To Planet Arkadia Devs: Why preferential treatment to some players?

Oztwo said here that he has a referral code, through Planet Arkadia, allowing him to make some profits:

May I ask why him (and potentially other players) have part of this preferential treatment and not everyone else?

I would sure love to see a referral / affiliate project for Entropia Universe and I would do my best to bring more people to the game if this would generate me some extra income. Now if there isn't one, I can live with it and just refer people without an incentive, just to help the game, but it honestly su**s to know that I (and many other people) do that for free, while some "selected few" (or maybe not even just a few) have the possibility to make profit out of this. It just makes me feeling used, being taken advantage of.

So please... give me/us an explanation... why him (and potentially other players) have part of this preferential treatment and not everyone else?

 

He asked for it as far as i know.

 

Right so, the Entropia refferal program is something from 2013. It was launched, not many details are to be found on it anymore and then discontinued. The program was launched by MA not by Arkadia specifically nor any other planet partner (if you read the post you could have seen that). So I would recommend to calm down and don't create such a drama over nothing.

 

DoA and I chatted about this and then we had some fun linking to the arkadia site. eg
http://planetarkadia.com/?nighttime=righttime

That crazy scalliwag Oztwo. Making shit up again.

 

Yes and no, Wauspaus.

For sure the core implementation belongs to MA, but it seems that planet partners had full control over said links - if giving them to users or not, if keeping them up or not, etc. And the reason I say that is because of this post where Monria's new owner stated that he will no longer honor any affiliate links that were set in place by the old owner; this quite clearly shows that planet partners can both create and remove such affiliate links.

Now I didn't stressed much about that when I saw that post because I thought that it was a Monria only thing and from what that guy who told me about it claimed it was reserved to only a handful of people who were deeply involved in Monria's development. But now that I see this happening on Arkadia also and even with a player that, while indeed a veteran, doesn't seem to be so involved in Arkadia's economy to justify a preferential treatment, I do feel the need to complain and ask for equal treatment.

And yes, OzTwo talks about Mindark in his post, but his link is not a referral link to Entropia Universe website (and if you wonder, yeah, they have a direct signup page here), but specifically to Planet Arkadia website, which, considering the post from Monria owner, makes it quite obvious that said referral link was set in place by Arkadia team, not MindArk.

Now, of course, there is also a chance that Kikki's hypothesis (that OzTwo simply made up both the link and story) is true, although I doubt it. But, anyway, that's why I made this post and publicly asked for a response from ark devs:

1. Is such a system in place?

2. If yes, were said links set up by Arkadia team (as Monria's owner post seems to suggest)?

3. If yes, why this was a secret and only few people benefit from it and not everyone?

4. If it was restricted to a small number of people (for example for testing purposes) on what basis were those people selected? Because I found it strange that people that are deeply involved both in Arkadia's economy and community (like Kikki) had absolutely no idea about it, while other people like OzTwo were already in.

PS: It would be nice if next time when you give a bad rate to a post to gather all the facts before doing so; I did searched quite a bit and didn't found any previous reference about Arkadia team (or any other PP other than Monria, which technically is not even a PP) having such affiliate links.

 

I gave you the bad rating because you are stressing on the forum about something which is nothing. You mentioned yourself just now you didn't find any refference about the Ark teams involvement here. Yet you actually do point fingers about them giving preferential treatment and clearly state how unfair that is to you. Have you tried sending them a mail about maybe recieving your own link? Have you sent a mail to MA maybe? No... immediatly you come to the forum , create drama over nothing. That's why I gave you the bad rating, because you have the tendency to do that sometimes.

 

I could have sure done that, but the problem is that I fight here for a principle, not for myself...

If I would also get an affiliate link that would NOT make things better or more fair; it would be just one more person (me) getting preferential treatment...

I think that if there is any such option, it should be public and available for everyone, not just for a selected few who happend to find out about it (and it doesn't makes any difference if I am or not between those selected few)...

And yeah, exactly the fact that there was no info available until now, when OzTwo decided to share the fact that he has an affiliate link on arkadiaplanet.com, is what bothered me the most; not the fact that such system exists (I count this as a good thing), but the fact that it was kept secret and restricted only to a selected few persons.

 

I'm really missing the popcorn smiley here

As far as i can tell he got it, because he asked for it.
(and if i recall correctly he had some active website or movies on youtube or so?)

You can always come up with a website that becomes popular and then ask MA if they can give you a referral code too.
(or wait a few more years till it becomes more public).

 

Yes I agree with that. But seeing as there aren't any real details about it because MA is slacking on the program, it is unfair of you to point to the Ark team for blame. And this.....

Just no..... if you did it for the principle you would have sent mails first THEN posted on the forum. This is just drama.

Would love me some popcorn now.

 

If things are like that, it's ok, but I still think it should be a public page with all this info, like have:
- a request form where everyone could ask for one
- some public conditions to qualify for it (like a certain number of readers, subscribers, viewers, whatsoever)

I strongly believe in freedom of speech and I strongly believe that (while done in civilized manner) any discussion should be done in public, not behind closed doors, so everyone can see it and make their own impression.

If ArkTeam has no involvement in this (for example OzTwo faked the links) or if the info is already public somewhere (and I was just dumb enough to not be able to find it) or anything like that, they could just say it, I would be left looking like a fool and this would be the end of the story.

But, anyway, I think we all (and not only me via a private message/mail) are entitled to receive some answers.

 

Again, it's something which dates back from a long time ago. If you did proper research you see OzTwo already had the link in 2014. I see the affiliation program being mentioned as far back as 2009. It IS controlled by MA, which means information flow by it is also run by MA.
So again, pointing fingers about unfair treatment by Arkadia is unfair by you.

 

See that is exactly why I showed the link in the first place because if I hadn't people wouldn't believe it to be true and it is..and if you don't like that link then I'll give you the direct link:

Join Today! <removed>

But the main issue here as many pointed out that they had no idea about this is because way back when this started I had a fight with 711 who would delete my posts about this with him claiming that they do not support second party affiliate programs. Not sure if he didn't believe me or what. But at the end that is why no one heard of it.

 

I did trusted you, that's the reason why I started this thread.

So, can you please bring some light to the subject and give us some more details:

1. Who you set this with? MA or ArkTeam?

2. How did you managed to get the link? As far as you know is this still possible for others to get one?

3. Can it be revoked (by a Planet Partner) as Monria's new owner claimed?

4. What are you paid for people joining through your link? Any idea if that income comes from MA's share or the PP's share?

 

Slow down a bit please. You are a new player really not understanding this.

I'm not a special player. And I'm sorry I thought I was replying to the main post I made and not your post. You need to spend a bit more time in EU to understand how MA works.

A long while back MA was going to bring out an Affiliate System and after a year or so when the question was posted if MA was going to even start the project, I went out and asked (me being me) them by means of a support case. I was at the time expecting MA to reply saying more or less "we are still working on it" but instead I got a code with MA saying that the program was here but not yet finalized. I as well was asked what planet I wanted the players to start on and I picked Arkadia.

Now why you never heard of this is again you are very new and second when I tried to tell others that the program was here I had other issues with Planet Calypso Forum way before you even joined the game.

So please lovefall stop here. And for everyone else I'm sorry I did reply to this and not the main forum post here.

 

Why do you think I have a big shop in Monria and a nice landarea in Calypso?









Joke ofcourse.

 

How is it preferential treatment? Being an affiliate is a completely different thing to being a player.

 

Subscribing to this thread for at least 3 different reasons.

 

I find this thread still useful -- as a positive example of non-destructive, goal-oriented moderation. In case someone wonders, this remark, too, pertains to a wider context than this particular cyberaddress. Thank you.

 

Forgive me this necro