EVE General Discussion

Link? I remember the Incarna Trailer being "I was there" ... or was that the FF 2011 "EVE Forever" video you're thinking of?

This is an important point. I highly doubt WiS would have the negative connotations it does if even what little was released had not been done so with everything that came with it, as you described. For example, if the odyssey changes had also come with the additional baggage that WiS did, then those would become pariah subjects for the next x amount of years, just by association.

For WiS to gain wider acceptance it either needs a clear and decisive vision articulated that disassociates it from the previous disaster or to simply wait until people get over Incarna as a whole and WiS by association.

CCP promised to start working on it when the first forum user performs a search before posting the same topic when it is visible on the front page.

But it did not garner much awesome and amazing publicity as your Mittani the Great's awesome rambling during the Alliance Panel.

Some claim that Incarna almost "killed EVE's playerbase" but there is nothing to substantiate such fact except dozens of angry posts saying "I quit." The drop (remember, not sudden drop) in subscription number post Incarna release when you examine the another unsubstantiated subscription statistic chart, has always been consistent with other expansions released at similar time periods (seasonal drop & post expansion drop).

Obviously, what the OP and the rest of the WiS proponents are asking is not a complete dedication of CCP in making WiS happen. We want to know if CCP is making some attempt, piece by piece, to bring WiS into reality. Despite all the naysayers' ramblings, there is no doubt that having an actual playable avatar in EVE Online has potential to bring many first-time players into EVE's fold.

Most likely, the last time bittervets actually made the payment for PLEX/subscription was around 2007 or so. Why suit the customer base who contribute so little to CCP financially, when we can tap cash-cows/fresh breeds of players who will actually pay in cash to subscribe the game? EVE could continue to be great sticking to pure spaceship genre, but EVE could achieve SO MUCH MORE with additional cash-inflows from those who are enticed by EVE's WiS contents. More cashflow means more contents for you too, bittervets.

Most likely it's dead, yes. The summer of rage broke CCP's collective spine and now they're so terrified of even mentioning WiS that I just don't see it happening for at least half a decade or more. Now, we the players who support WiS, could throw a temper tantrum just like the spaceship kiddies did two summers ago, and try to force CCP in a new direction. But frankly I don't think we're that childish.

Which is tragic. Because avatar gameplay is the future of EVE. Look at the last two years - it was 100% FiS. Did the game grow? Not much. If EVE continues with this 100% FiS, it'll just continue to stagnate, with minimal growth. And all this after they spent SOOOO much time and effort and manpower to create the engine and the character creator and the NEX store and all that stuff. To abandon it now, just one or two steps short of meaningful avatar gameplay, in light of all that work that was done on it, is simply tragic. No other word for it.

But I admit I could be looking at it the wrong way. What I mean is, in a year or two games like Star Citizen, Elite, etc., will start to come out. Games that will do "ships in space fighting" part a lot better than EVE. I'm talking good physics engine, combat based on player skill rather than character skill, difficult/impossible to multi-box, no Pay2Win, with strong avatar support to boot (avatars dynamically showing wear and tear of combat, including scars, missing limbs, etc.) Once that happens, and EVE subs start to go down, CCP might have to wake up and finally start to react. I really feel the last 10 years with near-zero competition really allowed them to adopt this relaxed "we do what we feel like" attitude. Once it becomes obvious that they have to adapt or perish, things might improve.

Until then, all we can do is sit and wait. Maybe take a break from the game for a bit. There's nothing in Odyssey that interests me, so I'm planning to take a vacation until the winter expansion at least.



Actually, a lot of people came because of the promise of WiS, back when CCP was releasing videos of avatar gameplay with the old engine, before they decided to build Carbon. I personally know several people who didn't give a flying hoo-ha about spaceships, but who would have loved it if the game turned into a full-fledges sci-fi sim. As CCP said repeatedly was their long-term goal from day one.

And there's a ton of people playing EVE right now who don't give a hoot about spaceships. They play to trade, build, etc. If you could trade between regions without traveling, they probably wouldn't even click the undock button in years.

Folks REALLY need to stop paining all EVE players with the same tarred brush.

I often feel the need to disagree with you on principle, because you often put a lot of effort into purposefully being an ass. But you make a great deal of sense in this post. Liked and quoted for the truth.

CCP has been showing footage of WiS stuff since 2006. They had what looked like a complete system with lobbies, captains quarters (larger than we have now), bars and mini-games and all kinds of other stuff that they were showing even then. I can find you the old trailers. They originally called it "Ambulation". It was made using the unreal engine and dropped for who knows why. Links below;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n41s1Iox18A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzy7DG8VR2s

Edit: Also, this is the first part of a long long fanfest presentation from years ago showing the gameplay. If your patient it's worth a watch just to see what they abandoned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FY9H01upg00