EVE General Discussion

All that begging only reminds me of poor condition of the companys primary offers. It's like when your greedy bank offers you the better accounting policy only when you are about to move the money elsewhere.

As some are blinded by my WiS activism, let's state the point of this thread clearly.

The current EVE marketing trends, which have been in place since 2012, are lowering the price of EVE. "Get the same, pay less" and its close sibling "pay the same, get more" are strategies bound to attract customers whose target price is below the current sell price -that is, people who don't think that your product is worth the price you ask for it.

Obviously, this kind of customers are not deemed worthy as long as you have enough cash flow from customers who buy your product at the set price. You dont's start grabbing 15 euros for 2 accoutns if you still can grab them for 1, period.

Now, let's remember that EVE is a cash cow. It produces a steady income with known threats and rewards. But also cash cows have their own threats -one ft hem, it's diminishing consume. If less people buy the cash cow, your corporate income suffers.
And, what do you do next? Expand the consumer base. When you're sellinh a single product, the way to do that is to reach for people who still don't buy the product. Of those potential consumers, the easier target are the ones who don't buy it because of the price.

So CCP is lowering the price of its cash cow in order to keep a growing consumer base. That's good... but it's not what you do when you're growing and succeeding. It's what you do when you're on the verge of stagnation, because all in all you are selling more for the same or even less income.

It also is a cheap trick, compared to the real deal -develop different products (EVE cherry, EVE light, EVE flavored water...) that appeal to different consumer bases, and, God forbid it!, expand the consumer base for your main product (that is, make it appeal to a wider base).

CCP hasn't succeeded much in expanding the consumer base through different products (WoD is on development, Valkyrie is just a let's see and DUST is not paying not even its operation costs) and also have been notoriously passive in drawing the attention of new players, after devoting two years to just retain existing customers and call back former customers.

IMO, CCP is under heavy financial stress (probably they've got to repay a loan in october and their cash flow is not AAA exactly), a situation where the 20 million USD flop of DUST hasn't helped much, and in terms of EVE, the upcoming winter expansion and the Hallelujah Plan behind it are CCP's last chance to break the cycle of stagnation that started after the Incarnageddon. EVE is not taller now than in 2011; she's just wearing a higher hat, made of returning players, re-sold alt accounts and a increased retention of new players (which has improved from awful to bad).

"More of the same" is not going to take them much further; at the current pace, probably by 2015 they will have exhausted the "lowering price" road and will be facing F2P unless the Hallelujah Plan succeeds in expanding the player base for the first time since Apochrypha. That emans more and enw content; FiS, obviously, provided how WiS has been backburned forever. And it truns that CCP has been neglecting literal hordes of players in terms of FiS. Will they dare to tap on the misfit players?

In one hand i trust CCP Seagull and hope that the Hallelujah Plan can deliver and draw new blood before the cold winter of stagnation and decay befalls on EVE; but also I've been disappointed by CCP's unability to "get it" enough times as to think that no amount of creative talent can overcome a shy, tired or scared management, nor a cognitively blinded "voice of the players".

The stakes are very high, and I am truly worried. I've made a massive investment in this game, and i don't like what I've been seeing for the last years as it is just getting worse and worse.

i've removed the parts of your post that were you talking out of your arse

Come back when CCP starts promoting lifetime subscriptions.

Oh yeah, then it's definitely time to start packing your bags.

Well, in order to get those promotions, you must have a unsubscribbed account.

How many brands sells The Coca Cola Company? And how many of them are not even colas?

That's one thingt you do when your cash cow is not enough.

The other thing you do, is Coke Zero.

We need a EVE Zero, either EVE Classic will not be enough. And we're already seeign how EVE Classic tries to sell herself for a lower price, like an actress whose age is starting to show.

I don't want to overstretch the simile, but EVE needs to develop into different directions. Without discontinuing EVE Classic nor trying to reformulate it (Coke New...), but it really needs those EVE Zero guys. And we are here. We are waiting our turn. Make this game worth be played beyond low/nul/WH and beyond PvP, and we'll be here.

I want EVE Zero, not EVE Classic with a discount.

But sub prices haven't changed, what you linked is a time-limited promo campaign directed to unsubbed accounts, 2 months for the price of one.

Also, subs aren't going down, but up.

As this is a rumor mongering thread, it gets a lock.

31. Rumor mongering is prohibited.

Rumor threads and posts which are based off no actual solid information and are designed to either troll or annoy other users will be locked and removed. These kinds of threads and posts are detrimental to the wellbeing and spirit of the EVE Online Community, and can create undue panic among forum users, as well as adding to the workload of our moderators.