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CSMX - Post #42

CCP has published an update from CCP Seagull. For those that like video media go watch.

The week started with a polite poke from Tikktokk that the micro jump drive destroyer's were not working in low sec on Sisi. That news cascaded through the game. Theories abounded. Some cheered. Others booed. I went and poked Team Size Matters and asked them if there had been a change and if there had been can we open up discussion about it. While it was hard to not grip my pitckfork and chant with burning torches around the tar soaked hut.

CCP Rise came forward with clarification that they are not banning the MJFG from low sec. That error has been corrected.

Project Discovery has also gone live on the test server. I was introduced to the idea at Fanfest and told agreed that it was amazing and perfect for Eve's playerbase.

 Meanwhile, on Twitter CCP Fozzie announced that they are doing playtests of structures.

People got excited and asked a lot of questions. CCP Fozzie had few answers other then saying that this was an early play test.

It is nice to see that Structures are progressed to this point. It is something I'll be able to make that I wanted to see. I won't be seeing the changes to corporations and alliances it seems. Structures was a nice one and its been pleasant to be a part of their conception.

Skill Trading is going right ahead. I still see big divides between liking it and disliking it. I've talked with a lot of people about this. I've seen points on all sides. I don't consider myself neutral but I am fair enough to bring all sides to the table. None of that maters because it is going to happen. It is oddly, one of the things I am most unhappy about in Eve's future. I'm trying to sit back and wait to see what happens and ignore the utter distaste I have for this change to the game until I see what happens. I don't think I'm a big enough person to do that but I'll continue to try. I appreciate everyone who has participated in the discussion and given me new viewpoints.

While not a CSM thing the storyline is moving along with some type of player assisted built Citadel. I won't pretend to know what is going on with it. I support the storyline side of the game. I think its healthy and important even if I don't participate in it. Some may find it an interesting venture to look into so I add it on.

2016 seems to be getting started. The election season for CSMIX is underway. Good luck to those running. I hope they enjoy the election season more than I did. It is very nice not to be involved in any of that.

Comments

  1. As much as Skillpoint trading is a done deal (was since before CCP tested the waters with the threadnaught), I am wondering what this change will mean. Many players pointed, and still point, that it will change forever the value of paying a subscription to play EVE since buying SP on top of the subscription will give an advantage.

    Giving more money to CCP never gave an advantage over just playing the game. Now that will change and it's not looking good. If it drives new players into thinking that EVE costs more than a subscription, that they need to pay SPs too, that will be the end for EVE.

    Unless CCP removes the subscription, maybe... which would be the end of EVE in a different way. *scratches head*

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    Replies
    1. Onions,

      “Many players pointed, and still point, that it will change forever the value of paying a subscription to play EVE since buying SP on top of the subscription will give an advantage.”

      That may be the most succinct and cogent overview of distaste at skill point trading I have yet read. Players like me who aren’t disturbed at the prospect would point out that Eve already has things you can buy (attribute enhancers or the Character Bazaar) that provide advantage over flat subscription training time. Accordingly, skill point training feels more like iteration than fundamental change to us.

      “If it drives new players into thinking that EVE costs more than a subscription, that they need to pay SPs too, that will be the end for EVE.”

      Here too I see the concern but, similar to above, it’s a situation we’ve always faced. Some groups are noob friendly, others are not. Both groups will have to adapt to a skill point trading universe. Noob unfriendly groups will have to consider whether their minimum skill point thresholds are being circumvented by instant injection while noob friendly groups will have to decide if being noob friendly means providing convenient skill point injection access. Interestingly, from this point of view skill point injection isn’t about the noobs, it’s about the vets. As always, en masse, we vets get to decide if we’re going to make the game noob heaven or noob hell. Skill point trading seems merely another avenue to that same perennial question to me. Even in the midst of change, things remain much the same.

      Delete
    2. Ack! Confusing typo. Should read, "Accordingly, skill point *trading* feels more like iteration than fundamental change to us.

      Delete
    3. DireNecessity, I always try to think about the outsider's view on the game. Partly because I am an outsider, but also because when everybody is wrong, only an outsider could be right -like in the tale about blind men and an elephant.

      New players joining EVE face many challenges and one of them is the conception that there is a "bar" and they must be "this tall" to play the game. Being a subscription game already is a handicap to EVE, but now selling SPs could rise the "bar" for real money.

      "You need to skill up" may become "you need to pay again after paying". That would be absolutely devastating for EVE. If convincing people to pay a subscription is tough, now tell them that either meet filantropists online to pay for their fast skilling or they'll be left behind with the bottom feeders who "just" pay a subscription...

      That's terrible even to those who understand the value of EVE. But for someone who just started or is considering to start? It's the absolutely worst deal -the extra costs from a "freemium" or "F2P" game on top of a monthly subscription. And why?

      See, even as I don't have a great opinion on CCP's ability to understand Human 101, I don't think that they would place themselves in such a mess without a good reason. It looks like CCP need money and for lack of any else to sell, they're selling the very soul of the game.

      It begs to wonder what has CCP Seagull done to the game, along with all the other people in charge, when they face the final fase of the curent development cycle with a desperate money grab.

      Frankly, if Citadels and the other stuff from the Rubicon plan won't bring the numbers to make EVE profitable (enough), why did they even bother?

      Specially if the price of developing all that PvP shit becomes losing the PvE mainstay of their financials.

      Delete
    4. I have yet to understand how, "Being a subscription game already is a handicap to EVE."... How? You pay one way or the other and P2W and other so called free games cost everyone more in the long run... I have friends who have added up what they have spent on Steam and were shocked to find it was in the thousands...I can BUDGET $14.99 far easier than find out I have to pay a $200 CC bill for shit I actually don't even need.

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    5. Because we live in a time of abundant F2P and P2W games. 'Gamers' are in the minority of people who play games. Most people pick up a game, play for awhile, and drop it. Never once giving the developer money for the time they spent playing. They jump from game to game to game to game to game. Somewhere in there though, a game will hit a particular itch for a person, and they'll play that game for months or years, converting into paying customers.

      The problem with subscription is Eve doesn't get any of those people. The people who cycle though those type of games till they find their particular thing will come anywhere near Eve. They see the subscription and turn it down flat. That's millions of possible customers who'll never even try eve.

      Delete

    6. @halycon, isn't that the point of the trial? Gives people a chance to try the game without paying? I started my subscription because I enjoyed the game and couldn't train the next skill in my plan. Seems that's how a lot of players jumped from casual to committed.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. CCP Games introduced in it's main product, new eden's mmorpg, a skill training time wall that can be overcome by subscribing.
    During that time you as a capsuleer have the opportunity to learn skill levels and learn how to use those skills in combat. This has always been a Core game element in eve online, even to those alts that are sold on the Character bazaar.

    Now with this latest atrocity of introducing the Company's first NON-vanity macro-transaction, you have to chance to Pay to Win at "defeating" this skill training time wall, and with no consequences attached to your character for instance past mistakes.

    Like the OP, I to have utter distaste for this change to the game :(

    Regards, a Freelancer

    ps: CCP games claim they "listened" to the multiple thread naughts comments out there that say no, this is Bullshit.
    This is an outright Lie, and smells like a higher echelon decision with no regards to customer feedback.
    And we have seen how that can turn out.
    source: http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/a-letter-to-the-followers-of-eve/

    ReplyDelete

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