EVE General Discussion

No it can't.

It's not a definitive sign against growth, but you can't look at a decreasing graph of concurrent players online and say "yeah, looks like our subscriptions are growing."

If we were able to get the game to a point where we had 100k average people on at one point in time it would be insane (In a good way). I would love to see the game grow vastly bigger.

I'd love to make a neutral comment here, to avoid looking like either a fanboy or chicken little.

I recognize this name from rookie chat. (Larria Eusteko)


CCP is a whole lot different than say Turbine (LOTRO) or Gizzard (Panda Poo). Turbine, for instance, was bought by Warner Brothers who uses a profit margin formula to decide if it likes to hold onto things, or not. This formula is tied to the rest of WB's many and varied operations, and slides into the board room on a flow chart. Assets are given or taken from each operation according to this flow chart's dictates. There's a lot more numbers than people making decisions, and all the projects WB is involved in are seen first in keeping WB alive...not the "game."

I think your experience with MMOs dying (which LOTRO has yet to do, by the way) comes from involvement in these sorts of organizations. CCP has considerable and significant differences from these. It could almost be defined as a Mom & Pop operation that evolved into a corporation. CCP doesn't have a greater conglomerate, or a body of voting shareholders to keep happy with profit/loss statements. So, you'll discover (eventually) CCP is in a unique position, and this position gives them a lot of latitude other corporations just don't have. (Not that they can't have this latitude themselves, or that CCP couldn't become like them, mind you.)

SO...this EVE has been dying for several years (eight by my count). At least, that's what the armchair CEOs always say. And, for eight years so far it's managed to fool the experts (both qualified and unqualified). My estimation is it will go ON fooling this endless flow of doomsaying experts (who by the way are making proclamations more to make themselves look informed than to actually inform US.)

I bet you all your stuff I'm right.

Maybe if they try some other adverts that are not aimed at deranged people.
We're enough already.

Bring back Jimblidge and the likes, bring back the fun!

very valid point, most of the ads are "come play eve, be the bad guy" or some tail of how players backstab people and such, im sure the last big fight was "great publicity" to get people to stay away.

Here are a couple of pieces of anecdotal evidence:

1. I occasionally send off a character to the SOE L1 epic arc for the purposes of remedial standing fixes. (Yes, DMC, I know there are other ways and I thank you for documenting them.) There are always numerous noobs tackling the arc and, judging by the questions they ask and the areas where they get stuck, more than half of them at any given time are new players and not alts for veteran players.

2. I started a new character in Caldari space some time ago. I was heartened that the training agents were much better than the ones when I joined Eve. And there were numerous noobs running through their training lessons.

From these experiences, I have never felt that CCP was ineffective in soliciting new players. There always seemed to be a decent number of noobs.

HOWEVER:

At the Epic Arc, there are always at least one and sometimes three or four "helpful" veterans who offer their services to noobs who get stuck. Once their help is accepted, they grab the current mission objective and ransom it back to the poor noob.

In the Caldari training system, there was always at least one veteran who would try to induce the noobs to taking an action that would mark them as a criminal. Then the vet (bravely PvPing a 1-day old character) would gun down the noob.

SO

While new players are coming into the system in (apparently) adequate numbers, my experience is that they are treated too harshly. Step into a noob's shoes, "Gee, I just got killed on my first day in the game and now my progress is blocked in an epic arc because my objective has been seized and is being held for ransom. Why don't I just blow over 100 $US to set myself up for a full year of such abuse?" And maybe they'll buy the Brooklyn Bridge as well.

Jenshae has the right idea. To retain these noobs and convert their trial subscriptions into paying ones, someone (CCP?) needs to herd the noobs into temporary corps (not the current NPC model) that will offer regular guidance and support.

As to the trope that Eve is "dying," give it a rest. CCP would need management twice as stupid as Dilbert's company for them to "die." Because they have a subscription-based economy, CCP knows within a few percentage points each month what their income and expense will be. Armed with the knowledge, they can adjust expenses to accommodate fluctuations in revenue by speeding or slowing development and adding or delaying new equipment. It's not quite as easy as that last sentence made it sound, but it's also not as complicated as (gasp!) rocket science.

lol unless CCP make serious changes to the game, not in a million years. The numbers are getting lower and actually the more advertising CCP as made no difference.

Ahhhh, thank you very much. Information is King and Conversation is it's Queen. I'm a firm believer that knowledge is power.

And that's something which is sorely lacking in the NPE (New Player Experience). I'm not talking about game controls. I'm talking about the hidden truths about this game and how it intentionally misleads new players with false advertising propaganda and in game word phrases that mean something else when compared to real life, such as High Security. Definitely some unbalanced game mechanics happening there which makes it very tough to retain new players.

And in my opinion yes, this game is slowly loosing it's appeal (dying) to the older 'Vet' players as well despite all of the new lackluster 'Changes' constantly being done. It's turning into a regular 'theme-park' game where everyone can do everything within the first couple months of playing this game. The UI and the game screen itself has been filled up with so many 'Extras' that players have to purchase top of the line Computers each year just to be able to play the game on low graphics settings.

And yet I stay subscribed. I constantly hang on to the hope that this game will eventually turn itself around. I plan on keeping my account and this character active for as long as CCP keeps the server active. I may only log in once in a while to set up skill training but ...............

Oh wait ........ I don't even have to log into the game anymore since I can just set up a 10 year skill queue. Good job CCP, giving the players even more reasons to not log in.



DMC

Have you talked to the guys at my local game store? Screw this!