This post was last updated on June 19th, 2022 at 03:53 pm

Sometimes our faith in the people we trust most gets shaken. That’s exactly what happened the past week as the Next Island Planet Partners defrauded players of the online MMORPG Entropia Universe. It was an intentional and deliberate act that needs to be remembered. Let’s take a look at exactly how this unfolded and the warning it serves as we head toward events like Halloween Mayhem.

Next Island L.A.R.A. Event

Shortly before September 24, 2019 it was announced that something amazing was happening. Next Island, the more or less dead planet in Entropia Universe, would be having a week-long event. The event was scheduled to run from Tuesday September 24, 2019 until Tuesday October 1, 2019. ANY news was coming out of Next Island was a big surprise. The development company behind the virtual planet has long been struggling with ownership. Staffing which has stalled development to a standstill. For a long time it has been a huge failure in the EU system.

The big draw to this event was a cute little robot named L.A.R.A. which could be tamed as a pet. When it was announced that this pet had an Auto loot buff players flocked to Next Island in HUGE numbers to start taming. I was one of them. And regrettably I even got a hold of several friends and encouraged them to come as well. Come they did.

Paradise Landing: The Event In Action

The event was held at Paradise Landing. This is the new arrival area on Next Island. There were 5 pens set up which would be filled with low level L.A.R.A. bots. You could kill them and receive loot and occasionally special tameable L.A.R.A.’s would appear.

At first 4 to 5 tameable’s would appear near the spawning pens. After about 48 hours this was changed. This meant that 4 pens had regular versions of the bot which could be hunted. The 5th pen was used only to spawn the tameable version. They would spawn back-to-back as long as one was drawn out of the pen. When 5 had been spawned they would stop spawning until those 5 had been tamed. Then this process would repeat.

The area was quickly filled with players who wanted a chance at the new pet. Those who could not previously afford an auto loot pet saw this as their chance to get something only large deposit players tend to have. The situation quickly grew out of control with people trying to steal everyone else’s spawns. As on player wrote “For a few glorious days Paradise Landing looked like Twin Peaks; it was beautiful”.

Next Island Developers Fail To Control Event

Did the Next Island Planet Partners step up and take care of the situation? No. I did. That’s right; the one and only StevieB got everyone acting right. I made it very simple for people. Form an orderly line, tame one and go to the back of the line. Otherwise I would stand there 24/7 until the event ended killing every tameable L.A.R.A. that spawned. And it worked!

Everyone was waiting in line. People were being polite! Everyone was helping each other. The local chat was filled with people talking about all sorts of things game related. For a moment you forgot you were on a planet that has long been the deserted outpost of Entropia. And the economy quickly reacted.

Nutrio Bars were needed to feed the newly tamed pets but were in short supply. Mark up quickly went to over 200% with some sellers asking as much as 300%. People were warping to Calypso and buying up nutria bars to warp back and sell. Whips quickly became a hot commodity with far too few to meet the ever growing demand.

Worst of all people started exploring Next Island. Since you had to level the pet to level 7 before it was off-world spawn-able. People, including myself, started gathering teleporters. We went hunting and did some mining. Collected missions and started working on them. We started spending PED that was going into the pockets of the Next Island Planet Partners.

The Fraud That Undid It All

On Tuesday October 1, 2019 Next Island Planet Partners did something I would have never imagined MindArk would allow. They blatantly defrauded everyone who attended the event. On the very last day of the event, close to the very end, Next Island announced that it would be removing the auto loot feature from L.A.R.A. pets. Their reason? They claim that it was a programming error.

In all my studies of legal cases, both in the United States and abroad, I have NEVER seen such a blatant fraud committed on such a large group of people in such an open manner. The ONLY reason anyone went across the universe to Next Island for the event was because the pet had an auto loot buff. This was obvious from the moment the event was announced.

The only reason money was spent on whips and nutrio bars was the auto loot buff. Why did we spend several days taming them, leveling them and exploring while they leveled? The auto loot buff! It was literally the only reason the event was successful! And the only reason the vast majority of people came at all! But now, after the money has been made, it was an accident?

A Lie Is A Lie

To call the auto loot buff a programming error that was unintended is a lie so stupid only the person telling it would believe it. In order for that to happen someone on the Next Island Development Team would have had to gotten out of bed and slept walked to their computer. While sleeping they would have had to log in and program something similar to: “If Pet Level 15, If auto loot buff unlocked, if >50% happy, if >80% fed; then activate buff Auto loot creatures, Radius 5 meters; otherwise return: null”.

This would be like me telling you I accidentally built a fully functioning car by accident. IN MY SLEEP. I am MORE than understanding of programming accidents. A mission that is bugged and doesn’t work right is an accident. Having a taming event but the robots aren’t tame-able is an accident. But to tell me that an incredibly complicated code that would be needed for something like an unlock-able auto loot buff is an unintended programming error is insulting. They really believe we are all absolute idiots.

If this was an accident why was the event allowed to run? Why wasn’t the plug pulled the first day? If they really didn’t know why the crowds of people were showing up they are negligent at BEST. Incompetent would be the absolute best case scenario. The newest players to the game knew about the auto loot buff. How did the team that manages the planet not notice for a full week? Did someone forget to mention they added the feature? Why was it being openly advertised? These are the questions they can’t answer.

MindArk’s Response To Next Island

I filed a support case with MindArk. The response I got is shown below. Yup I’m an idiot who believes you can program something like auto loot by accident.

This creates a HUGE problem not just for Next Island but for MindArk. How are we supposed to have faith in ANY future events? The only solution I can seem to find is that before you participate in an event open a support case. Have MindArk support verify ALL of the posted details are correct. Ask them before participating if there are any obvious issues that will need to be addressed.

This pet having auto loot should have been addressed the first day of the event. Not the last. I think we could have all been understanding if they had told us up front it wasn’t supposed to have auto loot. Then we could have decided whether or not to go. More importantly we could have determined how much money, if any, to spend.

A Frightening Precedent

I feel very bad for small players who spend a lot of their bankroll on these pets. People bought them. They paid high mark up for nutrio bars. They paid people to level them. People spent money on VIP warps. Most of all there was a week of time that could have been used skilling. A week that was lost. I know some small players who put their entire bankroll into these pets. We need to be sure this doesn’t EVER happen again.

Can you imagine if the FEN event, where Platinum FEN Tokens spiked to over 75 PED each, had been like this? What if those uber valuable, high efficiency weapons had been a “programming accident”? Would they have been de-buffed the moment they sold out? Not only does this current situation need to be resolved; this needs to never happen again. If it happens now what’s to stop it from becoming an everyday occurrence?

PayPal Down

As many of you know you can no longer deposit in Entropia Universe through PayPal. This is not temporary. It’s the new norm. With the new chargeback rules that are in place it is highly unlikely that MindArk will ever be able to accept PayPal again. After talking with many smaller deposit players it’s clear this was their preferred method of deposit. For many of them it was the only option they had. Deposit via PayPal or be free to play. There is no in between.

This means that it just became much more important for MindArk to pay attention to the concerns of their big depositors. While I can say that MindArk has generally done a good job of this now it’s mandatory. How long do they think we will stick around if we are worried about our 20,000 PED rings becoming de-buffed? Do they really believe we will participate in events like Mayhem if we are concerned they may claim a programming accident after it’s over? I can guarantee you we will not. With the loss of PayPal the worst thing MindArk could do would be to make big spenders worry about their investment.

Protecting Money Comes Before Making Money

Most people believe that it’s hard to make money. This is actually not true. What’s hard is keeping the money you make. Anyone with enough money to be a serious deposit player knows this. Every professional investor knows this. And any business owner should know this. The first question you ask yourself in any investment is how safe is the initial investment?

R.O.I. matters; a lot. But being sure you’re investment is safe comes before the returns it will generate. With actions like these allowed to stand how safe do you feel your investment in EU is now? For the first time my confidence is shaken. And that is a MASSIVE problem.

Catch 20/20

Auto loot pets are rare and valuable. In reality this is what likely caused the issue. Having a low level, easy to tame, mass spawn auto loot pet was a horrible decision. I knew that from the moment I heard about it. But it was a decision that was made and which had a huge event. A week long event with heavy publicity and a massive crowd.

Defrauding one segment of the customer base to protect the investments of another is not acceptable. Especially in a game based on a real cash economy. Being proactive in how you develop and run the game is the literal job description. This event should have never been happened. It should never planned or announced. Above all it should never have run the entire week long course.

This is simply damage control. But it’s not controlling the damage. The auto loot buff is only 5 meters. That’s barely even useful. The cost of feeding and leveling the pet make other options better. Keeping it fed to use the buff is an even greater cost. For the majority of players auto loot pills are still the better alternative. (But remember that MindArk makes money when you buy those)

A Better Solution

The only ethical, and legal decision, would have been to stop making the pets tame-able immediately. (To some extent this was done AFTER the event had ended.) Allow the ones already tamed to remain as they were. If you really wanted to keep the pet spawning and remove auto-loot create a second version called L.A.R.A. Generation 2. Adjust the buffs and programming as you saw fit. We know this is very easy to do. It has been done with many other creatures in game. It is also the basis for Adjusted, Modified, Improved and Perfected items. But that is not what happened. Instead the players were defrauded while MindArk stood by and did NOTHING.

If you want the definition of Fraud and Gross Negligence there it is in black and white. Next Islands ability to be a Planet Partner should be immediately revoked. MindArk should force the development team to do the right thing. Let the already tamed pets stand. But they won’t. Until it hits them economically they will do nothing.

Consequences

While it may not be feasible to sue the owners of Next Island I did find a solution. I had origionally wanted to bloackade Next Island. Logistically that would have been a nightmare. But as they say “The pen is mightier than the sword”. This article has been search engine optimized. I am calling on everyone who was defrauded in this event to share this article. Share it on social media, post it to the forums, post it in chat channels. Make sure every player, new or old, sees this article everytime they log in to Entropia.

We all need a constant reminder to strongly consider how much money we are risking in this game. Here it is. We need to remember to value the risk that comes from outside sources. At all times we should be thinking about the risk/ reward profile. When we deposit, hunt, craft, mine or participate in an event we should always be weighing the risks.

I love Entropia Universe. It’s a huge part of my life. And I hope it remains so for a very long time. But for the first time I am not convinced that my investments of time and money are 100% safe. This is the first time I have had trouble sleeping at night because of this game. And it will be the last. Or this game will be a closed chapter in the history of my life.

Final Thoughts

For the first time I am closing without inviting anyone to join us as a member of this site. If you are considering playing Entropia Universe I would instead encourage you to try it out. Make some friends and re-read this article. Think long and hard about how much risk you are willing to take before you start looking for ways to earn PED. I hope this generates the press and attention that is needed to wake MindArk up.

Next Island will remain a dead planet from this day on because of this event. I sincerely hope the same does not happen to the rest of our beloved universe.

NEVER FORGET THE DAY NEXT ISLAND DEFRAUDED THE PLAYERS OF ENTROPIA UNIVERSE! They don’t deserve the title of Planet Partner.