Deciphering the State of the Universe

Hello everyone,

Before you read any further, I will warn you that this is a long post.

I just spent the last few hours going over the State of the Universe statement that was published by the CEO of MindArk a few days ago. Have you read it? If not, before reading this blog I would take a look at it. I have linked it at the top of my site to make your life easy.

Anyway, after having spent the days leading up to the SOTU intensely researching the current happenings of Planet Calypso and getting my finger back on the pulse of The Universe as a whole, I decided to take advantage of my unintentionally good timing to go over my impression of the SOTU address. This statement, what’s in it and (perhaps just as importantly) what’s not in it are critical factors in understanding the game we play; I therefore feel it to be my responsibility to try and shed some light on the Address and decipher what is (as I will soon make clear) nothing more than a conglomeration of some very well-chosen words.

So, let’s get right down to it.

The SOTU is essentially broken down into two parts; the highlights of last year, and a brief roadmap for 2014. In order to stick with the system (and make the lives of my readers easy) I will follow this same structure for my blog.

We’ll start with 2013 highlights. This is the part I really analyzed the most as it seems to be the section that is most ambiguous. Why? Let's find out.

In the highlights section, one thing in particular seems to stand out in my mind: most of the fanfare revolves around MindArk’s latest advertising campaigns and the subsequent increase in depositors that is being attributed to said advertising. The remainder of the highlights seem to be surrounded by what can only be deemed as “infrastructure upgrades”; apparently throughout 2013 MindArk was focusing on setting up for some big stuff. Now, this seems like it could mean that good things are ahead (and I certainly want to believe that) and that MindArk was so profitable this year that they are getting ready for a great 2014, but I’m just too much of an analyst to jump to such an optimistic conclusion. The reality is that there are a few things about these highlights that concern me.

What are those things, exactly?

• First: There is a lot of “salesman language” in these highlights; in other words, although several of these highlights appear positive on the outside, the information underneath the verbiage is really quite minimal. For example: emphasizing the increase in depositors really doesn’t give us an accurate representation of whether or not 2013 was more profitable than 2012 (which is what really matters financially, right?). What scares me is this: if MindArk posted a profit for 2013, wouldn’t they include that in this address?

• I will note here that I have not (yet) looked at the quarterly posted profit reports for MindArk. Although I will be trying to get my hands on these soon, for now I am only speculating based on what MindArk has provided to us as players. So, MindArk: If I’m wrong, let me know (hint hint)!

• Second: The notation regarding a marketing push seems to be centered on MindArk performing the majority of the marketing for Entropia Universe. There is an inherent problem with this: according the business model for planet partners, Marketing is not MindArk’s responsibility, but is rather the responsibility of the Planet Partners. Although this noted shift from the original “Planet Partner Model” could be because MindArk is currently acting as the Planet Partner for Calypso, I believe it is more likely that the Planet Partners are falling short on their ability to generate traffic to their unique part of Entropia Universe. This has left MindArk with no choice but to step in and fill the gaps to try and recoup their losses.

• Note: I have had a problem with the way the business model for Entropia handles marketing for a while now. MindArk originally set up the Planet Partner business model in such a way that each planet was made to look like its own game, with its own client loader, website, forums and marketing. To me, this approach seems to be unintentionally deceptive and aside from it being deceptive, this marketing design lends itself very poorly to helping new players understand the true depth and vastness of the game. In my opinion, marketing Entropia Universe as one supermassive game is a more effective method of attracting business anyway. That being said, if it is true that the Planet Partners failed to perform in marketing, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hopefully this evolution of the marketing process will pave the way towards less fragmented advertising and the broader realization that Entropia is worth more as a whole than the sum of its parts.

• Third: An announcement about some kind of graphics overhaul is included in the highlights. Honestly I know nothing about this (does anyone else out there have any knowledge of this? Did I miss something?) and the reality is that the avatar graphics look the same as they did years ago. This isn’t necessarily a derogatory comment, as the graphics of Entropia in general are phenomenal. However, I find it interesting that something which changed only marginally made its way onto the SOTU. So what does this tell us? In my opinion, it seems to show that MindArk is (finally) hearing our cries to begin improving the playability of the game instead of focusing on adding land. I interpret this highlight as MindArk’s subtle way of saying “yes, we see we should have paid more attention to this. So we’re going to make it appear to be a priority for now and really begin to push for it in 2014”. This opinion is strengthened by the contents of the second section of the address, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

• If this update has anything to do with the avatar’s new ability to make faces I am not impressed. This is not a difficult thing (code-wise) to accomplish. MindArk, you’re either very proud of a simple task or you’re sending us a message. I hope it’s the latter.

• Fourth: The last highlight includes the terminology “veteran Appreciation” in the title of the highlight. Of course, I’m happy to hear that MindArk is appreciating and recognizing long-time players. So what’s the problem here? Well, if you read the meat of this “Veteran Appreciation” highlight it actually has nothing to do with Veteran Appreciation at all, but rather enumerates several basic “balancing” issues that were fixed. That’s strange, isn’t it?

• Come on. This seems to me to just be some kind of wording thrown in there in hopes that players would read the title, feel happy about it and then fail to read the actual body of the highlight. Although there are plausible explanations for the cause of every other issue I have observed in the SOTU 2013 highlights, I have no explanation for this one. I just feel as though it’s there to dupe us into a false sense of optimism. If anyone has any other theories (or can point out something I missed) please leave me a comment on it.

Aside from this, the 2013 highlights are relatively straightforward. They cover some details about the affiliate system, and some back end stuff. However, my observations cover about 50% of the highlights and it’s scary that I’m concerned with well over half of the first section.

Although I may be over-analyzing it, it seems that a lot of this State of the Universe is well designed to make us feel more secure about the Universe than we actually should. The whole thing seemed more like MindArk was trying to validate itself more-so than tell us the good parts of the year. Therefore, what I want to know is this:

• Was Entropia Universe profitable last year?
• Did an increase in depositors lead to an increase in revenue?
• Was MindArk more or less profitable in 2013 compared to 2012?

MindArk: Knowing these types of things alongside of the information you already provided in the SOTU address would make players more comfortable, regardless of whether the information was positive or negative. If Entropia was hurting and you presented us with a plan to bring it back, I firmly believe that this approach would garner more respect than a gingerly-worded self-validating progress report.

All that aside, let’s get on to section II.

Section II seems much less self-validating and more informational than section I and I am encouraged by this. I think ti’s safe to say that we can infer from this that MindArk is really ready to tackle 2014 – so let’s get right to some thoughts.

• First: Planet Toulan, Taming and legacy systems. Although these things don’t seem to go hand in hand, they do and I’ll tell you why. Recently, a new planet (Toulan) was launched - but not really. You see, Toulan was a soft launch with absolutely no fanfare at all and virtually no announcement to existing players. In fact the planet got so little hype that the rhetoric I often heard was “oh, Entropia has a new planet?” throughout the day on Calypso.

The interesting thing about Toulan? No vehicles. Anywhere. If seems absurd seeing as planets are massive, but this lack of vehicles could be a hint at something larger – taming.

Now, this is strictly speculation so I might be entirely off-base, but the way I see it, Taming is likely taking so long because it’s MindArk wants to release it as a full-featured expansion to the game, with sub-features such as using your tamed animal as a mount. Toulan could be prepping to be a mount-only planet by banning vehicles from the let-go.

Then again, they could just have vehicles banned because the planet is still in beta. Who knows?

But it is interesting to note that MindArk has made it known that it will be working on legacy systems (finally!) this year, so I think that this may lend a bit of credibility to my theory. Hopefully they will also bring back other systems, such as sitting.

• Second: The “Entropia Platform” notation. This is the last notation in the roadmap and reads as follows: 

“Several major public and private organizations have expressed interest in making use of the Entropia Universe platform and collaborating with MindArk for future projects.”

If you have read my last blog post, you will know that I believe Calypso development is on pause until MindArk can sell it off to a planet partner, so I can’t help but wonder – does this mean they’ve found a buyer?

One can only hope.

That being said, I don’t have too many other things that stood out to me about the roadmap. Generally, the remainder of the points left me with a genuine feeling of positivity and for that I am grateful.

So, I hit all the points and I’ve notated some important observations, but what does this all really mean when you look at the big picture?

Well, my grand impression of the State of the Universe is this: MindArk slacked off in 2013 because they had to focus on too many things at once and were spread thin. They failed to anticipate the Planet Partners being so ineffective at marketing and have been experiencing difficulties managing Calypso, developing an efficient marketing campaign and trying to handle land development and infrastructure improvements to boot. However, it seems clear that MindArk has learned from this and is more readily prepared to take on 2014. Despite the fact that the way this address is worded in a less-than-ideal fashion, I believe that we can walk into 2014 optimistically. I expect to see some good things come out of our Universe this year and, like MindArk, I am ready to sweep 2013 under the rug. If we can make 2014 happen, that’s all that matters.

However, MindArk, I have a suggestion to make: next year, give us more information so I don't have to write another five pages of material deciphering your code :) take a note from CCP, maker of EVE Online: communication with your player is everything. 

I will be seeing you all on world. Happy tenth anniversary, Universe – here’s to not having another 2013.

Good luck everyone,

-Faucon Ioji VanAlkel 





image source can be found here