Legends
Elite
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2006
- Posts
- 3,235
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- Twin Peaks mall, 2nd floor
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- Dirty Dingos
- Avatar Name
- Inherent Marxus Legends
For the last 2 days I have been thinking about what to ask... It is not easy given that we only get 1 question this time... But I think I know what is the most important thing for me to know about for my future involvement with Entropia:
First I just want to set the context for the question because I would like to have an accurate (as much as possible) answer to this:
Investment and Speculation are a big part of Entropia. In fact I would say that the most successful individuals in Entropia are the big investors and the guys (and gals) that have bought in early on new releases and content. Some examples of this would be Calypso Land Deeds, Shopping Malls, Banks, Asteroid, Land Areas, etc... These guys have provided a lot of the funds necessary for Entropia to continue to grow and expand over the years.
I know that this is part of the initial concept and an important part of the Entropia Universe experience and I think we all know and understand that you will continue to create new investment opportunities for participants in the future; Entropia just wouldn't be the same without such opportunities.
However as any experienced investor would tell you, having an exit strategy is a very important aspect of any investment opportunity. Before you give your money, you should always answer to yourself the question "How do I get that money back if things don't go the way I thought they were going to?"
Unfortunately in Entropia, in this last decade, some 'Investment opportunities' were created by MindArk which did not include any possible exit strategy for investors and instead was offered on promises of future development, with no details and no timeline for it. Some specific examples of this would include mainly the Motherships, Stables, Land Plots and the Ark Moon. What this has resulted in is many Entropia participants getting frustrated with MindArk, voicing a lot of discontent here in this forum and elsewhere, and some even having to sell their virtual assets at great loss because of not being able to wait any longer for MindArk to 'deliver' on their promises.
I'm sure you'll agree, this is not in anyone's interest to have such things happen. I'm sure you did not intend for this to happen, I'm sure you felt confident on your ability to deliver in a timely manner at the time and did not mean to cheat anyone when these virtual items were offered/sold, but this was detrimental in many ways to the confidence in EU and MA and caused some participants a lot of frustration and financial losses.
I do understand that you cannot make promises about 'delivery' dates for new content and features but in many cases, you never had to do that before. Examples are the Shopping Malls and Banks, which were largely done already when you put them up for auction. I remember them being released into the game shortly after the auctions had ended (like a week or two), fully done and ready for use.
Many individuals just cannot leave large sums of real money tied up into virtual assets in Entropia Universe for a decade waiting for you to deliver on promises and frankly that's a very unrealistic expectation to have from your participants...
So the question:
Do you plan on selling only completed assets in the future or do you at least see a future where you can come up with a way to provide investors with a timeline or more accurate set of expectations so that they can better estimate their exit strategy?
Thanks in advance for your answer,
Legends
First I just want to set the context for the question because I would like to have an accurate (as much as possible) answer to this:
Investment and Speculation are a big part of Entropia. In fact I would say that the most successful individuals in Entropia are the big investors and the guys (and gals) that have bought in early on new releases and content. Some examples of this would be Calypso Land Deeds, Shopping Malls, Banks, Asteroid, Land Areas, etc... These guys have provided a lot of the funds necessary for Entropia to continue to grow and expand over the years.
I know that this is part of the initial concept and an important part of the Entropia Universe experience and I think we all know and understand that you will continue to create new investment opportunities for participants in the future; Entropia just wouldn't be the same without such opportunities.
However as any experienced investor would tell you, having an exit strategy is a very important aspect of any investment opportunity. Before you give your money, you should always answer to yourself the question "How do I get that money back if things don't go the way I thought they were going to?"
Unfortunately in Entropia, in this last decade, some 'Investment opportunities' were created by MindArk which did not include any possible exit strategy for investors and instead was offered on promises of future development, with no details and no timeline for it. Some specific examples of this would include mainly the Motherships, Stables, Land Plots and the Ark Moon. What this has resulted in is many Entropia participants getting frustrated with MindArk, voicing a lot of discontent here in this forum and elsewhere, and some even having to sell their virtual assets at great loss because of not being able to wait any longer for MindArk to 'deliver' on their promises.
I'm sure you'll agree, this is not in anyone's interest to have such things happen. I'm sure you did not intend for this to happen, I'm sure you felt confident on your ability to deliver in a timely manner at the time and did not mean to cheat anyone when these virtual items were offered/sold, but this was detrimental in many ways to the confidence in EU and MA and caused some participants a lot of frustration and financial losses.
I do understand that you cannot make promises about 'delivery' dates for new content and features but in many cases, you never had to do that before. Examples are the Shopping Malls and Banks, which were largely done already when you put them up for auction. I remember them being released into the game shortly after the auctions had ended (like a week or two), fully done and ready for use.
Many individuals just cannot leave large sums of real money tied up into virtual assets in Entropia Universe for a decade waiting for you to deliver on promises and frankly that's a very unrealistic expectation to have from your participants...
So the question:
Do you plan on selling only completed assets in the future or do you at least see a future where you can come up with a way to provide investors with a timeline or more accurate set of expectations so that they can better estimate their exit strategy?
Thanks in advance for your answer,
Legends
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