Dollar vs. PED, Hell is about to break loose?

tiebender

Guardian
Joined
Jan 17, 2006
Posts
202
Location
Denmark
Society
Dawn Daemons!!!
Avatar Name
DeadBody Tie Offset
Yes, you read that correctly!

With the USD rapidly falling beyond the All Time Low, Mindark will have to make a tough decision on a boat taking in water.

What is the problem;
You deposited your PED at say a value of 1USD/10PED, but now, your original 1 USD is worth around 12 PED.
So, if you withdraw 10k PED that you deposited a few months ago, you will actually have to withdraw 12k PED now to get the same value. That is bad for you, but good for Mindark. I am sure they feel the difference already.

But, there is also the problem!
When the Dollar finally starts climbing up again, pretend Bush finally says something more clever than the usual garbadge, the stocks may go up, and so the Dollar will rise.. But that means you will be gaining more on a withdraw that you deposit now.. Good for you, but bad for Mindark.
If Mindark has to fork out say a million USD in speculative PED, then we willl see a significant decrease in loot soon as soon as the Dollars starts going up again, if at all... (Apocalypse in mind and all that...)

The falling Dollar may also be the reason why prices on some items are going up (Korss400/mid ranged L weapons & tools).

Now for Mindark this is a junction point.

If it is that Mindark decide to "lock" the PED value to a prior version of the Dollar, and convert then to a more stable economy such as the Euro.. or the Yen.. whatever, then we will also see some odd action. There is a vague possibility that MA will do something like that, because;
1: If the dollar goes up, MA have to fork out more.
2: If the dollar crashes, EU will be fucked.
3: If the dollar stays this way indefinately, then pink unicorns really do exist.

The solutions for MA as seen from an economists eyes; (a friend of mine)
1: MA can change the value of 1 PED. ( 1 USD = 8 PED)(example only!)
2: PED value is changed from USD to EURO at the maximal low of the USD.
3: MA rides it out and looses many customers and alot of money on the cost of us.
4: Point 3, but finds a pink unicorn to cover the player base losses.



!RULES OF DISCUSSION!
I cannot police your posts, but please DON'T ANSWER WITH MINDLESS ONE-LINERS!
Please don't paste quotes all over, just say what u have to say.
If you are not enlightened in matters concerning analytical conciousness, please don't post anything, just enjoy that some people do.

I would like to see other viewpoints on this matter in a positive discussion, so please, post your qualified thoughts.



Tie



Ummmm, there is no such problem :D

MA converts all USD to euros or seks upon receiving, and so they are quite happy to give back out less.
"If you are not enlightened in matters concerning analytical conciousness, please don't post anything, just enjoy that some people do."

I am fully aware that there is no such problem, as long as the Dollar does not go up, WHICH IT WILL!

Tie
 
Last edited:
Ummmm, there is no such problem :D

MA converts all USD to euros or seks upon receiving, and so they are quite happy to give back out less. It also costs less for people outside of the US to play, so also good for players.
 
For the difference in currency flucutations i dont think it will have that much of an effect tbh - we are talking very small amounts for the vast majority of people.

Most people depositing now will be spending the money any way - in decay etc where MA earn there money. From a $100 deposit, i will bet the money they make from a player using it for hunting etc is far more than they will loose if the rates change somewhere down the line.

The only danger would be if the dollar collapsed totally. And lets face it, thats not going to happen and if it did we would have more to worry about globally than how much we have in a game! :)
 
Any company that is sensitive to foreign currency rates has a lot of instruments to hedge: I'd be VERY surprised if they did not at the least have a nice roll-over of FX Forward contracts running, effectively pinning the $ - SEK transactions to a fixed rate.
 
Searching through my "qualified thoughts":

- $ will never collapse that much to influence badly EU, and as someone said early if this will happen, we'll have more big troubles than EU economy :rolleyes:

- MA can change the currency from $ to Euro, if they fell like that

- MA can adjust their loses from lootpool(as they ever do :rolleyes: )
 
The value of the usd will probably not make much of a difference to the players, and MA. of course the US players will have a tougher time raising the same amount of peds that the non US players can becouse of the cheap dollar.

My own EU budjett is not set in a fixed amount of usd, but it is set in a fixed amount of my local currency (NOK). So in the end that just meens that i can deposit more usd for the same amount of NOK that i always do.

The effect of the low usd, only means that players that dosent live in the US can afford to deposit more, and atleast the game is becoming cheaper to play :)
 
hmm.
MA has its costs in SEK.
So falling $ means they need moar your PEDs to pay their usual bills.
mhm
 
Indeed, the dollar crash is a good and a bad thing. Its a good "direct" thing for players based in Europe, cause they can invest ingame for less money. But, they need to do that quick cause traders are not stupid:)
Its a bad thing if dollar continue to crash. For players who have already invested and want to sell out and leave EU, well, they need to wait a bit now.
MA made the choice of $ for the internationnal face of EU. But i think they need to choose €, cause Europe is growing good and seems to have a stable economy for now.
Well, the thermodynamic of the game go over the virtual wall, but limits will be done by MA if the problem continue.
 
there is no problem. :D

firstly, as already said, im sure they hedge their currency exposure. secondly, changing to any other currency will just defer any problem until that currency is weak/unstable. just as the $ will rise in value so its most likly to return to a period of stability. i think a change in currency would also destabilise the EU economy, with people not trusting the rate they are getting, and US players suddenly having to face currency transfer costs. Revaluation of the Ped destroy the game, trust would be completely lost.
 
MA will balance their cash reserves among different currencies for sure. They make some extra money that way by playing the currency market.

I'm sure they convert most incoming US$ to Euro, £ or SEK now.

And indeed for the countries in the Euro zone of other with a strong currency it's in comparison cheaper to buy the same item of someone in the US.

For non US ppl withdrawing now after depositing when the US$ was stronger they make a loss.

Actually the US ppl are the 'safest' they always have the same 1/10 conversion.
So no risk of loosing the the currency fluctuation but also no chance of gaining a bit when withdraw for the same reason.
 
From what I see, people usually deposit when they need PEDs; so, if PEDs are cheaper, people will deposit less on average.

Now, MA's business operation relies on a steady income of deposits (in SEK's); since deposits are extremelly more frequent than withdrawals, I think that a weak dollar (or PED) impacts them very negatively in their finances.

Contrary to what the OP stated, my opinion is that a weak dollar is _bad_ for MA.
 

!RULES OF DISCUSSION!
I cannot police your posts, but please DON'T ANSWER WITH MINDLESS ONE-LINERS!
Please don't paste quotes all over, just say what u have to say.
If you are not enlightened in matters concerning analytical conciousness, please don't post anything, just enjoy that some people do.

I would like to see other viewpoints on this matter in a positive discussion, so please, post your qualified thoughts.


:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:
Sorry just had to.........:laugh: rules :laugh:
 
Last edited:
When I see the dollar go down it just means I get more peds for every SEK I put in. At times like this a lot of people see that they get more peds for their local currency and therefor deposit more, same way brokers buy stock shares when it's low. This also means that a lot of players will deposit more at these times therefor increasing MA's cashflow. Now i just hope that MA is a bunch of smart guys (businesswise) and invest or otherwise save this money for bad times, or when a dollar is worth 8 SEK. As EU requires a little more intelligence than other games out there, ie Disneygame (wow) and such, we must assume that players are smart to and take advantage of this oppertunity. If you look at Mindarks results for 2006 we see total deposits in December only was close to 14 millon peds. If the dollar stays this low I suspect we will much higher.

Statement from MA in their interim statement for Q2 2007: Net sales and profit affected negatively by the falling exchange rate between USD and SEK.
They also say, in the same report: MindArk PE AB (publ) can proudly account for an operational profit for the 12th quarter in a row.

So there we have it, Mindark reports less profit (not more losses:p) because of a lower exchange rate between USD and SEK. Those of you good with numbers remember that the two documents linked here have all numbers in SEK (atm 1 USD= 6,53 SEK) or in peds.
 
there is no possible way for this to be fufilled unless we are talking about 10 years down the road. the dollar isnt some sort of drastically changing commodity. the dollar to euro is like 1.35 and if anything will start to level out in a year or 2 because of the recent rate cut and bush out of office, u must have not taken economics. this game may not even be around the day the dollar tottally goes down or vice versa, no body noes.
 
Well, actualy 1€ = 1.44 dollars. So its a realy good time to depo. But the game take a new dimention now, cause we need to play between the real and the virtual economy. It piss off totaly american players and favorize european players.
With this system, we are very not equal ingame.
Just my feeling.
 
Hulyss, you know europeans are better than americans in pretty much everything anyway:silly2:
 
Hulyss, you know europeans are better than americans in pretty much everything anyway:silly2:

Yea mabe, but i though we were all equal here, in our dream world caled Project Entropia :)
 
I dont think MA will take any risk with all dollars coming in, they have such a big turnover im sure they hedge everything. They just cant risk keeping their exposure open.

For the players i do think it influenced the game. Im pretty sure people deposit same amount of their local currency, just to see they get more peds.

And this has to influence prices for sure, maybe not the regular items but it will surely influence the high and uber items. now u can get those items "for less" compared in local currency then before.
But it doesnt completely explains the high inflation, it just adds to it

So whatever direction the dollar goes, it will only influence players
 
Well, actualy 1€ = 1.44 dollars. So its a realy good time to depo. But the game take a new dimention now, cause we need to play between the real and the virtual economy. It piss off totaly american players and favorize european players.
With this system, we are very not equal ingame.
Just my feeling.

tbh, it doesn't piss me off at all ... i get the same amount of peds / deposit as i always did ... if i let peeps on the other side of the fence piss me off, in EU or RL, im pretty sure id be in jail or mental hospital by now ;)

Hulyss, you know europeans are better than americans in pretty much everything anyway:silly2:

not sure exactly what you're getting at, mate ... perhaps you'd care to clarify? your :silly2: emote really doesn't lighten the mood of your elitist and prejudiced statement :|
 
Well, actualy 1€ = 1.44 dollars. So its a realy good time to depo. But the game take a new dimention now, cause we need to play between the real and the virtual economy. It piss off totaly american players and favorize european players.
With this system, we are very not equal ingame.
Just my feeling.


Can't look at it like that - It's not just European countries that are not using the american dollar you know :D

But that wasn't really my point - No country are equal in PE/EU, no matter what currency they have... Some countries have an average monthly income 1/10th of others - So no matter if their currency is stronger than the americans, they still can't deposit as much... $3K is still better than €300 monthly income ;)

On top of that you have to consider cost of living, taxation on income etc.
 
This is actually a huge problem for mindark.

When the game started 1 us dollar was equal to about 10 swedish kroner,
that meant that when a player had generated 1 us dolars worth of decay MA would make 10 Swedish kroner.

But now 1 us dollar is worth ony 6.5 swedish kroner, so when a player now generates 1 us dolars worth of decay MA only make 6.5 Swedish kroner.

thats a loss of 35% on MA's stated in-game revenue source.
 
What is the problem;
You deposited your PED at say a value of 1USD/10PED, but now, your original 1 USD is worth around 12 PED.
So, if you withdraw 10k PED that you deposited a few months ago, you will actually have to withdraw 12k PED now to get the same value. That is bad for you, but good for Mindark. I am sure they feel the difference already.

But, there is also the problem!
When the Dollar finally starts climbing up again, pretend Bush finally says something more clever than the usual garbadge, the stocks may go up, and so the Dollar will rise.. But that means you will be gaining more on a withdraw that you deposit now.. Good for you, but bad for Mindark.
If Mindark has to fork out say a million USD in speculative PED, then we willl see a significant decrease in loot soon as soon as the Dollars starts going up again, if at all... (Apocalypse in mind and all that...)


geez!

Your US$1 still = 10peds, not 12peds :wise:

It always was 10peds and will be until whenever....it just costs some people less to buy US$ now than 6 months ago

As far as I can tell most people play their deposits til they are broke then deposit again, keeping within their budget (or not in some cases) so I can't see MA 'losing' money over this.

Anybody who speculates on the currency markets through depositing into PE then withdrawing when the Dollar regains some strength is a fool imo

The biggest thing that might affect MA is that people will most likey have less disposable income now and they are having to make their money go further.
The US and UK public are very heavily in debt (as a whole) and it won't take much for people to quickly find themselves in trouble and start cutting down on spending, things like PE will be the first to go.

Not sure how much you really spend on PE and 'little' things? Try this handy tool: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/protect/demotivator/
It's in £'s but just think of that as your local currency character ($, Euro, Yen, w/e)

:girl:
 
changing what currency to bind to makes no difference.
Same problem regardless of what currency you choose.

So might as well just stick with the $.

Have to bind it to some currency.
 
But now in England I can deposit £10 and get just over 200 peds instead of a year ago when I would receive 180 :D Go Go your majesty!!!

God save the queen! (the British queen, not the Atrox queen...Damn atrox was infertile, that egg hasn't hatched! :()
 
I dont see the problem :dunno:

If you had apples in your storage and the person who put them there will claim apples back - who the fuck cares how much pears can you get for 1 apple :silly2:

And if dollar crashes TOTALY - it will be the and of the world we know it - we wont much care about EU economy crashing :laugh:
Nuclear ICBMs will be flying around...

I.

Edit:

Who came up with sucha appocalyptic scenario???
 
But now in England I can deposit £10 and get just over 200 peds instead of a year ago when I would receive 180 :D Go Go your majesty!!!

Would be interesting to see if people deposit more nowadays due to the increase of PEDS per Pound/Euro/whatever.

Maybe people perceive it as better value for money now?

:scratch2:
 
I fail to see a problem.

My monthly Depo's are based on what I can afford.
As the dollar sinks, I just put more $ in, such that it costs me the same in £.Sterling.

We don't know what MA bank in, but it probably € or Swedish Krona, but as the dollar falls, I put more $ in, and as a result MA get the same € or Krona as before.

OK, So i might get a fer extra peds, but they all end up draining into Ma's coffers by the end of the month anyway.
It just enables me to spend the extra peds on a bigger mining amp, or in hunting bigger mobs.
By the end of the month the peds are still all gone.
 
sorry for 2 posts so close, wanted to quote this:

I dont see the problem :dunno:

If you had apples in your storage and the person who put them there will claim apples back - who the fuck cares how much pears can you get for 1 apple :silly2:


here's what happens:

I buy a UKash voucher for 20 POUNDS, deposit this into my avatar,
MA convert to USD rate then multiplies by ten for PEDS
I cash out and MA change PEDS to DOLLAR value but pay EUROS to my account.

:huh:

real-life scenario for me: I cash in and spend it all, rinse and repeat :rolleyes:
 
Back
Top