Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread on ND

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

Interesting stuff there Lavawalker (or is it Sparkz...!?),

I hadn't bothered to read that thread before although I had a rough idea why people were unhappy with the NEVERDIE regime, but it's certainly eye-opening to read the details. Thanks for this, and I'll be on the lookout for your results. They could change a lot actually. We also have to remember that the Planet Partners are new and Mindark are not known for getting things right immediately. Eventually they'll see some sense in the community's cries and changes can be made, but it will take things like this to get the point across directly.

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

to save waiting till Tuesday, i predict the answers would be:

yes (self evidently true as ND has done)
yes (self evidently true as ND has done)
no (too narrow and undefined)
no (too narrow and undefined)
some fluff about guidelines and contracts.

actually the answer will be they cannot discuss such arrangements outside of formal discussions about becoming a planet partner, please contact xyz if you wish to do so. if they answer at all. its slightly ironic in all this talk of conflicts of interest anyone would expect MA to answer the baying mob, who's interest is minimal. it would certainly be a conflict of interest to pass out such detailed information that might impact on other upcoming planets.



I should also point out Aven's post is very well written, but has tiny problem:

why is it assumed that MA and this game world of their's is one of those professions? the examples used are very specific and have a common theme of being highly regulated. computer games are not regulated and elsewhere in business conflict of interest is not so clear cut. in fact its quite common (and raises accusations of conflicts, though with little resolution) for even accountancy consultanties to be involved in companies in a consultantcy capacity, where they also audit them. in mining and oil exploration there is often larger companies that are involved in smaller, competing companies, and those smaller companies might be involved in joint ventures with each other too. you'll find similar relationships through-out other industries where it suits and mutually beneficial.

the common consensues that players must not be financially involved in the game companies and their operations is one i find very contradictary. people have often said they'd like to be involved in a planet or would wish to buy shares. presumably all these people would sell up their avatar to do so since they would then be owners too? i think not as they would not have any enjoyment from that, but now some is actually doing exactly the wish of so many, its deplored and everyone instant cries foul.

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

Wheres your sense of adventure !


~Mob mentality rules ....lol

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

well for the first two there is no speculation. ND has invested into player areas and other planets, so you are allowed to do so, QED.

question 3 and 4 have also been covered in the past, employees may play on sanctioned accounts from which they may not withdraw. so no, they cannot play for personal gain, but that doesnt mean they cannot play. we do not know that those friends and family of ND that are active in game are withdrawing. i'd imagine as part of the gang and being paid as developers/testers or whatever they dont need to play for "personal gain".

besides the questions are really just to reflect your opinion of conflicts of interest. im constantly wondering why in this debate people think ND having a LA on another planet is a conflict of interest, since it is detremental to his own planet as he drives traffic to few LA at 5% tax rather than his planet where 50% decay revenue is on offer.

everyone wants clarity, but dont even ask more interesting and probing questions from this situation. the one i'd be interested to know is how much did ND pay for his planet licence? in moving his IP to NI rather than Rocktopia, does that mean he sees more traffic there? is there an implication that Rocktopia was a proof of concept, a test bed for his development studio to work on before working on "real" planets? now thats a real conflict of interest or at least very uncompetitve for other planet partners who havent had the benefits of such a scenario. but no one asks about this, just get upset that Next Island has Neverdie branding on it.



some qualification. i used to work for a company involved in financial information. they would sell that information to the public and to professional traders. they would sell the information to other infomation providers. they would buy information from them too. they would offer services for companies to publish their financial data online. they would also sell the data wholesale to others who would rebrand and publish the data as if their own. as a listed company some of this would be notified to investors, some openly, some not. this is in the regulated world of the UK stock market. My current employer is in a very specifc data niche and nearly all the competitors are run by ex-employees, or their employees move to us. there are companies that provide us data that compete with each other but still use our common platform for some data gathering, and new companies have started up that use the "inside" knowledge of contacts and technology from previous companies to setup. From both these companies, i see several parallels to what is happening with planet partners, ND and others, yet no one really worries about conflicts of interest and the customers certainly dont care as long as the services are working as they expect.

im far more concerned about questions around whats happening to gameplay and marketing in the new planets and Calypso.

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

5% tax is more than 50% decay revenue.

Of course there can be a big difference in the size of the area and the number of players that generate the revenue - but for one player in one place, the 5% tax is the higher of the two.

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

not knowing for sure either way, i've based my thoughts the premise that MA themselves run on decay rather than tax, and dont tax Calypso, so i assume the planet decay is far more. it may well be the case as you highlight that with small player numbers the tax is greater than planet decay revenue. if so, ND is using this knowledge to realign operations, which is certainly an unfair advantage. no ones seems to have thought of the reasoning and questioned it from this perspective.

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

lol who cares what is more 50% of decay or 5% of the tax.....

He gets both!

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

While I could at times, before, be a little 'careless' about this, I have to admit, that I am not that 'blonde' anymore.

I am thinking of all the other PlanetPartners too. Things should be equal, and the terms of having planets in EU should be consistent and equal too.

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

Not on Next Island, which is owned by someone else. One of the ridiculous things about the NI launch is that it would appear likely that the developer is currently earning more than the owner, due to the launch strategy chosen by the developer.

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

Somewhere in an office building in Mexico (is support still in Mexico?) someone's finger is lingering over the "your support case has been sent to the design team for further study" button.

The conflict of interest problems will only get worse with more planets in the pipeline unless resolved to everyone's satisfaction soon. However, even if ND and his staff step back and become non-withdrawing official avas, nothing is stopping them passing ped to a "friend", and the conspiracy theories will continue endlessly.

Another question is whether MA has the power or the will to rock ND's boat and order him to comply if future CoI rules are set.

I guess I'm not very optimistic about this issue.

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

Unfortunately, I'm not either. :(

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

I doubt anyone is optimistic about an official answer, but as you say Lava we might get surprised

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

I think Simmons payed ND with the teampark for his work. And this puts this in another light. Is it OK, to pay your consultant with virtual property?

 

Entropia partner "Conflicts of Interest" case study and summary from PCF thread o

Indeed, this looks very bad business on MA's side.

I doubt anything will come out of this support case am but subscribing to this thread just in case.