This sale thing is funny
As NLN stated, the community cannot outright support the purchase of all of these land deeds, there simply isn't enough circular in the game. At one point there might of been, but hasn't been for a while.
I also don't believe a big company will come in a scoop up all the deeds either, because in the real world, MA would of gladly sold it to whoever for 6 Million. Because they cannot get this amount from a single conglomerate buyer, they now have looked to an alternative.
The real ironic thing here is MA is relying on the game enthusiasts they have screwed over time and again to preserve their business by buying into it, and have a "role" in it's development. Translation: "We need 60,000 idiotic purchases because we are in the hole and owe our coders thousands of dollars for the developments we have had them make, and our projected income and trade deal with SEE fell apart."
Although there wont be 60K owners, there will be several thousand at best, and the last time several thousand people agreed on anything, was a world disaster. (No literally it was, they agreed to send aid) So if you think a couple thousand pompus gamers with more money than sense are going to EVER agree on one thing... ya... I am at a loss for words.
This means that since the "owning" body will be slow to make up their mind on anything, a majority rule will be in effect. But seriously, even in MA's description it says "a part" of the development. This means that you actually have no real control, so who owns Calypso again? I'm sorry, once the land deeds are put out, this means MA has no say over anything that is developed, how it is developed (other than compatibility for the system), and/or why. The planet is effectively sold.
This whole thing stinks to high heaven the more it goes on. I believe that the only way that MA is getting away with doing this is because it has never been done before. There aren't specific laws provisioning it or prohibiting it. The only thing that I find interesting is if they are shares, and will be publicly traded, they are kind of falling way short of certain compliance regulations regarding public markets and all sorts of other boring things that very few here know about.
I really believe that MA is out of business associates to beg borrow and steal from and is now performing a last ditch effort to get much needed funds just to cover what they owe, and cover what people have pulled out or could pull out of the game so far. I do not believe they have any real intention of ever developing said systems because at best it would be a mess. (Hell in the US we can't even get less than 300 people to agree that often, so what does everyone really expect here? Be honest.)
I also do not believe that MA really intends to allow the 'owner' base very much of a say, other than to vote on ideas developed and presented by MA, and at best--- the primary shareholder.
Finally, getting to the ROI, I have heard so many people say 30% is better than most investements and blah blah blah, and all sorts of things that really indicate that they have NO idea what they're talking about. Please feel free to copy and paste the next part because I am about to explain how ROI works. Please keep in mind, I have lots of experience in marketing, brokerages, public trading etc. For the last 5 years, this has been my occupation. This explaination I usually charge several hundred dollars an hour for, you all are getting it for free.
ROI or Return of/on Investment - This is the anacronym most commonly referred to when receiving payouts for the title/deed/stock/share holder. Virtually anything involving investing and finances uses it, and even a few other things too. This is what is referred to in my world as the "carrot" statement.
How it applies to the game: MA has stated that based upon last year's reports, the ROI should be 27 to 30%. For anyone that has ANY knowledge of this game and investing, this should be a red flag carrot statement. Last year has NOTHING to do with current performance, other than just a meaningless "if you would of been invested" reference. MA was in pretty good shape in the 3rd quarter of last year as I am sure most of you remember. They had lots of big transactions taking place, and lots more activity than what this year has been like. In other words, I could easily say that my performance income is phenominal based upon last years reports because I closed a major deal in November of '10. But that really doesn't say anything about my performance this year.
The catch: Some people have said that 30% is the most amazing rate of investment they've ever seen. They must not get out much and/or have not a clue when it comes to the investment world. Some high risk investments have the potential... and "potential" is the key word, to yeild as much as 80% ROI. But these are usually high dollar, short term investments that never really live up to even a quarter of their maximum projected ROI for some reason or another. Generally a good rule of thumb I tell everyone to do is take the ROI statement and halve it, and if that still sounds good for the risk factors involved, then we can move forward. This goes for both risk and reputed type investments.
So MA says they can get as high as 30% ROI. Okay, remember that this is per year. So I am investing 1000 ped. That means each year my maximum ROI will be 300 ped. Sorry also to burst the bubble of some I have heard yakking in game, 30% is of your INVESTMENT amount, not of what MA makes from deposits in a year. The % is calculated from this in portion, BASED upon the deposit amounts.
(Which is weird considering that in order to be a porportional base, MA would have to retain 60,001 shares to maintain the 51% primary ownership. But they have made it sound as if they are selling the whole planet and not just a percentage. To be honest though, they are not real clear on that. That should be another red flag.)
But lets use the rule of thumb and say that it is only going to be a 15% maximum ROI. That would be 150 ped. Now, not factoring in performance and coming projects and whatever else, lets take the average of the two just for arguements sake, and 15 + 30/2 = 22.5% ROI.
Now this average is just a blanket average covering the entire year. So what you really are getting is probably going to be near 225 ped a year. That still lower than what MA has stated, so most people stop there and are happy with a 225 to 300 ped range. If ONLY it were that easy.
The dividend will be generated weekly. This means that ROI is calculated 52 times in a year. Lets say it was done once a month, or 12 times with the following %'s: 17 22 13 28 7 12 18 24 11 27 15 30. Each number represents a month. The total, 224. is divided by 12, which is 18.66% yearly ROI.
Most people forget that in order to have a good year end ROI %, that means that you need higher than normal divident periods to counter the low dividend periods. Rarely does a company have consistent dividend reporting periods, although there are some out there. These are generally companies though that do dividend reports quarterly or bi annually, and it tends to look smoother at the time of report, although it may have fluxed greatly within a shorter period. Most investors don't care about the flux, know it's normal, and so long as the company is still maintaining averages over the reporting period, leave their money there.
Remember: The shorter the reporting dividend period, the more flux it will have.
So now that we are down to 18.66, we'll call it 19 percent, or 190 ped back by the end of the year. Well now instead of 3 years and some change to "pay off" the investment amount and get into profit, it is 5 years and some change. What happened? Nothing, you simply didn't do your due dilligence. Oh and 190/52 is ~3.6 ped, or 36 cents a week, or 1.44 cents a month. Enjoy that $1.29 32oz fountain drink you can get once a month. Here is something else to consider:
So if 5 years is going to be the realistic payoff time before I make profit, how do I know the game won't collapse, change, or circumvent my land deed system? I don't want to be another hangar owner. (Sorry, but it's the truth, MA screwed their last big round of investors, the hangar owners, what makes you think they will have any problem screwing little investors?)
The answer is you don't. This is a high-risk, long term investment of 3-5 years, that will likely require a deposit, which is what MA has been after the entire time, and you really are getting nothing in return, because if you believe that MA is going to let thousands of players sit there and generate that much PED 3-5 years from now, I got a "special" TT opallo to sell ya, only TT +4K.
I would imagine that with the development of the land grab system, they will make it so ALL land areas are at risk, and therefore they can have MA 'plants' go in and snatch them back. Since this will be developed at about a few months short of optimal full return (Or a little over halfway through according to the above math), it wouldn't surprise me. Now, keeping true to the owner input voting, they will rely on human greed to get this pushed through as many UBERs will see it as a way to acquire more land deeds without paying for them, to add to their collection that they no doubt already have.
As the owners will probably do nothing more than vote for input on development, how hard would it be for MA to equip an inside guy with the best of the best and have them go take over land areas? Betcha no one has thought of that. That means that no one would really be able to figure out that they have just been taken, and it was their own greed that brought them down.
Because the non PVP avatars will vote no, but the PVP veteran UBER land owners will vote yes, and in all likely hood will own more shares in their small group than the rest of the non PVP players put together, and MA will have a way to take back their own land areas, without having to compensate players at all.
I know that the last part of this may sound like a conspiracy theory, but MA happens to have a track record of this. Really. They do. VU 4-VU 9 update, what was the drive? Buying up Ameretha land areas, hangars, treasure island, buildings, houses, CND etc. These required HUGE investments. Why? To pay for the 2nd cryengine being developed.
Plain and simple.
Present Day:
Ameretha land owners: Some are doing well, and some are not. Generally the more active ones are doing better, such as in game events and forum based events, etc. But typically, most LA's are toast, and the owner's rarely log on anymore, except to see if they can collect their fees from the land areas every so often, if they even have any.
Hangar Owners: I'm sorry but these guys got screwed hard. MA took their money and said "see ya suckers!" For what little that MA has done over the years for this group for returns, and then the space expansion making their investment pretty much obsolete, I am surprised more of them aren't seeking whatever legal action they could, or at least throwing Mal Toffs over MA's building fence.
Treasure Island: Still doing okay, but only because the owner really made it clear that everyone needs to come here to hunt and be active, and often held virtual parties, and handed out probes or bombs, faps, ammo and what not. This area is more than paid for I am sure, which is a good thing because when the asteroid came out, I am sure it took a huge hit in mining population.
CND, the asteroid, FOMA etc. WETF you want to call it: I really can't stand Jon Jacobs. He just rubs me the wrong way, professionally, and personally, but I will say this: He went a LONG time before being at risk of being screwed by MA. He had the better of them for a while, and knowing him, probably still thinks he isn't being screwed by MA. He probably made a few thousand bucks with the asteroid and then needed to sell it to pay for RT development, which I am sure Squall and partners were more than happy to do. Unfortunately, because the asteriod was really profitable, I am sure that MA needed to bleed someone else out (the hangar owners) to make up for it.
K now onto VU 10+ to present. Not a real drive for anything other than to develop "SPACE" which is still a complete flop because only the high and mighty really spend any time in it, due to it being lootable PVP. Others just go from point A to point B as fast as they can so that they don't get shot out of the stars. It was supposed to stimulate interplanetary growth, travel, and economy, but all I see was it reducing travel, alienating economy, and stagnating growth. Not looking real good if you are a planet partner.
MA did find someone with enough money to actually enter into an agreement to buy Calypso though. Although SEE has its reputation, I am sure that they actually forsaw some plan with Calypso, or finally figured out what being a planet partner meant, and it would be a decade or more before their full investement came back, and would be at the mercy of MA's developers to insert new content that could potentially generate more revenue.
All in all, I think whoever is calling the shots at MA now is a control freak. They want all the money, all the control, all the rights, but want to "rent" out platform spaces, and have players deposit more and more money, get less and less back, but boast about having a "real" economy...
The only "real" economy I see here is one that is failing. Economy is something that cannot be controlled, and in order for it to flurish, you need either set prices, returns, MU's, and all aspects controlled, which would be impossible anyway, or you need to let free enterprise take it's course and make everything as realistically random as possible.
This is the reason why MA is selling this land deeds, which are essentially worthless or will become that way one day. If you want to spend 100 bucks on one, feel free, but take a 100 dollar bill and write: "For Entertainment Value ONLY" on it with a black permanent marker before you put it into your bank account to turn it digital. This is the realism you should think of if you buy one. Cause for 100 bucks you could get a LOT more entertainment out of other things....
But you want a good digital ROI? Go mining. Take 1000 ped, and go mine WHEREVER, FOMA, Ameretha, RT, Ark, NI, HELL, doesn't matter. Double drop even.
The odds of you getting better than 30% ROI are EXTREMELY good, and it will take you far less than 3 years to do it. (Unless you're a total sped)
MA has set some pretty tempting carrots out for those that are hungry for one. You can argue all you want that it is not MA's perogative to do this, or that isn't what they are, but that was all my own opinion of them. As soon as I hit for ~10K ped or more, I will be withdrawing, and then probably seeing how long it takes me to get to lvl 100 sweater. I find it funny that I have not hit yet, when I see the same players hit that amount twice in a week, and I remember sweating with them in the "farm pile" as we used to call it.
For the rest regarding investment, I have proven facts of MA's development history, hard numbers when dealing with dividends, and the time allotment aspect... you really cannot argue with those. This is called due diligence, and since most of you are newer to this universe than I am, and weren't around in game for the debauchery early on, I am putting the information out there.
Please feel free to flame as you wish, or laugh or whatever, but I will be the one having the final laugh when I see the posts about land areas sucking in about a year or so, along with NLN obviously, and everyone else that has professional investment experience. I really recommend that if you think all these types of posts are BS, and we have no idea, and blah blah blah, think about this... if only 1% of this post were true... which 1% would you want it to be?
Remember: This post is for everyone else's benefit, not mine. You are looking because you were not sure. And that 1%? Pick carefully, because if you decide a certain 1 thing is true, then by logical extension there are 3 others that are true, and so on and so forth...
There is nothing wrong with being wrong. It happens to everyone, usually more often than most would like. Feel good that someone actually took the time to correct you before it cost you 100 bucks.
but I won't be depositing to do it. Plus it means one less deed they can get someone to deposit to buy.
