Reducing account inactivity emails - what does MA/PP need to do?

So, I've just picked up what I think is my fourth account inactivity email in the last twelve months. It got me thinking; To those who get these account inactivity emails every-so-often, what do MindArk and/or the Planet Partner(s) have to do to entice you back to Entropia Universe on a regular enough basis so that you don't keep getting these emails?

(Bear in mind that if you're happy to earn peds/waste peds/blast holes in mobs, etc on a regular basis then this isn't really a thread for you).

For me, MindArk need to make space exciting. Expand it beyond the planets. Give us stuff to explore, to find. Give us a real lawless part of space. That simple really.

But what will do it for you?

Dusk said:

So, I've just picked up what I think is my fourth account inactivity email in the last twelve months. It got me thinking; To those who get these account inactivity emails every-so-often, what do MindArk and/or the Planet Partner(s) have to do to entice you back to Entropia Universe on a regular enough basis so that you don't keep getting these emails?

(Bear in mind that if you're happy to earn peds/waste peds/blast holes in mobs, etc on a regular basis then this isn't really a thread for you).

For me, MindArk need to make space exciting. Expand it beyond the planets. Give us stuff to explore, to find. Give us a real lawless part of space. That simple really.

But what will do it for you?

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Introduce more BDSM clothes and I will play more.

remove space pvp. and ill start depositing heavy again.

Farmer Smurf said:

remove space pvp. and ill start depositing heavy again.

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yeah remove lootable pvp and i might hunt there and visit other planets also and i bet many others would be happy to increase their spacecraft skills in there

Give us PE v8 back.

SpikeBlack said:

Give us PE v8 back.

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Free items! Even if it is just a plush worth 0.01 PED I love logging in to free items, and I am sure everyone else does too, and bam there in the game at least and will probably dick around. Hand out a free fun weapon like the Fish and you got some people doing a small hunt that costs MA 1 PED.

Except remember when MA announced free items and when we got in game it turned out we had to hunt for them

Fun is the thing missing from EU, they've turned it into a balance sheet game where players are trying to eek out every pec to maximise efficiency in the name of the great god Eco.

For me that sucks the joy out of a game.

When did any of us look at a spot on a map and think I'll go see what's there. I've explored parts of Calypso many others never even thought of looking at. I once spent an afternoon on Amethera getting to it's most northern boundary just to see what was there, no a lot as it turned out but that wasn't the point.

That's why the easter eggs in the old Calypso were part of the fun, the smiley face and the skeletons with their signs. The old Spiral mountain and the highest point on Calypso was something most looked out when they got bored. Even the Golf Course from vu10 was fun to explore.

The caves were a good addition but personally I don't think they've extended them far enough. On Ark they can go a fare distance but even so I'd have liked to see them go much further. But not to hunt or mine but to put things to look at down there, even better if it's difficult to get to.

But if they add them now it's a bit like they've added them because we asked them to not a spur of the moment dev thing.

In Toy Story there's a scene where Woody looks at the camera while Buzz is gasping for air when his visor is lifted for the first time. It wasn't scripted the animator just added it for a laugh but they kept it in. The Golf course was bit like that, it was built as a test but it was added anyway, it surved no purpose but imagine if was could have driven or flown around it.

I've been in more or less of an hiatus as of lately because frankly, I've been playing other games that are plainly just more fun for the investment (Both in money and time) and because I'm in this awkward position where I don't have as much time as before when I could just mindlessly sweat to fund mining/hunting runs for hours to no end, yet I don't make enough money to justify deposits and even had to live off my profits from cryptocurrency speculation at one point. Things EU (in general, to include both MA and PPs) could improve that would make me play more? I'm not sure, more consistent returns for one would certainly help.

I logged on today for the first time in about one month and a half, and I'm greeted by 65% returns on a 100 PED unamped mining run, over untaxed land no less. Switched around a few times until I got tired of not getting more than a few claims anywhere. Went hunting and it was slightly better, but not by much. Around 70% TT. I've been around long enough to know certainly most runs won't end on profit, but when people simply move on to other things because they're no longer having fun, because it's repetitive and just plainly too expensive for the perceived fun, and when they'd just gamble away on a proper casino if they wanted to piss away their money and have a shot at winning big... well, there you have it. They said they'd lower the barriers to play and reduce the cost to play, but other than rookie items and revamped introductory areas I haven't really seen much of this.

Hang out now and than ...

Me and my sister Jamira got several of this stupid mails lately. Jamira started in November 2005, me kinda one or two years later ... I can't remember exactly. Today the harddisk of our comp gave up and we couldn't boot it anymore. Well, I bought another 1 TB harddisk, installed Win7, Avira, Open Office, WinRar, Steam and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim plus Nexus Mod Manager. Ready to continue with our level 50 Dragonborn ;-) But than Nexus was off and we sat there, nothing to do until Nexus was online again to download and re-install the mods.

Boredom ...
Ohh, wait! There was this "Entropia Universe", wasn't it? C'mon, let's download EU for hang out now and than ...

No sooner said than done. Client Loader installed. "Run!" ... Swush ... it vanished without error message ... nothing. Next try, same result. Okay, reboot the fresh installed comp. Next try, same result. Conclusion: They really don't want us back ;-)

We de-installed the not working Client Loader immediately and gave it a wave with a grin.

(Still waiting for the US$ 7.5k withdrawal)

Kristin said:

Me and my sister Jamira got several of this stupid mails lately. Jamira started in November 2005, me kinda one or two years later ... I can't remember exactly. Today the harddisk of our comp gave up and we couldn't boot it anymore. Well, I bought another 1 TB harddisk, installed Win7, Avira, Open Office, WinRar, Steam and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim plus Nexus Mod Manager. Ready to continue with our level 50 Dragonborn ;-) But than Nexus was off and we sat there, nothing to do until Nexus was online again to download and re-install the mods.

Boredom ...
Ohh, wait! There was this "Entropia Universe", wasn't it? C'mon, let's download EU for hang out now and than ...

No sooner said than done. Client Loader installed. "Run!" ... Swush ... it vanished without error message ... nothing. Next try, same result. Okay, reboot the fresh installed comp. Next try, same result. Conclusion: They really don't want us back ;-)

We de-installed the not working Client Loader immediately and gave it a wave with a grin.

(Still waiting for the US$ 7.5k withdrawal)

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Bye bye. Only real entropians have the power to install EU
. Not people who claim they quit. Make a big fuss about it, making sure they pollute every thread on every forum with it. That's why you cannot reinstall it. Change your mindset, become zen again and then it will work. ( and that little something from Microsoft from 2005 that you have to install also might work too) Good luck Dragonborn!

https://account.entropiauniverse.com/support-faq/technical-issues-1/download-faq/

Dusk said:

what do MindArk and/or the Planet Partner(s) have to do to entice you back to Entropia Universe on a regular enough basis so that you don't keep getting these emails ?

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Nothing ...

When I am on a long break from Entropia Universe, I add them to my spam list.
When I am back from my break, they get removed again.

Simple and effective.

I don't think MA needs to do anything. MindArk has only a small base of employees, and makes a substantial profit off their development efforts. There were a few years where many categories on the interim reports were in the red, but that was related to the financial crisis which all businesses endured, and was also partly related to the CryEngine switchover. The last financial report I read showed that MA was coming out of the danger zone and getting back to financial solvency. For instance, the castle they bought in Germany was a bad investment. MindArk has made a series of unwise investments and has had a complete shakeup of their board of directors in the past, yet running any kind of business requires taking risks, making bets, making suppositions, and trying to predict where the market is going. The gaming industry is a very volatile one, so it's that much more difficult to stay in business. The bright side in this situation involving MindArk is that their platform is mature and stable, and has a stable playerbase which isn't leaving unless an asteroid hits the earth.

The account inactivity emails were added as a way to get players back into the game, as that methodology had never been applied before. Rather than looking at it from the standpoint that it's a sign that MA needs to do something different in the sense of game development, I think it's better to look at it from a business perspective: to remind players to log in. It's a good idea, and one that I would use if I were running a company developing an MMO. Entropia Universe isn't the only MMORPG with a high churn rate; most MMO's have the same issue. The point I'm trying to make is that MindArk makes their money, and makes a lot more money per player than most other MMO's. Yes, lots of things need attention and I disagree with many of the ways MA has implemented things including the fact that the game gets more expensive if you want to keep skilling up in addition to the pay-to-win model, yet the game's been going for over 10 years. I also like the way MindArk has chosen to implement a multitude of game mechanics, so a fair and balanced (just like Fox News...not!) approach needs to be had when evaluating the game in its entirety.

MA has gotten a lot better in communication over the last couple years, but customer service is still a weak area. For instance, when MindArk tried to get themselves out of the picture entirely and have planet partners do most all the customer service. This was a horrible decision, and people saw right through it. Another area which needs to be addressed is the online gaming community's overall opinion of EU, and that can only be changed with breaking away from the pay-to-win model and by offering more opportunities for lower-level players to continue skilling up without having to pay more money every month. But will that ever happen? I wouldn't bet on it. MindArk makes a killing, and when you get to go home with a weekend plan on which yacht you're taking out on the lake, the fact that you can't please everybody certainly doesn't matter very much.