EVE General Discussion

And again you try to redefine a service, this time as requiring human interaction. That hasn't been true for decades.

Just to try and calm this cyclical argument a little, here is how the term "Service" is defined with regards to IT services at the University of California: Santa Cruz.


Is it a Service?


Hopefully that clears a few things up - ISD Type40.

You still pay for a sub, don't you? Or even in PLEX as it's still being payed for but just through barter on your part. I don't tip parking meters, no. But for a valet I pay for the parking space and tip the valet for his service. If it were just a meter, I pay the fee and that's it, I may even park across the street where it's free.

But we already pay for the service, that being able to access this game server. That is a service (in a business sense and IT sense - my minor was IT and I love servers). Buying the box is a license, you don't "own" the game, CCP does. You are granted permission to use the game client to access their service, and you pay for THAT service. Techy support is usually included in that service, though it is a separate service, and some games (EQ1 for example) would allow subscribers to pay a higher rate to access better support services than the one included as well as access to a special server (no longer available).

When swapping portraits needed human intervention, that was a service, just as tech support, pizza delivery, valet parking, clearly a business service job and not included in the initial pricing for goods. You are paying extra because it takes human intervention beyond what you can do yourself beyond the initial costs for the goods. Now, resculpting is automated within the code, it takes no human intervention beyond the service we already pay for to access the servers. It's no different than say pressing the undock button, same exact thing, it's in the code and take no human intervention beyond the general service of operating the server.

I think that the difficulty for most that don't understand the concept of business services is that f2p games abuse this horribly and has seemingly become the norm, becoming acceptable. So they nickle and dime you to get money out of you of which they wavered the initial service fee which would have covered the charge for goods and services. This is just a matter of bringing in extra revenue, not fulfilling an extra service. An easy avenue.

CCP could do better than this. Where it took human intervention to do this, but now not needed, those employees, they could be put to provide a new service, one at which CCP could generate additional revenue as they seem to want to do. There is also the in game store as well as the merchandise store, both needing additional items to say the least. But calling an automated feature of the game a service, well just doesn't look good.

Yes CCP, keep adding more services for plex. I love it when my subscription price jumps 10% in a week.

[*****]
The more services you continue to add in exchange for plex only increases the barrier of entry for disabled or otherwise poor people who can't afford to pay a monthly subscription to play the game. You may gain some money in the short term but you will lose subscribers in the long term for the simple reason that the higher plex prices get, the higher the percentage of that 1 month subscription time it grants will be spent just paying for the game. At one point in the not so distant past Plex cards costed around 300 million isk. Easily achievable within a week or so for even low level players. They have damn near doubled since then. In just the past week or so alone they have risen by around 50 million isk per card no doubt due to this new 'service'.

I guess though, at the same time, why should you care? The people who you benefit most from by the plex system are people who buy them in bulk to sell on the market. The more they're worth on the market the more inclined these folks will be to buy a few for some quick pvp isk.

inb4lrn2makeisk
[/*****]

EDIT: I miss the good ol' days when such services were just a flat fee. Need to rename your character?? SURRREEE just pay $20. Perhaps you should go that route instead of tacking more and more stuff onto plex cards until they are just a new form or currency for most people.

serv·ice
1   [sur-vis] noun, adjective, verb, serv·iced, serv·ic·ing.
noun
1.
an act of helpful activity; help; aid: to do someone a service.
2.
the supplying or supplier of utilities or commodities, as water, electricity, or gas, required or demanded by the public.
3.
the providing or a provider of accommodation and activities required by the public, as maintenance, repair, etc.: The manufacturer guarantees service and parts.
4.
the organized system of apparatus, appliances, employees, etc., for supplying some accommodation required by the public: a television repair service.
5.
the supplying or a supplier of public communication and transportation: telephone service; bus service.




I really don't get what people are bitching about this for. It's rather simple and will only marginally affect plex prices in game (if at all).

But whatever. ******* cunts...

What service is that? Why “must” resculpting be defined as an add-on to it?

They're upset over how the nasty evil capitalist pigdogs over at CCP has the audacity to gouge their customers by making a service better and less expensive!

No. I'm merely asking you a (two-part) question. Could you please answer it?

What is the service you're already paying for? Why “must” sculpting be defined as an add-on to it?

You wrote a whole lot of words there, but you didn't really address that. I get the impression that you want to see EVE as the service, is that correct?

The subscription fee you pay to play EVE grants you the limited license to install CCP's proprietary software and access the servers required to run the game. CCP are supplying these servers, bandwidth for data download, customer service, game development and content - which actually constitutes a service. Therefore the subscription fee is, yes you guessed it, payment for a service. EVE Online.

As you are still arguing, and suggesting that a character resculpting is not in fact an add-on to this service - please demonstrate how it is not. Please demonstrate very clearly that resculpting a character using the existing infrastructure of a service that is already paid for - limited by the EULA of that same service for use with only that same service - is an independent service of its own; that has value outside of the service that is provided by CCP, which we refer to as EVE Online.

Gotcha. You are unable to demonstrate character resculpting is in fact an independent service and not an add-on to an existing service.

But of course you are also not willing to accept my reasoning for why it is an add-on (which I provided three times by now), because that means you would have to stop trolling.

GF.

As I said, GF. It's over. You lost. Keep pretending you are "just waiting for a reply", it's cool, if that's what it takes to make you feel better.