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Discussion with MindArk about the current direction of Entropia Universe

Evey said:
When will people understand the core of this game is RCE and that no economic details can be given ahead of time? Grow up! Even things that are a bit vague create expectations and everyone gets mental about unfulfilled promisses when it was only an idea that went public....
No details can be given even during downtime because things can go wrong and you cry again if they postpone some cool stuff already announced, or, the main reason, people will buy stuff and sell 5 times more expensive after the update
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Ok I might have been vague in my post since you didn't get it, so I try again.
The interesting part in that video is about MA as a company, not what might come or not.
Ofc are new items, features and so on always interesting, but what is far more interesting is how MA
running their company, when it comes to prios, how they are towards staff and so on.
For those who can "read between the lines" that video did say a lot.

So please if you gonna quote something don't pick what fits you, try to see the whole point.

I guess for many of us the things you mention about RCE and so on is so obvious so no need to mention it,
but for some it probably isn't.
I also know that for some of us we have a better understanding about things to think about when creating
and running a game, not always so obvious things. There is one thing far more important than RCE in EU
(or any other game for that matter) but I guess you already know what that is so no point to mention it. :)
 
Evey said:
When will people understand the core of this game is RCE and that no economic details can be given ahead of time? Grow up! Even things that are a bit vague create expectations and everyone gets mental about unfulfilled promisses when it was only an idea that went public....
No details can be given even during downtime because things can go wrong and you cry again if they postpone some cool stuff already announced, or, the main reason, people will buy stuff and sell 5 times more expensive after the update
Click to expand...

I don't think it's so much that people are expecting economic details as a means of how to "win" at the game. I think it's more that people are looking for some concrete details about the development and roadmap. The payers (meant to say "players" here but the typo seemed fitting so I left it in lol) are starved for content in this game and have been let down so much with the many seemingly abandoned promises. Space (though there is a hint of activity here), Harvesting, Vehicles, Estates, Voting, BattleSim, Missions...etc.

"...when it was only an idea that went public" I think this is part of the problem. Too many "ideas" and "it could happen 'cause anything is possible" statements and even proof of concept applications have been made/added over the years and abandoned and I think people are looking for some things to be cleared up as to what's alive and what's dead and should be removed.

People want more concrete statements and progress updates on the things we've been promised over many years. If things aren't going to happen MA should have the balls to just say "yeah, ok. I know we said that was coming but it was a mistake. We're sorry but that isn't going to happen". It would be nice to get an idea of what things are actually being worked on currently that are worth sticking around and looking forward to over the next 12 months. And if they don't know what's going to be ready in 12 months, clearly there is a bigger problem in that business where they need to clean house and learn how to actually project manage. Good companies know and have planned out what's going to be released 1,2,3,5 and even 10 years in the future. They don't just "wing it".

I think people want the reassurance that (useful) things are progressing and actions are being taken to increase the speed at which these things are being done (everything happens much too slowly with development). As well, some assurance that MA is actually going to stick to their development decisions and see them through 100% before getting distracted to work on some other fad would be good. This has been a cancer that has plagued MA for the past decade. Always looking to jump on the latest fad rather than see things through to full completion. They started dropping some of this dead weight (compet/deeptoken) earlier but I think that was just the start.

Yes, it's tough to release some specific data that could be used by some players to gain a financial edge. But they need to strike a balance between too much insider information and complete radio silence or token canned responses. "Things are good here, we're going to reveal everything we're working on... but oh hey look! Big Atroxes/Mulmens/Hogglos/Entropys...etc. Go spend spend spend shooting those... I'm sure you'll hit the big one this time! Oh and BTW we've got this brand NEW deed... it's gonna be hooked up to...uh... some new thing. Don't worry about the details... all you need to know is that it's gonna be new, it's gonna be big and it's gonna be a THING and it's gonna be coming "soon"! So head over the webshop and buy! Spend $500 and we'll give you this fancy lump! It's sings, it dances and uh... it'll save you having to click on this one thing (if you pay for that feature) BUY NOW!".
 
Dont mix things up guys..
This video and what i understood from it is simply that mindark have a good team ready for the future development of entropia universe.
They explain how well it is going for them, how easier it seems to deal with things at the office and the good coordination concerning the game.
This is a bright news as one may question the state of the team behind game.

I am pretty sure we will have some teaser soon about that long awaited VU.

Edit: it s nice to meet the team behind the game. Good job My
 
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infamousH4 said:
when did Macaulay Culkin become ceo of MA? and why would a ceo of a company need a stress therapy dog? thats all i got from that interview. and yes im only joking
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I would need one too if I needed to read all the crap on PCF.
 
Evey said:
Communication is 0,00001.
Roamaps are bad, they create more frustration along the way than excitement.
There are people that liek these videos. Soon (lol) they may even get good at it :D but for now it's cool to see the people, they might be videos with actual good content in the future :D
And yes, selling people things and delivering them years after is absolute trash move.
Tehy should still not discuss what's ahead in order to prevent market manipulation and such... but it would be cool to talk about design changes, or any change that won't influence the economy in any way... maybe even show us what their new colleagues are drawing there
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A good example of why roadmaps can't exist is that speculation creates greed of great magnitude in this game. I point to when those vampire pets came out. It was speculated, thanks to ND, that they would or could have lifesteal 1% on it. That was the plan. It created a rush and then these pets being overpriced when in reality, the pet never should have commanded a price over 10,000ped (and would argue 10% of that only because of boobs?). It's the same reason why we can't have a public QA.
 
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atomicstorm said:
It's not sexist to compliment someone's looks. Don't make something into what it isn't. Put your keyboard away.
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You try to make it something other than it is.

We live in different societies, obviously. In the country I live you can get into legal trouble for an utterance like that, and as an employee you might be fired on the spot. :dunno:
 
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Naomi said:
cool, they upgraded the balancing manager from a hamster to a doggie (y)
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The Hamster runs the servers and the Doggo throws us a bone from time to time.
 
Jas said:
The next video needs to provide the vision and roadmap.
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To be grilled a year later for "broken promises"? It's clear that they try and scrap things as they go, and their internal roadmap is as "dynamic" as everything. Can't map out a road that looks like a minefield.
 
Next time use an iron before you go on camera...
 
This video was nice and a step forward, but maybe for the next one:
  • keep the door locked
  • a bit of humour is fine, but it has to come from within. To me it had a slight undertone. The given humour can safely be skipped.
  • looking at each other is fine and - at least to me - gives the impression that they really listen to each other (somebody said this wasn't necessary). Maybe add a little bit more next time.
  • music was too loud
  • Sweden has no specific law or ruling towards Corona-virus, but knowing this video is for the international audience a little more distance would have been fine
We learned:
  • they probably do scrum now
  • they understood that they had (close to) no internal communication (something we kind of knew; reappearing bugs and such)
  • they haven't understood that they have to improve the external communication
  • no word about customer support
  • soon there will be a CEO younger than some avatars
  • nothing as far as the game is concerned
NoBion said:
My, are it so hard to ask some real questions?
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This video is a commercial with a touch of reflexivity. Don't expect a journalistic approach to it.

Jas said:
The next video needs to provide the vision and roadmap.
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That is true, but a broad vision would be nice. I mean they could say what role VR will play, if there are plans regarding a new rendering engine, will there be a cloud-based EU at one point, will crypto play a role, ... I mean the team can't just pick the notes from the scrum-board and watch how others like Virtuverse are doing ;)
 
I miss the old forum's way of leaving feedback. Some folks... :duh:
______________________________

Thank you, My and everybody who participated. If I was working there I'd just rather have Sally lead the Agile meetings ;)
 
I will come forward after reading more of your guys and girls replies, and admit that i was expecting too much info from this video. I think i somehow connected it to the AMA which it isen't. So if i look at it from a pure "who are we" only standpoint, then i feel the video does a lot better. Personally due to the frustrations thats been roaming the community lately, i would have posted the AMA before this video.

Hope this clarifies my post a bit
 
Was the balance manager meant to be... Speaking in code. Metaphor for something else?

I heard mention of new employees.. maybe developers?

I wouldn't necessarily say it was a great video. Difficult to understand what they are alluding to when it's 15 minutes of fluff talk.

They spoke of some good content or something they saw that looks good for the game, also super ambiguous. Would be nice to see a preview.

On a positive note, I think the video had a positive tone (until balance manager). Updates and info are better than no updates. Too bad server had to be shut down to put a video on loading page..
 
Sally is a good hire for sure!
It would have been good to hear at least something more concrete like about new features
(e.g. hinted retroactive attribute gains from Codex) :)
 
I agree with a lot of things that Magnus said, particularly "..we are now more agile as a company.."

Many of the VUs in recent years are totally spot on, for example the changes to tier upgrading and to enhancers are really awesome and much appreciated by everyone.

Making it possible to stack limited blueprints and adding shrapnel to crafting was another thing which had been requested for a long time and very much appreciated by a lot of players.

The Codex obviously, is really great and makes the game so much easier for everyone.

So there are VUs coming at a seemingly faster rate and these seem more complete than ever. The bugs that ensue get dealt with pretty quickly too, so I see that MindArk is becoming more 'agile' as a game developer.

One point of contention that I have is that certain key areas which we know are being worked on, are taking so damn long to do, it just becomes really frustrating when years and years go by and there is no updates or even any news about it. For example Space and Land Plots, but not just that, the new CEO promissed to work on interfaces and legacy systems, I guess 4 years ago now, and 2 years ago, this Poll showed that the number 1 priority for the community was to overhaul the Auction, and still nothing. Does it really have to take that long???

Meanwhile, there are 800 pages of listings in the Caly auction, at 15 listings per page, that's 6k PED just from the 50 pec listing fee. Multiply by 52 weeks and that's 312,000 PED/year just from the 50 pec listing fee, that doesn't include the % you charge on the markup.

You could have easily hired a couple of contractors with those revenues and had a new auction system done by now.

Why does everything have to take so god-damn looooooooonnnnnnnnngggg???

Legends
 
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Jas said:
3. There was and is a power struggle between the old and the new. It is embarrassing how Hendrik, the CEO butts in with "..How does it feel to be so old" as almost his first statement, even if spoken in "humor". This attitude tells me a lot about the CEO and none of it is good frankly.
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I agree.

If Magnus is happy with the ageist 'banter' in the office that is fine, although the fact he didnt reply with a equally powerful putdown about him having forgotten more about Entropia than you know Henrik (for example) either means he is happy with it or he pushed you down the stairs after the interview. ;)

Overall, the video interview was good, but in a non-enlightening way.
 
Mega said:
I agree.

If Magnus is happy with the ageist 'banter' in the office that is fine, although the fact he didnt reply with a equally powerful putdown about him having forgotten more about Entropia than you know Henrik (for example) either means he is happy with it or he pushed you down the stairs after the interview. ;)

Overall, the video interview was good, but in a non-enlightening way.
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I guess Henrik doesn't understand Magnus is the average age of most of the entropia players.
 
i liked the video a lot
I liked to know they are spending our money in new employees
i liked to know they want to make big improvement and to keep the core concept of the game as it is.

i dont think enrick was talking about his age, instead i think they all was trying to remember us that entropia has already 21 years and its still up and running and getting better day by day. notice that they repeated a few times that we will notice changes.
 
well ...

[berta] : How are youd doing by the way ?
[young dude] : i'm alright !
[old dude] : i'm fine, very good !

[berta] : so you two are representing two diferent eras ... because i know u have been here for 21years and you have been here for 4years right?
[young dude] : correct .
[old dude] : that's correct, yeah .

[berta] : what kind of development u have seen within the company during all the years and ...how...
[young dude] : does it feel to be so old ? ..ahahaha
[old dude] : yeah, as u say, ALMOST 21years, but it's a long time..... in a much smaller and older office.... it was nice too but this one is better. (first to be mentioned)

[berta] : [young dude] after all those years that [old dude] has been working...you joined the company, what has been important to push forward ?
[young dude] : i think... communication has really been the key, first and foremost it has been the communication that we have "old peoples" ..ahahaha
[old dude] : not that old ... hehe

[berta] : so [old dude] after [young dude] became the CEO, have you seen any changes?
[old dude] : i think for me, the communication has really been a big thing...
[young dude] : i think one other change that we haven't mentioned is also ....that we really.... that we know... it's not us that are the smartest guys in the room.

[berta] : How do u ensure that MA delivers as scheduled ?
[young dude] : well it has always been in our interest to ensure... and communicating and ensuring .....and ensuring that we have a release schedule that make sense not only for us... but also for our users. Because we want to ensure that our users are happy with what we release...

[berta] : do u have anything to add about that ?
[old dude] : i think one important thing is that we are working in a much more agile way now than....before
[System] Your Agility has improved by 0.0001
[System] Your Agility has improved by 0.0001
[System] Your Agility has improved by 0.0001
[System] Your Agility has improved by 666.0001
.....

[berta] : you recently have added some new peoples into, do you have anything you would like to say about?
[young dude] : new talent it's obviously something....for us...to be able to hire top talented people .... adding that to the mixture of old guys like [old dude]... adding that, pretty much intellectual capital to MA is something that we need otherwise we are not going to be in such a good position, i feel that we now have to be able to push the development....things are going to look better in the future ( amen )
[old dude] : i'm really looking forward to when that starts to bear fruits

[berta] : do u think that your players will notice?
[old dude] : i think so.
[young dude] : i can only agree...




:popcorn:
 
Ill I heard was young people are here who think they know what's great. More Automation and making it easy mode for retards. @$%* I sure hope none of these new people worked with Sony or WOW!! I also heard that they are letting more people have input. Are these the ones who wanted tier dings over 100 times per level? Useless error messages on our screens? Then after months of complaints they finally change it? Is there someones Kid who works at the company and they let them do someting cool. Alot of these changes are childishly stupid! Thats my bitch,

But I have to give credit. Alot has been fixed since I started. Graphics keep getting a little better. Damn when I started you could not walk away from an open terminal. That was some crap there boy. There's lot's of things I could list! Changing the game to something unrecognizable will be the death of it. Please Keep the Old Guys!!

Monopoly has been translated into 47 languages. It's played in 114 countries. It's sold more than 275 million copies.
Hasbro prints $30 billion in Monopoly money each year, and well more than $3 trillion has been printed since 1935. Not bad considering each standard game comes with $20,580 -- though it's in the rules that the bank can never go broke, so make up some scrip if you need it.
Incidentally, the Monopoly Man -- named Rich Uncle Pennybags -- was likely based on mustachioed financier J.P. Morgan.
 
A Fictional discussion that may have happened

Magnus - No Henrik, I dont think this is a good idea, a lot of the players wont like it.
Henrik - They will come to like it.
Magnus - No one has ever asked for red text in the middle of the screen, shall we ask them on the forum?
Henrik - There is no need to ask them, I think it is a good idea.
Magnus - I know these people, some of them wont like it, can we at least make it an option for them?
Henrik - I'm the boss, red text - middle of the screen.
Magnus - But it is irritating, we have gone 16 years without it and it is so immersion breaking.
Henrik - I'm the boss, and I'm younger and taller than you.
Magnus - Ok, if you are sure <sigh>
Henrik - Trust me it'll be fine, hey look, even Sally agrees with me.
Sally - Woof!



Moral: Listen to your customers or you dont deserve any.
 
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