Live Events Discussion

I hope it's what I'm thinking you're thinking that Falcon is thinking about what it is they're doing.

We will be supporting your efforts.

I support Guillaume (can't spell, too tired) and his initiative.

As for the honor of FC and SSC I will attest to that, having had run ins with them in the past. Usually ones that left me in a pod, mind you, but done with class. That alone in eve is rare enough, so I'll support them here, and with the blessings of my corp, with loot.

This is no scam, these guys are too professional for that.

Send the message mon.

*classy pilot from low-class signing off*

There's been a number of comments already which I think emphasise the kind of thing I was alluding to and why A'J should be viewed as a success. In short, it was emergent and self-sustaining far more than any other live event in my recollection.

I think I understand the motivation for and constraints of the Illuminati's capacity to deliver live events (but please correct me if I'm wrong): the staff effort, time and resources needs to be justifiable in terms of player numbers, which pushes the delivery of CCP-led live events towards discrete, focused PvP 'episodes' which can be advertised for maximum attendance at a specific time. This has proven to have a number of drawbacks:

• It excludes players who cannot attend the specific event at that time.
• High attendance leads necessarily to system caps, further excluding players (eg. The Battle for Caldari Prime which saw hundreds of players locked out of system).
• It encourages server overload and most likely TiDi, providing a sub-optimal EVE experience (eg. pre-Rubicon live event).
• It forces players to engage into a large PvP fleet playstyle in order to participate, something with which they may not be familiar nor interested in.
• It requires CCP event-runners to use inadequate tools in an effort to provide an engaging experience (chat channels full of spammers are poor storytelling device, leading to a detached and confusing experience).

To summarise, a lot of effort (which is appreciated) is wasted on an experience which may be a triumph for marketing spin, but is a lacklustre experience for those who take part. You're swimming upstream and fighting against EVE's own design limitations. Furthermore, the on-rails nature of these events does not make the best of the sandbox concept.

On the other hand, an ongoing background effort centred around co-operation (or disruption), long-term affiliation and controlled, actor-led experiences is something which can inspire players to find their own content as they contribute to an arc defined by CCP's breadcrumbs.

And that's the key: breadcrumbs.

The Arek'Jaalan Project showed that a hands-off approach to providing event content can have a much more emergent impact than shoehorning players into a costly and short-lived blob experience. Of course elements of any such future project can and should occasionally escalate to conflict, but it's much better to provide the setup and context, leaving the players to find their own cause for PvP.

It's about leveraging the fantastic (but sadly underused) lore to inspire players to become involved with EVE's gameworld and other players in ways that they otherwise wouldn't. Doing so can add flesh to the bones of existing content which has no real reason to exist beyond being a source of ISK, it can drive players to co-operate in a way that might lead them to content and playstyles they would see no good reason to investigate in their usual day-to-day activities. It would empower CCP Seagull's instigator and enabler player types.

For example, running two (or more) competing interests in a similar vein to Arek-Jaalan's search for information and items might trigger a race for territory, leading to confrontation and explosions as well investigation, exploration and a variety of player-generated content. Interweaving story and character into that (including in-game appearances) would require less heavy lifting than the existing model, and would be a sustainable, ongoing interest rather than a flash in the pan.

I appreciate that the current Sleeper item collection event may be along those lines, in which case I'm preaching to the converted and I'll be happy to sit back and watch how it all shakes out. My fear is that it will just turn out to be a transparent ISK sink with a one-off carrot at the end.

Falcon released numbers, and now so have I (check the first post). The caldari bump is due to market activity. Everyone selling to those inflated buy orders is aiding the Caldari cause.

This is beatable. I am working with FCFTW's diplomatic corps to bring the wormhole community behind my drive. Donations have ranged from as small as 30 pts, to as large as 5,744 pts. At this point, the other number I'm interested in gathering is the number of players who donate so feel free to toss me a single NNA in solidarity even if you're not interested in the race itself.

wrong post, sry

CCP Fozzie said he'd talk to the devs and see if there was any way they could work with my sideshow here. Earlier in this thread, CCP Falcon said that A'J is gone for good - it doesn't fit their plans.

Beyond that, nothing. Donors should expect that we'll score well, it will come to naught but a fine bit of publicity and then you'll get ISK back equal to the NPC buy value of your donations.

But what matters is two things:

How well a player-run, player-conceived, and player-publicized initiative performs against CCP's "every player of EVE sees what I say" ability to plan ahead, and ability to have NPCs accept contracts with ZERO issues of reputation and trust.

And how many players voted with their blue loot for players to be the stars of the show.

There are Big Things(tm) afoot for this little drive of ours. Don't let the initial numbers fool you: I plan to leave the empries in the dust.

Totally twisting the point here ...


.... but maybe you should! Certain vherokior weeds, consumed as tea, boost creativity a lot!

Don't ban me... I'll see my self out. *snickers xD*

Tbh, it isn't so far off the mark really. Considering the low profile (compared to the 'official' representatives) the Independants are on a good track (only shortly behind on Gallente/Minmatar). I do hope if the final results get published, the independant group, lead by Guillame renard does get a mention in the news. Such act would already go far in motivating people to participate in future stuff.

By the by, those numbers have been updated and corrected, the Amarr are leading now by a huge amount.