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Shops on Arkadia

Discussion in 'Estates' started by David | Arkadia, Jan 13, 2011.

  1. DJ Elevate

    DJ Elevate New Member

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    Yep same here however I will be looking for a home too, that is if there is going to be houses. Maybe I can get an Arkadian temple similar to a castle?
     
  2. calemus

    calemus Member

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    i do apologize for the redundancy, but as i previously mentioned

    weps? are they going to give me anything at all along the lines of a mod merc? i need an upgrade

    armor?... the hermes is doing ok with 8a plates
    but i really would SERIOUSLY like to see a much better set that we can obtain from arkadia
    i defiantly want a UNlimited set i can tier till tier 10

    i'm here to play, and play tough
    can you accommodate?
     
  3. AxeMurderer

    AxeMurderer Active Member Pro Users

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    I will love to see that. As a proud owner of 2 well stocked and great looking shops on Calypso I can say that owning a shop is hard as any other proffesion in the uiverse. How to begin.
    45 item points shop sold for 9k peds on Medusa Head and as mastermesh pointed out 45 items shop in PA Mall is 20k peds.
    in this 45 item points you have to place 1-2 signs, shelfs, tables, and other furniture. Now you have 35 items to place, thats just few armor sets, or some faps and vivos that you loot all day. And you must hope that in the near future there will be player in your shop that needs one of those 30 items from the 1000000 items in Entropia. Combine that with low number of players browing the shops (big part for that is the big prices in most of the shops) and you will make that 9k after minimum 2000 years of runing the shop.
    IMO most sugestions will never be made from MA. Some of them like making shops more like auction are stupid. If you want to sell and by at 1 terminal - there is auction for that. Fast and simple. May be shops are for people that want to byu cheap - shop owners must lower the prices and for people that want to look at the stuff not just read it's name.
    What can Arkadia do about that?
    No point to ask Arkadia for low price or system that will never be here.
    Best that is in your power to do is:
    1.Make good planet. If there are anought people on the planet there will be who to byu from the shops.
    2.Make items that people will byu for the look and not becouse they have best dmg/pec or dmg/sec ratio.
    3.Make the shops litle unique. Not like the shops in towers on Calypso. I usualy get lost there and stop looking at the shops. Make table in front of one shop, tree to the next, ball, bullet, skull, bone, ruber dick, whatever. Next time when I want to come to the same shop I will know - go to the shop with that thingy.
    4.Place them close to teleport and to areas usualy populated with people. May be you have done that, we have too see it yet.
    5.Don't make too many shops. Empty shops are not good for players.
    6.I doubt you can choose the byuer but low budged player will probably run the shop better than someone with litle extra cash byuing the shop in 2011 and waiting for 2015 to sell it. Not good for the game expiriance.
    7.If it's not againts the rulles allow shop owners to make free advertisments on the add boards in all towns. May be just for few months. The game will look better with some adds anyway.
    8.Lower the tax for shops or make the auction fee bigger. I'm not sure if this is in your power or MA power. There is 2% tax now, if you can lower it to 1% it's not much but it will help boost the shops.

    And I think there is the snowball effect. If 70% of the shops in a mall or shoping area are doing well the other 30% will benefit from that too. If 70% are empty or expensive the other 30% will suffer from that too.
     
  4. Calin

    Calin Member

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    I agree with all of these thoughts, but especially the part I bolded in Red...

    It would also be really nice if it would be easyish for the first wave of "New Arkadians" (those of us on the forum watching every moment and movement because we can barely contain our excitement about Arkadia) to get a shop or house/apartment at a reasonable price.

    I'd love a little shop, but I'm not rich. I'd love a house or apartment. I have some PED that I'd be willing to part with, but dropping thousands of ped in one shot for a place is beyond my means.

    I plan to put my whole tax refund toward Arkadia, but I don't want to drop it all on a little shop or house. :)
     
  5. XeroX

    XeroX Active Member Pro Users

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    Yeah I agree with that and that makes a nice introduction for what I want to propose.
    When new estates hit the market two different and IMHO negative scenarios seem to happen regulary:
    a) prices are quite low and "investors" buy them all effectively taking the estates out of the economy for ages.
    b) prices are very high and only a selected few can afford to open a shop/booth/service and they might not be the most passionate about it.

    So what I suggest is to make a thread here,post on facebook, write a newsletter.... and whatever you can with a pricelist for the estate categories(small shop//bigs shop//booth//apartment//house) for sale. Then just set times to meet Cyrus (and other officials?) for deed trades. I know that is some serious efforts involved but the trick would be to make it just ONE business and ONE housing estate deed per avatar. That way the prices can be kept affordable without attracting the investor sharks.
    As we could read in the ET issue Cyrus has some time reserved for ingame activity so I think this would be a wise way to spend some of it.
     
  6. Kane

    Kane Member

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    Im interested in shops for the right price & of course Bigger Apartments! much bigger....... so players feel like showing off there stuff from loot or what they own. Not just making it a place to dump stock out of storage. Why have all these items if you can only put a small amount out to show your own style or skills with hunts & collections from years of work.

    I think it would be best to make a market row (2 sides) or round or square options. With Colour coded roof,walls or doors,what ever makes them different from the next shop. (Never more than 10 Shops)
    If u want more shops you just have more market rows or squares numbered per row or square, this way you could always know what shop you are in & remember it for next time as well as help giving directions to other Soc mates & players Eg: Row 3, shop yellow" or "yellow block shop 2" this way it keeps them compact & easy to add more if needed at later date.
    Plus i say keep item numbers down to 50 this way you get the owners just putting the same stuff in that shop, making it easy to find what you want & fast....plus if they want more space they just buy the shop next door or across from them & If someone buys muti shops in same row or square then maybe they pay a council fee for the privillage of owning a whole street/row/square or more then 4 shops out of the 10.This way it keeps shops mixed & different in stock & gives the little investers a chance to get in a own a shop to sell the 30-45 bits & bobs they loot, craft that week.

    I also think they should be in the center of the Apartments/homes so it makes & community feel to the area (not sure about lag)
    would also help make sure the shops don't end up ghost towns like most malls are now.

    What about making all homes able to sell items under 150ped incl TT, if set by owner then the shops could be mainly for large stock & keeping the shop owners on there toes by not pushing the MU on small Items to silly prices as well as keeping others looking for those bargins at any time or place.

    Cheers
    Kane
     
  7. Hyssch

    Hyssch Active Member

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    I would like to see some shops/booths set aside as shops for anyone to rent for a fixed period of time and let's say one player could rent this kind of a shop for e.g max one week per month. Once You've rented a shop/booth, You can't rent another one untill this reservation is used/expired, just to let even chances for everyone.

    NPC with calendar. Click open. Select and reserve Your week. Select shop/booth. Pay rent for it. Done.

    - Don't we already have auction that has the same functionality to place goods for sale max. 7 days or place orders to purchase goods for 7 days period?

    Yes, but You have to pay auc fees for each and every item/entry You sell and for every auc-order You make. With these shops/booths You pay just for the shop's one week rent and it's up to You to make the most of it.

    And if some of Your goods wont sell within 7 days given, then fees paid are not all lost. You prolly sold some anyway, right? ... if You have several pages of items/order on auc, You can loose already paid fees on any or with all of them. Not with this kind of a shop/booth.

    Besides, this kind of a shop/booth would always have fresh stock for sale + one could never know what there will be this week, because it would be run by different player every week. Broader customer base for this shop, for it never gets branded "miners only shop" or "armor shop only" etc. and even those players with limited funds like this little noob Hyssch, would have a chance of owning a shop for a week, if not having funds to actually buy one.

    - Well, this would be bad for those who invest and actually buy their shops.

    Not really. If You wanna make a shop and run Your business just the way You want, You have to buy it + once You have bought it, it might turn out ot be a good investment anyway. With same argument one could say that ingame auction ruins Your shop aswell, because this acts in many ways just like ingame Auc. I see this just an addition to Auction. It doesn't compete with real player-owned shops or real auction, but has its own advantages.

    Besides, if there's just one shop for rent per town/city compared to the multitude of other player-owned ones... not much of a threath in my opinion. May even attract more traffic to that particular area and real shop-owners might even benefit for this?

    *Hyssch is busy equipping an (L) Forum-Flaming-Extinguisher* :surrender: :D


    Okay, exactly how bad does this sound? Feel free to comment...



    -- Hyssch --


    Ps. I'll let Mr. Balancing-Manager to decide what the actual fees or rents would be. Just presenting an idea here for a shop like this. That's all. All I know is that I would never buy a shop, but rather rent one for a week and then concentrate on mining of which is the main thing I do ingame nowdays. I wouldn't have time nor the patience to run a shop on regular basis and take proper care for it.
     
  8. malasuerte

    malasuerte Active Member

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    The problem with all real-state in Entropia is that the resellers hoard the deeds and then force everybody else to buy at their inflated prices.

    One way around it: Rented shops at a monthly/bimonthly/yearly fee that would give Arkadia the same amount of peds they would get if the shop was sold on auction but over a period of 5 years. No taxes. No deed to resell, and only people that actually want to use it will pay for the right to do so.

    Example: If Arkadia is expecting to get 10k peds for a shop then allow people to rent them for 166 peds a month (10k peds / 60 months).

    The price is just an example, it could be less or it could be more. In times of bad economy the rent could be lowered to help the players, etc.

    This shops could be an adition to regular shops sold in auction, maybe the booths can work like this.
     
  9. Pianoman178

    Pianoman178 New Member

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    I would be interested in a shop. I've debated buying one on calypso for months.

    Bottom line: Shops need to be able to compete with the auction.

    Don't tax them. Don't make them like Calypso shops in 10 different malls that are continents apart. Make it easy for players to find the items they need.

    EDIT: I almost forgot. I agree with Hyssch. It would be awesome for the average joe (like me) to just rent a shop for a while without spending thousands of PED. I hate the whole shop/estate/deed whoring that goes on around Calypso. 2-3 players buy them all up upon release (i.e. deer mall) and just hold them to artificially increase the price.
     
  10. Smoerble

    Smoerble Active Member Pro Users

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    I am afraid also that the shops will be treated like on Calypso: resellers buy them and they are empty all the time or overpriced listed non stop without any sale ever.

    I don't think, it's possible to avoid this though... I mean: how will you determine if someone really tries to make a working shop or not? # of sales does not work, too high prices also isnt an indicator.

    Anyone has an idea?

    Empty shops like the malls are killers... but I would love to have a running shop like I had in PA for years :(.
     
  11. Charlie

    Charlie Member

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    I agree with what Hyssch said about short term leases on shops.

    You see this done very successfully on a number of micro transaction based games, ie Maplestory (who doesn't love killing happy mushrooms?)

    Player buys a shop for 3, 7, 14, or 30 days. Players know that in certain cities you click on a door to go to the bazaar, and when they get to this room there's a number of "pop shops," kinda like little lemonade stands where people set up and sell (or order) whatever for however many number of days. You click on a stand and up pops out a list of what they selling and what they buying for how much and in what quantity.

    Needless to say, these areas are always packed to the gills, people know to visit because it's a predefined site in every city, the variety is constantly changing, and the best part is that it gives every player a chance to take part in running a small business without having to sell their left kidney.
     
  12. Nighthawk

    Nighthawk Member

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    How about ships that can be landed at specific landing pads (located fairly central in some different cities) and used as shops while landed there? Maybe there could be a small landing fee to leave the ship there while logged off, some time limit... maybe the ship could even work as a SPACEship too :shrug:
     
  13. James Clayton

    James Clayton Member

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    Well for my business as a beauty profesional a shop is not ecential. At present I do Hair, Face and Body work and when it comes back on line i'll restart the makeup mask work I use to do also. All of these can be bone from an apartement, which is the way I work right now on Calipso. But, I would like to expand. To be able to offer complete avatar restyling, including clothe, textures and coloring. For this I need a shop, somewhat larger than those on Calipso if posible because I have to put 3 chairs in it right off the bat for the hair, body and face sections and then I would have to stock clothe, textures, paints and a few display manekins. The reason I did not do it on Calipso was the price, at around 15k ped (1,500 usd) for a shop I just can't cost justify it. Cost me 6k ped to start up my biss 3 years ago and I still have not paid it off. I would love to have a shop but at a reasonable price, like 1-3k not 15-20.
     
  14. Hyssch

    Hyssch Active Member

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    Would this be of help in any way. Just a suggestion, but at least then shops wouldn't be sold in auc. in a few days time, straight away to resellers. At least most of us would have a chance of buying one, even noobs could enjoy this event etc.

    And what comes to renting shops, we can now lend our vehicles and let others use them, simply by using our FL to allow others access to them. Can't find the post, or who suggested this earlier (Milena?), but this way Arkadia dev.team could work within the current system limits. Already existing feature, but implemented for shops?


    -- Hyssch --
     
  15. USURPER

    USURPER Member

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    Whatever you guys do, don't make too many of them.
    MA made that misstake on calypso.
    Empty shops are just a nuicense.

    If i could make a wish then i'd wish for a market with stands.
    Easy to move around in and get an overview.
    Hadesheim had this setup and i liked it.
     
  16. Kinnison

    Kinnison Active Member

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    This may be a platform issue rather than one that Arkadia can realistically do anything about. Entropia shops are unlike real world shops in at least one particular; you can't buy part of a stack. What does this mean?

    Let's imagine that you walk into your local supermarket and it has 50 boxes of Weetabix on display; you can buy anything from one box to all 50 if you want. (Incidentally, there is also the issue of volume discounts, but this is a post not an essay...)

    Similar situation in a mall shop on Calypso; let's say for the sake of illustration that you walk into a shop and it has 50 iron ingots on display. You have 2 choices; buy them all, or buy none. And the obvious solution, put them in stacks of 1, has two problems; you'll die of boredom clicking repeatedly on buttons, and the shop has an item limit.

    This is IMHO a particular example of the rather limited economic system in Entropia. Another Scandanavian MMORPG with a spaceship theme (being careful because I haven't read the forum rules :) ) has a much better economy, which IMHO MA would benefit by looking at.
     
  17. Smoerble

    Smoerble Active Member Pro Users

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    Not true. If I go into a shop it has 20 boxes of 1 litre of milk.
    I can buy 1 box or 2 or 20.
    But I can't buy 0.5 liter.

    Same with shops. Shop owners can stack any amlunt into it they like, just like in auction.
     
  18. Golddude

    Golddude Member

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    If they don't cost rent (Like aparments? Do they still cost rent?) I may be interested! (or so shops already don't have rent o_O???)
     
  19. Atlan Leticron

    Atlan Leticron Active Member

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    I sure want a shop on Arkadia, even more important to me than a apartment.

    I still have my booth on Calypso, and it will be fired up again when I am properly settled on Arkadia.
    I am looking forward to export Arkadian items :)

    About the shops,
    Why not use a rent/buy option?
    Example, you buy a shop but you make monthly payments as rent for lets say 6 months.
    If no items are placed or sold in those 6 months the contract gets terminated and you wont own the shop and you lost the rent.
    If you do fill it and sell items, after 6 months your the proud owner of the shop.

    This will terminate resellers since they have to run the shop to get own-age about it.
    Also if someone wants to try it but after 6 months don't like it he/she can simply terminate the contract and only lost the rent over the time period of use.

    And place a terminal on the outside which you can click and it shows the items placed/sold in the shop.
    Such system is already in place, when you log into the main site you can see all your items and there location with value etc.
    It only needs some tweaking for shops to show only what items are in the shop and at what price.
    Now people don't have to run into every shop to see whats sold, only click the terminal and have a look.

    And please remove the selling tax or reduce it drastically.
    I sold low end weapons for the newer players and with the selling tax it was very hard to compete with auction and make a little profit.

    About item points, it would be great that there will be a separate item count for furniture.
    No idea if its possible but it would be great if a 50 item shop gets a separate 20 item slot to place furniture, signs etc.
    Now if you have a 50 item slot shop, you loose almost half of them on furniture and signs so you end up with aether a nice looking shop with only a few items or a boring looking shop with more items.


    Number shops and streets and put that number on the shop, like suggested here.
    It makes it much more easier for customers to find the shop back.

    And ofcause a shop directory, we really need one.

    Hmmm, thats it for now,

    Regards,
    Ion
     
  20. Kinnison

    Kinnison Active Member

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    OK, maybe I wasn't clear enough. AFAIK if you put a stack of say 50 of a stackable into a shop, then the customer can buy the whole stack or none. And with the fairly strict item limits, putting down 10 stacks of 5 of the same item isn't really an option.