Are you happy with MindArk's engagement/communication with the community?

Legends

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The recent fiasco with the new Cyrene Armor upgrade mission NPCs and the lack of any official statement from MindArk (since more than 4 weeks now) has me thinking that MindArk perhaps never really understood what the community actually meant when they were complaining about "the lack of communication from MindArk".

This, exactly this, is what we mean. MindArk takes action and disables something, or stops certain things from dropping and then DOESN'T SAY ANYTHING about it to the community. Everyone is left in a mystery as to what is going on. There is no information anywhere. Will it be brought back? Will it drop again? Or is it discontinued? Nobody knows...

Someone did in fact create a thread about it in this forum. It wasn't the most polite thread I admit but as he stated himself he was "MAD" about the situation, understandably so:

Still, 4 weeks later, nothing but crickets from MindArk about this situation. Even Cyrene Officials are just guessing at this stage. Nobody knows what will become of this Armor upgrade mission. Do we hold on to our mats? Do we move on to something else? WTH MA?

It's one thing to be unable to make a promise you might not be able to fulfill, it's another thing entirely to refuse to let your customers in on what is going on with something that was already in game, or the status with broken services.

So I was wondering, what other things or questions MindArk has been avoiding. I went through all of the questions in both AMAs and read every answer carefully. I found at least 3 questions that have been REPEATEDLY asked by various members of the community and consistently dodged or ignored by MindArk:

1. Explosive Projectile BPs: good or bad for the economy???

There has yet to be an official statement from MindArk on the community's repeated requests to change or remove the Explosive Projectile BPs, or at least provide their rationale for keeping them in the game.


2. When will there be new uses for Transgen Fruits from Gardening???

All that has been stated by MindArk on this is that:"Blueprints for obsolete items are at times intentionally removed from the Universe, since those items no longer fit the balancing team’s plans for the evolution of the economy." No answer as to what to do with the Fruits from Gardening. Another broken game mechanic, no info from MA.


3. Does hunting/mining on LA also contribute to Caly/PP revenu, or just LA Deed holder tax revenu???
etc... (there are more threads on this here in this forum but I'm too lazy to go look for them)

This question has been the subject of some debate on the forum and was asked in the 1st AMA but Dennis referred to a previous reply from Charlie which didn't address this specifically and just stated that the LA tax component is taken from each loot. I believe the point of the question is that if hunting on LA means you pay a cut to the Land owner AND to CLDs (or PP), that may seem excessive and many might ask for MA to review whether this is really fair for Land owners and hunters/miners... But it seems MA doesn't want to answer this question.

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In order to compile this list I went through ALL of the questions asked in both the 1st AMA in February of 2019 and the 2nd AMA from October 2020. I read every reply and came up with the following:

1st AMA (Feb 2019)

Questions asked: 153
Questions answered: 119

The discrepancy between the number of questions asked and answered is due to the following:
12 questions deemed duplicates of earlier questions (mostly about Space & Land Plots), and thus not answered by MA
5 questions unanswered because they were actually suggestions
5 copy/paste answers
3 "cannot comment on loot mechanics or future releases"
2 questions dodged (replied but not actually answered)
2 "will investigate" replies
2 questions misunderstood and therefore not answered (big_daddy and Spawn questions)
1 deferred to Planet Partner
1 question unanswered because the data requested is not something that can be shared publicly
1 "will get back to this next week" and then never answered..


2nd AMA (Oct 2020)

Questions asked: 73
Questions answered: 44

The remaining 29 questions were just not answered or replied to.

---------
It's pretty clear that in the first AMA, more people asked questions. But of course if MA is just going to dodge or ignore almost half of the questions, then participation in these AMAs is only going to go down as time goes on and this can be seen with fewer individuals asking questions in the 2nd AMA. Eventually, if MindArk continues to ignore the tough questions, people will get frustrated and won't even bother to ask questions anymore (or they will ask easy questions to at least get some communication rather than none at all, like Bonnie Knight did in the 2nd AMA after both her questions were completely ignored in the first one). And we're back to MindArk's old habits of not communicating to the community about what is going on!

If you are going to communicate, then COMMUNICATE! Don't put on a show (AMA) to make it LOOK LIKE you care and you are communicating, when in fact YOU ARE NOT!

/end of rant
Legends
 
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Wow, good work on putting this together Legends! (y)

100% agree. I think MA should either do AMA (and other such attempts at community engagement) properly or just not bother at all, because as it stands all this does is make MA look bad.
 
Armor will be brought back with similar armor mission launched on caly, so people don't rush away to PP

1. Casino keeps the lights on, if everyone was eco, Mindark would go tits up
2. Never
3. Classified
 
Agree man. Else never call it AMA just AM (ask me) not the "anything". Very misleading
 
No. You are right they should at least answer the AMA questions from both first and second round that never got answers.

Honesstly, if they do that they ought to go back to the Ask Mindark section on Entropia Forum to finish up those questioons too...

As to the taxes search the link list in sig. I think there's something in there about the old affiliate program that mentions the percentage that goes to Planet Partner and Mindark. For shops tax is always at least 2 pec and minimum markup is 1 ped... so 1 of those pecs goes to PP and 1 to Mindark. I assume it's a similar percentage makup for mining and hunting, etc. Crafting - no word if it is or ever was taxed, but a hunch tells me it probably is but Mindark isn't going to say so as it'll just make crafters that already pay way too much in markup a little irritated.
 
Agree man. Else never call it AMA just AM (ask me) not the "anything". Very misleading
AMA doesn't imply AMAAIWAE (Ask me anything and I will answer everything).
 
doesn't imply? Of course it does - that's the whole nature of the gauntlet, or the offer, whatever's your poison. Ahh, communication!
Edit: yes, you can add a caveat, then it becomes AMAAIWAE-THBOMA - and no, the MA at the end is not MindArk, although the M does work there!
 
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You just answered your own question by spending more time on this thread then they will in communication with us all year
 
AMA doesn't imply AMAAIWAE (Ask me anything and I will answer everything).

Sure however the convention and format of an AMA is that questions are voted up and down and, generally speaking, the more popular ones get answered. There are several instances where some of the questions which were 'voted' (liked or in some other way supported by other members) were totally ignored, in fact, it could be argued that in the 1st AMA the question about EP crafting was the most 'voted' question by the community, and despite that, was totally ignored by MindArk.

There are many instances in which the same applies in the 2nd AMA:

ocpanda's question had 17 reactions
ColonelBuckshot's question had 15 reactions
Konvicted's question had 12 reactions
Killahbee's question had 11 reactions
Heidi's question had 9 reactions
Mathilda's question had 9 reactions

None of these were answered despite them being very simple and easy questions to answer.

If you're going to call it an AMA, you should stay true to the format and tradition of an AMA and take into consideration how many others support (or like) the question.
 
I don't know whether I should feel flattered that people keep quoting my AMA questions. I consider them answered, both times. They will have to issue a correction if they don't like the conclusions in public space.

Our sweet community manager does her very best and is not to blame for ongoing shortcomings. Her role is evidently not at all understood by the community, possibly not even by herself (depending on what is revealed behind the scenes and what not). She is not here to communicate things the management is simply too busy to verbalize. Her job is to keep the lid on while those who matter continue having nothing to say about the things they do. Again, an official correction is needed if they don't want this line of interpretation to prevail.
 
I don't know whether I should feel flattered that people keep quoting my AMA questions. I consider them answered, both times. They will have to issue a correction if they don't like the conclusions in public space.

Our sweet community manager does her very best and is not to blame for ongoing shortcomings. Her role is evidently not at all understood by the community, possibly not even by herself (depending on what is revealed behind the scenes and what not). She is not here to communicate things the management is simply too busy to verbalize. Her job is to keep the lid on while those who matter continue having nothing to say about the things they do. Again, an official correction is needed if they don't want this line of interpretation to prevail.

This is in no way an attack on My Antonson nor is it implied in any way that she isn't doing a good job.

In fact I feel that anyone in that position is bound to find themselves stuck in between a rock and a hard place. On the one side you have all the pressure coming from the community demanding information and on the other side you have your bosses telling you "No you can't say that, don't say anything, there's nothing to report as of yet..." So you want to communicate but you can't, there's nothing to communicate. I would hate it. I would feel powerless in this situation and it would drive me crazy.
 
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This is in no way an attack on My Antonson nor is it implied in any way that she isn't doing a good job.
Oh, I didn't mean to suggest that, but I failed to clarify. Sorry about that. It was meant as an additional viewpoint.
 
Sure however the convention and format of an AMA is that questions are voted up and down and, generally speaking, the more popular ones get answered. There are several instances where some of the questions which were 'voted' (liked or in some other way supported by other members) were totally ignored, in fact, it could be argued that in the 1st AMA the question about EP crafting was the most 'voted' question by the community, and despite that, was totally ignored by MindArk.

There are many instances in which the same applies in the 2nd AMA:

ocpanda's question had 17 reactions
ColonelBuckshot's question had 15 reactions
Konvicted's question had 12 reactions
Killahbee's question had 11 reactions
Heidi's question had 9 reactions
Mathilda's question had 9 reactions

None of these were answered despite them being very simple and easy questions to answer.

If you're going to call it an AMA, you should stay true to the format and tradition of an AMA and take into consideration how many others support (or like) the question.
How can you compare other AMA to a MA AMA? Do you honestly expect MA to follow normal AMA guidelines? This is a RCE they have to be careful answering any potential questions that may affect the economy.
MA have made their own rules for their AMA and decide 100% what they want to answer. They even put a notice that they won't be able to answer all questions before AMA even started. This gives them the ability to ignore any questions they want. They chose to pick the questions and answered those.
It seems there are still some people are living in alternate reality where MA have great communication skills and are transparent with everything. Btw my AMA question wasn't answered either.
 
How can you compare other AMA to a MA AMA? Do you honestly expect MA to follow normal AMA guidelines? This is a RCE they have to be careful answering any potential questions that may affect the economy.
MA have made their own rules for their AMA and decide 100% what they want to answer. They even put a notice that they won't be able to answer all questions before AMA even started. This gives them the ability to ignore any questions they want. They chose to pick the questions and answered those.
It seems there are still some people are living in alternate reality where MA have great communication skills and are transparent with everything. Btw my AMA question wasn't answered either.

That's fine, I don't even really care about the unanswered questions in the AMA, it's not even really about that, you are completely missing the point of this post man...

Are you happy with MA's current communication??? Is it ok that 5 weeks later dozens of people are wondering what the hell is going on with Cyrene armors and they still haven't said anything since shutting down the NPCs???
 
That's fine, I don't even really care about the unanswered questions in the AMA, it's not even really about that, you are completely missing the point of this post man...

Are you happy with MA's current communication??? Is it ok that 5 weeks later dozens of people are wondering what the hell is going on with Cyrene armors and they still haven't said anything since shutting down the NPCs???
I am not happy neither am I disappointed. It was expected for me based on MA's previous failures (second armor failure on cyrene) and don't be surprised if it takes until at best MARCH to get an answer. Set your expectations low and you won't be disappointed either.
 
It'll all be fine. Soon.
 
I am not happy neither am I disappointed. It was expected for me based on MA's previous failures (second armor failure on cyrene) and don't be surprised if it takes until at best MARCH to get an answer. Set your expectations low and you won't be disappointed either.

In 2019, the CEO of MindArk told me:

"A company’s trustworthiness and how it engages with its customer base will vary over time, and my goal is for MindArk to become much more engaged."

I have to be honest with you, my expectations are not high but I did have some hope that they might change some of the most infuriating habits that they have such as not telling anybody anything at all about 'broken' loot and 'broken' systems in the game. Now that hope is pretty much gone.

I mean, how hard would it really be to issue some statement something like:

"Upon release it was found that the new Cyrene Armor upgrade mission was not functioning as originally intended and therefore has been disabled until further notice. MindArk and the Cyrene dev team are exploring every possible solution to remedy the situation but are unable to make any firm promises or provide a timeline at this time. Rest assured that as soon as a decision has been reached, it will be communicated to the community."

That I think should have been the minimum. And then within a couple of weeks, at least provide some indication as to whether the Upgrade mission was going to be made available again in the future or permanently cancelled so that people who started it or were planning on starting it can decide what to do in that regard.
 
I am not happy neither am I disappointed. It was expected for me based on MA's previous failures (second armor failure on cyrene) and don't be surprised if it takes until at best MARCH to get an answer. Set your expectations low and you won't be disappointed either.
I believe the exercise here is to push for improvement in communication. Whether it will be successful or not is debatable unfortunately. I believe rather than settling for poor/mediocre, it is worthwhile to push for improvement. But I also have not been here many of the years some of you have and I am not entirely jaded yet.
 
You have been getting same communication for past 15+ years. Why are you still here waiting for changes? Mindark does not change, take it or leave it.
 
You have been getting same communication for past 15+ years. Why are you still here waiting for changes? Mindark does not change, take it or leave it.

lol I had hopes...

I'm sorry, it won't happen again :giggle:
 
Your thread title
"Are you happy with MindArk's engagement/communication with the community? "
is a different question as to "what is up with the armor mission".

It is repeated over and over , the frustration at the lack of communication.
In my time I have come to learn that this is the norm for MindArks communication.
They always over promise , leave every project started but not complete , and allow the community to guide its own rage.

The sooner anyone realizes that , the sooner they can get on with creating their next game plan.

Every new Mob , Armor , Mission is a gold rush and those that take the risks are also the ones that are rewarded.
Every new venture also has a saturation point , and those that realize where that point lies are also the ones rewarded with keeping their profits.

I am not saying that there isn't justified frustration and anger here , but anyone paying attention already knows this part of the game.
Even at the limited time this mission was available , many made significant peds with the many aspects available.

You will have to make your own decision whether to pack up your mats and wait for the mission to continue , or
to sell off and recoup what you can and move onto the next venture.

MindArk will not give any advice , insight as to their methods of continuing with this mission.

They have made this very clear , countless times in actions and even their own words.
 
You have been getting same communication for past 15+ years. Why are you still here waiting for changes? Mindark does not change, take it or leave it.

This nails it to be honest, and it's how I've become more chill with it.

Forget promises that MA makes, they just don't mean anything. Instead just take Entropia 'as is' and assume nothing will ever change. Even if management disappeared into a hole and we never heard from them again, this is still a really great game with a really great community.

Chill, crack a beer, kill some mobs. (y)
 
This nails it to be honest, and it's how I've become more chill with it.

Forget promises that MA makes, they just don't mean anything. Instead just take Entropia 'as is' and assume nothing will ever change. Even if management disappeared into a hole and we never heard from them again, this is still a really great game with a really great community.

Chill, crack a beer, kill some mobs. (y)

Well I'm in a real pickle now Larry cause I actually quit drinking a year and a half ago :laugh:
 
I believe the exercise here is to push for improvement in communication. Whether it will be successful or not is debatable unfortunately. I believe rather than settling for poor/mediocre, it is worthwhile to push for improvement. But I also have not been here many of the years some of you have and I am not entirely jaded yet.

You are correct, that's exactly the point; push for improvement.

It may seem harsh, maybe it's not the best way to it, but in my own messed up way, I'm just trying to help MA become better, whether they recognize this or not, or whether they appreciate it or not, is entirely beside the point. As they say: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

And before anyone accuses me of being too harsh or unfair with MA, it should be known and understood that I am often the first and only person to come to their defense if I feel someone is making unfounded or undeserved accusations:

Legends
 
As they say: you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
My take on this one is: You can tell MA they oughta, but you can't make them think! (oughta is the rhyming version of "ought to". Many Brits pronounce it that way anyway)
 
Not only did Mindark simply turn off the armor NPCs on Cyrene. They also crippled the loot. Normal loot items like tail tips, crystal pollen and high grade power supply amongst others are no longer dropping, without us knowing if the total loot of the mob is down. And indeed, the Cyrene Devs do not know anything about it.
 
Not only did Mindark simply turn off the armor NPCs on Cyrene. They also crippled the loot. Normal loot items like tail tips, crystal pollen and high grade power supply amongst others are no longer dropping, without us knowing if the total loot of the mob is down. And indeed, the Cyrene Devs do not know anything about it.

So sad...

The lack of communication from MA on things like this needs to end, seriously.
 
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