EVE General Discussion

Goon Tears is the Buisness Model were talking about ?

Like Reinforced Nodes They mad BRO LAWL
By Sion Kumitomo

Dear CCP:

I love spaceships. I love the sandbox. The sheer possibilities afforded by the near-limitless options and the organic player-driven content are things you just can't find anywhere else. So what I say next, I say out of deep concern. Though you might find it hurtful, it is not meant to hurt.

Incompetence like this ruins your sandbox.

By 'this', I mean the re-mapping of the node in Z9PP during the battle yesterday. The battle in Z9PP started with the destruction of a TEST ihub around downtime, and over the next twelve hours, the system saw varying levels of continued conflict. At peak, local was near 2000 pilots with more set to join the fray. That is, the battle itself was still in the process of escalating. All of this was abruptly ended by the incompetence of your engineers. Further escalation of the battle would have seen hundreds of capitals lost, and supers perhaps fielded or lost. It would have been a battle to remember, a battle that would have graced headlines, a battle pilots would have recalled with pride, or with horror. And that's just the start of what your mistake cost you and thousands of players.

I've seen allegations of t20 levels of conspiracy by various parties, but I think we both know that's not the case. You didn't do this out of malice—I'm certain it was just as you said here, a mistake. Mistakes are fine, everyone makes them. But making the same mistake repeatedly means you aren't learning from them. GSF's own dread fleet was saved by a similar node remap a scant couple of weeks ago, a similar missed opportunity to showcase the vibrant and violent nature of EVE.

But incompetence is worse than malice.

As a company that thrives on occupying a niche in the MMO market, it is in your best interests to prevent this from ever occurring again. These kinds of massive battles and the surrounding narratives are what give you free publicity, both through word of mouth and in the gaming press. If you don't hold your people accountable, and if you don't strive to ensure that checks are in place to prevent this, you're not just hurting the players involved directly, you're hurting the whole game—including yourselves.

You cannot risk your reputation becoming 'lol CCP', nor can you afford to pass up the windfall that massive battles generate for you. What astounds me most is that something like this, something so precious and important to your business model, is something that doesn't have multiple checks in place to prevent just such an event from occurring. This wasn't “just a fight”. These events and others like them are what drive the whole of EVE. It should come as no surprise that players expect pvp to matter in a game built around the integral idea that pvp matters.

Why you wouldn't protect these events as much as you are able is quite utterly beyond me. I don't mean to denigrate other aspects of the game, of course, but let's be honest: the biggest draw of EVE is the possibility that you will have a part in something major. And when it comes to that, very little equals a huge war-turning battle, the murder of a capfleet, or the destruction of thousands of ships. Remember Asakai? That now infamous system and so many others like it are the beating heart of this game. Massive battles are your piles of gold, their stories your frankincense, and their widespread impacts your myrrh.

You can't make pvp matter without making it matter when it matters the most. You cannot allow typos to undermine your game and the potential of EVE, not when it is something so important to your business model.

I don't want a witch hunt. No one does. You've already given us answers as to what happened, and I commend your openness. Communication lets all of us know what transpired and is a great starting point. But it is just that, a starting point. Moreover, what was offered was merely an apology, whereas what you require is action towards a permanent solution. My sincere hope is that you address this issue and communicate to us how it has been addressed. Failing that, I suspect we'll have our answers during the next major fleet battle.

But remember, CCP, this isn't just about the fights. As stewards of the sandbox, you are accountable for it, and it is your reputation and your game that are at stake. So for your sake and ours, the remapping of a node with an active battle must not be allowed to happen again.

Your players understand these implications, CCP. Do you?

"What if CCP had pooled all their resources for developing Eve?"

Then they'd have all of their eggs in one basket. That is NEVER good for any kind of business.

Basicly they could be hiring more for Eve instead of Dust so that is bullshit and the main point of this thread is very valid and I kinda wish they would FOCUS ON EVE!

You present a logical argument with sound and substantive support for your conclusions. Although i disagree with some points you made my disagreement amounts to nothing more than personal preference and so, without reservation I....

+1 you!

I really appreciate a good quality post, hope to see more from you in the future.

Let's assume that the only income CCP derives from the game of Eve is what they pull in from subs.
Between the Serenity (China), and the rest of the planet (TQ) , CCP is looking at what, 900.000 subs?

Let's assume a sub rate of 15 dollars/ hour, based on staight US dollar subs, EURO subs, plex sales US dollarsbuyers, and non U.S plex buyers.

That works out to 13.5M / month, US dollars, or 162M / year.

Is that a large enough cash flow to assign devs to fixing alleged issues with Eve (I don't believe "fixing" stuff like skill names was high on the priority list of Eve players), plus overhaul Dust (c'mon folks, read the 3rd party reviews, Dust needs a lot of work), plus on the outside chance of working on WoD, I strongly doubt.

162M / annum pays for the Iceland. Atlanta, London, and Shanghai sites, but from an R&D perspective,162 M simply does not go that far.

Sure, Eve would be immensely more popular if they focused on one game, and ditched the Eve meta-game as well.
But that is not going to happen. Ego's are involved at this point, and we all know what happens when ego's enter the fray of logical discussion.

In other words be a one trick pony in a fiercely competitive gaming industry.

Game companies have to have more in their portfolio than just one pencil drawing.

CCP needs DUST as Blizzard needs StarCraft and Diablo.

You don't know the first thing about business evidently. Funny how people feel the need to spout how CCP should run their company when they have literally zero knowledge or experience on the subject. First rule of any business is specialise to succeed. Generalisation has been the path to failure for countless business's.

We make mining exciting once a year but they just cry about it.

If there was no DUST or WoD there would be no incentive to hire the extra staff in the first place.
The new staff is an investment into these franchises, it the hopes they will become a new revenue source. Those same resources spent on EVE are a lot less likely to give comparable returns, because EVE is an established product, while DUST and WoD are for new markets.

Because: one man's fun, is another man's poison.

One sided fun, isn't everyone having fun.

Same goes with development. Working on one project for 10 years, even the devs get cabin fever.