Deposit Poll Results and Conclusion

Shew

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THIS IS NOT MEANT TO BE NEGATIVE TOWARDS MA

But to highlight a major issue that many customers feel is important

People that care about something are willing to fight for it

Things to keep in mind.

MA states in their income model to planet partners that they make $.5 to $1.50 per player per hour of play.

http://www.mindark.com/entropia-universe/
Fees

Entropia Universe users do not pay any fixed fee or monthly subscription fee in order to be part of the Entropia Universe. User's costs are the equipment and objects that they collect and which wear out with use. Users must regularly upgrade their possessions via special automated service stations to retain full capacity.

For example, a hunting weapon wears in relation to the number of shots discharged. The wear level is indicated via status information on the screen and can also be noticed by reduced performance in the object. The normal service fee for an active user lies between 0.5 and 1.5 USD per hour.

http://www.mindark.com/partners/entropia-universe-platfor/business-model/

Business Model
Revenue is generated through micro-payments for products and services on a virtual planet(s). This model results in an average income of $1 per hour of activity, per user, which is shared between Mindark and the Planet Partner.

This is not the same as what it costs a player to play per hour.
It would stand to reason part of the cost to a player would have to support the loot as well.

It would be interesting to know of Cash to MA:Cash to loot ratio.

To set things straight initially. People MUST understand the cycel of money. Espescially those that deposit little or none. This has nothing against those that don't deposit, but they need to understand these basics.

Remember 10 ped to $1

The game runs on $

Some deposit.

Some don't deposit, but are still able to play by sweating or whatever and selling for ped. This is just a transfer of $

Both groups when they hunt, mine, or craft give $ to MA and loot pool.

However without those that actually put the $ into the system, there is none to transfer or support game.

Intial Poll https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/general-economy-discussion/166137-deposit-habits.html



Better representation of contributions



Slide 1, Part 1
TO keep results as current as possible, will only use "Does Deposit" for computations annoted in Green



Line 43 displays all depost tiers as a average amount.

Although some deposit (DID and DO) grossly more than $1000 per month, I kept the top tier average at $100 to keep figures conservative.
(The higher this average is, the lower the number of depositors)

Line 58 In order to determine approxiamte depositors using MA figures, an average despost per user is required. Using Green average is

$67.97 average deposit per person per month with current Approximate Average number of Current Depositors 14776

Part 2
Total People are obtained using Average montly deposits (Slide 2 Part 1) divided by Average Per Person deposit ($67.97)

These numbers do fall in lign with EntropiaTracker.com (Noting that NOT ALL GLOBAL OR HOF).

Total Current approximate players 40,839

Slide 2 Part 1
Financial inforation taken from MA Sept 17, 2009 Semi-Annual Report

All Financials are in SEK so $ conversion provided using average exchange rate from Apri-Oct 2009

Again goal is to use current data, so highlighted target information in Green.



Categories of interest in MA Sept Financial Report:

Net Sales: Purchase of items from TT such as ammo, tool, bombs, and probes?

Cash Reived From Customers: $ from decay, auction fees, money transfer fees?

Net Profits: Proceeds minus expenses

Deposits (PEDS): Money deposited (10ped-$1US)

Part 2 Using Average deposit per user from Line D58 ($67.97) an approximate number of depositors is obtained by dividing from Per Month $ Deposited

Approximate Average number of Current Depositors 14776

To be used in Slide 1 Part 2 to determine approximate number of other users and total active users.

Something to note on Slide 2 Part 1

Note Deposit to Profit ratios of 2008 to 2009.
Deposits and Cash received from customers has decreased,
meanwhile MindArk Net Sales and Net Profits have increased ??

This would indicate a negative cash flow for players/customers, which only prompts less deposits.

Have to note, Sales did increase 2009 to show increased profits, so shows people are using more off their ped cards and putting less in.

Is this in relation to less loot so players must dip more into ped? Could be.


If MA were to reduce cost to play, imagine as seen in Slide 1 Part 2 ALL Depositors (past and current) contributing, that would be an approximate $2,134,295.00 per month

YOU SEE THAT MA?

Sources:

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/general-economy-discussion/166137-deposit-habits.html

https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/general-discussion/166448-how-many-people-really-play-entropia.html

Mindark Financials
http://mindark.se/press/financial-reports/documents/Semi-Annual-report-Q2-2009.pdf


Exchange Rates
http://www.x-rates.com/d/SEK/USD/data120.html
 
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good work, so with a different approach we have again a number of 40k players. Your number of depositors is lower as mine but average amount is higher, therefore a similar result.

Well, although results are similar it could be all a pure coincidence and we will never know.

Nevertheless, 40k might be reasonable.

A good lower limit would be number of different avatars gloabling in ET per year plus some 10-20% if we look for active ones, or 50% if we like to know server load.
 
That is quite amazing stuff you have done here.

I can only say I wich I were a genious too.

:wise:
 
It would be interesting to know of Cash to MA:Cash to loot ratio.

depends if you mean ingame or RL. Ingame its most probably decay, RL its our cash.

With about 120M PED turnover per year, 82M as unused PED ingame only 38M PED are left to drive the game. Operating expenses are 48M PED so I don't think it might make sense to speak about Cash to MA:Cash to loot.
 
Categories of interest in MA Sept Financial Report:

Net Sales: Purchase of items from TT such as ammo, tool, bombs, and probes?

Cash Reived From Customers: $ from decay, auction fees, money transfer fees?

How do you know that's what those two items mean ?

The only thing MA sells is Peds and the only thing MA receive is real money via deposits.

Businesses have to make financial reports to an international reporting standard showing real money coming in and out. Purchases of ammo, bombs ect is nothing to do with the business and is just something that happens in the 'game'.

Just my view but thanks for the effort Shew. :)

chopper
 
Thats nice analysys:

Now for the ones who didnt care to read the whole post.

Point is:

ENTROPIA IS TINY AND COSY GAME*

* but it has Neverdie who speaks of it as if it were ever a threat to WoW and such

I.
 
How do you know that's what those two items mean ?

The only thing MA sells is Peds and the only thing MA receive is real money via deposits.

Businesses have to make financial reports to an international reporting standard showing real money coming in and out. Purchases of ammo, bombs ect is nothing to do with the business and is just something that happens in the 'game'.

Just my view but thanks for the effort Shew. :)

chopper

I, nor any one outside of MA know for sure what those mean, that is I use the terms "uderstand" indicating a viewpoint.

MA gives PED in exchange for $. They do not count that as sales, but as and documented as Contingent Liabilities currently showing as 58,000,000 SEK or $436,967,360.

They do in fact SELL things from TT. This is the transfer of PED (with the $ value) from the person to MA. Interesting to note the SEK ($1US:7.53392 SEK) has a slightly better exhange rate than that of the PED ($1US:10 PED)

Other than that, the PED still in possession of the people. Now what portion of that may go to support loot, only MA knows.
 
depends if you mean ingame or RL. Ingame its most probably decay, RL its our cash.

With about 120M PED turnover per year, 82M as unused PED ingame only 38M PED are left to drive the game. Operating expenses are 48M PED so I don't think it might make sense to speak about Cash to MA:Cash to loot.

It is an unknown and important factor though.

We buy TT items, which have a PED value, which does hold a real $ value. (sales)

Yes it is speculation but in all good reason that we fuel the loot, but at what proportion.

There are two categories of MA bringing in money (apart from loands and interest).

One directly noted as Money from Customers. This sounds a lot like their statements of making from decay and fees (of $.5-$1.5 per player per active hour of play).

The other, Sales. What do they sell? Only thing MA controlled in game for sale is the TT. Remember PED holds a REAL $ value, so would in fact be selling for real money.

I didn't get into the turnover and including withdraws of PED becaues I was attempting to keep things simplified as possible. Once things like PEDs withdrawn are taken into account, things look even more bleak. But people can formulate their own opinions. The MA Fiancials are there for all to see (LINK in sources).
 
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Fact is, MA have passed the price elasticity of their customers and when you pass that point, sales go down... that's basic economic theory on consumer behaviour... ;)
 
Fact is, MA have passed the price elasticity of their customers and when you pass that point, sales go down... that's basic economic theory on consumer behaviour... ;)

So very true!!
 
so??

So can your results in any way predict what out actual cost per hour is?
I feel like I personally have put in about 80 ped per month my first 2 months and have played an average of 3 hours a day (probably more)
So that would make it a dollar an hour.
It sounds bad when I say I spent 80 a month, but if i think a dollar an hour that isn't bad hah... I guess
when yea i can play WoW for 25 a month for hours and hours. I can also play Battlefield 2 for free. But do I? Nope. Cause I like this game a lot
In two months I have had one HoF and 3 Globals. Also got 2 SGA items.
It still is costing me money to play. I understand it and don't ever expect to make money from this game.
Just some facts from a newb.
my two pec. as someone else has said.

thanks for the hard work you put in on the info.
 
So can your results in any way predict what out actual cost per hour is?
I feel like I personally have put in about 80 ped per month my first 2 months and have played an average of 3 hours a day (probably more)
So that would make it a dollar an hour.
It sounds bad when I say I spent 80 a month, but if i think a dollar an hour that isn't bad hah... I guess
when yea i can play WoW for 25 a month for hours and hours. I can also play Battlefield 2 for free. But do I? Nope. Cause I like this game a lot
In two months I have had one HoF and 3 Globals. Also got 2 SGA items.
It still is costing me money to play. I understand it and don't ever expect to make money from this game.
Just some facts from a newb.
my two pec. as someone else has said.

thanks for the hard work you put in on the info.

With the available numbers in MA financials, and the numbers polled, it would be too much speculation without knowing variables such as average time spent in game per player, and the average cost per style of play.

What we do know from MA's own statement is that they make $.5-$1.50 per user per hour of active play. We have to presume active play is hunting, mining, crafting, or other tasks that cause decay (beauty salons, coloring).

Now if that's just what the rate is that determine MAs earnings, what is the total rate including stocking the ped value of the loot pool?

For that we would need to know the ratio of $ to MA: $ to Loot.

Take into account MA's figures and use $1.00 per player per hour only, and play 5 hours a day, 6 days a week, MA is making $30 off of you per week or $1560 per year. That kind of puts things into perspective doesn't it? For those die hard heavy duty players, cost is more, for those more conservative players, cost is less. Not my numbers, BUT MA's

But again, if part of what we spend goes to loot, that cost would be higher, how much is unknown to us.
 
Well i still stand by more $$$$ flowing into the system via new players is going to stablize any problems in losses to even the most veteran of players. Heh More casual players.

You players that are just in the upper teirs of involvment in this game, you know where your money goes, But where does your money come from that you get back? or in those times you make a profit. and then withdraw. where does that money come from?

Dont just blame MA. Help bring more players into the game so you can profit, Becouse yes MA is going to get paid but your just passing the same amount of money back and forth over and over and MA does take its cut each time. So the obvious answer is to get more people depositing so you can have a better chance at finally breaking even. So the cut's wont be so bad in the long run for you guys.

Are you guys seriously thinking the money is comming from MA? and you will make a profit from them? other players give money to the game, and then to MA. so the more players is more money for everyone to make, then MA is going to come in for their cut.

If they didnt come in for their cut we wouldnt have a game to play. You think the new Cryengine was free? that they work a non profit?

So what if they dont advertize for this game. its not their problem if *your* profits are at stake. If you want to make some money Bring in some more players.

And just let it be known, they have done some advert support in Australia just some time ago.

Sorry if there is anything Ranty in my words or some info got lost in me typing. but if you can see some sense in what i said cool beans.
 
Well i still stand by more $$$$ flowing into the system via new players is going to stablize any problems in losses to even the most veteran of players. Heh More casual players.

You players that are just in the upper teirs of involvment in this game, you know where your money goes, But where does your money come from that you get back? or in those times you make a profit. and then withdraw. where does that money come from?

Dont just blame MA. Help bring more players into the game so you can profit, Becouse yes MA is going to get paid but your just passing the same amount of money back and forth over and over and MA does take its cut each time. So the obvious answer is to get more people depositing so you can have a better chance at finally breaking even. So the cut's wont be so bad in the long run for you guys.

Are you guys seriously thinking the money is comming from MA? and you will make a profit from them? other players give money to the game, and then to MA. so the more players is more money for everyone to make, then MA is going to come in for their cut.

If they didnt come in for their cut we wouldnt have a game to play. You think the new Cryengine was free? that they work a non profit?

So what if they dont advertize for this game. its not their problem if *your* profits are at stake. If you want to make some money Bring in some more players.

And just let it be known, they have done some advert support in Australia just some time ago.

Sorry if there is anything Ranty in my words or some info got lost in me typing. but if you can see some sense in what i said cool beans.

Way to read before you offer your

I think I covered just about everything you said, and think I said pretty much the same thing WITH the facts and numbers about profits and where and how money goes. You must have missed that.

<removed>

What you Don't seem to REALISE that you would, had you read,

there is an approximate 14776 people (36.18%)that currently deposit $1,004,250.00 per month. The number of people could actually be less since there are some people that deposit grossly over $1000 per month but to keep figures conservative, I kept the average for the group at $100 per month.

18% of the current players play for free, they don't deposit at all.

Thee is a larger group of apporximately of 18675 (45.73%) that no longer deposit that once did. Again some depositors over $1,000 per month so number could be less. Had MA not lost their deposit stream, they would be seeing approximately $1,129,945 more per month.

People that have been around for sometime do know they don't make money from MA. It is made from other people, the very people that put the $ into the system.

Many feel we are at a tipping point.

On one side, costs to play improve and people start depositing and spreading the good word.

The other, we stay on the current slope we are now, depositors become fewer in number, yet MA maintains or increases their profits.

I don't think anyone here is against MA making profits, after all that is how maintaining and improving EU happens.

People have tried to bring others in, lately though, some feel bad of sharing with friends because of costs.

You stated you have played a whole 3 weeks. I hope you stick with it. But don't trust what you see in the here and now as how it has been or will be. That's short sighted.
 
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Whered you get the player base #?
 
Whered you get the player base #?


By using the poll I did to determine a good sampling of the populous and gain an average deposit per month of active depositors.

From there using the peds deposited from MA financials, I was able to extrapulate an approximate number of current depositors.

I say approximate because average deposit can vary due to some depositors doing more than $1000k per month, which in reality would reduce the number of depositors. In addition taking into account absolute accuracy of poll.

Note: Not all polls are 100% accurate. However, in the US for example with 250,000,00 people, a poll of 1000 people is considered fairly accurate if the recieved data is well balanced to indicate a sampling of each group of people. This was accomplished in my poll.

I would wager the numbers are within 5% accuracy
 
im so glad i quitting this game.. i use to deposit maybe 5k peds each month, but never got anything back from ma.. and i know its many out there who deposit that or maybe more.. they dont need to work for hold th egame up more, they can close it down anytime and take next flight to a beach and stay there
 
im so glad i quitting this game.. i use to deposit maybe 5k peds each month, but never got anything back from ma.. and i know its many out there who deposit that or maybe more.. they dont need to work for hold th egame up more, they can close it down anytime and take next flight to a beach and stay there

Sorry to hear that, but can understand.

I hope those that "used" to deposit stick around, and perhaps can see some change come about.

I didn't do the poll and report to give people the proof of why they are leaving, but to open some eyes and motivate positive change.

EU is a unique experience and has a lot of potential because of it's uniqueness. But the uniqueness isn't reason enough to stay if costs aren't in line with comperable styles of game play.

Easy way to reduce cost is eliminate or reduce ATHs and HOFs, and increase standard returns of loot to everyone to cover the decays and costs of ammo, probes, bombs, crafting materials.

Leave the perceived MU out of the equation since that is profit only gained from pvp sales and trades.
 
By using the poll I did to determine a good sampling of the populous and gain an average deposit per month of active depositors.

From there using the peds deposited from MA financials, I was able to extrapulate an approximate number of current depositors.

I say approximate because average deposit can vary due to some depositors doing more than $1000k per month, which in reality would reduce the number of depositors. In addition taking into account absolute accuracy of poll.

Note: Not all polls are 100% accurate. However, in the US for example with 250,000,00 people, a poll of 1000 people is considered fairly accurate if the recieved data is well balanced to indicate a sampling of each group of people. This was accomplished in my poll.

I would wager the numbers are within 5% accuracy


No I mean the player base of 17k?

And also your taking a leap of faith from assuming those on the forum represent the whole population of EU, where generally you have a lot of spenders that come on EF.

Your best bet to do a real check is do an in-game random questioning taking random player base. And you'll need a decent sample size. Also your poll leaves a lot of openess.
 
Shew i am not gonna quote you on this

But i sadly did read the whole thread. You did some pretty good work. But You seem to be pointing out that MA perhaps is taking way too much from the players. Which i Can agree to. Sorry to rant or anything but everyone is going off openions, Or not 100% accurate information. I am mostly talking the Serveys conducted, the MA finacials is 100% accurate.

My question would have to be more along the lines to make your arguement stronger. Why would MA sabotage itself by taking more profits from a higher player base? Dont they understand that that would in turn decrease the player base in the long term?

I would like to beleive my rant was based on something. anything tangible.

I think the Best thing MA could possibly do if act as a governing body in the universe they have created, and just tax us for their paychecks, and a little for their growth, but other than that adjust it as they need to. and let us have fun for cheeper at times. but if they are unable to do this then what do we as players do?

You have to let people throw out ouutragious openions every once in a while, even if it does not support your thoughts and research. hehe

But i agree Lower the ATH,HOF, and some of the globals and increase the standard loot.
But like i always say WTF do i know. I am new :D
 
Shew i am not gonna quote you on this

But i sadly did read the whole thread. You did some pretty good work. But You seem to be pointing out that MA perhaps is taking way too much from the players. Which i Can agree to. Sorry to rant or anything but everyone is going off openions, Or not 100% accurate information. I am mostly talking the Serveys conducted, the MA finacials is 100% accurate.


Unfortuneately the MA report is NOT 100% accurate, I noted a discrepancy of 605502 SEK or $80,371.11 from pages 5 and 9 in regards to their net profit.

2997502 SEK on page 5 for Apr-June 2009
2392000 SEK on page 9 for Apr-June 2009

In regards to poll data, I had this discussion with someone else in pms.

When doing polls you want to select polling ranges that come out with balanced data.

If the resulting data is overwhelming to one side, the poll is flawed and not a good representation of the population.

When the resulting data is balanced, you have a good representation of the population. Take for example a political poll.

They may only do 1000 in a city. If done correctly it can give a snap shot of the overall population in a much larger area.

The poll I conducted resulted in a pretty well balanced return of information making me confident to proceed in reconciling with the MA data to find an approximate number of current depositors using the current MA PED deposited data.

The results I obtained are fairly consistent with numbers through entropiatracker.

When two entirely separate sources have similiar data, that's a pretty good confirmation. That is the whole premise of how polling is done elsewhere and for different applications.

My question would have to be more along the lines to make your arguement stronger. Why would MA sabotage itself by taking more profits from a higher player base? Dont they understand that that would in turn decrease the player base in the long term?

Why indeed? Don't think they had planned on it, or realised it (I'm optimistic).

And the player base has decreased, if not at least stagnated. For Jan-June 2009 they show a -47% Relative growth, -35% solely for Apr-June 2009. Meanwhile their profits are up $593,024.48 over the first 6 months of Jan-Jun 2008. Negative player base growth and yet increase profit for same period. :confused:

costs have gone up and are real for instance:

Take into account MA's figures and use $1.00 per player per hour only, and play 5 hours a day, 6 days a week, MA is making $30 off of you per week or $1560 per year. That kind of puts things into perspective doesn't it? For those die hard heavy duty players, cost is more, for those more conservative players, cost is less. Not my numbers, BUT MA's

You have to let people throw out ouutragious openions every once in a while, even if it does not support your thoughts and research. hehe

There are plenty of threads out there where people are doing that without data and facts to back it up other than they read it or were told it.

In many cases personal experience can trump what's read and heard. And a lot of people have that, and can become a personal issue, espescially with some having significant money deposited.

I made this thread with the research and data to offer a substantiated view and keep the emitional biases out.

Cheers,
 
Unfortuneately the MA report is NOT 100% accurate, I noted a discrepancy of 605502 SEK or $80,371.11 from pages 5 and 9 in regards to their net profit.

2997502 SEK on page 5 for Apr-June 2009
2392000 SEK on page 9 for Apr-June 2009

In regards to poll data, I had this discussion with someone else in pms.

When doing polls you want to select polling ranges that come out with balanced data.

If the resulting data is overwhelming to one side, the poll is flawed and not a good representation of the population.

When the resulting data is balanced, you have a good representation of the population. Take for example a political poll.

They may only do 1000 in a city. If done correctly it can give a snap shot of the overall population in a much larger area.

The poll I conducted resulted in a pretty well balanced return of information making me confident to proceed in reconciling with the MA data to find an approximate number of current depositors using the current MA PED deposited data.

The results I obtained are fairly consistent with numbers through entropiatracker.

When two entirely separate sources have similiar data, that's a pretty good confirmation. That is the whole premise of how polling is done elsewhere and for different applications.



Why indeed? Don't think they had planned on it, or realised it (I'm optimistic).

And the player base has decreased, if not at least stagnated. For Jan-June 2009 they show a -47% Relative growth, -35% solely for Apr-June 2009. Meanwhile their profits are up $593,024.48 over the first 6 months of Jan-Jun 2008. Negative player base growth and yet increase profit for same period. :confused:

costs have gone up and are real for instance:





There are plenty of threads out there where people are doing that without data and facts to back it up other than they read it or were told it.

In many cases personal experience can trump what's read and heard. And a lot of people have that, and can become a personal issue, espescially with some having significant money deposited.

I made this thread with the research and data to offer a substantiated view and keep the emitional biases out.

Cheers,



Hehe sorry i am kinda a hippocrite sometimes, but Out of my last posting i have given you oppertunitys to straghten out my "Emotional openions" we will call, em. And shoot back with even more information supporting your Claim,

I would like to think of myself as a Muse of sorts, I like your points very much, Andthe information on a dropping player base and then incresed profits is just Interesting to no end.

I am optimistic also, i see something great in this game, but it isnt here yet. dont get me wrong i am new. But if i start talking on something.

It might not be the way things are, but the way they should be.

I honestly think that MA is just using this period of high profits to put back into the game in terms of upgrades and new content, all which takes money. So hopefully after these improvments are allowed to sit there for a min there will be a true golden age for the players. But again this is where our optimism might get us in trouble.

And its all theory on my end. Its what i am good at lol. Fact finding however not my strongest suit. So if you want help me out lol tell me how my theorys are wrong.

But i would also like to add at least i am feeding you some information instead of a quick responce of yup your right. or anything like that. keeping the disscusion going.
:D Good luck and good post
 
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Lores, I love that idea. Using the period of high profit to add content to the game. That is brilliant. Seriously, after reading your post, I think that's precisely what they're doing. Hopefully there will be a true "golden age" for the players after the needed/wanted game adjustments are done. I know it's not just me that feels like I am pumping a little cash into the game and not getting bang for my buck. Don't get me wrong, the game is one of the best I have ever played, but from a monetary standpoint, my deposit of $10 goes pretty fast. Even when I try to conserve. There is negligible loot for the most part, which discourages me from hunting because I think "what's the point, I'm just going to be disappointed that I spent 10 PED on 1000 ammo and now all I have is 2.5 PED worth of crappy loot".

In the long run for a player, it's not feasibly sustainable. The margin between what you put in and what you take out needs to be narrowed because people are going to get discouraged that a ten buck deposit is not going to net them much action.

I think that Lores' idea of having MA be the governing body of Calypso is a great idea. The best I have ever heard in fact. If that were in effect, we would pay taxes to them, and they would act like our civil engineers, making sure all is right with the cities and the flora and fauna. Just the world in general I guess. Sorry for the semi-long post, it's just a really interesting topic.
 
Dont just blame MA. Help bring more players into the game so you can profit, Becouse yes MA is going to get paid but your just passing the same amount of money back and forth over and over and MA does take its cut each time. So the obvious answer is to get more people depositing so you can have a better chance at finally breaking even. So the cut's wont be so bad in the long run for you guys.

Lol, and people still manage to accept this as a good fact, while maintaining that EU has nothing of the pyramid scheme characteristics.
 
Lores, I love that idea. Using the period of high profit to add content to the game.

I highly doubt that. Perhaps if it were put into R&D or some other expendeture for holding.

But it's PROFIT. Has nothing to do with what they will be putting back into it.

For example, you own a store. You want to open a second store, so you start setting money aside as a future expendature, which carries different tax burdens on it.

A profit you pay more tax on it, why would you do that just to use it for future expansion? You wouldn't.

I think that Lores' idea of having MA be the governing body of Calypso is a great idea. The best I have ever heard in fact. If that were in effect, we would pay taxes to them, and they would act like our civil engineers, making sure all is right with the cities and the flora and fauna. Just the world in general I guess. Sorry for the semi-long post, it's just a really interesting topic.

They already are functioning as THE GOVERNMENT.

Give them more money in a different revenue stream? I think not.

Besides, MA doens't handle the way the planets are laid out, that's the planet partners, FPC in this case.

Originally Posted by Marco|FPC
Somewhat simplified it looks like this:

MindArk is responsible for engineering/technical issues (lag, bugs, uptime, underlying platform mechanics like RCE, game engine stuff, etc).
First Planet Company is responsible for design/gameplay issues (usability, design flaws in content, busted graphics models/textures etc).

Right now most fixes lays with MA to fix, with some (mainly world building like adding TP's and stuff) is in the hands of FPC.
 
To clearify somethings that i think you have missunderstood.

"Net sales" is the diffrent between player deposits and withdrawals, has nothing to do with sales of stuff inside EU. Indirectly decay and fees have an effect on the sales because we most deposit more ped when we are out of peds.

Cash recivied is pretty much the same thing. The diffrens is because the moment of deposit and the moment the cash is recivied by MA is not allways the same tome. When paying with creditcard i guess it takes maybe 1-3 days before the money is on their bankaccount.

Second, because of the swedish krona have decrease in value compared to the UDS from jan-june 2008 to jan-june 2009 they get more income per PED deposited. 10 ped depisted in jan-june 2008 was about 6 SEK, same period this year around 7,70-8.00 SEK (a rough estimate). And they have a item called "Capitalized expenditures" 11 261 933 SEK that makes comparsion to the before a bit difficult.

So it's more intresting to look at the diffrence in ped (deposited-withdrawals) and the ped hold by the players inside EU. The net deposit jan-june 2009 was 41 948 kped. The increase in player holdings was about 9 000 kped(or 58 000-51 000 = 7000 in ksek), MA "took" about 42 000-9 000= 33 000 kped or 33/42=79 % in this period. I think 80 % MA "share" is someway a part of the system.
 
A profit you pay more tax on it, why would you do that just to use it for future expansion? You wouldn't.

Besides, MA doens't handle the way the planets are laid out, that's the planet partners, FPC in this case.

I wasn't aware that they didn't handle the planet layout. Now I know :)

As for the first comment I quoted... I think that if you are an expansion driven business, yes they would use some of the profit to expand. Expansion leads to more money, and on and on and on. True, I don't think that all of the money is going to it, or even a small bit. But I think that good economy/playerbase/lots of deposits will spur them into action working on expanding the game. Maybe it will even let them let up a bit and let people start the game without being totally broke and confused.
 
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