People Make Games - Review and David Simmonds interviewed (8/2020)

I liked how someone left a comment about the depth of the story and missions or something along those lines. I'm not sure whether that person actually played EU at all.

 

Lol, Simmonds & EU core community meeting modern gaming journalism.

I don't go to PCF anymore but would be fun to compare the video comments and the PCF comments.

What's the problem in simply admitting that it's pure gambling, a shitty game always 10 years behind the standards and MA a developer incapable of changing anything about that with a total lack of vision. Just admit it and keep playing. I play shitty games too but 95% of the time I play good games :)

 

What I don't get is why they are blamin the journalist. It's a real cash economy, and it fucking reeks and acts like a slot machine. Of fucking course they will go at it with the gambling angle (and I'm surprised not more media have done so). MindArk has had close to 20 years to have a proper answer ready. And yet, SSimmonds stumbles and apparenlty is caught off-guard, like the useless twat he is.

He came across just about as unsympathetic as possible, ill-prepared (despite the video creators stating in the comments that they initially talked to some marketing spokesgoblin, and decided not to use that footage, as the marketing person wasn't willing or able to answer certain questions.

If the PCF crowd wants to hate on anyone, hate on Simmonds. The former CEO, current chairman of the board, who single-handedly managed to turn loads of potential new people off the game.

"But breaking mah collarbone was due to a gamble too, hurr durr".

 

Beyond all valid criticism let's not make it "this forum vs the other forum". It's one community with every individual in that community having a personal opinion, some of which cannot be voiced on PCF, so people are doing it on EntropiaPlanets.

The real differences between this forum and the other are in the setup, the admin and the general approach:
- PCF is run by a liar, scammer and notorious rulebreaker, EP is run by fine people only ;)
- PCF is for profit, EntropiaPlanets is non-profit
- for PCF you pay overpriced rates through your deposits, EntropiaPlanets is for free
- PCF is heavily censored, EntropiaPlanets allows you to voice negativity about the game and even to say goodbye when you leave it
- hope to have more differences soon ;)

 

Gaming journalism as it is today, a broad variety of which crowd-funded YT channels are an integral part, critically discussing the hot topics such a gambling and loot boxes without having to rely on "good realationships" to developers in order to make a living.

In the modern gaming scene MindArk simply looks like a company from another age, their top representative clueless and unprepared for an interview with "modern gaming journalism".

 

This "certain picture" is how the grand majority of gamers and gaming journalists do see Entropia Universe and imo that's quite accurate. It's a casino with a MMO interface, the core mechanics are gambling. The comments on PCF and under the video differ because the majority of long-term players are in denial of the facts. What I would really love to see is a poll for current players: would you still be playing EU if it wasn't with real money? Well, you'd probably have to do that with a lie detector :D

 

No problem with gambling. But for everything that's gambling the same rules have to be applied. A casino cannot claim it's all "skill-based" just because you have to balance over a beam to get to the slot machine. And if it involves gambling it needs a clear warning sign so people that want to stay away from gambling can easily avoid it.

From a development & gaming perspective I believe it's idiotic to focus on gambling. I think EU relying on gambling with negative returns for users as main payment method does in fact massively limit development options. It's not a benefit, it's a burden. For example Diablo III removed the real money features soon after release because players love "great loot" but with items worth real money it wasn't possible to give them "great loot". Ideally Entropia would be a great gaming experience that still allowed the gamblers to gamble. There are countless options to achieve this. If I only think about creature AI and hunting methods...

 

I have nothing against gambling either. But I do have a problem when someone has a game which core mechanism is just gambling, and pretends it's anything else. The whole "skills" matter is bullshit, as every crafter knows.

Poker, however, does involve skills. Bluffing for instance, and knowing when to fold. Putting shit I buy directly from the Trade Terminal into a crafting machine and having it autoclick away is gambling. Nothing more, nothing less. There's absolutely fuck all you can do to change the outcome, other than play or not play.

I choose not to play. At least in a casino I get free drinks, as opposed to contempt, empty promises and bugs.

 

The gambling industry is taxed higher, and regulated far more. Actual odds (on a per-slot machine basis) are to be published, great care has to be taken to protect gamblers. David claims that MindArk can interfere, but I never heard of a single case where that was done. They happily take and keep taking whatever anyone throws at them. After all, an entire layer of worthless management has to be paid.

Oh, maybe. But whenever MindArk mentions skills, that is not the skills they are referring to. What they are referring to is very much the in-game skills.

Folding is not the same as walking away from the machine or table. A typical poker game/night will see many folded hands. Unless you consider switching from one mob or BP to another to be the same as folding, of course.

That does not make any difference as to whether or not it's gambling or not. Which it is...

Of course the sole purpose is to ensure the players will stay longer in the casino, or play again the day after. The house always wins, so the longer they can ensure the player stays, the better their odds of making back what the high-roller might have won previously.

MindArk doesn't even give you that courtesy. They just screw you in whichever way possible.