When did I say I didn't like it? You assume too much. This isn't about me at all. If I was unhappy with EU I would simply cash out and leave.
I would appreciate it if you did not call my arguments idiotic simply because you fail to understand them.
I wasn't arguing your entire post or argument was idiotic, just the bit where you seemed to be saying that demanding evidence to prove something that seems sensible was being wilfully ignorant. That's still how it reads to me but if I misunderstood your meaning, I apologise.
I also never suggested you didn't like EU.
A bad reputation is always deserved. If you fail at communicating to your customers or constituents it is not their fault. It is yours. I used myself as an example here because I can speak for myself. I accept my failures and the fact that I generally deserve any negativity that comes my way as a result of them because I choose not to approach things differently. The same rule applies to the casinos you mention above. Through increased communication many misconceptions could be remedied. They choose not to communicate. Their bad reputation is therefore their fault.
It's an interesting argument, but not one I can fully agree with. For sure, MA have not always been the best at communicating with the client base. It's historically been one of their biggest failings I would say. Kim has improved things in that regard recently, which is an encouraging step in the right direction.
But I can't agree that a bad reputation is always deserved.
Even in this case it is not deserved. If, as you say, EU has a bad reputation of being a rip-off that in my opinion is not deserved. Yes, perhaps MA could reduce the misconceptions that give rise to that reputation. But ultimately, if MA deserve any bad reputation, it should be for its bad communication with its customers.
To be honest, in general I don't think EU has a bad reputation. It has no reputation. Most people I meet in real life, including those who regularly play games, have never heard of EU. That's a bigger problem than a few customers who have stormed off in a huff because they don't understand the difference between a subscription MMO and an RCE MMO with a significant gambling element. There's no point crying over losing customers who ultimately aren't interested in your product. If losing $50 is enough to make you feel ripped off, EU is not for you. Just like poker wouldn't be for you. To enjoy poker you need to understand that when you enter a $50 tournament you may well lose it all. What matters is the long run, and how you will do over hundreds or thousands of these tournaments. And yes, to play these tournaments and survive the bad runs of fortune you'd need a big initial deposit in 4-figures. If you can only afford $50 then you need to play the $1 tournaments. And probably you'll get bored of that quickly. Just like most people get bored of hunting Snable quickly.
If you want to play EU and hunt Atrox you need a bigger bankroll than 500 PED. That's not a failing. If you're happy eco-hunting Snable Youngs, that 500 PED should last you a long while.
Jimmy B said:
Also there are many extra costs new players can pile on themselves by making mistakes. Using weapons/blueprints they're not maxed on, dropping overlapping bombs, paying too much markup for L stuff, etc. With really bad management of markup they can easily make it seem like they're getting a long-run return of 50%. That's nothing to do with the return MA is giving them though, it's to do with the fact they're handing out half of their money to other players.
No kidding. And this is not resolved because the system is poorly communicated on top of being poorly balanced. See my point above on what this means.
I wasn't suggesting it as something that needs resolving to be honest. Competing with other players, trying to make PED through markup, etc, is a big part of EU. There's no point to EU without it. Sure, MA could make that side of things clear to customers. But only to the ones who actually read the tutorials and do the guide missions. And those people will find these things out by reading the forums anyway. Most people dive into a game without reading the instructions, without reading the guides, without doing the tutorials. In most games that works fine. In EU it doesn't. There's no way MA can communicate to customers who aren't listening.
These people are going to lose money, leave, and create a fuss about the game on the game boards you talk about. MA can't do anything about that. These people have WoW, EU is not for them.
When was the last time you spent $50 on something brand new, didn't get reasonable use from it, and then recommended it to your friends?
I've joined plenty of poker sites, stuck $50 into a tournament and lost it. If I liked the site, I'd then do a proper deposit and start playing on a proper bankroll. If I didn't like the site, that was that. Whether I lost my $50 or won doesn't really impact it.
Its a matter of perception and managing that perceptions. Appropriate management of perceptions is the sensible thing to do. Throwing out massive jackpots to single people while many others express frustration is not managing perceptions appropriately if the objective is to build and grow a client base.
If you're saying the jackpots should be smaller, then it's just a matter of scale. There'd still be people moaning about them. Presumably MA have found that bigger jackpots draw people in to spend more, if it was costing them money they'd make them smaller again.
If you're saying you'd prefer EU to be totally non-random, and each loot is a returns a fixed percentage of your spend, let's say the legendary 90% figure, well then EU wouldn't be EU any more. Markup would collapse, because everyone can see no items can improve your returns. Then everybody would see their PED slowly eroding, in a very monotonous fashion. And then everybody would leave.
Reducing jackpots and worrying about keeping customers who aren't really interested in your product isn't the way to grow the client base. The way to grow the client base is to change the fact that only about 0.1% (yes, I make up that statistic on the spot) of the world has heard of EU. I don't remember meeting anyone recently who has not heard of WoW.
- MA is looking from the macro perspective. Assuming some1 up there in MA's office is aware of those daily ATHs and allow them to rain down so often - and given the "bank never losses" concept - I imagine should not be a bad thing for EU and there's some sort of strategy behind 
