For me, it was great fun to play this first universe. If rewards or not, it was never about that for me.

For feedback - maybe it is of little help for someone

• The rules need to be in a more prominent place. So you can have access to it while you are logged in. It is only in the login screen and very small. Make them accessible in your main menu somewhere, so everyone can read them and access them ingame

• I think it was not a good way to make a public beta test for the game. A public test for me is made to find flaws in the game - weather it´s bugs, or also missinterpreted/unclear/missing rules, things that can be argued about, things that are unclear.

If you put a big reward to a public flaw test, and also give people the opportunity to spend 2000 Dollars for a first test game, of course people get pissed, there is arguments, there is frustrations, and people will not continue playing because they might not understand certains decisions, etc.

That´s what makes is the sadest point in all this for me. It´s like you ruined parts of your game already in your first public test. That is bad marketing, and could have been worked out way better for me. Damage is done in some parts already.

For me it would have been much better to make a first public test, invite a few hundred people, give everyone that plays until the end of the goal is reached a little reward for helping test.

• There is no clear communications of the admins. Even in this post, I miss a very clear statement about cheating, about the rewards.

What is cheating exactly?? Yeah it might be very clear for experienced players, but us beginners (never played anything like OGame) we don´t understand much.

Is someone still getting the endgame reward? Not clear for me also.

So now, "cheating" is seen before it is cleared up exactly, but rewards are still payed out? This is what I understand from this post... And if this is so, you mean it´s ok to bend the rules like you mean them (hopefully you will make them more clear now) in the future and still earn rewards?
What kind of message does that send to players? We have rules, but yeah, just bend them you will get your rewards anyways? Why making rules then?

Sorry for this feedback. But I think this game is a great one to have on Hive, and I have been a massive PIZZA supporter ever since. And I want to help making this community more active again, that´s why I have to speak my mind about feedback.