EVE General Discussion

You mean this?



It's been my signature for a while.

It's a friendly reminder that casuals, soloers and "barbies in space" do vote with our wallets too.

I am more optimistic now than when I wrote it, as this winter expansion is quickly running out of features to add, which means there is room for Incarna in summer 2012, just in time to add to the Dust launch. A venturous synergy, let's we hope.

Of course nullsec whiners and the PvP bunch may get some toys too (noisy crowd is noisy) but i seriously hope that summer is ours.

(anyway, if Egosoft's X- Rebirth was more promising than it is now, with that damned "single player ship", maybe I wouldn't wait so long for EVE to come and entertain me again)

You're still confused about what WiS and what Incarna was. Incarna is the name of an expansion that gave us a half-heated attempt at WiS. Just like you can recognize every other expansion as half-delivered content, why do you seem to have trouble recognizing this one for what it was?

What did WiS offer, and did it offer more than fixing old game mechanics? It offered a vision to the new player, the same vision CCP shared about the future, and yes it offered more than fixing old hardened game mechanics, to me and many others I know. Why? Because very minute game mechanics don't matter to a person that's not playing your game. As I mentioned earlier, I and many others started with Freelancer; I already enjoyed its mechanics and despite many friends telling me about EVE, after the trial I wasn't compelled enough to try a new sci-fi game (especially since EVE's flight mechanics are worse than Freelancer's). On-again off-again trials with EVE was all I could muster for a while, until I saw the E3 2008 WiS video. That was awe inspiring and enough to send me over the edge with a single message: EVE had a future larger than simply shooting in space.

And I'm willing to bet there are as many if not more here for that future, that sense of expansiveness and completeness, as there are here only for PvP.


I might have thought the same until you actually get out there and start to discover how secretly notorious this game is. From casual mentions among friends, to the obvious in circles of gamers, it wasn't until I accidentally brought it up with a waitress at a bar (and even asked her several 'test' questions to prove she wasn't bs-ing) that I started challenging just how niche this game is. One thing is for sure, just as I was, though millions may not be playing, they're aware of the game and millions are on the outside looking in for just any reason to get them started. WiS is that reason, and it's a reason that has the potential to bring in more players than any other feature. But like I said, they're watching, and Incarna and indefinitely delaying WiS... it's not helping our image.

I don't remember CCP ever saying they wouldn't fix existing issues, in fact it was just the opposite. They said they were going to do that with their 'Commitment to Excellence' campaign and then they never made good on it.

Again you label Incarna as WiS. That was Incarna, Dust and WOD they were working on.

Incarna's CQ is a malformed mutated version of Ambulation's WiS which is completely different.




Sorry, but your conclusions are wrong if you think Eve is still the same as it was back in 2003. Back then it was indeed a 'Niche' game.

Niche = relating to or aimed at a small specialized group or market
Mainstream = belonging to or characteristic of a principal, dominant, or widely accepted group, movement, style, etc.

When CCP decided to do it's massive advertizing campaign, they in fact decided to change Eve from being a 'Niche' game into a 'Mainstream' game.



Again you view the monstrosity of Incarna's CQ as Ambulation's WiS. If CCP had stayed with the original design and graphics engine of Ambulation's WiS, we wouldn't be having this discussion. The graphics engine for Incarna's CQ was indeed a test for WOD. Everyone was expecting Ambulation's WiS and it's graphics engine. What was promised and what we got is two different things.

In case you didn't realize this, CCP's new direction of 'focusing on what makes EVE great', is just a facade, a temporary 'Fix' to placate a very vocal minority. CCP's vision for Eve Online has been from the very start to create a Science Fiction Virtual Reality Universe. FiS is only one aspect of that. WiS is another aspect of that. CCP has stated over and over, time and time again, that is their vision and the direction they are going with Eve Online.

Referencing WiS as 'Space Sims with Space Barbies' and stating that it doesn't belong in Eve Online denotes an immature closed minded viewpoint. With that being said, you've made your point. You don't like the idea of WiS which is fine. Instead of continuing to try and derail this thread, just turn off station environment and go fly spaceships.

So I had an interesting thought. Seeing all the FiS stuff in the in the winter expansion and knowing how long it takes to get that much content done I suspect more was being worked on related to FiS than we knew. That much of this was in plan and being coded while we were distracted with CQ and microtransaction sparkle ponies.

I'm sure I'm wrong but it would be pretty awesome if there is some WiS working still happening that isn't being talked about and that CCP is going to surprise us with it sooner than we could expect given recent "on ice" comments.

CCP, please let this be the case!

Issler

I'd be content if characters could just sit together somewhere, no walking necessary (which apparently is the big issue in development). Look at IMVU, that's all it is and the stupid **** I've made for it makes me about 200USD a month.

Seriously, look at my "products"... http://pt-br.imvu.com/shop/web_search.php?manufacturers_id=648742 and just try to tell me that all's worth 200 a month. I put effort into them but it was always for fun, not money, and I get that much without even trying and I haven't really made anything in years.

And all IMVU is a bunch of creepy looking anime knockoff characters sitting around and talking/cybering/arguing.

EvE expansion summer 2012. EvE: Immersion


Please?

Seriously...after everything coming to the winter expansion the FiS guys have absolutely nothing to ***** about.

I assume you aren't a software engineer. I am and the reality of the winter expansion is this.

There are only two choices.

1. CCP can do super human feats of software engineering and deliver in 90 days an entire expansion. If you believe that it means that everything CCP said they couldn't do, all the things we asked for in the past like fuel pellets, new ships, sov changes, FW updates, weapons balancing, skybox upgrade, engine trails, new cyno effect...... they were just lying to us while the developers spent their days sitting around playing Angry Birds at thier desks.

2. Most of this was well underway already and likely was going to be in the winter expansion from the start.

As a software engineer with more experience than most I have a hard time seeing how this expansion is coming together in less than 90 days without a lot of close to complete when they "spun us" to believe they changed their focusas a result of a loud vocal fraction of Eve whinging and acts of space statue vandalism.

Most unsubs were because of NeX and fear of microtransactions combined with the really bad PR that resulted from the leaked internal memos. Add that to the total failure to deliver any real WiS when it had been hyped so much, a lot of folks that were ready to unsub anyways from boredom and the lack of evolution of Eve just hit the wall and left.

The 20% of their staff was because of a lot of bad business decisions (like develpng three games at once, funding that with Eve and then taking a path with Eve that leaves it a nitch 400K sub game instead of getting a WiS experience actually delivered that would have doubled the subscriber base)

If you really think a single thing in this expansion changes Eve in any substantial way you are easlily confused. It will change the lives of some null sec dweller super cap types, ruin PI for most casual players (once again screwing the little guy), it will give you some long overdue weapons balancing that should have been in patches years ago, some new shiny to look at and a couple more ships to fly. If you had run out of types of ships to fly already you weren't trying enough.

What this expansion won't do is evolve mining, which remains fundementally the same as when I started Eve in 2004, add anything new to trade or industry, do anything to make low sec interesting again, get more folks in 0.0, make exploration more interesting or rewarding or really change 0.0 dominance by a handful of large alliances that own the ubber moons.

So the net net of this new expansion, no new players will come to Eve as a result of this expansion. Some bitter vets may resub but I expect not so many as the game has long ago become boring to them. CCP will have new calibration for its "bread and circuses" business model and know what the minimum effort required is to keep the Jita Statue safe and Eve stays as Eve is, an interesting niche game with 400K subscribers till someone finally gets a better space game launched.

That ^^^ assuming you are correct and CCP really has killed off the idea of WiS, if they are still working on WiS Eve could be much more popular and CCP would have the revenue to make Eve continue to improve and maybe pay to finish their vapire game and keep from going out of business from the cost of running Dust.

Issler

or

3. Deployment of "Incarna" and pre-Incarna patches modified the core of the game to be more accessible and tweak-able

Issler's words
"What this expansion won't do is evolve mining, which remains fundementally the same as when I started Eve in 1994, add anything new to trade or industry, do anything to make low sec interesting again, get more folks in 0.0, make exploration more interesting or rewarding or really change 0.0 dominance by a handful of large alliances that own the ubber moons."

the above is still much more important than wis
also you mean 2004 instead of 1994?

i agree

but don't be pushing out wis for the immediate surge of subs, the only way wis is going to work for me there must be wis-only "New Suff" to do,
and not doing existing stuff but i am forced to walk to do it, like buying pirate ships, why would i walk when i can browse contracts?

by "New Stuff" i mean careers in eve, professions you can make living with eg mining/trading/combat etc with associated skills
why i am opposed to wis is that people seem to want immersion for immersion's sake alone and that is just not compelling enough

if the "New Stuff" comes out tomorrow i would do a complete 180 and start wis-ing, but i just can't fathom what that "New Stuff" would be