EVE General Discussion

No.

well, we have a our first well thought out response

i would also tack on the fact that an income now dependent on the number of players and their inconsistent non-mandatory payments would force the shift of focus of new content development to "please the masses" rather than taking more risks.

obviously no matter what all content is to "please the masses" but this would mean a lessened ability to say HTFU to the community and implement things that the community doesn't like. see launcher.

a response to this, besides the "its already basically like that now" response, is to say that what makes EVE the continually growing MMO in the sea of failures isn't its lack of F2P but the way the game is played. basically EVE is still growing because its simply the best MMO, one that takes advantage that an MMO has and applies in a way that people actually want to interact with instead of making it a grinding competition. EVE gave the players tools rather than roles and allowed them to create their own world rather than tell them what was in it. this made the playerbase much more loyal than others and created an environment that led to its success.

However, what could be argued is holding EVE back currently is its lack of accessibility and "grip" to people who simply cannot get passed the (lets face it) daunting UI and skill system. the people who do realize its potential for utilization as a means to achieve a more diverse and dynamic world. (more tools more player invented interaction)

with a successful F2P model (here meaning that it didn't insta-die because the wookie monster didn't let it) more noobs and people new to the UI might mean that more focus would go into improving it. obviously no bittervet is going to like any change to the UI, but an improvement in that department i think would go a long way.

as an example. say that the ability to modify and create new overview tabs was kept intact, but instead it was not REQUIRED that every new player do so in order to have a functioning one. I know the recent answers to this have been tutorials, but perhaps a more intuitive UI would help scale down the learning cliff EVE is so famous for.

TL;DR EVE is famous for being hard to learn how to play (learning cliff) and a F2P model might encourage further improvements to the intuitive-ness of the UI. this does not mean making the game itself "nicer" or more rigid. simply making it so you can figure out the controls and skills more easily.

Then you really need to go back and update your OP with your above statement.

Personally, my first reaction was that there's nothing MT related in Eve that could sustain the game, so "f2p without any changes" would fail immediately.

now the magical wookie solves everything. but honestly the name of the topic should have tipped you off to what i was addressing

am i missing something? if eve goes F2P how are ccp getting more revenue if nobody is actually paying for anything?

Here's your answer. "NO CHANGES" means their only revenue source would be Aurum and the clothes thing they have. In case you don't have a firm grasp on how the free to play vs pay o play business models work i'll give you a quick idea;

If people are playing a PAY TO PLAY game that means that each account they have (in the case of eve) is a guaranteed $15 bucks a month for CCP (provided for the sake of argument that they pay monthly) If the game went free to play that means that all of those accounts now have the option to play the game completely free of charge. A LARGE portion of the playerbase will do this. All these new players coming in would not necessarily result in more revenue but they WOULD result in more upkeep for CCP if the ACU (Average concurrent user) count rose too much. The final note on this is that even if the playerbase tripled they would still likely bring in less revenue than they currently bring in because a large majority of players would not buy anything because there's nothing worth buying and the people who did buy things would have to spend so much money to cover the loss of subscription income for all of the accounts that would be paying otherwise.
And that's where the pay to win model comes in. People with daddy's credit card will pay for something that gives them an advantage in game over players who don't. But we're talking about the case that there are no changes to the game as it is now and CCP just removes the subscription cost.


TL;DR
It would kill eve because CCP would go bankrupt trying to run tranquility and pay devs with the massive hit in revenue they would take by removing sub costs and changing nothing else.

To hit on alts some more:
* multi-boxing miners. We've seen the guy with 40+(?) ice miners who could cause ice asteroids to pop (pre-Odyssey.)
* with "unlimited" free alts, super-caps would proliferate
* the character farmers would go nuts. You would be able to buy whatever character you wanted.
* null-sec blobs would be even blobbier
* time dilation would be the norm
* null-sec wars would be won by whomever had the largest army of mulit-boxing miners and industrialists to field huge multi-boxing fleets.

Heh. Your inability to clearly communicate your hypothetical doesn't necessarily make everyone else an idiot.

Relax, learn from your mistake, and move on. It happens to the best of us.

Dear OP,

There is a like button, there is not a dislike button.

You are at zero likes. If there was a dislike button you would be in negative territory. So if we are all idiots, and we dislike you and your "idea" then maybe you should just go away. Really, why do you want to keep playing this stupid game, made by a stupid company, and with us idiots?

Anyway, many idiots have tried to give you reasons why your "idea" sucks green donkey ****. If you can't or refuse to understand our idiocy, then stop self fellating that green donkey **** of yours.

Sincerely,

Deac (and I am not a donkey, I am a frog, and my **** is the same color as the rest of me, so don't look at me that way)

You asked for community feedback.

You get feedback.

You call everyone idiots.

Yes we hate F2P. It's a plague on the industry.

I would much rather pay a sub, and limit participation to other players with the ability to do the same.

Plus EVE is pretty much F2P right now anyway.

So OP, WTF is your problem?