EVE General Discussion

To the vocal minority!

I've been thinking about this a lot, especially about the no content dev blog and the no content CSM response to the not content shared in the dev blog. I've also been thinking a lot about crowd sourcing and CSM input. I now conclude that CCP needs to just put the noise cancelling headsets back on and get back to whatever they were doing before the distraction.

Here is why.

CCP, you've made something pretty special here with Eve. You've done that pretty much on your own. I've met many of you and I know you are creative and have vision. If I look for it I can see it everytime I log in. I have a corporation of other players that would agree. But over the last 5 months or so it seem all is doomed! Some have shouted "the sky is falling!" You must listen to us and do everything we say because we know your business better than you do! I am going to go out on a limb with this, I don't think those shouting voices do know your business better than you do, or in particular, what Eve is supposed to be.

So I am calling for you to stay true to your plan and vision, realize the majority of your players are not on the forums, won't blockade Jita, most likely won't unsubscribe from Eve anymore that they would after playing other MMOs for the same amount of time. Yes, there are cases to made if you look at the subscrition levels and player participation but there could be many reasons for those numbers that have nothing to do with WIS vs. FIS or LOPH (Lack of pleasure hubs).

While I might initially think that a game that was exacly like I asked it be would really fun I realize I would probably grow to hate it. I want a game that is someting I wouldn't have thought up, that surprises me and challenges me. I count on you, CCP to figure this out. As I fly around and look at all the old content I see once you were on a course to deliver that, but I think somewhere you lost your way. So I am going to offer a suggestion, stop worrying about what we want, build the game you envisioned in the first place, deliver on your vision and you will succeed. So let me outline a path to success. And you don't even have to listen to me to see it.

First fall back in love with your game as you originally intended it! Think about all the content you created to date. All the cool things you put in space for us to just look at and enjoy! Think about how you intended to fill us at wonder and amazement when we encoutnered them! The abandoned stations and ruins. Then ask youself when was the last time you added something like that in Eve? Look at the Cosmos missons and asked what your vision was for them? Did you actually achieve that vision? Did they deliver what you hoped they would? Do you consider them complete. Do the same for faction warfare, exploration, dynamic missions, contraband and smuggling? Long ago it was fun to pop the NPC convoys, who bothers with that anymore? The list goes on. I suggest you look back at everything you once thought was going to make Eve special and ask yourself. Did we deliver the vision? Did we finish what we intended to deliver? Were we wrong about the value of that to the players of Eve?

I think in virtually every case till recently you will find we loved what you did, especially when you sort of finished it. But when you teased us with a hint of your vision to then lose interest we became cynical and distrusting.

So please fall back in love with what you started out to do and realize that fixing/finishing much of that content will be "new" to most players.

Second, trust yourself to figure out the "new shiny". You probably know better than us! But please stop being so ADD about the shiny, less but good and finished beats more but random/broken/abandoned every time.

A couple thousand shouty forum users and a handfull of "elected" special interest types do not a game designer make. Some people have left for sure but lots have not, those folks likely never use the forums, don't "crowd source" and could care less about SOV, capital ship balance or most of stuff we see folks getting worked up about.

So I guess I am askng you to listen to me, but only so that you remember you created this place and so far, there is way more good about it than bad. So I ask you stay committed to your vision, find a way to fall back in love with what you've delivered so far and deliver. Do that and I expect we will be amazed. Don't let the minority of folks demanding specific changes distract you, most of their ideas would probably just make it worse anyways.

Issler

I agree with OP. But I might add that I think a lot of the time CCP are trying to do their vision.

A lot of people have emotional attachment to the game and they don't want their beloved game to be ruined. That's why they complain.

Emotion can alter a persons reality. As they say "love blinds you".
Hate blinds you as well. It's hard for people to step back from something like that and think rationally about all of it.

And so you see it in the forum. Each end of the spectrum. Or at least the people who are the loudest.
And also some people in the middle.

Oh I should add that some people just like to whinge about things.

I like how people misuse the "vocal minority" thing, assuming that the ones who aren't vocal obviously must agree to what's going on. While a part of them surely will (just like a part of the vocal minority), the sad reality is that the majority isn't vocal because they can't be bothered with typing words on some forum they never go to. So please, when you try to use the vocal minority card in a "you don't have to listen to them" you're just fooling yourself.

Back to verifiable facts. For a while now CCP has NOT focussed on EVE; the space ship game, they have neglected very basic, important and age old issues within the game. Be it the interface, balance, mechanics and whatnot. There is simply no excuse for that, none... zero. Any structural progress is obviously drowned because of the scrum system they use, the changed focus and the lack of proper management at the top. So if you ask CCP to continue on the path they set out be careful what you wish for.

Clearly CCP (as a company) has shown to be unable to find the right focus on their own otherwise they'd have it figured out by now after 8 years, and they would stop making these embarrassing fuckups the whole time. Generally I'd agree with the OP about not listening to your player base too much as normally those just want "more of everything" but in this case the (vocal minority) community seems to care more for the game than CCP itself while being less ******** about it. I mean, how in the HELL could one manage to let a niche MMO like EVE slide into crappiness, you'd almost have to PLAN that **** on purpose. What level of incompetence is needed to make this happen?

Stop playing management/marketing/control games, start working on your ******* game.

Name 3 good things CCP has done for EVE in the last 2 years that worked out well, were completed ( or if needed iterated to completion) and showed an understanding of urgency in the way that they focussed on the worst issues first.

You didn't even bother to try naming one.

Point proven.

Except it hasn't slid into crappiness. That's what the vocal minority keeps spewing but it simply isn't true. That's just the perception of a few.

"Eve is buggy it's UNPLAYABLE I QUIT MY 10 ACCOUNTS!1!"

"EVE IS CRAP I QUIT!1!"

"EVE SUX PERPETUUM SO AWESUM I QUIT!1!"

"OMG NO NEW SHIPS IN 3 MONTHS I QUIT!1!"

"OMG EVE IS WORST GAME EVAR!!!111 I QUIT"

"CCP SPENDING *MY* MONEY ON OTHER GAME I QUIT!!!!11"

"OMG NO SHIP SPINNING I QUIT!1111"

"NO ONE WANTS NEX I QUIT!!11!"

"SOME PEOPLE BUY NEX I QUIT!!11!"

"OMG CHANGE!!!11 I QUIT!11"

"OMG NEW FORUMS HAVE TOO MUCH SPACE ON SIDES CCP IS WURST COMPANY EVAR!!1!"

Day after day, month after month. Same ****, different toilet. I Don't blame CCP for not listening. If they ever did listen to all the noise Eve wouldn't have lasted a day. I just think it's too bad that the threats are mostly talk. Apparently to quit Eve it takes a mandatory minimum of 6 months .

Considering Eve is so unplayable and so crap to you few, and I happen to log in, and still enjoy the game just fine, I'm guessing no, we are not playing the same game.

Oh look, the 'silent majority' defense. Nixon created it and used it to great success. Too bad everyone uses it these days.

“Don't listen to the meanies! Oh, and by the way, do these things that the meanies are telling you to do…”

I do fly Gallente. I am skill-maxed with drones. I make my bulk of isk through POS manufacturing. I do missions against Angel ships. I am in lo sec quite often. I manufacture my own robotics for POS fuel. But yeah, keep at it.

The difference is I don't go ape-**** because Eve, just as everything else in life, could be improved on. I'm not on the forums yapping on how Eve is so terrible I can't use it to wipe and in exactly 270 days I will discontinue playing it. In the mean time, exaggerating on how the game is so unplayable it is impossible to log in and how CCP is clubbing seals, yadda, yadda.

Seriously, it gets old.

BTW, I've probably been playing longer than you. At least long enough to realize that there is always a race or an item in need of tweaking. When Gallente gets *fixed*, then another race will require tweaking, and so on. If this bothers you so much, seriously, why haven't you walked already?