Letter from the CEO Entropians, When I was announced as the new CEO of MindArk I stated that one of my priorities would be improved communication between MindArk and the community. As you may have noticed, there has not yet been so much communication from my side. The main reason is that I did not want to announce new ideas and plans without first engaging with the employees at MindArk. It is important that everyone within the company steer in the same direction and look towards the future with enthusiasm. In the eight months since being appointed as CEO, I have met intensively with the various MindArk departments to solicit suggestions on the best way forward, as well on refining the near and long-term vision for Entropia Universe. We now have a solid plan in place to implement that vision. I realized the incredible potential of Entropia Universe immediately upon creating my avatar and logging in for the first time. It has now become my job to ensure that MindArk achieves that potential. There are many things that we can improve in Entropia Universe, including the relationship and communication with the community. There are many different communication channels where we plan to be more active, including community forums, Discord, and possibly Reddit. 2017 in Retrospect Before looking ahead to the future, let’s review some of the things accomplished during 2017. In terms of content we are always working to expand storylines, missions and events and 2017 was no exception. Last year’s Merry Mayhem event featured the first implementation of a new event system that is more integrated into the client and accommodates new event formats. With Loot 2.0 we revamped the hunting loot formula in order to achieve a more flexible, balanced, and rewarding system. Those changes have led to significantly improved loot returns for the vast majority of players and an overall better loot balance. Further improvements to the loot system have been ongoing since the initial implementation of Loot 2.0. During the second half of the year some of our participants experienced serious lag issues. While the issue itself was not an isolated one with a single cause, a complete review of the engine was made. In addition to fixing the issue, several improvements were made to other systems which made the core server infrastructure more robust as a result. This work has been continuing throughout 2018, with the aim of performing a similar overview and optimization of the client to ensure that Entropia becomes more stable and smooth-running. 2018 and Beyond For the remainder of 2018 and into the early part of 2019, MindArk will be primarily focused on improving existing Entropia Universe systems and content. This does not mean that no new content will be added or that no new events will be implemented, however it does mean that there will be a few selected areas that will receive the bulk of our attention. One of these focus areas will be system interaction, modernizing some of the legacy systems we have today, and upgrading others to conform to industry standards. These efforts will improve avatar interaction with the universe and feel much more engaging. Some of you may have noticed that we are inviting a group of participants to MindArk headquarters to help test and provide feedback for some of the upcoming improvements to the client camera system. These changes are something we believe will benefit newcomers and veterans alike. A similar overhaul will be performed for the various user interfaces, where the aim is to create a more visually appealing, unified and responsive experience. This will be an iterative process to ensure that we are moving in the right direction. Moving forward, I will share periodic Development Manifestos like this one on the Entropia Universe Buzz page to keep the community informed of MindArk’s design philosophies, decision-making process, future plans, and more. Finally, I am planning to do an AMA (Ask Me Anything) sometime in the near future, either on the Entropia Universe subreddit or on PlanetCalypsoForum.com. More detailed info to come soon! Kind regards, Henrik Nel CEO, MindArk PE AB Continue reading...
someone's already started a thread on pcf for compiling questions... (not saying one can't be put in here too, just saying copy any posted questions here there too if you do post em here otherwise I doubt the CEO will look at em?)
Been doing great looking around the game, training a new disciple, trying to find some positives. This letter peels the scabs off of some very old wounds. They've ignored a lot, for a looong time. It would be wonderful if EU had a basically satisfied and engaged community but there's a little mud wrestling to be done before the mood and feelings about the game begin to climb. I hope this guy sticks it out and can push in the right direction, but there's nothing here that hasn't been said before and the list of issues keeps growing. It's good to work on this, but the old saying "it's probably going to get worse before it gets better" may be applicable here. People that have been hanging onto empty promises and lies they were sold for years is angst, not "toxicity". MA has created this environment, and curated it for years. Nobody is bringing them anything they didn't earn. And they know that, to a very large extent, they can just keep ignoring it. It's a choice to reach out, and start working towards healing those wounds. Anyone knows that I can spew a million words about this and i'm honestly trying not to blow up these threads - at the same time there's no reason for me not to speak out. I've invested at almost every opportunity, and while I've managed things to my advantage well enough -I'm still glad that I didn't hold out for the promises that were sold to me along with a stack of pixels called CLD's. I'm actually here at ark forum today because in (yet another) 15 minutes of frustration with a bug that has existed since the very release of this planet, in properties that I have paid for, that's pissing me off and wasting my time, and reminding me that basically once they've got that money Neither MA nor Arkadia studios have taken the time to address a ridiculous, grating, troublesome bug that nearly EVERYONE WHO SPENDS TIME ON ARKADIA complains about. I paid for this you understand? I paid enough for this to buy an entire x-box and a PS4 and a big screen to play them on and 9 or ten games. There is nothing wrong with speaking out. Holding the silence is masochistic. It's not my burden. Enjoy your shower.
It's toxic, the people may be pissed off but PCF has people who clearly run everything down and create bad feeling. I looked at the forum post and decided after about 30 seconds I don't need to waste anymore time on it. I'll wait for the CEO to have an actual AMA session. It'll be more constructive and informative. Which is something people posting on forums seem to forget how to do. Now Atrax, I have to say I generally read your posts because they tend to be better quality than the level on PCF so keep up the good work. As for the shower I didn't bother and went for the luxuriant bubble bath with scented candles and mood music. Very calming, you should try it x
It's 102 f here right now and I've about made enough rounds blowing off steam from my 'morning' encounter with EU today. In 15 minutes, I'm going to be in a swimming pool for sure. Bubble bath sounds great but at 6'4" I don't really fit in a regular bath tub lol. Thanks for the compliment and a little exclusion form the general toxicity reference, I haven't been quiet over there either. And I hate being told to shut up worse than I hate falling through my virtual floors Fair enough it's a lot of rehashing old wounds and opening up old baggage right now. If it's a step forward onto a new path this time, it will all be worth it. But optimism is very difficult, right now. This press release stirs up a lot of feelings and "excitement" has gone sour too many times to be one of them.
Just a quick nod to Heidi and everyone else who frequents this forum. Having had my tracker posted and dissected this week in a COMPLETELY off topic 'attack' as well as other bits of drama this week I'm inclined to agree that when it's bad over there, it's REALLY bad. The petty sniping and admin misdirection that I was complaining about over here last month don't even hold a candle against some of the flare-ups over there. I can be very vocal and outspoken but not without reason, and certainly not to lash out at someone over completely unrelated issues just because I'm having an unhappy moment. I like a boisterous forum, I'm all for people discussing their passions, well, passionately. I often feel like I've benefited from some "healthy" debate. There are some very frustrated people here and a great deal of complaining is, IMO, fully justified. But there are lines. Generally things are pretty clean over here and while it's quiet, the signal to noise ratio stays decent. It's not entirely off topic and coming by here after the last few days at PCF, I had a strong urge to post something a little more positive and acknowledge you guys that are over here keeping it clean. Here's to hoping there's some fun in tonight's update.
