I appreciate the effort in putting it all into writing DME. Both you and Ant have handled relationships with the in game players a little differently than MA. You have both been transparent and honest. This post may not mesh exactly with the "tough love" part of your note but while MA does put a lot of efforts behind the scenes to work on Entropia, they are not as "people friendly" as you or Ant are in regards to the actual players in game. It is a lot easier to trust and have faith when you have direct communication and correspondence with the other half (s) of a problem or issue.
I don't know other people's experience but I have done the usual "file a ticket with support" to solve a problem. Often, the problem does involve "loot" which has only one response.."MA does not 'discuss' loot in game". Sometimes the same problem requires several tickets before it gets answered. Some tickets never got answered. If they do answer them, the usual response is that they (customer service) don't handle the problem but they will pass it along to the party who does. They always include a disclaimer that the responsible party may not respond to the ticket with another ticket.
Truthfully, they rarely have responded back to me with another ticket about a problem and it is usually several days later when I notice a change..usually for the better but still no communication with whoever did the work and resolved the issue. Understand, MA customer service never has a direct answer to questions. When it comes to problems with loot, they have a Teflon policy where they don't want to be pressured to anything quickly and when they do get to the problem, there are usually more tickets in queue because the lateness of the not having addressed the first one promptly caused more problems to start. The patches would be creating less problems after their implementation if they (MA techs) were able to address problems directly with the players instead of using customer service as a buffer to attempt to control the timing of when a problem becomes "convenient".
I realize that MA has a lot of different responsibilities and that includes ALL of Entropia of which Monria is just a small part. I would ask you or Ant to consider talking to them about changing how they relate to the players in game since you and Ant are more in a position to be heard by MA. Blanket responses like "we don't discuss in game loot" when a player is having problems with getting ahead in the game will cause people to question if they game is worth doing or if MA is hiding something which sabotages their credibility and earning the respect they should have from the in game players. The worst case scenario is that a player leaves the game disgruntled and write a negative blog on MA or Entropia. If there is more direct communication with the MA techs and direct answers instead of Teflon policies to control the timing a problem being resolved, things would change for the better and less negative would be in chat. You are right though..there will always be some negative in the chat about "no loot" or just plain "having a bad day".
I hope this post is not causing you or Ant offense. That is not my intent. I just know after spent some time in this game which I reallly love to do I have noticed patterns of problems that almost have to do with "loot" in some way whether mining or hunting or crafting. Because MA doesn't allow discussion with players besides maybe a post or two on one of the forums, it is difficult for a player to see if MA has their interests in mind in addition the MA's own interests. MA is a business with a business-minded focus...that doesn't necessarily mean they are people focused. Food for thought if MA actually reads this post or if you or Ant decided any part of this post is worth discussing with them.
But lastly, on a personal note, I will make the decided effort to not put down MA on chat as I have done previously. I meant it in levity, not in cruelty.
PZ
