Crime & Punishment

You and I have a different understanding of "the quintessential hardcore PVE carebear." To me, those are players who would rather leave EvE then ever voluntarily participate in combat PvP. They want to run missions, do their industry, mine their rocks, and be left alone, and nothing will ever change that. They are large in number, probably form the lifeblood of EvE's economy, and will likely never voluntarily shoot or want to be shot at by another player.

You can't help them. There's no light for them to see because their eyes are different than ours. But that's fine, because EvE is a sandbox and playing like that is their choice (even if you and I see it as boring).

The folks who would do as you described simply PVE players who haven't learned how to PVP. It's this group that we should be focusing our attention on: the ones who are willing to take on PVP content with the right help. It's the players who, like me, spent years doing missions and trying to PvP but didn't really get good at it until I got taken under someone's wing. (For reference)

How do we target them?

Aside from keeping more groups like RvB and Brave Newbies going, it's hard to say. Encouraging them to get out of hisec, without forcing them, would likely help. That's how I got my start. My drive was curiosity, not profit. How do you encourage curiosity? I have no idea. I think your ideas re: insurance may help spur on the curious-but-timid.

I also totally agree that the massive nullsec battles are huge player draws and that CCP should be encouraging the nullsec blocs to keep having them. As much as I see the benefit of the recent travel changes though, between those and FozzieSov, I fear we have had our last massive capital fight and this saddens me greatly. There's just no motivation to throw huge fleets of capital ships at each other anymore, and I fear this will harm EvE in the long run even though it's proving helpful in the short run.

What happens when 12+ years in, total player growth has remained stagnant and everyone universally feels they need more 'content' i.e. things to shoot, regardless of zone of play? Does that axiom still take priority? That is the million dollar question.

Religious precepts like that are great and all, but if the overall game is a dull and boring scratching and starving for basic (pvp) content upon which it is based, something is amiss I say. The plot as they say, has been lost.

F

I'm on my phone so I will be short. I like that people are scared to undock certain things. When they do its people like me that remind them of EVEs many number 1 rules: don't fly what you can't afford to lose. I have enjoyed playing a villain and it's easily done in hisec. There is content in hisec as long as risk averse people don't want to lose their stuff. Just be creative and patient.

Eve is the worst game that we refuse to quit playing.

Feyd, it's weird to read all of this coming from you. Removing wardecs and ganking? I don't understand how sacrificing those two plus others that you listed would better the game and thrust players into your nullsec. I am not very knowledgable in Fozzie-Sov because I don't care about it, but it seems like there's more that needs to be fixed in nullsec before you start removing parts of the game others enjoy. The media doesn't snatch up the stories of a content creator, and the "This is EVE" video didn't contain sound clouds of gank victims so I do recognize capital fights and sov warfare as major selling points.

You can do your best to coerce people out into more interesting parts of space, but forcing them will only result in a loss of subscriptions. In short don't talk about destroying others preferred gameplay before yours is ready to accept the influx of players. I do not want to play musical chairs with entosis links and large capital fights aren't going to happen, so you're going to have to wallow through it while I'm shitting on red freighters and hyperdunking idiots.

I don't feel sorry for the "mercs" that find themselves with no content. Hisec is overflowing with idiots that are unknowingly begging for you to blow them up, steal their stuff, enslave them, and then even do it again. Go be creative. Hosed is not dead or dying... It may require more work and dedication, but that makes the end result that much sweeter.

Easy solution for a lot of this: Everyone get alts!

How I alt