Beyond 5000, a Savings Bank and More!
by Duleepa Wijayawardhana (e)DUPS • January 10, 2012 • Feature, News
And, here’s some of the news that many of you have been waiting for.
Next week we will release changes to our upgrades, bank and the concept of Wealth on Empire Avenue.
Going Beyond 5,000 investments, sponsored by Privé!
Currently our top users have been limited by a portfolio size of 5,000. Next week, we will enable users to break that barrier with an upgrade to 5,500 that has been sponsored by Privé (e)PRIVE.
Our goal in going beyond the 5,000 limit was to make sure that Empire Avenue would be balanced and fair for years to come. With that in mind, effective immediately, we will establish a limit on the number of people that you can earn Dividends from, up to 5,000.
For example, if you have invested in 5,500 people, you will receive dividend payments from the 5,000 investments who would have paid you the highest dividend amounts based on previous days’ numbers. For top-end users this will mean less micromanagement of Portfolios and, most importantly, allows us to increase Portfolio sizes to much higher levels in the future.
A Savings Bank
Some of you probably know that you can save Eaves for specific items in the Shop. We are removing the “feature” of saving per item and instead giving you a Savings Bank. You will be able to move money between your Bank Balance and your Savings Bank as you wish. When you go to purchase an item in the Shop, we will deduct from your Savings first and then your Bank Balance. You will be able to see a history of your transactions to and from your Bank Balance on the Bank Page. Eaves that are currently saved per item will be placed in the Savings Bank. At this time there will be no interest paid on Savings.
We are doing this for a number of reasons, chief amongst them being that supporting per-item savings is a drain when someone cannot find what they saved for (as an example). In addition it allows us to expand the Shop further and is much easier to explain to new users. The Savings will be available on your Bank Page with Deposit and Withdraw buttons.
Upgrades will be changing in price
Many of our upgrades will be changing in price. In some cases they will go down in price, but we will introduce the concept of a “base price” plus a factor based on your Wealth.
This is the same type of concept we used with our first Power Up last December. As you become wealthier the costs will go up. While the factor of change based on Wealth will not be dramatic, it will give users a challenge as they grow in stature on Empire Avenue.
The first upgrades to change will be Increasing Portfolio Size (renamed from Buy More). These particular upgrades will see an additional requirement of hitting a particular portfolio size before being able to upgrade to the next. For example, to purchase the 1,250 portfolio size you will need to have made at least 900 investments.
Goodbye Luxury Wealth
Our last major change that we will introduce next week is the removal of a feature that very few people understood and was hard to explain simply. It also goes against our central premise that Empire Avenue is about earning Wealth for what you do online, and being able to use that wealth.
Luxury Wealth was a magic, imaginary score that went up every day if you owned Luxury Items. You could not use Luxury Wealth; it has a Leaderboard but little else.
We will remove Luxury Wealth, but we will do a little more for anyone with Luxury Wealth as a thank you for trying out this feature.
Even though Luxury Wealth was never meant to have an impact in our economy, we have decided to convert (one time) any Luxury Wealth you have on a 10-to-1 basis, up to a maximum of 1 million(e) paid out.
For example, if you have 1,000,000 in Luxury Wealth, we will give you, 100,000e and deposit it into your Bank. If you have 12 million in Luxury Wealth, you’ll receive 1,000,000e in your Bank.
You will get to keep the Luxury Items you bought and we will evaluate what Power Ups and Upgrades new Luxury Items will have when they hit the store.
Please Note: Items which give you real Eaves on a weekly basis will continue to do so. This also means that when we talk about Wealth it is your Bank (including Savings) and the value of your Portfolio
When will these changes be made live?
We are targeting all these changes for Monday January 16th or Tuesday January 17th. These changes are all currently in testing internally.
Update: Thanks for all the feedback. We are planning other features which would use the Luxury Items which generated just Luxury Wealth, however, we will fast track a second feature to address some of the concerns you’ve had in response to this. In addition to the one-time Luxury Wealth conversion to Eaves (you’ll see it on your Bank Account statement), you will be able to sell back to Empire Avenue any Luxury Item bought with Eaves only and which only generated Luxury Wealth, in order to recoup the cost. However, once you sell back, if the item is not in the Shop, you will not be able to buy it again for any future use that may be attributed to it. The choice then is yours. Items that were bought with Real World Money (ie $) will continue to pay you real eaves weekly, as before.
Good to hear!
However, I do not think that the “we pay the dividends only for the 5000 highest dividend stocks” is a good idea, for various reasons. I would rather argue for a progressive income tax (see http://eav.dr-dittrich.de/content/different-stages-relative-scarcity-eav where I argued from a different premise).
Best,
Dennis
Thank you for your efforts to keep your fantastic platform fun and challenging, even for our top long time established power players !
Interesting changes, thanks!
Very nice changes! Looks like 2012 has started on a very bright note for Team #EAV
Since luxury items have been introduced, I have purchased every single item (with the exception of the spaceship). I have spent $24,366,529 EAVs on purchasing those luxury items. I have spent $240.00 in US Cash on Luxury Items.
My Current Luxury Wealth is $32,688,707.00e……so the luxury items I have previously spent EAVs on have generated “Luxury Wealth” of $8,322,178.
I divided 1 million into the $8,322,178 and basically Empire Avenue will be giving me$ 832,218 in spendable EAvs for the luxury wealth that has been generated
The luxury items I spent cash on are currently generating $60,900 spendable EAvs each week. That’s not going to change.
So what happens to the $24,366,529 in EAvs that I spent towards those luxury items. Is that amount going to be refunded?
All but less than a handful were bought due to their ability to generate “luxury wealth”. The ability to generate either luxury wealth or spendable EAvs I understand the need for change. How is that $24,366,529 going to be attributed in my overall net wealth?
My current Net Wealth is $285, 436, 044. Is it now going to be $285, 436, 044 minus $32,688,707 =$252, 747, 337 + $832, 218 =$253, 579, 555?
Luxury Wealth LW Refund
Surely, you are not going to penalize me $31, 856, 489 in EAVs simply because I embraced a newly added featured whole heatedly? This makes it seem as if I would have been better off simply not participating by buying luxury items at all.
Please reassure and enlighten me.
Luxury items should be purchased by EA at the price they sold them .
Dups, thanks for the update. I think replacing the savings system with a bank and eliminating luxury wealth are good moves. I also like the idea of changing the prices of upgrades to make the more affordable for those who are newer to EAv and have less wealth.
I’m also glad to hear you’re raising the portfolio cap of 5,000, however, raising it by just 10% seems like it’s hardly worth the trouble. I would guess that just about everyone who is at the 5,000 mark right now has the eaves in the bank to max out on 500 additional stocks the day this option becomes available, and then they’ll be bumping their heads on the ceiling again. I wish there was a bit more of a long term solution coming.
But overall, I think the changes are a step in the right direction. Nice job!
You should pay interest on the deposits we make, like a real bank only better, better rates!
40% of my 100 million portfolio is luxury wealth, nearly 40 million. I can’t be more exact on the number since you’re currently on a fail boat.
Are you seriously suggesting refunds are to be capped at 1 million?
I know a lot of players have been thinking about deleting their accounts but have been hanging on for goodwill and because they were early adopters. This kind of move is a great way to give them an excuse to just walk away. Please reconsider and give us back equal value for what we invested in luxury goods.
I’m looking forward to seeing what you will do!!
Omar and others:
Thanks for all the feedback. We are planning other features which would use the Luxury Items which generated just Luxury Wealth, however, we will fast track a second feature to address some of the concerns you’ve had in response to this. You will be able to sell back to Empire Avenue any Luxury Item bought with Eaves only and which only generated Luxury Wealth, in order to recoup the cost. However, once you sell back, if the item is not in the Shop, you will not be able to buy it again for any future use that may be attributed to it. The choice then is yours. Items that were bought with Real World Money (ie $) will continue to pay you real eaves weekly, as before and cannot be sold back to Empire Avenue.
Thank You! Much Appreciated
Does anybody want to buy a Luxury Yacht?
I was.. on a boat.
I am puzzled :
Upgrades will be changing in price
Many of our upgrades will be changing in price. In some cases they will go down in price, but we will introduce the concept of a “base price” plus a factor based on your Wealth.
so how will it change? will we know before it happens whether it’s better to somehow buy the rest of the pie this week or if it’s better to wait till next week, or is this a new ‘spin the wheel and try again’. I like change fine but not so much a mystery one. Can you explain ? Thanks!
WOW, very nice to read this all, good work EAv
@Dups or @Brad can you give an example of your remark “We are planning other features which would use the Luxury Items which generated just Luxury Wealth” with other words why would I keep my Jumbo?
I also have all LUX items (but the Spaceship) just like Omar and Josh. But if there is no function for most of the Lux items anymore why would we keep them than?
Please give some examples why we should keep our LUX items!
If I understand correct we can just sell the Lux items and get the Eaves we paid back? So If I sell my Jumbo I get the 10M back ?
Hi @Berrie,
Unfortunately we can’t reveal specific uses in the future as they are under development. As development timelines may change and specifications may be altered we don’t typically talk about these things until we are ready to release.
In this situation, the choice is going to come down to whether you believe we will be able to release something that you like or whether you need the eaves “right now” and sell them back. The “Sell Back” feature can be enacted at any time by you so our suggestion is use it when you need those eaves back.
If you are going to make some changes, how about adding some useful features, like display Dividend Yield, Overall ROI (yield plus share price appreciation), and P/E ratio, and to be able to sort our portfolio list on these statistics?
Very interesting. I look forward to the new things to come. You guys are doing a good job of keeping things fresh.
I must say though you guys have a very round about way of sharing things. I was pretty much pissed at the luxury changes until I re-read a few times and fully understood them. The way you described it I was along the same thinking as Omar, “gee, thanks for crapping on your long time supporters.” But then I realized it was just worded in a confusing way.
Thanks for staying up on things and providing a fun evolving experience.
Luxury Items made sense to me. Over time- you double your shares sold.
Then to remain of value, you would need to double your media activity.
I thought luxuries were there to help with dividends as you sold-out more?
Will payouts go down with the changes? I’d been hoping for new items…
Your updates often sound complex and radical, then are actually great!
I’m with Omar… we’re will the rest of my Luxury wealth go?
Hi Reg, as noted in the blog: “Luxury Wealth was a magic, imaginary score that went up every day if you owned Luxury Items. You could not use Luxury Wealth; it has a Leaderboard but little else.”
Luxury Wealth was a magic number that was not earned, did not have any impact on social media earnings except in the Net Wealth leaderboard. In order to move the site in the correct direction, we need to simplify something that very few people understood. It’s never easy to remove features but we know that, in this case, we must. We are however, converting the Luxury Wealth (which again was not meant to have any economic impact) into real eaves at a 10 to 1 exchange up to 1 million eaves.
As noted, the eaves you *spent* on Luxury Items that produced daily Luxury Wealth increases can be recouped by selling back the item to the Empire Avenue Shop at 100% of its original purchase price.
This change allows us to simplify and explain the site to more people, build out the platform and actually provide more meaningful powerups and items.
Best
Dups
Stefan Laity: Luxury Items did not actually work the way you thought they did (and hence part of the reason we need to remove Luxury Wealth as a concept. We want items that improve your standing, that improved your real social media wealth, that improves things for your audience, shareholders and investments.
man o man o man… im going to wreck 500 new investments. You hear me you 500 new investees? I am coming for you, with a vengeance
“We are targeting all these changes for Monday January 16th or Tuesday January 17th.”
I will be checking back on Tuesday the 17th since there does not appear to be any external activity today
Any new? it’s the 17th today
and we are NOT curiuos! 
Well they converted love that feeling of loosing 28 million NOT lol
Thanks for the cold, hard currency!
wow, there are changes now, my luxury wealth is gone!
only 10% is back in eaves…..
Ben/Kevin, you can also recoup the cost paid at 100% for the luxury items by going to the Luxury Items link on your profile page and selling each item back to the Shop.
I didn’t read this blog post yet, and was quite surprised when in the middle of making some buys my Eaves all of a sudden jump up by a hundred grand. Thought it highly doubtful that in 5 minutes fellow EA members purchased a Million worth of my shares. (dare to dream..lol)
Upon reading I believe we are all on a path that will make our EA journey a captivating, rewarding, and more interactive. While I myself are nowhere near having invested in 5000 members I too wonder why an increase of 10%. I have to imagine that this is simply the beginning of this particular upgrade in order to review the whos, hows, and whens will partake of the upgrade.
@Paul Shirey I too was thinking about interest on bank balance, quickly thought, wait a minute my real world interest paid is laughable at best. I had to page up to find your comment . I didn’t catch your “better, batter rates” part of comment the first time.
All in all I can’t wait to see how changes progress, and saddened that I pulled my savings on some of the luxury items instead of purchasing them. I’m sure the individuals I invested in with those Eaves will more than make up for it though.
Enjoy
Bill, Lynn, and all at Bewitched
I cannot believe how badly you guys botched the luxury goods elimination. From 15 Million in combined wealth to 11.6 in one swipe. What a terrible way to treat your players. I spent far more than 400K in eaves to buy those luxury goods. Why didn’t you refund me all of the eaves? When a player I’ve invested in quits, I get the entire value back. Why did you treat this differently? Stupid, stupid, stupid. Regardless of the assertion that we can sell goods back, I see no option for that. Botched. Botched. Botched.
Walter, go to your Profile and click on Luxury Items, each item which gave luxury wealth has a Sell Back Option. You get 100% of whatever you paid.
Your Luxury Items are available here:
http://empireavenue.com/p/luxury/view/?u=DUPS
Click on Each Item to sell back if you wish.
And sigh, the link should be:
http://empireavenue.com/p/luxury/view/
OK, did that math. 2,161,529 eaves spent on luxury goods over the last 8 months. That’s what you should have credited me. And if you’re eliminating them, refund me $11.98 real dollars for the premium goods I purchased.
Terrible. Just terrible.
(Now, clearly a 1st world problem rant, but you’ve still screwed this up.)
OK, I see the link and the ability to do this. How would you navigate to this page and how will ALL the others users know to do this?
What is the point of this process? If you’ve eliminated luxury goods why are you making us sell them back one at a time?
Yeah awesome awesome awesome… sold all my luxury wealth back to eav …. yeah awesome, I had 3,500,000 in luxury wealth that I rather have in a portfolio… shopping spreee… buy buy buy buy Max out everyone..at least for me, some people make 3 million eaves from divs daily.
We have not eliminated Luxury Items, we have eliminated a magic number called Luxury Wealth. We want Wealth to be things that is explainable and useful (ie useable), luxury Wealth was not useable. We have plans for the items that you already have bought but if you are unwilling to wait or wish to get the eaves then you can choose to sell them back. Luxury Items will be attached to useful stuff that you can use and explain.
*Throws hands up* You should have left this alone until you could clearly communicate the transition of luxury goods. I have a feeling I’m going to see a surge in refunds from players leaving over the next few days.
Let me change direction.
Thank you. Very Much.
I’m closing my account. Thank you for reminding me that unless “Social Media X” is in your job title, this site is just a mindless waste of time. I’d rather spend more time, well, on anything else.
Good luck.
An arbitrary shit
I will remove my account at this fucking silly website
Luxury Items should receive a straight refund for what we paid.
Hmmm. I agree with Simon Hamer—we should receive a straight refund for the items we purchased. IT’S NOT LIKE ANY OF THEM HAVE BEEN USED AND HAVE DEPRECIATED! LOL!
And I think it’s ludicrous there is only one thing to buy now. Is there anywhere where we view any of the things we purchased?
Seriously, (e)DUPS—what’s the deal? Seems rather broken.
Cheers and happy new year,
Terri
DUPSeconomics! That’s what I am calling it.
Terri and Simon, follow the link to get to your luxury items. You can sell any of the affected items back to the shop at the price you paid
http://empireavenue.com/p/luxury/view/
We will make the link more obvious on the site notice.
We are actually trying to fix a broken part of the site and one which is preventing us from doing cooler things with Luxury Items.
Ok, you’re getting rid of luxury wealth, got it. To say you can sell them back for 100% is great, but to say they may have another use in the future is soooooo ambiguous! So people have to make the decision on whether or not to sell them (and possibly free up millions of eaves to invest & make more on) or wait for an undisclosed amount of time for a possible future use… It would be nice to have a date or an inkling what that future use could be in order to make an informed decision, especially since there will be no option to buy them back in the future.
I also highly suggest you have a confirmation screen when selling! I didn’t see the value for what I would receive for selling an item back, so I clicked the sell button, assuming there would be a confirmation page (similar to the buy/sell popup), but there was none. It would be beneficial to list the value in the first screen or have a confirmation window. Thanks, guys.
Thanks for the feedback. We’ve added an obvious “sell back” moniker and link on the main luxury items page indicating that luxury item can be sold back, the amount you will gain is now in the pop up along with a confirmation.