Question: Do you trust Mindark?

[combo22]

As many others already said, I trust them with may info, CC and so on, but I don't trust them when it is come about doing things right.

For example if you loose money because of a bug u get a "We are apologize" response or "We'll forward this to design team", but if someone use a bug for his interest he'll be fixed right away or banned if is really a big one.
I'm not saying that is not fare to fix that bug or ban ppl that gain unfair advantage, but compensate people that lose money because ur bad software to, they can compensate with items not peds, but something should be done.
I said for many times to my friends:Hope MA will be bought by some bigger company, they got a nice idea, but they are very slow in make it work right.

 

[Sparhawke]

Hope MA will be bought by some bigger company, they got a nice idea, but they are very slow in make it work right.

I have said before that some other company will come along, do pretty much the same thing with a real world economy (which is Mindarks only selling point lets face it) only this time do it far better and more efficiently because they will have learnt from MAs mistakes.

Mindark basically charge everyone for absolutely everything in the game for no reason I can see, if people had a knife in real life and it broke after 100 uses (just as an example) you can bet on the location the doctors would find it after a few hours of surgery.

Basically, charging (ripping) people off on the excuse that things break may be all very well and good, but not to the extent they have done it.

Plus, they dont even bother telling people it is a service and they expect people to spend around £1.50 per hour (but with the possibility of winning far more), if they were upfront and actually told people that then they would be on the way to having a good rep.

 

[Naifas Anaconda]

I trust them to keep my peds while I'm offline .
I used to trust more the balancing team (recent event loots, daily ATHs are a minus). I know ATHs or 10k over loots are needed to drop those cool UnL high TT guns, but if you're gonna drop just oils, don't leach the rest of the players to feed one of those. I trust they are not reasonable here and will continue to do such mistakes. I do hope they will learn however.
I trust them to be late in every deadline they settle.
I trust them to send robotic answers in support.

The rest is hope: I hope they do not crash due to the economic crysis (the recent events were probably a way to balance their income sheet). I hope they improve the game with time (footguards and armor/cloth were not really improvements). I hope they continue to work on lag issues (it's better now than a couple years ago). And i hope they do not find a new way to tax us some more.

What keeps me ingame is the trust my peds, items and skills won't disapear by magic arts, they are a trustworthy company in that chapter. Most of the other reasons that keep me in (besides friends) is the potential this game has and the hope i've built around that potential.

 

[Raffaele Meiers]

I trust MA in taking care of money and being a solid business.
I have lost a great deal of trust in how MA communicates with their playerbase and how they fulfill what they promise. Marcos roadmaps should really be put in a museum or something..hehe
Alot of things that happened last 1-1,5 years has made me think they decide things on a weekly meeting rather than by a longterm schedule..

What he said and sadely MA / FPC again and again proves to us how bad they can handel things:

1. Create a nice event where they did not think about rules to implement in the first place
2. Change the rules of the event 1 week prior to the event
3. Not providing any usable scorelist during the event and failing to deliver the ranking/points after the event beside a not checkable list of 10 names per Categorie or 200 random put togheter names per categorie with people in list who did not shoot that mob during eventtime but after and many many other mistakes in one simple list

Support witch does know about the game the same amount as a 3 week old noob

Not beeing able to handle scammers / bug abusers but let them go away with their scammed items/peds, illegaly received ATH's, using second avatars in events to gain advantages or create duped items and can keep them.

Cashcard, CE implementation, other planets, improvments in taming, improvments in mindforce etc. etc.

Lots of things promized but not delivered.

Conclusion:
I trust them not to scam me with selling my personal infos but I do not trust them to do anything more than the absolute minimum in favour of their paying customers and I trust that to MA some customers are more equal than others, like TT'ed items cant be replaced as long as not someone with a really big amount of money is involved in such a thing because this means MA will change the rules on the fly if enough money is involved.

PS: I do not say xxSq... should not have be getting his amp back but it is ridiculouse that a lot others with items maybe worth 1/10th of the amp had to wait for a valuable item to be dumped so MA revises the policy and to get a chance to also retrive their accidently TT'ed items.

 

[Parlog]

1. I trust in that there is defiately a huge market in MAs market niche.
2. I trust in the numbers of their balance sheets, they give it out on point and do not leave anything out even if it looks bad on the first sight.
3. I trust in the online security MA provides.
4. I trust in the fact that MA does not give out any information which might give insight in the game-structure and ingame-dynamics. ( Even a scorelist thats published during an event can have dramatical effects on the moral of players, so cut it out)
5. I trust in the fact that only a small corridor of behaviour is a non-gamble-way to play EU, as it is in the real world.
6. I trust in EUs dynamics, in the fact that next steps can be foreseen in those dynamics and in the fact that it is loads of work to foresee in EU.
7. I trust in the fact that at least 75% of EUs players play wrong and thereby loose money (me included sometimes)
8. I trust in that lifes not all honeymoon, not for MA as a company, not for us ingame.
9. I trust in the belief that everything (especially bad loot periods) have a reason and can be taken as signs for something, even though the "something" lies in the dark and will only be revealed directly before it is implied.
10. I trust in my knowledge about advertisement that tells me that huge adds for the game right now, before the Crytopia-change would not only cost enourmous sums, but also would harm EU immensly.
11. I trust in the fact that gamedesigners never ever release their games on point. As far as i know this never happened before and if with serious problems.
12. I trust MA more than FPC, i saw a serious cut down in my loots after the change and that average returns significantly lowered. FPC seems to have a milk-the-cow-as-long-as-it-eats-grass-attitude. They will have to earn their trust and respect first as far as i am concerned and i think this is what caused the recent wave of distrust. But hey, check MAs balance sheet of last year again, seems like they really have to milk the cow now.

I voted yes

 

[Sirhc]

Yummi, so many good posts. On a sidenote, you do know that most companies would pay for a survey like this? Are you hired Sirhc?

Damn you mean I could get paid to ask questions like this Unfortunately I am not hired and as with all things these days not sure how long I will be hired at my current Eng Design Job (hopefully long enough to get through this economic slump)

Thanks to those who have responded and those who will respond to my questions. I think have I gained some valuable insight and understanding on how people feel about MA/FPC.

I guess overall I was just concerned that there was this air of distrust in many posts and I could not really understand the duality of trusting a company enough to deposit immense sums of money but not trusting them in other aspects of the system.

It would be nice for Marco and crew to read some of these posts. It might not be totally flattery and fanfare but I think it will make them a better company if they can change certain perceptions current and future participants have. I think FPC has "the ball in their court" so to speak and its up to them on where Calypso goes from here.

I also want to thank everyone for not turning this thread into a MA hate slug fest and I do appreciate all the thoughtful answers.

 

[Steve_saber]

Do I have alot of RL money in game? yes.

Do I like every decision MA make? No.

Do I see some improvement game wise with FPC? yes.

Do I think there's more room for improvement? Absolutely.

Do I trust them? Yes, i'd say I basically do.


Why anyone would give personal info, and put in real cash with someone they don't trust, or continiue to log in day after day boggles my mind...lol (I'll refrain from commenting further about this, as it would get me in trouble with the mods. )

 

[SHY]

If you dont trust MA at all... There is no need to play Entropia

 

[Pianoman178]

I trust MA to an extent. I trust them to keep my personal information secure. I trust them to keep their server uptime to a maximum. Thats about it.

So far we have experienced that we can't trust them to provide a proper score-board for their own events. We can't trust them to withdrawal money in a timely manner (1-month is NOT timely), even though deposits are instant. We can't trust them to follow-through on 80% of the things they say. We can't even trust that all of the items for sale on their website even work! (Cash-card, anyone?)

I have stated this plenty of times. I treat this game as a form of entertainment, so I don't go crazy depositing or "investing" in items that would cost me a month's pay. I play to have fun, and possibly have some ammount to withdrawal when I finally stop playing (which won't be for a LONG time ).

Would I be more willing to put more money in this game if certain things were addressed? Absolutely. But as things stand right now, we as a community have close to no idea how any of the systems in EU work. No one even knows the official % chance to hit or miss for a maxed weapon. In other games this is common knowledge. Those subjects (i.e. lack of knowledge on the systems of EU) is only half of the overall problem.

The other half is the actual gameplay mechanics. The lack of content with regard to MindForce. We have heard on several occasions that the MF system will be addressed. Has it? I think you all know the answer. There are plenty of other examples of improvements that MA has promised which are nowhere to be found.

Trust in EU is a two-way road. We as the community and players need to trust that MA will be fair, and follow through with their proposals. MA needs to trust that their playerbase will be loyal and continue to play this game which has so much potential.

Just think of how this overall economy functions now with only a few thousand active members. If MA seriousy addressed the issues which I have mentioned here, trust, excitement, and fun would drive this "game" or RCE universe to explode.

-Piano

 

[Steve_saber]

Would I be more willing to put more money in this game if certain things were addressed? Absolutely. But as things stand right now, we as a community have close to no idea how any of the systems in EU work. No one even knows the official % chance to hit or miss for a maxed weapon. In other games this is common knowledge. Those subjects (i.e. lack of knowledge on the systems of EU) is only half of the overall problem.[/B]

-Piano

Ummmm, these other games you speak of, are they games with an RCE where Real Cash is involved??????

If you are waiting to for these questions to ever be answered for EU....you are going to be VERY disappointed.

If it ever does become common knowledge, be assured it would be changed so fast it would make your head spin.

 

[Pianoman178]

Ummmm, these other games you speak of, are they games with an RCE where Real Cash is involved??????

If you are waiting to for these questions to ever be answered for EU....you are going to be VERY disappointed.

If it ever does become common knowledge, be assured it would be changed so fast it would make your head spin.

That is exactly what I am talking about

Why does that information need to be a secret?

I can understand that loot rules, mining claims, etc need to be hidden from the public.

But why do we have issues such as scopes and SIB for our guns, when we have no idea what they do? MA provides us with this item to attach to our guns, which provides a 2% skillmod. WTF is skillmod? Have they told us? If I remember correctly, there was a time where less than full TT scopes actually caused you to miss MORE often? We don't even know if the SIB (Skill Increase Bonus) gives us more skills.

These are the exact situations I am talking about. I personally am not waiting for these questions to be answered by MA. I am saying that there are reasons the players in this community do not trust MA. That is the topic of this thread.

Trust can be directly linked to the amount of players and PED in this universe.

 

[BrianMik]

That is exactly what I am talking about

Why does that information need to be a secret?

I can understand that loot rules, mining claims, etc need to be hidden from the public.

......

These are the exact situations I am talking about. I personally am not waiting for these questions to be answered by MA. I am saying that there are reasons the players in this community do not trust MA. That is the topic of this thread.

Trust can be directly linked to the amount of players and PED in this universe.

The huge amount of PED in this universe compared to the relatively small playerbase is quite impressive IMO. This ratio of $/Player shows there is an awful lot of trust.

Sure, maybe certain things can be clarified more ingame, such as whether weapon attachments enhance after being 10/10 (Which has been commented on by MA...)

I really hope they never start revealing much more than that though.

The thing many of us love about this universe is that there is no instruction manual. There is vast amounts of knowledge to be gained by playing or by doing research. Without EntropiaForum, knowledge wouldn't be shared so easily, people would be even more in the dark and even more bogus myths would circulate around than does already.

Not only do skills give you an advantage, but knowledge does too.
The more transparent you make the game, the less of an edge you will have if you figure out more than the average player.

Imagine if there wasn't sites like entropedia. Knowing mob loots would be a tremendous advantage...and i'm sure stuff like that is still often kept secret on the uber level. Just an example of how important knowledge is in this universe...

 

[Joat]

Been thinking some of this, so here are some thoughts of mine.

If I have trust in MA? Hm... both yes and no, depends on what is brought
up for discussion I guess...
Most decisions MA do, are done with a bit more facts than we users have
so what might seem odd might be necessary and a must.

Do I trust that items I buy expensievly will be as efficient and good in
the future? Nope, not anymore. But same here, changes that do some
items "worthless" might be a must.
Sometimes I see a excuse from MA, that isn't the real reason. That makes
me less positive, but same here too. If they said the 100% fact, result
might be far worse than using the excuse. Even thou', at some occasions,
fact is better, no matter how negative reactions will be.

Do I take MA seriously? Hm, no not to 100%, due to some of above
mentioned "issues", and info I got IRL from "some" authorities.

Do I think MA try to do their best? Absolutly. It might not look like it
occasionly, but MA don't have several hundred in staff, so things might
not go as fast as we wish. Sadly it takes a little too long time for some
parts to be finished thou' ...
On the other hand, EU has some levels higher need for security around
everthing. A small mistake can make a gigantic negative result for everone.
Better "safe than sorry" I guess, even if it gonna have impact to the
Roadmap...

Do I trust the whole system around loot? Nah, not really. At least not
in some parts of the logic in the system used. IMO, to get more people
active which creates a lot of revenue stream and making a lot of depos,
a decent ROI is way better than having a terrible ROI forcing people to
do more depos, due to drained PEDcard. It works perfectly in theory, not
necessary in practice, to have terrible ROI. On the other hand, decent
ROI might not work either... But too many active players might not be
best either...

So, when putting everything together, do I distrust MA and EU? Nope,
even thou' a lot could be better IMO.

 

[sententz]

yes..i trust MA!

 

[MistyDawn]

Yes, I trust MA 100%


I trust them to fnuk things up.

 

[nar]

ofcourse i trust MA, they need players

 

[Tom]

how can I trust them if they do this to me....

 

[Lobbe]

I do trust them and I love EU *hope my hof will come now* lol