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Some words i produce is only Truth the way i see it, so it is based on openion.
I ask that you forgive the incoherant thought paterns and bouncing topics where they form.
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All truths are based on opinion... that is one truth I have learned over over time. Reality is a multi-faceted jewel, and each of us is only staring at one jace of that gem. Other people see the other faces and many times think that their truth is the only truth too. Every story has more than one side to it.
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Players for the most part do not think of this game as an investment, they treat it like a casino in order to gain a profit. And while they surprise themselfs with self inflicted losses, becouse they did not take into account the risk involved in such activitys. For those that do recognize the risks and lose think that the whole system is not working as intended. I will not go over the many differnt varibles involved in the system, but I will try to introduce you to a new mindset, that can possibly reduce the risks involved.
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At first, most "participants" - got to use that word instead of players since that is official
MA lingo... even NPCs are called "non-participant characters" instead of Non-Player-Characters like other rpgs - think of the game as a game... unless they read about Neverdie, Deathifier, or now Buzz and think they can do similar profit-wise... which, unfortunately, is what most n00bs are doing these days, and most days actually because
MA|FPC does not do enough marketing... or allow the community to do enough marketing for them (yet) in the form of books, etc. I see ads for other companies RPGs in every darn video game or 3d game desing mag I read, but nowhere do I see Entropia Universe listed... I see other mmorpgs advertised on the Superbowl, but nowhere do I see Marco or Neverdie or anyone else related to
EU on there... I see other mmropgs allowing people to write books about the game a lot, but when I personally tried to contact
MA|FPC about doing something similar, I did get some green light, but it was almost like trying to pull teeth to get to that point. I am not sure if I'll still pursue that idea, but on the other hand I may... just depends on how much real world time I have... which ain't much yet... and also on how stable
EU becomes... at the moment with the number of changes done every vu and even while vu remains the same and server side changes happen, it's impossible to write about in book format since book will be outdated instantly...
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Before I tell you in more detail I must throw some information that is used to build my talking points. Mindark Needs deposits. They want to be concidered a bank for all intents and purposes. But not a Bank in traditinal terms where you put your money into the bank and it sits there and gathers intrest, but a bank where your investments into the game can be the intrest raising factor.
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I'm not sure if
MA's goal is to be a bank or not... most articles I've read indicate that that may be slightly true, but the real thing they are trying to do is create entertainment, which is why they give the estimate on how many ped per hour the game is intended to use...
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They recognize the fact that your deposits are a part of your account. the money in the game is in fact yours, however becouse you have put the money into their care. It is their money but they are responcible to return the money to the account holder when the account holder requests it. But with this money they hold like a normal bank they have fee's involved so they they can infact take that money for their own needs.
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They do take money for their own needs I suspect, even though they do claim that they only make money on decay... It has NEVER been clarified if they take money from rent payments, etc... same goes with stuff they auction off like Malls when it first came out, CP, etc... does the peds there go in to the retirment fund for Marco or the loot pool for us? Who pays for the oil at the rig?? They don't want to give too much info on how the system works, understandably, but some info might be helpful in helping us trust them more... hopefully the new community manager understands this...
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Now the differnce between this system that mindark has, and a normal bank is the players "or account holders" have a platform to raise their money thru luck, risk, or even the economy of the platform. A normal bank the money sits their and intrest is given based on the income of the banks success. such as loans they offer or other fee based things they do.
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The in-game banks don't have a loan or savings program YET... if
MA|FPC would add that, it would make the banks more successful. For instance,
MA could buy some safe bonds like government bonds or something... that have interest rate at 5%... then use like 1.5%-2% of that to let avatars do in game savings accounts...
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With this information in mind. Why must we work agenst the system and withdrawl money becouse of not managing our own risks? Being unhappy with the system, when the basic promise and oppertunity of the platform is rock solid in its concept and its mannerisms. This is about investment. not gambling, however the concept does not constitute gambling as if one manages risk properly then the investment becomes so much stronger.
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The problem is a lot of people think of this as a game... entertainment... this form of entertainment is a heck of a lot more pricey than other forms of entertainment (try figuring out cost to upload videos in bink format some day and then compare that to youtube... lol). That means the ubers that play the game do come to a realization that they need to change things when they start going bankrupt in real life or their credit cards are all maxed out. Globals, just like jackpots in casinos are intended to make you want to spend more... we just stay in game longer here because the cost per second is a lot lower than real world casinos... my insight in to that is that
EU saved me from what started out as a gambling addiction a few years ago when a real casino moved in to the town I live, just about 4 blocks from home. Since the day I installed
EU, I never went back to the casino much as a gambler.. it changed my whole outlook on things a lot.
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Here is what i mean.
We can work and make a deposit, and buy things in this game for the purposes of using it as an investment. We buy we hold with the value still intact and at some point sell the investment for at a hope for profit. Or just hold onto it for the value to replace the liquid position we hold onto so dearly.
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yes, many buy to sell later... that tactic only works if you don't get antsy and start using whatever goodies you got in storage... thinking that nice gun might be useful on a society hunt coming up, etc...
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The system in place see's value in terms of the base trade value "TT value" and it is synonomis with a liquid position of that base value. but we all know that there is always more to the Base Value of an item. this is the mark-up of an item. this is where our investments create added value. All of this information is no secreit. but everyday we pursue further wealth and try to maintain a liquid position, much like a day-trader in the stock markets.
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Yep. Many do think of things as stocks in game... which is sad since it leaves many great items out there sitting in a closet and not being used.
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What would be a great change in the system, is if we had more people not treating things as if they were day-traders. and finally buy to hold more items with the hopes that one day these items will reach a certain demand.
We just think in terms of the short term gain, and this is a good thing, but when to excessivly widespread, it creates problems in some forms.
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I think a lot of folks do do this with unlimited sib items... and actually did this with normal stuff before sib ever came in to play. The problem is, just like Sib, and L, unlimited versions of L stuff, and now tiers, is that the folks at
MA|FPC are changing the system on a regular basis to force us to re-think our investment strategy, which can be very scary for those that have already invested a lot!... it causes the RCE to not be stable, and FPC is not doing it's job because of this... I think I read somewhere that it's FPC's job to stabilize the RCE... doing stuff like this only unstabilizes everything... I hold FPC's posts in here with a grain of salt... When VU 10 hit, and I still owned a booth, Marco or another FPC member promised an "upgrade" to booths when booths went offline for 3 months or so (could not put items in them since anything dropped in them left message that anyone could pick the stuff up) - in the meantime all other shops in game had a real monopoly vs booth holders... that "upgrade" was simply a reactiviation of how things used to be... very annoying since someone with similar issues on booths a few years ago got free shopkeepers to shut them up about the bugs... I keep mentioning this issue because 3 months is a quarter of a year that I was screwed by
MA just like other booth holders!.. and that painful situation still hurts, even though I no longer own a booth. It made me and a lot of others lose a heck of a lot of trust in Marco and FPC, and
MA as a whole... it's hard to gain back any form of trust after getting hit so hard for so long, but I'm working on it... just hard to do since they prove time and time again that they might not be too trustworthy.
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Now one thing we must see is what items are good for these means of long term investments. should it be items that are common things that are used to craft with? Well this is a debatable subject. The reality is these items should not be the for frount on long term investments. but short term investments. Keeping prices low enough for better trade volumes, and still high enough to make a profit.
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items are items.. whether long term or short term... there's value to them to someone. Buyers are willing to pay what they are willing to pay and no more.
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Items that need a definate long term investment are the items that have been crafted, or items that are unique and more rare than others. Keeping these items rare makes them worth money, but making them widely accsessible does lower the prices of them. So keeping short term commodity prices to a level where it prevents these items from being produced is wise for those people holding such items.
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sort of true... but I'm sure there's some areas where it's not necessarily true, just can't think of em at the moment.
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If you buy into the system for short term gain and make a great deal of profit in the process, and then withdrawl that money the whole system suffers. But when you take that money you made as profit, and reinvest it, you are doing everyone a great favor. but do remember one thing.
The more risk people take in the hopes of gaining profit, should be subject to some rewards by investors, as long as a common ground is met. Investors should be sure to share the risk with those that take them. this teamwork into the system works to improve the economy as a whole. But it also needs a little trust.
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A lot of trust is needed any time any investment is needed by anyone.
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On the issue of trust, trust is something that holds more power than money. becouse even money is bound by the rules of trust. we put our trust in the money that its value does not waiver, and holds strong. Without this trust even money becomes worthless. So Create more trustworthy relationships with those that take risks, and share in the risks. work closely with these individuals. In the end success will hit all of us. although like long term investments Trust is built over time. So should your profits.
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The problem is trust can be broken at any time, and once it is, it's very difficult to get back... Unfortunately, like with the booth issue mentioned above, the company running our little virtual world here many times allows itself to lose trust by those that it needs to stay alive, which is a very sad state of things... hopefully that will change over time. Seeing more posts by FPC and a new community manager being hired gives some hope for the future, but it'll still take a lot of work to gain the lost trust back.
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Exploitation and lack of trust only for short term gain puts a sour taste in peoples mouths and cripples investment oppertunitys in the long run.
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Amen.
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Trust in Mindark's concept and their ability to hold true to the value of your investments. And hold to trust in your fellow players to allow you to invest in their risks. and slowly build your reward over time.
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Sort of true... but once they lose our trust, it's hard to get it back... and unfortunately, that causes many to leave and never come back... also, socialism, and even ponzi schemes look safe on paper, which is why many folks trusted the Nazi's and got caught up in pyramid schemes in the past...
MA's idea is neat, and worthy of trying out, but only if they don't screw the people they are counting on to invest in their idea to make it a reality.
02-04-2010, 05:42
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