EVE General Discussion

IMO its because Dust did not do as well as they thought it would when it came out. I did the maths, and eve was down roughly 2.5k subscribers last year, but then again I did not have any hard numbers as to 'dust make x and eve made y of total z'

If for example, eve had 400k subscribers, but dust lost $10m there would be an uproar. There is not much point in showing that.

In my mind the problem is that because alts are becoming more common even a stable subscriber base suggests a declining number of actual human players.

I would think people should have smaller amount of alts since they cost them more to maintain (plex prices). Maybe the jump changes would push them one way or the other, but then why would you log in with an alt that is supposed to be skilling for jumping (or w/e - don't understand the entire "chain jump drive" thingy null bears were threatening to use after phoebe landed).

The jump changes also seemed to have no effect on amount of people logged in. I would point to them if there was recent fall/raise in number of subscriptions. We cannot prove that.

I think I'd lean to agree that CCP is silent about numbers due to Dust 514 taking a big hit. It would mean that EVE had stable population all along, and not much has changed. I guess that's good.

People could be logging in more often since the frequent updates keep them interested (they didn't make me change my gamplay directly in any way and even I am excited to read )

Don't know if it's dying or not, i think though that that trends go from time zone to time zone, what i mean is this, when i used to log in 2008 or so there used to be 45 to 50k people on now its peaking around 35k for the time i log in. I live in the UK

Eve may not be dying because of PLEX prices, but it's definitely causing the subscription numbers to fall because people are ditching seldom used alts because it's not really worth 850M ISK a PLEX to keep them going. I ditched 3 myself.

And I subbed new account (3rd one) and PLEX second training queue on my 1st one since January. Some people see loss of value, some see gain - at the end of the day reality is not as horrible as some would love to see it.

With that being said I would love to not need alts at all but that is hardly to happen unless CCP really goes deep into "questioning old truths".

For example: if I can trade shares on markets in Japan and US and Russia and Poland using primitive means of current communications via internet why can't I check prices in Jita while hunting ratters in Great Wildlands? I know RL is RL, Eve is Eve but... WHY? I can fly hundreds of LY in matter of minutes and but can't send GET request from my ship to specific market place via market network? Meh...

Getting rid of trading alts would probably shrink number of accounts by "few" percents but maybe real people would play more?

Maybe my example is wrong and/or naive but reality is there's hefty amount of alts dedicated just to market stuff. And you will never see those names in space to get your revenge for margin scam or tricky speculation or whatever.

However take this with a grain of salt because for the most part people remember the negative more than the positive and are more motivated by negative events than positive.

I have. There's no way to counter the reviews of former colleagues without being publically obnoxious and/or spiteful. And tbh why bother anyway; they're the ones handling it badly, but who cares, you just fired em so v0v it'll pass. It's understandable former employees have issues on leaving but it begs the question(s); why are they so bent on making these accusations after the fact? And why in such a public and potentially damaging setting? Hint, it's not constructive

To be fair to CCP their long term staff retention rates look reasonably solid. Disputes break out after the people in question move on - which suggests communication/cultural problems rather than massive daily drama, or a serious degree of ignorance/delusion at the employee level. If the WoD staff didn't realise they were at risk after Incarna and start making exit plans, regardless of the assurances of management, their failure to do so is on them. There appears to be a degree of genuine regret when cuts have to be made, and from a finance perspective - some of the culls could have been done far sooner.

One thing that strikes me is the instability of the gaming industry in general. Working at CCP might be a massive career step for those located near offices, but sometimes people either just want to move on or go home. I'm not sure the argument presented elsewhere that relocating the entire company ~because Iceland is a cold, dark island~ is valid. These aren't life appointments, and shouldn't be treated as such. Perhaps that's unfair to people who live elsewhere who are more talented. Er, tough? If the untapped talent in question has the drive, perhaps they should be prepared to move for a bit?

Seeing long term devs leave last year sparked concern; but I'm not sure it was worth the hysteria it was tagged with. In the first place, if they have a better offer - they should move for career progression; in the second, if they were bitter 'don't let the door hit you on the way out' seems an appropriate tag. Along with 'grow up, nerd' - because tbh the nerds ingame lack all social skills, so gawd only knows what the devs are like. Actually the more I read the more it becomes apparent how unrealistic the expectations are of devs and players in terms of sustaining a viable business model that can satisfy everyone to the degree they feel they deserve.


Why do players hop up and down over numbers they can barely understand? The PCU/Sub debate is generally just used by someone doing that awful nails grinding over blackboard sound over some pet peeve. Don't even get me started on the analysis of the finstats. All the finger-wiggling-vodoo that accountants can do masks a really obvious trend. Someone else is in charge and is making financial decisions (ohgawd, there, there, here's a mansize kleenex).

If you want a game run purely for profit, bring in the accountants. They would kill Eve within 18 months. If you want an edgy niche game run by semi competent gamers (who may occasionally misstep); take it or leave it.

I did, a lot of the post were from Atlanta, and its clear now that CCP had ZERO clue what the hells to do with WoD. So you have to take that with a grain of salt

In uchomida there is a guy who multiboxes 51 accounts. Don't take every figure you see so literally. After plex prices really started taking off and isboxing became more well known individuals running literally dozens of accounts started springing up more and more.

These people are a detriment to the game as they take activities for many genuine human players and consolidate them into one players pocket. Not to be a luddite but this causes a great deal of devaluation and displacement to the populace. Since killing other players doesn't actually kill their character it creates this kind of interest based economy where technical debt drives commodities and assets up in value at a disproportionate rate to the value of labour. This is why people turn to massive isboxing industry campaigns because that degree of automation is exactly what facilitates their capacity to keep operating.

The "red queen effect" so famously plaguing null has arrived in highsec and the result is inevitably a large portion of tye player base finding their economic viability slowing down, stopping and eventually reversing as they simply cannot compete against the degree of financial power that botting and isboxing are allowing their owners