EVE General Discussion

I am willing to pay Nex for making my roqual jet black with red trim and all my loaner Hulks the same colour (just so I know which ones are my toys)

But They are still revamping the ships doing a new skin. I think the earliest we will ever see them will be in the summer. Video Blogg mentioned it was one of the longer term projects and not a short term winter project.

It angers me, because it affects immersion. A lot of stuff in this fantastic game does. Alternative characters are a major one that will never go away, but really do take you out of the game. You're playing along, talking to your friend sort of in character, at least able to suspend your disbelief.. then he announces he's going to go on his alt, or brings along one at the same time (multiple accounts). Meh. I have absolutely no idea how people take enjoyment in this game if you can't suspend your disbelief.

As for real world trading, meh. Plex is bad enough. Buying virtual items with real world money is a direct feedback loop reminding you "Hey man, this is JUST a game and only about making money not about creating an amazing virtual world to escape to".

I know, I'm the minority here. People these days simply want to be the best, get the best items, and will do anything and everything to get there, if that's spending real world money to gain an advantage in game, so be it. I'm not sure why people are so worried about pay to win anyways, it already exists in the form of multiple accounts and PLEX. If you have the cash, you can buy ANYTHING in the game from day 1.

Often I wonder while I mission around, if Bill Gates decided to start playing EvE; he could buy all the isk in EvE and it wouldn't even phase him. He could quite literally buyout everyone in the game and make his own virtual space empire. All because he's a God in real life.

Well, guess what.. this is a game. I want to be immersed, and I want to be on a fair level with everyone else regardless of their real life status. But I can't do that, not when you can buy isk and virtual clothes // possibly ship skins (seriously..) with real world benjamins.

They were developing Dust 514 and the Twilight mmo...what was the third game?

Don't get me wrong: the skins *will* be in the NeX but you trying to make that into a good thing is p funny.

Except CCP already got their income from the person buying PLEX in point 1.

What is the point of NeX store again?

Because in your example the only thing NeX "achieves" is short-circuiting player industry and cheapening the experience of gaining new content.

Player wanting the ship skin/piece of clothing/whatever and buying with isk rendered down from Plex has already paid CCP a microtransaction fee in essence - why shouldn't the isk be payed to a player who played the game a little to build/lp purchase/discover the item in question to enrich general gameplay as well?

Whreas the fundamental point you don't appear to get Ranger 1 is that when I buy an item in Eve Online I want to be buying that item from another player as a preference.This because I enjoy the economic sandbox. I like browsing for bargains on contracts, I like haggling and bartering. I like buying things that are complicated and challenging to make.

When I buy a tier 3 BC then out there some player organization has built the things, harvested the minerals, production-lined the blueprints and produced the ships. I like this. Its my preference to buy things produced in this process.

I look at something that comes through the NeX store and it disgusts me because its an injection of content through an alien (out of game cash store) methodology that doesn't give any players the opportunity to take part in its manufacture. It serves no reasonable purpose (CCP already have MT through PleX) and the only thing NeX does is break suspension of disbelief both ingame (poor rationalization of corporate ubiquity and NeX identity) and to be honest, as players since it looks and feels like a cheapening of the subscription model - ie content that is not naturally part of the client.

Now sure, you can argue its just extra steps between plex -> isk -> plex - > aurum blah. But nobody is answering the question of what we need NeX for if we've already got PLEX to make CCP extra income. (oh but its essential for the dust link ain't it! - on which we have no details conveniently of course)

But Ithe essetial point here is that CCP have microtransactions already that don't break the game - called PLEX. They allow CCP to get extra income and rich players to buy extra access to game content (without ring-fencing specific content behind the NeX store) while not cheapening or circumventing player industry or ruining content provision in the single server universe.

So the big question once again.

Is what is NeX for?

How can you have a common marketing system that mixes Pay to Win (gold tanks and hovercraft etc) with strictly and (sic) "vanity only" in the same store with any degree of credibility really.

NeX is basically a malformed abortion of a concept. Its supposed to be an Amarrian fashion house (noble appliances) that got roped into clothes selling by CCP Monocles and CCP thousand dollar jeans last summer and we're supposed to believe it will now be selling golden tanks and platinum hovercraft for PTW Dust battles without negatively impacting the Eve economic sandbox.

Its frankly ridiculous.

If they want a currency that allows eve players to interact with Dust (which can involve rich dust players bribing eve players to provide bombardment support etc) then it should be about mercenary payments and be a concept similar to the "c-bills" from the Battletech universe and be strictly focused on currency transfer between capsuleer and groundside military.

Start from the beginning. Ditch the NeX store. Don't use that nonsense in Eve because CCP already have Plex for MT income there.

Introduce a new merc hiring organization for groundside Dust Infantry and have the common currency there. Make becoming a licensed (recognized) Dust contractor/hirer - contigent on putting down some "c-bills" that get you access to the interface (obviously also tradeable with isk) - don't force people who want nothing to do with the concept of cash shop to see it on their interface every dock.

And don't call it Aurum because it sounds crap.

As long as you're advocating for the NeX I doubt you'll get much respect. Maybe you missed all the fun over the summer but the vast majority of Eve players find the microtransaction store in a subscription based game to be loathsome.

DarkAegix ou make a decent analysis. However, so does Lady Harlot.

And, your analysis is based on a critical assumption that NeX will only be used to push a small amount of vanity Items into the EVE sandbox. Can we really trust CCP to put such constraints on their actions now that they have deployed the infrastructure to do so much more?

PLEX already fills this role. All NeX does is cut players out of the production loop to the detriment of the economic sandbox.

As for PLEX sink -> Any expensive (ingame isk) desirable content does this. If Ship skins came from the LP store and required 100,000 lps per skin they would sell like hotcakes still. People would trade plex to afford the market prices.



Lazy programming, poor in-game rationale, angers the player base because options that were previously included in the old character generator are no longer there and have been replaced with MT bought stuff.This stuff should be either in the character generator or on the market manufactured and sold by PLAYERS for PLAYERS.



Vanity argument is void when you consider that other Vanity items (nebulas and engine trails, new turrets, new cynos, new effects are all essentially Vanity.) And when we get to the point of corp logos being considered "vanity" I will sigh - since many people realize advertising and promoting one's corp is serious business - hence why so many pay big isk for eon ads, alliance tourney promos and login mentions.



The notion its possible to introduce indestructable customization into this economic sandbox without radically affecting the game is nonsense. Short circuiting player industry is a huge effect and has already caused massive player discontent.



On your perceived advantages of ship skins in NeX:

1. Fast is not always better. We have a history in Eve of features being rushed out of the door and never finished. I am hoping this new CCP will actually take the time to deliver features and content correctly and stop the half-assed rollout of embarrassingly poor features. Your argument led to PI, it led to FW, it led to T3 ships all never being finished. Quick introduction – no iteration.

2. There is massive impact on eve from the spreading corruption of overt MT without player interaction. It is a foot in the door for the cash store and will inevitably lead to arguments from CCP monocle and CCP thousand dollar jeans that its right for people to get out the credit card and pay $ to be special. That road leads to exclusive MT content that you can’t trade for isk.

3. Who needs a one-stop unified place for skin purchase? That’s just lazy universe-breaking dumbing down of the Eve setting. Why on earth should the corporations and factions of eve sell their ship skin designs through the same mono-corporate entity. Put the damn things in the LP store, let players buy and sell them for profit and JITA is your “one stop shop”.

4. More PLEX demand happens anyway if these are in the LP stores so the argument is void.

5. I really don’t see how you can see time, thoughtful planning and development of interface as a “downside” – and I also do not agree that PLEX demand will be stifled by having these skins player manufactured. I counter that it will be ENHANCED because people who are disgusted by NeX in the sandbox will be happy to buy ship skins that come via traditional routes (even something simple like the LP stores)

So thats my problem with your analysis point by point.

NeX is something I see as entirely bad from beginning to now. I want it gone entirely from Eve online and I think you’d probably find the grand majority of Eve developers would agree with me. As a concept it was foisted on the company (and player base) by a couple of hired in “industry experts” and courted by some extremely naive producers “CCP soundwave” including – who simply couldn’t understand the opposition to the notion of paying MT extras in an already expensive subscription game that we pay for and play because we LIKE the integrity of the single server economic sandbox.

Now this is a respecful post in reply to you DarkAegix, and proper respect in return is you addressing these points not simply skirting over them.