devtrackers.gg
22 days
ago -
SLG-Dennis
-
Direct link
Sorry for the late response, it took me a while to investigate this and talk to everyone involved.
So, first for the intended state and how it works:
- Eco Credits are a integrated virtual currency in the Eco universe, and all mentions of revenue in the game related to the marketplace refer to that currency, similar to how we try to address the player as "citizen" within the game instead of as "player".
- On every purchase of a marketplace item with Eco Credits on a server, shares according to the info screen based on the purchase amount in Eco Credits are distributed to the respective receivers, also in Eco Credits. There is no sharing on buying Eco Credits with real money, sharing is based on Eco Credits spent and hence directly related to them.
- Shares are currently received by eligible server hosts, streamers and modders. The implementation for settlement shares is a bit more complex and still work in progress, as had been announced when the marketplace released. Charity gets donated the value of its accumulated Eco Credits share in real money.
- Eco Credits can be transferred to other users and / or be used by the receiver to buy any marketplace items, eco invites and hosting time with participating game server providers, which we are aiming to expand over time. As such we do indeed consider Eco Credits to have some inherent value - for example with upcoming settlement shares players can gain access to marketplace content or licenses for their friends without needing to pay for it, which we do consider to be "giving back", that also applies to already existing share mechanics.
- There actually is investigations going into how Eco Credits could be made convertable to real money, but that is a complex matter that is also affected by and dependant on legislation worldwide and hence is a long-term goal. This option, if introduced, may not be available to all players depending on location and applicable law. The intention is to start a test with that for modders that generate a notable amount of credits, as is actually mentioned on the wiki page for Mod Registrations, which also lists the current abilities Eco Credits have: https://wiki.play.eco/en/Registered_Mods. More information on that would be published once it is actually available, as mentioned this isn't a simple nor fast process.
I absolutely understand how the marketplace design can be misunderstood with the communication surrounding it, though it's a typical case of Hanlon's Razor and not intentional misleading. The texts in the game are written by the software developers themselves and neither checked by a communications nor legal team, given we don't have either for such purpose. Naturally, when writing texts, software developers don't put a lot of emphasis on intricacies like if two words are separated in the same sentence and separately explained and potentially don't even recognize that to be important. Additionally everyone working with the system knows the system and it's full design in-depth - as such there is a human bias when reading any self-written texts, as they do make sense to oneself, while they might not for others.
I'm not sure if I've been able to find all statements made by other colleagues after talking with them, but the ones I found were not malicious and did follow the above listed idea of the marketplace in its essence - but some certainly didn't do a good job at representing it. I have noted to them that they did lead to confusion and asked to check back in the future. We don't filter all communication through a single departement or person, as such especially in a less formal environment like our discord where we encourage our staff to actively interact with players it is easy to create unintended misunderstandings or not knowing what someone else said that may already have newer information. That is solely upon us and a consequence of our preferred more open communication approach. We will try to improve that while retaining that approach.
I also created tasks to reword the texts in the game to be more clear in accordance to the confusing points and expectations voiced here. I hope that answers your questions and makes the design sufficiently clear now. Beyond that, I can only apologize for any confusion caused - it was certainly not intended.
So, first for the intended state and how it works:
- Eco Credits are a integrated virtual currency in the Eco universe, and all mentions of revenue in the game related to the marketplace refer to that currency, similar to how we try to address the player as "citizen" within the game instead of as "player".
- On every purchase of a marketplace item with Eco Credits on a server, shares according to the info screen based on the purchase amount in Eco Credits are distributed to the respective receivers, also in Eco Credits. There is no sharing on buying Eco Credits with real money, sharing is based on Eco Credits spent and hence directly related to them.
- Shares are currently received by eligible server hosts, streamers and modders. The implementation for settlement shares is a bit more complex and still work in progress, as had been announced when the marketplace released. Charity gets donated the value of its accumulated Eco Credits share in real money.
- Eco Credits can be transferred to other users and / or be used by the receiver to buy any marketplace items, eco invites and hosting time with participating game server providers, which we are aiming to expand over time. As such we do indeed consider Eco Credits to have some inherent value - for example with upcoming settlement shares players can gain access to marketplace content or licenses for their friends without needing to pay for it, which we do consider to be "giving back", that also applies to already existing share mechanics.
- There actually is investigations going into how Eco Credits could be made convertable to real money, but that is a complex matter that is also affected by and dependant on legislation worldwide and hence is a long-term goal. This option, if introduced, may not be available to all players depending on location and applicable law. The intention is to start a test with that for modders that generate a notable amount of credits, as is actually mentioned on the wiki page for Mod Registrations, which also lists the current abilities Eco Credits have: https://wiki.play.eco/en/Registered_Mods. More information on that would be published once it is actually available, as mentioned this isn't a simple nor fast process.
I absolutely understand how the marketplace design can be misunderstood with the communication surrounding it, though it's a typical case of Hanlon's Razor and not intentional misleading. The texts in the game are written by the software developers themselves and neither checked by a communications nor legal team, given we don't have either for such purpose. Naturally, when writing texts, software developers don't put a lot of emphasis on intricacies like if two words are separated in the same sentence and separately explained and potentially don't even recognize that to be important. Additionally everyone working with the system knows the system and it's full design in-depth - as such there is a human bias when reading any self-written texts, as they do make sense to oneself, while they might not for others.
I'm not sure if I've been able to find all statements made by other colleagues after talking with them, but the ones I found were not malicious and did follow the above listed idea of the marketplace in its essence - but some certainly didn't do a good job at representing it. I have noted to them that they did lead to confusion and asked to check back in the future. We don't filter all communication through a single departement or person, as such especially in a less formal environment like our discord where we encourage our staff to actively interact with players it is easy to create unintended misunderstandings or not knowing what someone else said that may already have newer information. That is solely upon us and a consequence of our preferred more open communication approach. We will try to improve that while retaining that approach.
I also created tasks to reword the texts in the game to be more clear in accordance to the confusing points and expectations voiced here. I hope that answers your questions and makes the design sufficiently clear now. Beyond that, I can only apologize for any confusion caused - it was certainly not intended.