I tried playing this game a while ago whilst looking for a break from EVE. There were two things that lead me to the game initially:
1) It's free to play (in theory)
2) you can "make" RL money from the game.
Seemed OK, but upon closer inspection... not so much. Firstly, unlike other games where you might start out with little bit of cash or a ship or something to get you going, Entropia starts you out with absolutly
nothing. You have the clothes on your back. That's it. Well, whatever. You can still make some money without having to invest your own cash. This process involves gathering "sweat" from the planet's hostile wildlife. The seat can then be sold at (when I was playing) a rate of 0.10 USD (or 1.00 PED) per 100 units to other players who use it to create an essence that allows higher level character to use supernatural powers. Problem - sweating and animal doesn't garauntee you'll get any sweat from them. Also, they bite. And kill. Often. Death is a common thing for "non-deposit" sweaters (players whi haven't deposited any RL cash into the game). Gather 100 units of sweat takes about 3 hours on average, if you're lucky and use only what you start the game with... your hands.
Addtionally, there's no "generated" currency in the game. That is, you can't go to an NPC and get a quest or a misssion or sell stuff to an NPC character. All currency in the game comes from real players' money. That being said, whatever you're trying to get money for has to be good enough for a player to be willing to part with thier hard-earned cash to get it.
Moving on, (almost) everything in the game suffers from "wear-and-tear". That is everything from weapons to scanners to medkits to stats-enhancing clothing will eventually wear out and break if you don't get it repaired every now and then. Which leads to more money being spent.
In closing, don't get me wrong here. Entropia Universe is a very unique game with a lot of merit. Despite having no monthly fee, it would require a substantial investment of RL money to be playable beyond gathering a creature's sweat. Some users have been known to deposit hundred of USD per month into the game, only never to see it again. Conversely, after a few initial deposits, others have been able to use the profit from the game to adavnace at a rate comparable to most other MMO's, without a monthly fee; that is to say they reach a balanced point in the game where they don't need to deposit RL cash anymore to play effectively, but arn't making enough to turn a profit. Finally there's the group of players who (reportedly) manage a 300 USD profit a month from the game, although this has yet to be officially confirmed. Most likley it's a tigh-knit group of players who invested hundreds in not thousands of dollars into playing the game and have become such habitual players, Entropia has become like a second job for most of them.
All-in-all Entropia can be best described as a game you'll have to play for yourself to see whether or not it's a game for you. No doubt if it is, it'll probably be the best game you could imagine. Otherwise, it might be best to stick with Eve, WoW, L2, or whatever your MMO of choice is.
But hey, with no subscription fee, why not give it a try? You might be pleasently suprised. Check it out here at
http://www.entropiauniverse.com. If you're dead-set on not depositing any of your RL cash and you get past the "sweating for cash" stage, you might just have found the best game ever.
Entropia Universe : FPS / MMORPG / RTS Discussion
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