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Why everyone should go to Fanfest once

First post
Author
Viceran Phaedra
Instar Heavy Industries
#1 - 2013-05-03 12:41:38 UTC
Hey all,

I'm writing this because I had a little epiphany at Fanfest this year that I wanted to share with the community in the hopes that some of you will come to the same realisation I did. We've all been guilty of the EVE community's 'little princess' syndrome at one time or another; shouting 'HTFU' or 'I'm unsubbing!' for whatever reason (your in-game profession didn't get any love, CCP isn't moving fast enough for you etc). 2013 was my first Fanfest. It sure as hell won't be my last. One of the major things I really wanted to do was actually meet a bunch of CCP staff and have candid chats with them about their work and the perceptions they get from the community. This I achieved both on the Pub Crawl (Art Team, you ******* rock) and during all the Round Tables I ran between.

I think if the community was made aware of some of the Legacy programming and issues that CCP staff have to work around and try to fix every day, about 9/10ths of the whining would stop overnight. The impression I got is that there's a lot of old non-modular programming that winds its way through EVE like a barbed hook; it needs to be dealt with very carefully in order not to break EVE when changing or releasing something new. Yes we all want new/changed stuffs, and we all want them nao, but since Incarna and CCP's newfound focus on internet spaceships, I get the real impression that CCP is working hard behind the scenes to get EVE's programming sorted so we're not trying to build a shiny new space elevator (thank you CCP Seagull!) on an old, shaky foundation.

Trust me when I say that CCP gets as excited about cool and shiny new things and fixing broken/outdated features as we do, and they want to do this stuff. But I believe the leadership is set on them doing it the right way. Fix the foundations first. To this end I want to offer an apology (personally to CCP Greyscale from myself) to all CCP staff on behalf of those in the community who have had our eyes opened to the situation. I really see EVE in a new light now, and I'm content with the direction in which we're heading.

We know EVE is the best MMO out there. We know it doesn't need a sequel. We understand the situation and we're playing the long game, too. Keep doing what you're doing, because in the end we know it's worth it, too.

-Vic

Chief Executive Officer

Instar Heavy Industries

Chribba
Otherworld Enterprises
Otherworld Empire
#2 - 2013-05-03 13:39:21 UTC
Only read the title, but everyone should, because it's an awesome experience.

/c

★★★ Secure 3rd party service ★★★

Visit my in-game channel 'Holy Veldspar'

Twitter @ChribbaVeldspar

Vilnius Zar
SDC Multi Ten
#3 - 2013-05-03 13:46:43 UTC  |  Edited by: Vilnius Zar
I can't even stand being in a slightly bigger corp because it'll be full of morons who will annoy me. Having to meet them in person while they're sweating off their binge drinking and having to listen to their cool and edgy memes... no thanks.
Jake Warbird
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#4 - 2013-05-03 13:56:05 UTC
Next fanfest better be prepared for my drinking and cool and edgy memes. You've been warned.
Jarod Garamonde
Jolly Codgers
Tactical Narcotics Team
#5 - 2013-05-03 13:57:37 UTC
tl;dr

Let me fix that for you, in summary:

Because it's awesome, and it's in friggin Iceland!

(PS... I shall make my first fanfest appearance, next year.... make sure the bar is stocked with plenty of Sailor Jerry rum)

That moment when you realize the crazy lady with all the cats was right...

    [#savethelance]
Jame Jarl Retief
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#6 - 2013-05-03 14:09:01 UTC
Dude, I really appreciate your point of view, I really do.

However, everyone should visit FanFest? For many/most of us, EVE is a game. A product. A past-time. To give you an example, last night instead of logging into EVE I logged into Team Fortress 2 instead and had an absolute blast. It's as simple as that. And in this economy, not a whole lot of folks have the money to travel halfway around the world. Frankly, with my travel and recreation money, Iceland would be right on the bottom of the list of destinations I would ever visit, FanFest or no FanFest. No offense, I'm sure it's a lovely place, but being in Canada I see enough snow as it is. Now, if they held the next FanFest in Maui, maybe then...

Your insight about sloppy old code keeping EVE back? It's nothing new. And it's the natural law of the universe. If you write sloppy code at the start, and then build a lot of other code on top, eventually it will collapse. You don't build a skyscraper on a quicksand foundation for the same reason. They did it, more than a decade ago, and they've been paying for it ever since. Good example, a year or two ago one of the CCP folks said they can't change the drone rate of fire because of the way it is coded in the game. That's an excellent example of how not to do things. But they did, and drone users have to deal with this crap every day. Like after 10 years, drones still split damage on multiple targets with focus fire option enabled. But whose fault is it? And maybe, just maybe, instead of playing around with random stuff they should take the time and rewrite the old code?

Also, and I say this from a loving place, as producers of content they're really slow. Not Blizzard-slow, but at least when Blizzard finally spits something out it is extremely, insanely, obsessive-compulsively polished and working smoothly. Unlike EVE content that takes 3-4 patches after the fact to finally bring the new feature up to semi-working condition (see UI disaster of last year). For the number of people they have, they're moving very slowly, resulting in "expansions" that lately can only be called a patch. Compare Odyssey to either Trinity or Apocrypha or some other older expansion. There's no comparison. Why? Probably Dust and WoD. Dust isn't breaking any records in popularity as far as I know, and WoD is still in vaporware state.

OK, I admit that I probably played EVE more over the last 10 years than any other MMO. But best MMO out there? Hardly. Many MMOs did many things far better than EVE. From UI downward. How can you call EVE the best MMO, when you can't even change the FONT in the UI, or the FONT SIZE beyond 4 pre-set sizes? For a game set in 2013 that works beautifully on huge screen or multi-screen setups, this alone disqualifies it in any "best of" contest. You're just so used to it you don't notice. But for any outsider, this is LAUGHABLE. I've SEEN people, in real life, sit down, try to read the walls of text that new player experience still shoves in their faces, go into options and try to make the font bigger or more readable, only to realize this is impossible and quit.

Doesn't need a sequel? It already is a sequel of sorts. Remember Trinity? TOTAL tear-down and re-build of every graphics asset in the game? Yeah. Name me an MMO that did that, without calling itself a sequel or at least a v2.0. Go and look up what the old EVE looked like, graphically. And tell me it would still be alive today if they didn't totally overhaul it back in 2008.

Don't get me wrong, EVE is a decent game. I wouldn't be here if I thought it weren't, would I? But best? Doesn't need a sequel? Excuses for decade-old poor coding practices and slapped-together mechanics that are held together solely by bird droppings? Come on. This game has sooooo much unrealized potential it hurts.
James Amril-Kesh
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#7 - 2013-05-03 14:15:20 UTC  |  Edited by: James Amril-Kesh
If CCP has to deal with old legacy code I do feel for them, but they have nobody to blame for that but themselves and it's not really an excuse to hold a product back.

And about Fanfest, maybe it's nice to go, but not everyone has the spare money to throw away on a convention about an awful game.

Enjoying the rain today? ;)

Jarod Garamonde
Jolly Codgers
Tactical Narcotics Team
#8 - 2013-05-03 14:22:39 UTC
James Amril-Kesh wrote:
If CCP has to deal with old legacy code I do feel for them, but they have nobody to blame for that but themselves and it's not really an excuse to hold a product back.

And about Fanfest, maybe it's nice to go, but not everyone has the spare money to throw away on a convention about an awful game.


If you think the game is so awful, then (as the tradition demands I must say): I can haz your stuff, before you biomass and ragequit?

That moment when you realize the crazy lady with all the cats was right...

    [#savethelance]
James Amril-Kesh
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#9 - 2013-05-03 14:49:41 UTC
Calling the game awful is its own tradition. Lurk moar.

Enjoying the rain today? ;)

Jarod Garamonde
Jolly Codgers
Tactical Narcotics Team
#10 - 2013-05-03 14:52:46 UTC
James Amril-Kesh wrote:
Calling the game awful is its own tradition. Lurk moar.


Still... my question remains :p

That moment when you realize the crazy lady with all the cats was right...

    [#savethelance]
Buhhdust Princess
Mind Games.
#11 - 2013-05-03 14:55:16 UTC
My guys went to fanfest (Around 10 Suddenly and 3/4 Nocturnal Romance) together, they had an absolutely amazing time, got pics of them drinking etc together, looks like a real laugh. I totally missed out unfortunately, but I'll be there next year, and trust me when I say I'm not one of those "neckbeard" types, and it still looks great ^^
James Amril-Kesh
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#12 - 2013-05-03 14:59:23 UTC
Jarod Garamonde wrote:
James Amril-Kesh wrote:
Calling the game awful is its own tradition. Lurk moar.


Still... my question remains :p

I plan to be around for EVE's 20th anniversary.
So if you can wait at least that long...

Enjoying the rain today? ;)

Jarod Garamonde
Jolly Codgers
Tactical Narcotics Team
#13 - 2013-05-03 15:00:38 UTC  |  Edited by: Jarod Garamonde
James Amril-Kesh wrote:
Jarod Garamonde wrote:
James Amril-Kesh wrote:
Calling the game awful is its own tradition. Lurk moar.


Still... my question remains :p

I plan to be around for EVE's 20th anniversary.
So if you can wait at least that long...


Well.... how about you just give me a killmail on you, and we call it even?
Frig v. Frig, in Oursulaert?


Also, now that you mention future anniversaries... I'm saving my pennies for that life-extending stem cell treatment, so I might still be around for EVE's 100th anniversary, if all goes well...

That moment when you realize the crazy lady with all the cats was right...

    [#savethelance]
James Amril-Kesh
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#14 - 2013-05-03 15:03:42 UTC
Not feeling terribly inclined to fly that far. :P

Enjoying the rain today? ;)

Jarod Garamonde
Jolly Codgers
Tactical Narcotics Team
#15 - 2013-05-03 15:05:28 UTC
James Amril-Kesh wrote:
Not feeling terribly inclined to fly that far. :P


We can always just fake one, and say it really happened.... haha

That moment when you realize the crazy lady with all the cats was right...

    [#savethelance]
dark heartt
#16 - 2013-05-03 15:12:05 UTC
Jame Jarl Retief wrote:

OK, I admit that I probably played EVE more over the last 10 years than any other MMO. But best MMO out there? Hardly. Many MMOs did many things far better than EVE. From UI downward. How can you call EVE the best MMO, when you can't even change the FONT in the UI, or the FONT SIZE beyond 4 pre-set sizes? For a game set in 2013 that works beautifully on huge screen or multi-screen setups, this alone disqualifies it in any "best of" contest. You're just so used to it you don't notice. But for any outsider, this is LAUGHABLE. I've SEEN people, in real life, sit down, try to read the walls of text that new player experience still shoves in their faces, go into options and try to make the font bigger or more readable, only to realize this is impossible and quit.


For many people the term best doesn't mean mechanically, it means the experience they get from the game. Yes, Eve has it's issues with code and UI, but there is no other MMO that gives you the experiences that Eve does, on the scale that Eve does. That alone is enought to subjectively call it the best MMO for them.

You need to remember there is a difference between subjective and objective, and a lot of people simply go off their subjective views. For me Eve is the only MMO that really is worth my time, so it is the BEST MMO for me, font, UI, bugs, warts and all. Objectively, Guild Wars 2 is better, but I lose interest in it after a month or so and meantime I'm playing Eve all along.
Viceran Phaedra
Instar Heavy Industries
#17 - 2013-05-03 15:53:30 UTC  |  Edited by: Viceran Phaedra
Well, at least someone actually read the post. I guess that's good.

My main point is, not working in the games industry myself, it was a real eye opener to hear about what holds CCP back from the mouths of their actual employees, and that perspective shift brought me new appreciation for EVE. If you really sit down and take the time to learn CCP's story from the people that work there, you'll probably appreciate their position a little more, too. It just so happens that the best place to do this is at Fanfest.

Until your experience encompasses this unique form of interaction and point of view, I can only say that CCP probably doesn't deserve all the verbal beatings masochistic bittervets sometimes direct at it. The fact that you can't afford it isn't my problem, but pretending you know better without even having been to the source just looks stupid.

Chief Executive Officer

Instar Heavy Industries

Brooks Puuntai
Solar Nexus.
#18 - 2013-05-03 15:58:48 UTC
It would be hard to come up with a believable reason for why I would be randomly traveling to Iceland. Without looking like a complete nerd for flying across the world to go to a convention about internet spaceships.

CCP's Motto: If it isn't broken, break it. If it is broken, ignore it. Improving NPE / Dynamic New Eden

Jarod Garamonde
Jolly Codgers
Tactical Narcotics Team
#19 - 2013-05-03 16:03:14 UTC
Brooks Puuntai wrote:
It would be hard to come up with a believable reason for why I would be randomly traveling to Iceland. Without looking like a complete nerd for flying across the world to go to a convention about internet spaceships.


Dude.... that's one reason why I love being a disabled veteran.
And who cares if I'm a total nerd for doing it? My girlfriend actually LIKES that I'm a total nerd, because so is she :)

Besides... I've never been drunk in Iceland. And, that's where f**kin vikings are from... I mean, how metal is that?!

That moment when you realize the crazy lady with all the cats was right...

    [#savethelance]
CCP Explorer
C C P
C C P Alliance
#20 - 2013-05-03 17:46:36 UTC
Glad to hear you enjoyed Fanfest; see you next year! Big smile

Erlendur S. Thorsteinsson | Senior Development Director | EVE Online // CCP Games | @CCP_Explorer

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