Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Quick three points about WiS:

1. It can't be prioritized over the FiS game that makes EVE what it is.
2. It can't be just a gimmick/social hub but actually needs to serve a purpose.
3. It needs to be completely optional for those players who never want to leave their capsules and couldn't care less about captain quarters, not to mention stations.

I want to play Incarna. I like the space ship game and I love my Sacrilege, I enjoy number crunching, fine tuning fits and carebearing in high sec doing missions with friends while talking about random stuff, but there is only so much time you can spend doing that. I don't have time to delve into null sec and turn EVE into a second job, so that's out of the question for me (trust me, if I could, I'd close myself in basement and devote myself just to that for at least few months).

I joined EVE after new character creator was released and captain quarters where first previewed, and I fell in love with New Eden. The universe is just so rich here, and I'm such a believer in Virtual Worlds, which EVE definitely is (with real economy, real politics and real emotions driving players). What bothers me, is how alone it makes me feel given the gameplay I've picked. Remember the trailer with the guy flying a rifter and encountering a lonesome miner being ganked? Situation like that, or even remotely similar, has happened zero times to me in almost a year I've been playing EVE. If it weren't for friends I couldn't really have who to play it with. The ultimate solution to everything in EVE seems to be "join a corp" - which means going through recruitment UI, finding some bunch of guys with a nice looking logo and a name that doesn't sound completely ********, only to discover (after you join them) that only Bob ever logs on, and he is in a different timezone.

If you sit in high sec doing missions and minding your own business, the game will not put you across another's player paths (or when it once in a blue moon does, it's a random ninja looter / salvager / suicide ganker - in which case you could only wish he wasn't there). This isn't just an issue with EVE, most MMORPGs fail to put people in situations where they want to join up, rather they put you in situations where you have to compete with others and want to murder them - in that EVE is actually superior as you can murder them.

I think station promenades can fill a very important role here, that's letting players meet each other and maybe, just maybe, do something together (no, not that) since they are docked in the same station anyway. But the stations themselves need to have some game mechanics to make people want to walk around them (optional, obviously). Stations could be the one place in EVE where you actually can feel safe about walking in another player's path.

MMOs used to be the behemoth of gaming market, they are completely overshadowed by so called Social Games, which have a way more rapidly growing market, and I think it's a fine thing to do to look at what they are doing right. I dig the idea of renting a space on Jita (which I expect to be extremely expensive given the traffic) and doing something with it, after all ISK drain is good for economy, but that's not good enough. Hosting a store with anything that you can get on marketplace is out of the question, the game does not need competing mechanics - the only way that could work would be if those items were not available on marketplace, but that would only **** people off (and rightfully so).

I have my ideas, but I'll hold my horses for now. What sort of enterprise would you want to hold on a station, how would it benefit you, the game and how could it help people actually join / form corps?

Oh it's not like I have anything against it, but I'd like this topic to stay away from "we want to cyber" at least for the first page and focus on the matter. Please? :)

Ha, I don't really think NeX is as much of a bad idea. The implementation is, obviously, a failure, but the idea isn't bad. WoW milks a subscription from people, milks them every expansion for another box, and on top of that sells vanity stuff. The difference is, the vanity stuff in WoW has a much higher impact on the appeal of the players (sparkly pony vs monocle that you can't really see since WiS is not out yet) at much lower prices ($10, used to be $25 but new flying lion took that stand - as compared to, what, $80?).

They can still get it right.

Incarna has been shelved and CCP has returned to their senses. FiS, that which brought CCP serious, sustainable income, is the development priority from all that CCP has indicated.

That and many of the Incarna folks may have gotten the we didn't really mean to hire you for this project axe.

show examples of mmos overshadowed by social games

Please read again, I'm talking about markets. From the data I've, in years 2009 - 2013 the markets are supposed to grow:

- Games, in general: 7%
- Online Games (mostly MMOs): 11%
- Social Games (farmville, duh): 40%

Obviously, the latter are doing something right.

Or, they are new and suddenly popular and are developing their customer base, just as MMOs did before them.

You are, of course, right. The issue is, as far as I remember, that CCP doesn't want to give players too much freedom in visual customization due to their draconian standards. If you arm yourself with some resistance and decide to go to Second Life, where all content is user created, you will learn that there is a lot of good stuff that a community can create, but 95% of it will make you want to vomit. Their time-to-penis definition was spot on actually.

NeX, in current form, is bad. But it could be an okay addition to the sandbox game. And really, the thread isn't about NeX.



This doesn't have anything to do with being a sandbox or a themepark, I'm playing a multiplayer game, I want to encounter other people while I fly around and mind my own business. Even if they are just assholes that want to shoot me down.

And any actual source on "WiS isn't going to happen"? If they dropped it, then they could have just released captain quarters without "the door", there is a difference between canceled and moved for another time.



Precisely that. Now give me one reason why EVE shouldn't do something new and get more popular? :)

They already gauge you for the privilege to actually play the game. I would actually pay for fashion, given that it actually looked good, didn't cost $50 a piece (yanno micro in microtransactions) and I had where to show off. Now carry out your pitchforks.

edit: yes, I did overuse "actually", need more coffee.

Agreed. I too joined because of incarna and although I enjoy the core gameplay we have now, it's not enought and more ship and polishing of old content isn't something I'll willing to pay for.

Lucky for me I can make enough isk in game to plex my account...