About maintenance fees

Discussion in 'General Entropia Universe Discussion' started by INTERNUT, Dec 4, 2021.

  1. San

    San

    What do people who play a game at all have against gambling? It's a personal choice. Has everybody turned religious?
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  2. Yeah this is a well known, tried and tested business model/practice to follow, so there's some merit to this if it's the case, but certain things need to be looked at imho. Such as more affordable trading solutions and MA not announcing everything on their forums, etc, so that there's nothing new to discover; more needs to be revealed in-game naturally using PA systems or radio broadcasts - and there needs to be more participant created content.
     
  3. There should be in-game gambling maybe, like fruit machines and also a lottery or something. Bit like euromillions...
     
  4. San

    San

    This would be the most surefire way of clashing with regulation, cf. Second Life.

    We have a random algorithm at the core of Entropia's systems, while your chances to returns are algorithm-based, much like a simulation of how nature works (quantum mechanics). With the regard for science in decline, the specter of getting that pulled, too, is a limiting factor.
     
  5. NotAdmin

    NotAdmin Administrator

    Oh, it's absolutely a personal choice. But the gambling industry is highly regulated, and for good reasons. Players can actually see the published odds.

    MA offers a casino, but without the regulation and the overview that comes with it. I believe they should be forced to just admit that their "game" is in fact nothing more than gambling with extra steps.
     
  6. San

    San

    But the odds are published, if arguably obscured.
     
  7. NotAdmin

    NotAdmin Administrator

    Have you ever played a slot machine? The odds are listed right on the machine. It clearly shows the different symbols on each reel, as well as the odds.

    "overall 90% is achieavble if you have alarge enough bankroll" is really vague, and while that indeed might be possible to find, it's not exactly listed in the client loader or the EU frontpage (which is where it should be).

    When I wokred at Unity, I didn't really deal much with the gambling part of the business, but I know there were tons of additional hoops and regulations that had to be abided by, none of which MA seems to be held to. Heck, their piss poor QA and the amount of bugs alone clearly show that oversight or regulation is not something they bother with.

    It's also why they most likely gave up on their banking license. I higly doubt their develppment practises and the way they somehow manage to mess up in every single release would pass event the most basic of tests.
     
    • Agree Agree x 2
  8. But you said - 'What do people who play a game at all have against gambling?', so I was sort of agreeing with that with my suggestions of in-game gambling and a lottery (whether or not this would be a surefire way of clashing with regulations)... EU has great potential but it needs to be opened-up more, though seeing as it's been live since the early 00's, MA's had more than enough time to do this...
     
  9. San

    San

    I am not in agreement with most regulations against it, but there are realities a company in this field must work with to be allowed to exist at all. I just wonder sometimes about others playing the same game, but at the same time expressing themselves as if they wanted to destroy it by calling down authorities on it if any aspect, related or unrelated to gambling, is criticized.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  10. San

    San

    Of course. I don't like this murkiness either, and even when they do publish hints they are deliberatly vague. If it was "just a game", okay, but in an RCE nothing short of full disclosure is acceptable.
    The ominous 90% are a myth, however. I don't recall this number ever being uttered by officials, it's players who keep floating it. In developer notes following the introduction of Loot 2.0 a figure of 97.x% was given, but this is the overall return to the entire community and likely subject to change with economic conditions and they don't follow up with regular updates. Individual chances vary and are controlled by several factors. Iirc, two dimensions were stated to have their influence limited to a difference of 7% between highest and lowest impact, and that individual long-term results can no longer exceed 100%. We have the additional element of a market for loot, which brings skill or business acumen to the front again. No, we do not have a pure gambling operation here but the chance part should not be subject to players investing large sums of real money only to find out its workings.
     
  11. NotAdmin

    NotAdmin Administrator

    I think we agree on that part completely :)

    I really don't remember, but I think it was being mentioned somewhere around Loot 2.0 or so. Another major issue I have is that if everything was JUST algorithm based, that'd be one thing, but MA definitely has the ability to drop loot at their whim, and have done so.

    As for the market for loot and skills, that used to be a factor that allowed people to recover some of their losses. However, subsequent changes made by MindArk ensured that most of the loot is worthless nowadays. I never got why they felt the need to diversify into so many different drops, the great majority of which have absolutely zero need to exist, and their sale value reflects it.

    I at some point suggested Ed from Cyrene to try and limit whatever components are used in Cyrene recipes to a maximum number of components, and all of the components having multiple uses. That by nature would ensure there would be a market for the loot, for lower- and medium level crafted items, and thus would ensure there'd be a markup.

    Of course MindArk would never allow this, as their entire business seems to heavily lean on people simply TTing stuff to empty their PED card ASAP and deposit more. Likewise, skills are pretty much worthless nowadays. There's simply not enough suckers to sell them to, meaning whatever "piggy bank" people thought they had, by the time they want to use that value, they find it severely lacking or too much of a hassle to try and sell. Thus, they leave the skills on their avatars, and never return. Once again, that money is something MindArk can conveniently write off as liabilities, and thus keep in their own pockets.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  12. I agree with the reality of this; I realise that MA has to agree to certain regulations else fall foul of the law, but then maybe the authorities are a bit hypocritical here, because in RL, gambling, lotteries and similar are allowed, at least if the operators are licenced, so can't see why these things can't take place in a mmo/mmorpg. I accept that they can't, but just saying...
     
  13. Wistrel

    Wistrel Kick Ass Elf

    EP blueprints... available from the TT... gamble away my friend... as much as you like... no inconvenience with lack of resources either...
     
  14. Wistrel

    Wistrel Kick Ass Elf

    That's not the same as a raffle. Crucially MA and their algorithm determine who can enter (get a ticket/entry). It's not the same as me selling 1 ped tickets for a raffle that anyone can buy any amount of. Participation is controlled by MA. I do note that, IIRC, a player tried to do something like this on their land area and got shut down (Ms Pudding?). Presumably MA didn't like the notion of a player rolling the dice unsupervised. I guess with a planet partner MA are OK with it though. It could be Kris even arranged to pass the data to MA and have them pick the winner... who knows.
     
    • Agree Agree x 1
  15. Wistrel

    Wistrel Kick Ass Elf

    If you are interested in raffles... they've got them on Entropia Partners. You can read my (very out of date) review here, be sure to click my affiliate the link in the article and give it a try ;) ;) ;)

    (Seriously Entropia Partners is pretty good if you have time and no PED and Tia is really nice, she channels any cash made back into Entropia so she can play big for free essentially so you don't need to worry about lining someone else's pockets too much. She's been on at me to write another review for ages but I just don't have the time to spend on research/writing these days. I did try the site again recently for a short while and made a handful of ped)
     
    • Informative Informative x 1
  16. Wistrel

    Wistrel Kick Ass Elf

    I'm sure I remember MA saying something like this at some point... but fraid I don't have a source.

    edit: Similar to @NotAdmin I had a feeling it was around about the time of loot 2.0 too
     
  17. Nice article you did there, and I might be interested in raffles - but I'm really thinking of ways that MA could open-up EU more; ways they could make it more life-like.
     
  18. Wistrel

    Wistrel Kick Ass Elf

    Thanks haha I was actually listening to my computer read it out to me again the other night and was laughing my head off. Nice to know I can amuse myself :D
     
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