobs should have a loot balance that allows you to come out even. Nearly everyone wants to hunt biger creatures with time as the small on ones get boring with time . If you pay 10 USD and then make an extended hunt of some hours and you see that you lost half of your deposit .. you quit. Especially if you l realize that a two hours hunt later on will demand ten times that amount.

something about keeping experineced players:
I myself did not decide yet h if i will go on with EU. I slowly gain skills and the weapons i use are still cheap . But looking on what ill come ...will i really be willing to put in about 50 USD for a LR53 that is toast after 8000 shots ( four longer hunts ) =
Definitely no . So how much fun will it be to gain skills if you cant use the new gun ?
Do i want to have at least 1k USD in my storage ? this money may be wasted to a good partl looking on what happened to the price of alice in the last time or adomasite, Medical compress ( to name only some of the things )

I know that most of what i mentioned above is MA's fault so the A-Team cant do much about it .. so may be some suggestions for Arkadia

1) bring out some noob weapons that are like the training sword you can get at the academy and may be give out a noob gun to new players (like on the calypso welcome island).May be also bring out an equivalent of the noob mining stuff in the calypso TT. Tat way someone can try out mining very cheap.

2) Give people the Feeling of some adventure. Talking to old Players hearing from them how adventurous they felt on calypso before vehicles came .. i envy them. Invent something that makes it hard and dangerous to reach places even if you u have a plane.

3) Invent really nice new clothes that people really want to have. Looking at second life, they have a much worse graphic but if i buy a pair of shoes there that costs me 600 Linden dollars ( about 20 PED) they look absolutely perfect, detailed and realistic always making me want to have such a pair in rl. Looking at the shoes her on calypso i am always happy the ones i have in rl don't look like that.

4) Reduce the accuracy of the attacks of low level mobs. If i am swunting punnys on arkadia they hit at least every second attack, it takes me 5 minutes and a some healing to sweat a Cara. For someoen who comes new into the game it is absolutely depressing and demotivating.

5) Invent your own vehicles .. something cool like a bike.. something people really LOVE to drive and don't make it sooo expensive.

6) please very very soon .. invent story line related missions. The backround storry is realy good (in fact this was what lured me to Arkadia ) but ther's no way to participate somehow in this story.

7) Stop dropping TT weapons from the mobs.It is really not a nice thing that when you get something of the bigger loots from them its something you only can throw into the tt.

one word about customer care .. this is (i think) the one thing that the a#tema makes realy realy better then MA. keep it like that please, as with MA i always have the impression they hate their customers and often sit there and think what they could do next to anger them.

Cora

 

So you are saying once the newbies finish trying out the stuff in genesis, they should just stay in genesis if they wanna continue playing? Cuz thatz where they can continuously try and "hit it big", for cheap. If you get what I mean, most newbies mentality is like that imo.

Or letz say another kind of newbie, who likes exploring the world, they will get bored juss pure exploring. So I don't think "genesis" on Arkadia is bad at all, it gives a small motivation to the newbies, that lil glimmer of light to keep them playing maybe. Also I did mention in my post about the "Newbie Hall of Fame", this will give the newbies a sense of success/joy just like the current hof give to low - mid tier players.

So I really don't get why you would say "genesis" on Arkadia is not good, because we are trying to get the newbies to stay, not just to educate them and be like go face the cruel darkness witout a glimpse of hope if u dun deposit.

 

Let's look at this from a different point of view.

We are having content for new players so there is no need for them to depo in the first days. But it must be clear to them that depo is needed if they want to stay ingame for a long time. It doesn't help to make them thinking all is for free or easy to get.

All planetpartners need players which are making some depo more or less regulary. Thats the money they need for planet development and (MA) for platform development.

Again, it does not help to make newbies thinking all is for free or cheap. They *have* to know from the beginning with what kind of game they are dealing here. Only new players which are looking on this with a clear mind will (maybe) stay for longer. The other "freebies" will leave anyway in a short time.

So in my eyes, it is not the best idea to make them thinking something is to have for free or cheap ingame.

First few for free, and when addicted let them pay, that is not the way I would like to bring new ppl into the game.

 

Which Content for new players it there on Arkadia ? I mean what can a new player do without depositing in the firs days ?
They can use the exercise sword forn the academy , they can sweat (that is especially hard on Arkadia) and they can
run around the landscape defenseless. Hm, doe they realy get a good impression of the game this ways that will keep them in ?

Many games have a level to play that is for free. You get a good impression of what the game is about and you can play this way for aver, but there are many advantages premium players have and with time .. m many of the free players want this advantages and go premium .
This might be a good strategy for Arkadia and EU in general. Even for experienced players who deposit on a regular basis there can be times when they can't. EU has imho the big problem that when you are used play it with depositing and then you cant for some month the
options fall to about 5%.
There should really be a way to directly use sweat .. one where you cant hit big rewards but that keeps you playing.

 

This is going to sound like a very strong opinion, but at times, we need to look at things from different POVs ...

Genesis is not an area with full game implementations. It is the demo for this game where the play area and features are limited. The usable items are limited to only cheap noob weapons, and most likely modified loot. Sure, they can stay there for the rest of their avatar life, but they will only get 1% of the true game play, if even that much. So after you played the demo and wishes to TP to a real planet, you already have made the decision to deposit to continue to play the game in a live version.

IMHO, Planet Arkadia, as a game, do not need to have these demo features built into the live version.

The idea from above about requiring an initial deposit does sound like a good idea, IMHO. When an avatar leaves Genesis, MA should required the account to have a min amount of PED, say 100 PED, before given access to the TP. This will also serve as a very strong notice to a new player that they are going to play a RCE game. Therefore there is no excuse for new players later to cry foul and claim they weren't told about having to make deposits to play the game and falsely argues this is a free-to-play game.

We must nip that "free-to-play" mindset at the bud, instead of having tons of DoA avatars on the live RCE planet wasting skilled players' time and money helping out.

jc

 

Then what motivation is there to ever deposit? What redeeming value does this demographic bring to our Universe? Each planet has its own evolving system of player tutorials; some currently more engrossing and effective at teaching than others. New arrival areas in EU just came on in the last couple years, and are getting better with each update.

There are tons of things that can be done to appeal to the Second Lifers, but I'm staunchly opposed to making the game more appealing to those that have little to contribute, other than spamming chat with "You buyz me sweet..". Enhance the society system, make the society terminal more interactive, make player created content (signs, clothes, etc) more available.

I'm all for expanding the social aspect of EU, but I'm staunchly opposed (ad nauseum) to the "give me" mentality from the "Entitlement Generation".

 

Yes .. one of the problems here is that you can not contribute much accept PED.
But t what i meaned was a way you keep people play with a less enjoyable experience.
May be one should first find ou what makes people deposit ? Is it the hope to hit the bif HOF ? is it to buy a VTOL ? There may be many reasons yes .
But what i think is pushing people away is to know that if they have no mony for some time their experience will drop to a absolutly boring 3D Chat room with a functionalyty every other chat would be ashamed to present to its users (no offline messages , limited friend list, no arcustic signal when a friend comes on , no way to make notes about avatars in game and so on .

 

True, there isn't currently much of a niche for those looking for a hugely rewarding experience without the funds to do many of the normal professions. I don't think the planet owners will ever lose much sleep over that specific group.

While the FL has been vastly expanded, and there is a written notice of friends logging on and off, the messaging system and even a personal journal would be fantastic additions to the universe that would enhance the features not dependent on RCE. Very good points!

 

I don't know how it is with you but i think everyone can come into situations where they need their money at other places then on EU. if you push this people away they will not come back depositing again.
One of the reasons why i play so rarely is that i don't like to play a game that has absolutely no paint if i can't deposit for some time.
Ok i am in an special position because i earn the money in second life that i spent there
and even more. But i would h not have played it so intensive if it would have the same philosophy as EU (Pay us regularly or your experience will be shit ).
ANd that i can earn the money now that i spend in SL means others are depositing exactly this money. The reason why the economy OF SL is so much bigger the the one of EU is that you can contribute a lot even if you don't deposit. And this contributions make the experience for the other players more enjoyable.
IMHO this is why thy the EU economy will stay small, because work people do , creativity people have , are absolutely no part of it . Crafting is clicking on buttons for hours nothing else.
If EU should really grow there needs to be a way to bring the creativity of people to the game. Im not talking anymore about noob weapons. But for exaple on second life the Skin Maket is a big big part because people love to look different form others .
Way cant i have individual skins here. Looking at Entropia i often get the imression im looking at a clone society.

 

Let me explain better what i mean:

Entropia is a Zero sum game (v even worth because through decay and ammo costs its even a negative sum game )
That means everything i win someone else has to loose.
True and successful economies are are not zero sum games.
Work, creativity and other things add constantly to either the amount of goods or the amount of money that is available.
And as long as are no ways introduced to make this possible for Entropia the economy of entropia will always stay small.
If you dont know what i am talking about look at https://marketplace.secondlife.com/ thousadns and thousadns of people are offering hunderds of thousand things they created (compare this with the eu auctions size ) and unlike in eu where the bigger part of the goods is traded through auction , in second life it is not even the biggest part of the traded goods .

The only thing where people could bring there creativity to Entropia was the makeup area where people could make this masks and then sell them. But even his small part doesn't work at the moment

A way for more creativity could be clothes .

Why doen't the clothes system work like that:
1) design the cut and the system finds out how much Material you need for this. (naturally a bikini needs less material then a complete suite). It shouldnt be so hard to calculate how much of the avatar mesh is covered.
2) you set the fields on this basic cut, each field can later on contain one color and one texture. The more fields you have the higher qualtiy (and the more expensive ) is the wool you need to use.
The fields at their borders have seams and the finer this seams should be the higher level and the more expensive the thread gets.
3) you can now either produce this basic clothes and sell them to be colored or you
color and texture them yourself because a intelligent use of textures can save fields and so save
production costs

This way people could create all kind of clothes and there would be a competiton how to reach a certain result cheaper

 

Just a little fyi, I read here some misunderstandings continuing about what 'Genesis' is exactly. Genesis is MindArk's 'entry point' for all new Entropia players. There are no starter weapons, mining tools, missions etc there at all. This is where you create and tweak your avatar, choose your name, preview if you want a lot of clothes and armours etc (from Calypso, mostly older stuff) and maybe look at planet posters, nothing more. You then choose to teleport to the planet of your choice from there. If you choose to go to Calypso, first you land on the 'Gateway', this is Calypso's starter area where the 'rookie' equipment and training missions are etc, and it is an isolated place where only official Guide avatars are able to be there with the newcomers. Once done there, you then teleport onto to Calypso, where they have more starter missions etc.

From 'Genesis' if you choose to go to Arkadia, you do not go to 'Gateway' at all, you go straight to Arkadia, and arrive at an academy, where our newbie tutorials and missions are, it's combined into one place rather than two, our 'Gateway' if you will. Neither Genesis nor Calypso Gateway were there two years ago by the way, they both came after the Crysis update, before that we had nothing like it to help us get started out, so I'm glad we have all that we do now, not perfect, but much more than before for sure, including Guides and Advisors to help out. I'm also happy personally with the Arkadia approach, in not encouraging new players to think of this as a free to play game, as it clearly is not. In the back of my mind it always rings what MA used to say 'this is NOT a game', as in many ways this is how I've come to view it myself, it is not a game, but a virtual universe with gaming elements, and certainly not free unless you want nothing more from it then socializing and chatting.

Hope that helps with the confusion about starter areas

 

Lee .. what exactly makes the difference for you between a game and a virtual universe ?

 

so black jack, roulette and such that are played in Casinos are not games? there is real money involved as well. And online Casinos where you gable are a virtual universe ?
Entropia if you look at it really is a online casino with different possibilities to bet and elements of a MMORPG to cover the true nature a bit

So what people does it mainly attract ? People with Gambling Personality. And that is why Next island is not working.
Next island is a wonderfully designed Place with the atmosphere of a Tropical island. But the question people ask is
"what things can i find there the that are better and give me better chances in the gamble then what i already have "
And the answer is up to now "only the herb box and some low level swords" so nobody goes there.
This is also the reason why its hard for Entropia to attract new people and keep them.
If people understand it from the beginning then it is Competing with all the online casinos and only the one who
like to have a complex story around their gambling, or a big selection of methods to bet, will come in.
The People who come and visit it as a virtual universe, are then disappointed because Entropia ignores or eliminates to many
aspects of life like creativity , art, social aspects and so on. And they often leave when they understand the true nature of it.

So if new people should be not only attracted but kept entropia needs to either get a better casino or a better universe.

Becoming a better casino:

To become a better casino it should not hide the true amount you bet each time .
No one would gamble in a casino if he would not clearly see how much one bets at the game.

To become a better Casino they need to become quicker when people want to take the money they have won.
No one would gable in a casino if he would have to wait a month till one can exchange the chips into Dollars again

To become a better Casino they need to become more user friendly. True casinos give people the impression
they are pampered, MA gives the gamblers the idea they are ignored and constantly angered.

Becoming a better universe:

To become a better Universe more aspects of rl have to be covered.. like romance for example.
You cant i even kiss someone. Or like art or social aspects . You cant even go to a bar with friends , listen to a dj and dance
(sorry but the strange twitching that we can do i would not really call dances and couple dances don't exist ).

To become a better Universe people need to get more rights.
One big problem i see in getting more PAYING people is that people who want to invest (not gamble ) are
repelled. You are Investing RL money but you don't have the rights you have in rl.
MA for example ruins whole businesses branches destroying thousands of USD investments.
(look at what happened to hangar owners .. they payed much for the hangars and then
after they could not use them for two years they got back a Ship that they cant use and
have to invest about the same amount again to make their ship usable and able to compete.
Or the beauty branch that is nearly wiped out or taming and so on) Your investments are all but save in Entropia,
they absolutely depend on the random decisions of the authistic management of MA and you have no way influence it like you have in rl.

As long as this things don't change any affords to bring in more people won't be very successful, as most of them will leave again very disappointed.

 

Ack! Please not the Casino debate again! I play this game in this virtual universe (that's right, its not an either/or), to have fun doing the things this game/universe has to offer. And I try to to break even or maybe come out a little ahead because thats part of the challenge for me. I'm not here for romance or to cyber. Heck half the female avatars, although kinda hot, are actually guys. And being the guy I am, thats a bit of a turn off for me. I'm not looking to play Second Life else I would go and join that game. I'm not here to roleplay or be different character. This is me inhabiting the avatar KikkiJikki, acting as I would in our real universe.

I don't think its productive to focus in this thread on all the things MA has done wrong or what they should do better. Because you are very correct in that there seems to be little we can do to influence them. But there is perhaps some things that the Arkadia developers can do. This might be a matter of how they priorities their effort in development of missions, mobs, storyline, or perhaps a better idea for marketing and promotion. Perhaps there is some things that we as a community can do to help.

Regards,
KikkiJikki