EVE General Discussion

Since TMC's editor in chief will be writing an article soon about player retention strategies and I personally have wondered about it for the longest time - what are strictly speaking the most effective ways to retain players?

And we're not just talking about newbies fresh off the clone table we're talking all players including long time vets.

Personally I don't find the game very engaging any more, personal goals have almost all been reached and I'm finding other games more entertaining. Fleets formed to kill towers don't excite me, nor does endless station game bullshit. I certainly could grind for more ISK but that's still not what gets the blood pumping. Am I just a bitter vet? What kind of terrible death is this ennui and how can I escape it and by extension be retained by CCP?

The magic of a space game was for me always "immersion".

As a small kid I had a lot of fantasy and games like Privateer entertained me with the feeling to explore and live in that universe.
And I want to have that feeiling again.

I started to play EVE Online at a time where not so many space simulators were available, space sim fans had no real choices.
But now competition has arrived and they do the immersion part better than EVE Online does.

Sure those games have other issues but if immersion is your big thing EVE Online does not cater.
EVE was always spreadsheets in space. And the immersion factor was never big considered.

You cannot walk in stations (I do not count the one room) or on planets or explore your ship.
The ships controls are indirect and you fly your ship from outside which is also not helping to be part of the universe.
And there is a general lack of small fluff things like people doing some repair work.

I cannot look into the heads of other people but I assume that it could be a point why people leave EVE Online and try other space sims.

I still hope that Dust514 and EVE Online is more merged in the future, because in Dust I had more the immersion feeling.

We will see what the future brings.

This. Build the game they want to build, and retain the players that like what they produce.

Have aura gank em and taunt them early on to cut the wheat from the chaff, then focus all resources on the wheat.

I know I'll come off as snarky, but with that comment, and your signature, why is your killboard seem to be filled with nothing but tower kills and large fleets?

If you don't like it, don't do it? Or is there something more that is keeping you in Razor/null that you can't live without?

I had the same mentality when I lived in null. I was a line member doing those fleet, but wanted something more. I left to strike out on my own and have been 100% better off because of it. Frankly, had I stayed in the alliance, I doubt I'd still be playing today.

This.
Right after they sack most of the management.

I like bananas.

In a sense...after a fashion....I think where games get derailed is in getting confused about who the player base really is. It's widely known, for instance, since WoW's famous Panda Meltdown, the gaming world was infiltrated by WoW Refugees who take over the games community devices - such as forums - to agitate for their new home to be converted into their idea of what WoW should have been. We've not been immune to that. (Remember, "gank" is a WoW term, not an EVE term.)

That certain factions in EVE have taken it over is a result of EVE attempting to move toward the all-important (because some guy in Japan did a study) MT/F2P model. EVE has attempted to avoid the free to play, and pay to win aspects, but CCP is not innocent in trying to pander to an imagined PvP majority which in truth does not exist, and in this case, so trivializes the meta-features of the game, we did lose a tremendous amount of our serious, experienced players who just aren't coming back. Replaced by: If you don't know by now, you shouldn't be in this conversation.

The OP, however, does pose an interesting question, and my tendency falls in the "Hey, it's CCP's game. Surprise us!" camp, with the caveat we don't get player input that amounts to pandering to a thin minority (as is the present case). Also, I'd advise CCP to avoid jumping on the bandwagon and making the focus "using mom's VISA to buy stuff here and there for five bucks" approach the rest of the gaming world has chosen.

As always, the true holding power of the game is the developers' ability to create a game. This talent isn't widely shared. These sorts of minds cost a bit more than the standard, competent computer science grad student just out of university. And, getting this right has everything to do with what is a company willing to pay its talent. (I won't comment on the employment conditions with regard to this issue.) At this point is the nuff said.

I'm always playing the programmer. When I'm no longer playing the programmer who's presented something and said, "Beat this!" then, I'm pushing pixels around. That gets boring fast. Pay your talent, or lose your talent. Lose your talent, lose the game. So, the player base. As a member of this player base, I'm willing to put up or shut up. *If CCP needs help in obtaining or retaining this talent, I'm willing to pay double what I'm paying now for a sub.

*(If you pay by PLEX, you're no help. Go find a thread that needs flaming.
Leave this one to those who deal in the real world.)

I'm not disagreeing with Loyd. I'm just putting it out there that most of the people who hit like on his post are probably some of the most vocal whiners for keeping the status quo. And I bet I can find every one of the people who will agree with him in a post in one of the threadnaughts crying at what CCP is proposing or has proposed.

The reality with this player base is, "Just let CCP do what they want. As long as it's what I want".

Mr Epeen

No, I would have worded it differently if I was sure.

I can say with a fair bit of confidence there is a situation going on where there are too many cooks in the kitchen and the food is starting to suck because everyone wants their food flavored differently and the result is a product no one wants to eat. (it is quite possible this is an internal struggle that has nothing to do with the player base which is a big part of why i'm not sure)

I don't know how to fix it, the main reason I don't is because I don't have access to the information I would need to be confident about what I am doing. This situation is no different for anyone besides those employed at CCP.