Wormholes

tl;dr - O' gawd, wormholin' might be d-e-d... (Also, is trollin' permitted if the OP says it's fine? Really just want a thread worth reading when I'm bored. hint: I'm bored.)

What happened to wormholes? I have had so many friends ask me this question lately. Are they dying? Are they dead? What happened to so many of the notable groups? Why are so many falling apart? I don't know the answer. I don't have access to the server data, and I can't see if wormholes are actually losing membership at a faster rate than they are gaining new prospective players. This may be just summer time. I've been through a few summers in wormholes and don't recall this many notable groups collapsing in such close proximity, however I don't think I really paid attention before.

Eve is very cyclical and incestuous. Groups come and go, break apart, rebuild, break apart again. Take Narwhals for example. Narwhals grew, then broke apart leading to Exhale and Bitten, with Exhale leading to Polarized and Ixtab, and Bitten leading to Collapsed Out (Corp), Negative Density (Corp), and Red Coat Conspiracy. Then Polarized led to groups like Disavowed (with a later break into Grand Sky Wizards), and Exit Strategy, and now Narwhals has even reformed. All of this with some of the same corps moving from one organization to another and so on.

That said, look at some of the forums, with representation now showing up from Nulli Secunda, Black Legion, RAZOR Alliance, and other null entities. However, it isn't null entities really, as these are very familiar faces from the wormhole community. So, this could very well just seem that wormholes are losing players as some of the louder ones are leaving. But are there other signs? Less grudge matches and conflicts, less drive for invasions, more diplomacy and Non-Invasion Pacts. Are these correlated to changes by CCP, could it be related to content creators moving on and a lack of new ones stepping up right now? I don't know.

Very few groups can claim they haven't been impacted by the ever changing dynamic of the playerbase and game. Whether you are a group like Aperture Harmonics, now with No Holes Barred, Lazorhawks formerly Lead Farmers of Kill It with Fire, their brethren at Hard Knocks, or even the quiet groups like Adhocracy, everyone is affected by the fluctuations in players, mechanics, boredom, meta, or whatever. So, is this just normal fluctuations, and can we hope for the rise of new notables in the near future, or is this a steady or rapid decline of wormholes?

Personally, I hope that more and new groups step up and provide mutual content to keep the groups that reside in wormholes enjoying the gameplay, and maybe restore some of the great content that made wormholes so much fun over the last couple years. Maybe it'll happen, maybe not.

Lastly, if you haven't read Longinous Spear's latest blogpost, I recommend it. It was a good read :)

Is it just me or does it seem that all null sec dudes that once resided in wh always claim the WH's are dead?

Its a combination of burnout and lack of new innovating features. A TON has been added to null, virtually nothing to wormhole space (in some cases, wormhole space has gone backwards). Wormholes have been both failscading and successful for years. Most in wormholes just don't like cartels, extreme politics, mega meta gaming, etc. Some people just want to be a part of some little universe and to play towards their own freedom.

Fact is I believe wormholes need a new nitch, which should revolve around manufacturing, creation, etc. Right now wormhole gangs can be totally set on the module T3 ships, but all their equipment comes from kspace. It really shouldn't be. I do believe wormholes should have their own wormhole based equipment (guns, resistances, tanks, etc). Built from Basic Weapon Blueprints (or your meta 1 item), then retrofitted with sleeper equipment, turning them into a sleeper module. No T2, no moon goop, no kspace stuff. There would be solely wormhole stuff, comparable to T2, but based off the concept of overheating.

T3's have this great concept of overheating that has never been exploited. I think they should. You create this great wormhole equipment that is onpar with meta 1 stuff, until you overheat it. Then it becomes amazing sauce for as long as it is overheated.

It creates a new dynamic for T3's (such as using their heatsink subsystem), creates a new series of manufactured equipment, and expands on a different type of gameplay, overheating. The stuff would last longer with T3's but could be equipable on any ship. The difference between this and T2 items is that this stuff is unstable. It performs well when heated, and lousy when not heated.

It was an idea I had a while ago, bridging old manufacturers with new manufacturing goods. Its concepts like this (not necessarily this), that CCP should have been thinking about in regards to wormhole space. An entire new tier of manufacturing, new creation, and a whole new area of gameplay. Its the lack of new idea's that has left wormhole space in this kind of limbo.

The potential (I hate that word) of wormholes were never exploited by CCP.

In regard to wormhole groups, they come and they go. There are some that have been for years and don't haunt these forums at all. They like their little area of space.

Aye, in fact I'm looking to move to lowsec as I'm tired of using wormholes as simply a way to get some place else to pvp.

SOMEONE not only read my blog, but they recommended it?!?! I feel like doing some celebratory drinking tonight!

1st about my blog. I know I’m a **** writer, I have spelling errors, punctuation problems and god only knows what else. But what I am is a Fan of EVE Online. I have a desire to be public in my actions no matter the consequences. The EVE online community and the wormhole community for that matter are my friends. We fight, we tell stories, we gossip, we do what friends would do in real life. That is the most important thing for me (some people I would like to be hit by a bus, but I would still go the funeral, and dump my 40 oz on their coffins, but friends none the less)

2nd About wormhole space is dying. I don’t think its dying, but you can clearly see the ebb and flow of its player base supporting one activity over another. Often times people just pull the cord and head to K-space because they simply don’t encounter the type of play style they approve of, as often as they would like. You know what? That’s OK. Its left to people like myself, Jack, Bronya, Baby Dady(RIP?).. people who participate on this forum to Tell the stories of our good times! Eventually those people who went to K-space will come back, maybe changed for the good or bad.

The more we tell stories of our successes, our failures.. our drama’s Good OR bad. The more people will know there is a thriving changing life force of players in every wormhole. Fighting with each other, laughing, whatever. We are inspiring a new crowd of targets(people) to participate in the fun.

I think that we having this conversation right now is a GREAT thing! EVE/Wspace is far from dying, it will always be a place for all different types, all they need to do is hear something from someone, some time.. about some kind of thing that happened and they will want a taste.

Some might say that the content creators are going away, or not what they used to be. Naww, the stories, the content you want to see has yet to be done or achieved. The greatest thing about EVE and W-space is the ability to change, and do something different. For every group that gives up in W-space, there is another group saying “You know what? Let’s go find out what wormholes are about” then bam! More people, different outlooks, different combinations of fun stories to be had. More content!

I sometimes (rarely) get EVE mails that say “Hey Spear, thank you for being on that Podcast and telling your stories, without that I wouldn’t have tried wormhole space” Those mails keep me going. The EVE butterfly effect is in full force. Those same guys go on to kill me in pvp, cause I’m bad.. but still its content.

I try to have positive outlook on EVE and W-space. Sure I may not find who or what I’m looking for all the time, but its ever changing and that’s the fun part.

Feel free to share your data about fatter killboards of wormhole groups and population increase lately. 85% of all statistics are BS, and you seem to have that down to a science.

For all the others, the discussion and feedback has been great. Cheers~

Def not a snub to disagreeing, as some of the comments above yours were not agreeing with "wormholes are dying". Also, most of my post was asking questions to spur a discussion. So, your scope of reference is 18 months to 2-3 months ago, and I guess it would be fair to say that my scope for the OP was just in the last few to couple months ago to now, which can be seen with all the changes in groups and people moving around from wormholes to null, or mashing up into other wormhole groups creating very very large wormhole corps...

This whole discussion is only possible because the CCP hasn't given us the datas... If they gave us the data, you and I wouldn't have to discuss made up data. It's all best guess, but there are some that think it's dead/dying and there are some that think it's fine/flourishing. I don't know, but this sub could use something worth reading, even if it's a bad thread like mine :P

To be fair, Rudin... I'm still not back in wormholes, so your timer should still be active. Unless you thought my leaving wormholes was me quitting.. Lost in translation I suppose :)