Player Features and Ideas Discussion

From out here on the user-end of the Eve experience, I can see the ground littered with the broken spears and swords of fresh battles: internal debates and technical difficulties. The most obvious casualty, of course, is the smoking feature hole where once, a jukebox stood proud. This module brought functionality into Eve Online that is rarely seen in an MMO, and now that functionality is lost, likely gone forever.

As someone who has sometimes engaged in such battles myself, I think I can see how the battle went: There's a big push to modernize the dustiest corners of the game experience, and as part of that, someone sold the idea of a cool new set of dynamic background noise. That's a great idea; it helps set the ambient mood in a unique and interesting way. There were technical hurdles to overcome, and the most obvious one was the current sound implementation. The Klang team found that they couldn't comfortably integrate the new features into the old system, and so the decision was made to scrap the old system.

There are two problems with that decision: First, while the new feature is cool, it's not -that- cool. When I play Eve, I'm not listening to the elevator music in the background, I'm listening to my fleet on Teamspeak. This is important: I'm totally ignoring your new feature because it literally doesn't add anything to my game experience (but to give credit where it's due, I don't think it actually detracts from my experience at all; it doesn't hinder me hearing people on TS either). I can see how it's cool, and it could add something to someone's experience, but for me, I have other things I'm looking at. An entire team spent a lot of time and resources on something I just don't care about (sorry!).

To add insult to injury, if I'm doing something that doesn't absolutely require me to hear the FC's voice, I've probably got Pandora running -- and I've actually got it running -on top- of your new dynamic bg noise; I didn't turn it off because I didn't even notice it was there! So now all your new feature is doing is subtly mangling the music I wanted to listen to. On top of that, I can no longer control my playlist from Eve if I have a hard-drive based playlist; I've lost a feature I was accustomed to using, and, importantly, my playlists and preferences were likely lost when the player was. So the work I, as a player, did of importing and tinkering with my playlist was also lost.

So, to summarize, the new feature is really cool. Unfortunately, it's not THAT cool; when you ripped out the old player to put it in, existing functionality was lost, and when you did that, user data, in the form of my playlist order and song choices, was also lost. That's why you have so many players unhappy at this decision, and I hope you choose to reverse it.

Hi guys,

So a thread about the jukebox. I'd like to get a petition started, I know from speaking around that a lot of people want it back.

I've played the game for something like 8 years, before the music was revamped to the style it was before the JB was taken away. Apart from being slightly biased and actually enjoying the music in EvE when in the mood, which was quite often, there are some valid points I want to make and why it should be brought back.

New Music Style

I dont like this. I dont like how the music changes depending on my location, nor how many people have been killed in that system. It is clever I cannot deny, but the music I hear does not suit the mood I am in, nor does it, in my opinion sound that good. I feel that, so far, this noise falls under sound-effects more than music. I've turned it off for now, as I did in the test server clients since the JB was removed.

Removal of access

I'm pro choice, in EvE. I want, and love, the ability to make my own path and do what I want in EvE. I've now had something taken away from me in this game that I enjoyed. There is no gain in this, from a user perspective, I have gained nothing that adds to the experience, only detracts.
The above idea is clever and good, but I dont understand why the entire jukebox had to be taken away. It may be outdated but then that should be resolved, not taking the function out. I want to choose what music I listen to when I want to listen to it, I dont want the game to decide for me. It's lead to me disabling the sound effects of the game, which is a shame as the new sound effects are good.

Limiting Innovation

Alright thats a bit dramatic but its true. EvE is about an immersive experience that with the sound effects, visual effects and music can really suck you in and gets people hooked. I really think that the music is a massive feature of this. It auto plays when you first install the client. New members will hear it and associate EvE with it. It adds to the effect, now as it did when I first started to play. I, and many others, looked forward to the day when we would hear that the music was being revamped again, new tracks, newer mixes, but this...is not the kind of innovation we were hoping for. What has been taken is the easy route - why fix something when you can just remove the issue altogether?

TL;DR - The new music features are good but you dont need to take away the ability to select music as we want CCP. Make it so that when the JB isnt played, the auto-select feature works. The music in EvE was good, and I want to listen to the tracks when I choose, not when the client chooses for me. I've long been an advocate that the sound effects in the game factor into the enjoyment, and that they help with gameplay. I dont like the new 'music', and the plain sound effects are annoying to the point where I just dont have sound anymore. In my eyes losing an aspect like that is a massive blow to the effort put into the game to draw you in and enjoy it. I'm not alone.

If you agree, say in the comments below. I hope with enough support the JukeBox wil be brought back.

--ARGUMENT--

So that people can make up their own mind, here is the main argument for keeping the Jukebox from being returned, as submitted by a player: Linky link

--COUNTER ARGUMENT--

And here is the response to counter-act the argument above: Linky link

--CSM RESPONSE--

CSM Two Step has responded via twitter by discarding the views of the signees of this thread. Tweet your thoughts to @two_step_eve and #csmsummit.

We do however have support from CSM member Issler; whom believes the JukeBox should be return as an option as well as the dynamic music, huzzah!

--NAMES OF SIGNATURES--

Prestb
Belorianus Kane
Expanding Man
Webvan
Totali Notabot
DarkestHeart
Cygnet Lythanea
Tappad
Arline Kley
Keres Kedem
Inquisitor Berthez
Futchmacht
Corine Noas
Eyera
greiko5
Valentine Wolf
Marie Hartinez
Violet Giraffe
Rigs Zocur
E'Rok Carnage
LUfax
Gaupa
Nikkotor Z
Bandalon Ominus
kinsai kusanagi
JuliusRomanus
Jake McCord
Firakepries
Ryu Icescale
BIGDOG4
Jarrot Squoth
Eperor
Kiran
Langbaobao
John Theller
Arcturia Kunert
poof312
Kagumichan
Anuma Alish
Eraza
Zak Shimaya
Omega Sunset
Ortos Falconrae
Trueson
Ocip
Scaramanga
Kanen Alduin
Leon Reinhardt
labdog
MEZZA Creire-Geng
Stickher
Bragoris
Gecko Masteek
Ahn Tee Mahtur
Anubis074
shu
tahara mani
Reaver Glitterstim
Wolfington Esq
Valdark Malthorin
Derek Kalrinian
androch
usum Fawn
androch
Me ofcourse
Duncan Jones
Skef Hakaari
botcher0
Davon Kastire
Metal Icarus
Lucius Regall
Adrian Borland
Scaramanga Erquilenne
Anabella Rella
EXIA MIKOSZ
RealEchnaton
Shakhal McCansey
giglio
Issler Dainze
TheSmokingHertog
Mak YuTsai
Jayden Demonia
Hemi DarkStar
Recoil IV
Andrei Calidar
zxsteel
Tragot Gomndor
Matthew97
Cat Steele
Wu Jiaqiu
Akavire
Johnson Oramara
Xandor Tarn