Question: Do i need real money to be successful?

[Vedder]

Originally Posted by Sokudus

Hello

I´m coming from Second Life, and if you want to get a little piece of the...well...Life Simulator...you have to buy SLDollars with your real money..

Now my questions relies on that fact: Do i need real money to be successful in the System of EU?

Or it is possible to get Items, buildings and land only to follow the "gameplay" i mean hunting, producing...that kind of stuff...?

Thank you for your answers.

No, you don't have to deposit, if that's what you mean.
You can sweat for a start, and then trade your way forward.

But it's very hard, takes insane amounts of time and is extremely boring. A normal RL job pays much better and is more rewarding and much more fun too. (Well, mine is at least)
In fact it's sooooooooooooooooooo boring that you'll probably lose your mind before you earned 100 bucks.

Much more fun if you're willing to spend some money.

[Harvest]

What do they call those guys with out money always have the snappy signs "will work for food...."

[Indigo Wyrd]

Originally Posted by Harvest

What do they call those guys with out money always have the snappy signs "will work for food...."

Depends on who you mean by "they".
If "they" refers to the "average right-wing-conservative-republican" sort, they call those guys with the signs "bums".

If by "they" you mean most other people, the term is "unfortunate".

But those folks with those snappy signs aren't always out there with their signs because they're lazy, or uneducated, or addicted to one substance or another.

A number of years ago, I wrote a paper about "Street People", and part of that paper dealt with some direct one-on-one interactions with those very said same folk.

One of them was a woman, middle-aged, well-spoken, well-educated, who had been in a very abusive relationship. She'd had a miscarrage, several actually, and her former husband had driven her out. Now he was a very well-to-do businessman, with lots of friends and connections, and her efforts at taking legal action against him had been stalled and delayed to the point she could no longer sustain her legal actions financially, and were ultimately defeated in court, after which the coutersuit against her left her owing no small fortune in court fees, on top of her medical expenses, and so on - leaving her homeless, jobless, and something of a social pariah.

And in the area, the number of homeless persons was far greater than the number of spaces avaliable at shelters around the city by a factor of nearly 30 to 1. There just wasn't any room at the inn, so to say.

I can say, having followed this case for quite some time, this woman did eventually have "her number pulled" by the city, and was able to move into subsidised housing and find a job to start putting her life back together. When I last followed up on this, I was pleased to find out she's since moved from subsidised housing, was running her own small business in the area, and spent a good deal of time working to help others off the streets.

Of course, this case is an exception, not a rule - but does an excellent job of illustrating the dangers of simply lumping people into neat little categories without knowing anything about them.

-end off-topic-

As for being "successful" in EU - it depends on how you define that success.
If that "success" means a virtual second job, where you can draw a regular check... I'd pretty much say forget it. By and large, it's just not going to happen, no matter what articles you read, stories you've heard, or hype you've been filled with at a convention. I believe the lottery has more favorable odds, and better payouts, without the extra fees.

If you define "success" as eeking out a virtual living... it can be done without making a major investment of real currency, it will just take considerable time.
Sweating and trading or getting into the reseller scene is one way.

Sweating and (hunting/mining/crafting) is another, and all of these will take a great deal of time.

I hear a lot of people say how boring it is to sweat - it can get tedious if your by yourself, day after day, in the same places, doing the same thing over and over... wow, that sounds like... working.

But I've found sweating to be rather enjoyable, especially with a small group of friends. We compare our consecutive failures to acquire the sweat, calculate the odds of beating that, and have all manner of discussions on all manners of topics, from politics to sociological concerns, to the meaning of existance and probabilities that Lootius actually listens to our prayers for that one little global that spells a couple hours break from the sweat pits.

It's really what you make of it.

It's also possible to get a really good start with only a small deposit, if you're smart with your money - much like in real life.

But if you're looking to become a virtual over-night millionaire... you're looking in the wrong place.

[RexDameon]

Answer your direct question is yes. I've got a disciple i've taught and he's doing very well and has not deposited. He put a lot of hard work into it though.

You have to think of the fact that 15 min of overtime at work would pay for probably 8 hrs of working ingame just as a rough judgment. so whats worth your time more?

[Xen]

Originally Posted by Sokudus

Hello

I´m coming from Second Life, and if you want to get a little piece of the...well...Life Simulator...you have to buy SLDollars with your real money..

Now my questions relies on that fact: Do i need real money to be successful in the System of EU?

Or it is possible to get Items, buildings and land only to follow the "gameplay" i mean hunting, producing...that kind of stuff...?

Thank you for your answers.

It's just like real life, the more money you already have, the easier it is to make money.

[DoubleWolf]

I prefer to think of this game as a really risky form of investment. Thus far, I've been able to get a fairly decent return (when compared to stocks, bonds or CDs), and been able to get that on a consistent basis, but I also have to keep in mind the risk involved as well.

The more risk you take on, the more you can stand to make, but also the more you stand to lose. Risk factors in game include no loots when hunting, no claims when mining, no successes from crafting. Outside of the game itself, Mindark's little experiment here could completely fail and what's to say if any of the money we have in game would actually come back to our real life pockets?

So far I've only deposited in small amounts like $20 a month, so if I lose my investment, it's not going to hurt me too much and I can just think of it as a monthly fee to play the game. But at this point, I'm thinking of it as depositing $20 a month into an account that gives really great returns, and I just have to play for my interest.

You'll find a lot of people complaining about losing money in this game, not getting globals and HOFs and other things to whine about. Frankly, I don't care if I never get a huge loot, as I have yet to anyways and have still made some money back. Yes, I micro-manage everything, which I personally find entertaining as I like to see my account grow. But if you aren't doing everything available to you to make money here, and don't have a clear picture of how things work and where to find value, then I don't really see a place to complain. Some complaints here are justified, but most are based in ignorance... [/rant]

But like others before me said, it is possible to get ahead in this game without depositing anything at all, but it takes a lot of time, patience, and playing smart. You wont progress through the game very quickly as a depositor would, but it's still possible.

Best of luck whatever you choose!

*sits back and waits for flood of -reps from unhappy people*

[blubalou]

Originally Posted by Harvest

What do they call those guys with out money always have the snappy signs "will work for food...."

Ok, now I wish I had uploaded that screenie.... has anyone else found the skeleton with a cup full of PECs and a sign that I think says "Will dance for PEC" ? It's lying up against a wall in a corner or alley way in HADES somewhere.

I realize I'm going off topic here, but +Rep to the first person to post it or who has posted it!

[Karmic]

No, you don't need to deposit to do well in the game. However, a $50 deposit at the beginning as if you were buying any other game will save you a couple months of sweating to build up a nice base of PED.

[3Pearls]

Hate to say it but eventually you will find that sweat gathering and collecting turds doesn't make an interesting game. You will then need to decide whether or not you want to deposit and continue playing or fold up your tent and go home.

Frankly, I deposit regularly and love the game for all it's worth!

[Kaiser]

You will do MUCH better with money in this game. I suppose if you were patient enough you could make it work but I have not heard of ANYONE getting very far without a deposit who did not start during beta. By very far I mean owning land or extremely high end items or an entire asteroid.

There are mechanisms to allow you to try the game without depositing but people try to take that MUCH further than it was ever intended to go.

They try to fund their entire gameplay with these mechanisms and realize it would take something along the lines of 20-200 times the amount of time to earn the money needed to play then they get in game play. I can't really think of how to word that better so let me give you an example, It is possible that you could spend say 100 hours sweating to earn the money you need to hunt for an hour (depending on what level you hunt at etc.).

My recommendation is, deposit 20 bucks (what you would pay for some other games for a month) and try the game out. If you like it great, if you don't no love lost.

Keep in mind though to get to the level I am guessing you want to get to (major participant) you are likely talking the cost of a car to the amount of a lottery prize (there is one thing in game called CND that is likely worth millions) depending on how far you want to go or what your intentions are.

Now that I have scared the hell out of you, EU is awesome. I love it, it is original, creative, and unique. I would not change how it works for the world. Sometimes you hate it, other times you go on vacation with the money from it but the beauty is, it is imho a MUCH better representation of how real life works than SL is or ever could be and by my experience MUCH more fun.

Welcome aboard.