Are MA/FPC able to run the game professional

not really sure if this is a general whinge or aimed at somthing in particular.

MA arent unprofessional per se, they just get alot of stuff wrong alot of the time and seem unable to learn from mistakes. support isnt always bad, if you write a sensible query you get a sensible answer (might have to reword it a few times), and the auto-responces are usually because the firstline support doesnt know or doesnt have the authority to answer more fully. this is normal in any company.

Can they be trusted? different propostion really and it depends on what you are trusting them with. I think the game is mis-sold to a degree, with emphasis on making ped, "real" cash economy etc and people build expectations from that. engage brain after a week playing and you should see though all that marketing fluff, it is NOT an investment in any sence (with the possibly exception of Land). It is a hobby, a passtime, that returns some revenue and a few might even profit from (just like any other hobby really). do you distrust how they deploy loot? to some degree they might, but its easier to design a fair system than an unfair system, so inclinded to believe the problems are due to flaws, both in design and implementation. again, little different to other companies. most of the issues i believe come from indesicion, conflicting strategies and so on rather than malice. i just wish they'd damn well learn to not repeat them or hold their hands up, acknowledge and fix some (like the foot guard sham).

talk of how they will perfrom with planets is wide of the mark as those they are dealing with have even less experience or are old enough to know what to expect.

 

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couple of points i disagree there Natasza, firstly Shinobi is his own "special" case and competition wouldn't change that.

secondly, anyone who understands economies would recognise very quickly all the flaws and missing attributes to this game's economy. the real-ness is from the fact cash is officially represented, not that the economy is real (its actually the inverse of real economies with money the raw resource and ores, matters, materials and items all abstract).

however, very good point about the demand. how much is down to lack of marketing? remains to be seen as we havent had a substantial marketing effort, the new planets will hopfully change this. Though i wonder if this isnt deliberate consdiering how the current infrastructure holds up with the current interest. this isnt the same as a normal MMO game where you just drop in another rack and fire up a new "server" for the next 10k users, we all on one sinlge instance with one common set of background systems. when you try to think how it might be working, it should hurt your head (or you dont get the IT involved).

 

I think that it would be in Mindark and other planet partners interest to be independantly audited for "fair" play. There are a lot of rumours that exist on the net about MA, and i'm sure that they have nothing to hide. Handling the amount of money that they do i believe it would provide a hell of a lot more confidence in MA, if they could proudly display some kind of certification of audit for this.
I'll Google to see if any certification exists.

http://www.questia.com/googleSchola...zGkQrr!1275526282!-1058699480?docId=103182101

 

I think we will never see real competitors because Entropia RCE model is a unique one. I dont remember exactly what it says and I did not annalysed it enough and I just dont remember where to find the web site again, but I think they patented (<---- maybe typo or aother word) their RCE model. So, I think that's the reason why partners come in Entropia instead of launching their own copy of Entropia.

Anyway, I built some kind of trust toward MindArk since 5 years and it would be really hard for me to trust another company that would copy Entropia model but with different graphics.



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Found it.

http://v3.espacenet.com/publication...=A1&FT=D&date=20020124&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP

Bye-Bye competitors.

 

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That patent is useless since you cant really patent p2p trades in any game platform.

Anyone can build a RCE mmo with that exact way of trading and if MA sues they will lose

 

I dont say I will never trust others, but that it will be very hard for me to trust others. Maybe 5-10 years or more after they are on the market I will. Naive or not, I will not be in the first to support a company started by frustrated ex-entropians or copiers.

And yes, all others than american cars "was" crap. That's why I waited 20 years to buy something else. :o

ofc I believe it. What's the use of patents if it's not to protect inventions? If European Patent Office decided that it worth to be patented, I think the same. And I also think the court would say the same as long as MindArk pay for the patent thing.



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Why dont Mindark sue Second Life? Oh thats right,MindArk has no case and the patent is pretty useless

 

So, you too think that EPO are bunch of dumbs that will patent anything as long as you give them cash to protect your thing without checking if it worth it or if it's legal to patent it?

I dont know really. Maybe you're right. Now I need to find someone else patented idea and trying to get rich to know if the court and EPO will let me do it.

 

Dont know. I dont play SL. I cant talk about his RCE but it probably not the same. It is SL makers that send money in your bank account or you have to trade SL virtual cash vs real cash with other players?

It's surelly not the same thing. If yes, EPO are crooks that sell false security to inventors?


Or maybe MindArk know that SL not worth the time to sue them because SL is not a menace at all.

 

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Why you quote only few words? It's obvious that it talk about RCE in virtual universe.

 

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In Second Life people trade in the exact same way as in EU. You meet someone, trade Linden Dollar for a something shitty and then you withdraw the L$ and get paid by Linden Labs in $.

I would say SL is a "menace" to EU even though it is lame,it has over 20million accounts and a active playerbase far beyond EU's total accounts signed up

 

I always thought Linden Labs don't buy back their L$hit and the only way to get US$ out of SL is to sell them to other players (or well, to some currency exchange independent from Linden Labs)

SL is a virtual p0rn studio, nothing more - there is nothing you can do except buying the new version of attachable penises and well, use them - other than that, there is nothing you can do (if it's not your idea of fun to buy new outfits for your virtual barbie, use it as big chatroom or watch pixelated girls undressing) - some run a business inside SL, but it is hardly comparable to EU. It is as much of a "menace" to EU as a sex toy store is a menace to a car dealer.

 

maybe you dont understand patents, but that is pretty much how they work. you pay a fee, a clerk does a basic review to see if theres any prior art or related patents, if not it is approved (few other conditions too). Its up to a court to verify if the patent is actually valid. simply using new terminiology or patenting somthing no one has filed for before (but plenty of prior art) can be enough to get the patent approved.

the obvious prior art in this case is all electronic trading systems, ie stock, bond, currency, derivatives markets, spead betting and betting exchanges, on the trading side; all MMO computer games covers the virtual world side. is there enough novelty to the middle ground where the two converge? no court action against SL or Afterlife would suggest not and lets not forget its been possible (if not official) to trade for real money in all MMO for a long time.

 

As one sees often with startups is that after the initial period where visionaries are needed it is time to put the visionaries aside and have real business people take over the control of the company. If this does not happen one sees often that startup goes bankrupt due to bad business decissions.

Cheers
Siam