Ferial
Old Alpha
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2012
- Posts
- 796
- Location
- Sweden
- Avatar Name
- Chris Ferial Book
Holy crap, this turned into a whole discussion (a surprisingly interesting one) when there didn't really need to be one in the first place.
MindaArk rarely speak, and when they do, it is generally the truth (albeit, sometimes a bit mysterious in wording). MindArk has stated several times throughout the years that "there is no personal lootpool".
There has been some backlash at these statements inferring that we do not know what MA means when they say "personal lootpool". My earliest findings of the term (in the words of MindArk) was in response to a discussion on a topic claiming that "Eco is a lie" to which MA responded "there is no system in place to track individual returns and compensate players for bad returns" (paraphrased). This was a long time ago. it was also referenced in a dev note, a long time ago.
This is going to sound very contradictory to the people who keep questioning whether this is gambling or not, but MindArk (or rather Entropia) works exactly like a "dealer" at a poker table every hand you play, you pay a fee (big blind, small blind). This is the "house money". Every interaction with Entropia (that incur a cost) gives "house money" to MA. The rest goes to the table.
This is where the poker similarities end (almost).
Every time you shoot a mob, you add more money to the table, when you loot you are paid out of the table.
How much of the stake being paid out is unknown to us. It is decided by factors unknown to us. We know there is a randomizer. We are fairly certain that it can be influenced by the choices we make. What we know for certain is that there will never be more money paid out than is "in the table" unless a glitch occurs.
Basically whenever you get more out than you put in, you get paid out of what you or someone else put on the table.
As such, there is a lootpool (in terms of valuable funds to pay out) and there is a lootpool in other aspects (such as available items to loot, which has been clearly observed over the years. Still unclear how deep this goes. Common resources? Who knows?)
But there is no personal lootpool. There is no system in place that keeps track of your returns and pays up if you are down too much. There is no system in place to take back if you have taken too much from the table.
How do we know? MindArk has stated so, several times. But more important, there doesn't need to be such a system. Statistics fixes this all by itself. MA makes money without all that extra work of adding a system that keeps track of things and fixed things.
(this also means that there are likely people with exceptionally poor experiences all around. These people quit. And there are people with exceptionally good experiences all around and these are the ones wondering what most other people are complaining about)
MindaArk rarely speak, and when they do, it is generally the truth (albeit, sometimes a bit mysterious in wording). MindArk has stated several times throughout the years that "there is no personal lootpool".
There has been some backlash at these statements inferring that we do not know what MA means when they say "personal lootpool". My earliest findings of the term (in the words of MindArk) was in response to a discussion on a topic claiming that "Eco is a lie" to which MA responded "there is no system in place to track individual returns and compensate players for bad returns" (paraphrased). This was a long time ago. it was also referenced in a dev note, a long time ago.
This is going to sound very contradictory to the people who keep questioning whether this is gambling or not, but MindArk (or rather Entropia) works exactly like a "dealer" at a poker table every hand you play, you pay a fee (big blind, small blind). This is the "house money". Every interaction with Entropia (that incur a cost) gives "house money" to MA. The rest goes to the table.
This is where the poker similarities end (almost).
Every time you shoot a mob, you add more money to the table, when you loot you are paid out of the table.
How much of the stake being paid out is unknown to us. It is decided by factors unknown to us. We know there is a randomizer. We are fairly certain that it can be influenced by the choices we make. What we know for certain is that there will never be more money paid out than is "in the table" unless a glitch occurs.
Basically whenever you get more out than you put in, you get paid out of what you or someone else put on the table.
As such, there is a lootpool (in terms of valuable funds to pay out) and there is a lootpool in other aspects (such as available items to loot, which has been clearly observed over the years. Still unclear how deep this goes. Common resources? Who knows?)
But there is no personal lootpool. There is no system in place that keeps track of your returns and pays up if you are down too much. There is no system in place to take back if you have taken too much from the table.
How do we know? MindArk has stated so, several times. But more important, there doesn't need to be such a system. Statistics fixes this all by itself. MA makes money without all that extra work of adding a system that keeps track of things and fixed things.
(this also means that there are likely people with exceptionally poor experiences all around. These people quit. And there are people with exceptionally good experiences all around and these are the ones wondering what most other people are complaining about)