EVE General Discussion

First: This thread should be looped into Why Don't More Women Play EVE Online?
That's threatening to turn into a bloodbath.

Something we should take seriously when we venture to make issues from game changes - it's doubtful after the WiS incident that CCP is very open to altering the product due to ground-up influences. Rather, as evidenced by their emphasis on the CSM (the widely-accepted as has nothing to do with me "Player Rep Group"), and the alteration of the character and nature of this forum, CCP's response seems to be - never again. I doubt that's meant to mean, "We'll always check with our playerbase first." (If you catch my drift.)

Discussion and debate therefore, within this venue, probably don't do much more than "give a dev or two one or two things to think about." It's not likely to influence the direction of the game. This is more a matter of corporate egoism than a practical application of any sort of logic beyond territorial pissing. Which means, unless these discussions are entertaining to you, there's not really much point in having them. You'll find my friends and myself have turned to being humorous, sarcastic and cutting. We no longer offer any serious input as that would coopt us into CCP's public affairs strategy.

CCP's public affairs strategy, being driven by a sudden (estimated) 20% customer loss overnight (very precipitous in the corporate arena) during WiS-gate, has been carved out by professionals. I happen to have made my living in that particular arena for 40 years, and I can tell you with certainty, at no time was "keeping the customer happy" discussed. It was more a matter of choking down undesireable press. (Thus, since this forum is freely accessible on the internet a heavy hand here was decided upon in order to control that aspect of the overall image.)

Other methods are being employed, all of which amount to sheltering the corporation from the general public, and limiting random breaches of a desired public image from sources that are difficult to control. Unfortunately for us our discussions fall into that category. SO...debate or discussion? First - what would be the point?