EVE General Discussion

I'll be frank. I used to be a software developer (now I prefer trading or managing Unix servers) and really went in some talks with CCP about a job. Do you guess what? Their "always human factor issues" are known to be based on the fact CCP is one of the lowest wages non indie gaming companies. This does not help "talent" going to move in Iceland.

That's every company in Iceland though. The whole economy there is on the fritz. Has been for a while.

So you're saying he was right to start with? WELL DONE KING!

If that is what you read into his reply then I think we've found the main problem: You can't read or understand what is stated.

Ok I was quoting off the top of my head from something I read earlier, but I have now looked up the link to their records (from an earlier post).

http://marketsforisk.blogspot.co.uk/p/ccp-financials-my-attempt.html

First of all, it shows that in 2013 and 2014, 50.8M worth of assets were written off, and the total loss during those two years was 41.7M - or a 9.1M profit if they hadn't written those assets off. So although I didn't give the correct figures, I stand by my claim that CCP haven't bled cash in the last two years, they made those losses earlier and have merely cleaned house and are more accurately reporting the true worth of the company.

Second, yes they wrote off some intangible assets, the code base and development effort that went into those failed projects. That didn't push their debt ratio through the roof, it was a paperwork adjustment that brought tax benefits to CCP.

As for taking a private loan to buy back the bonds? You are suggesting they brought back those bonds to avoid having to make public their books because they don't want us to know that they are failing. Well first off switching from a public limited company to a private limited company doesn't magically make them secret squirrel proof. Believe it or not, private limited companies still have to produce books and file tax returns. They don't have to publish those records for the public to view because the public don't have a vested need to know. But the records are available and can be viewed if you have a legitimate reason to do so. Sure it might be difficult for you or I to see them, but to suggest that a company is going to take out a 15M loan to buy back those bonds in order to make it difficult for us to view their records is just ridiculous. There is no way a company would buy 15M of worthless stock knowing they are about to fail. In fact I would think that would be fraudlant, delibrately transferring a debt from one party to another because you know you going down the pan. Nevermind the fact that the company they got the loan from would have had a legitimate reason to view those books and would have made damn sure CCP were sound before handing over that money.

Thirdly - a company has to advance, they can't just sit still milking the cash cow. Two thirds of all software projects ultimately fail. Yes CCP have backed some lemons in the past but they have to keep trying. If for no other reason than that it pulls new blood in, opens career development paths. Ask yourself this, if someone has been working on Eve for 11 years without being promoted or moved to a new project in all that time, what quality of work do you really think they would produce?

Finally, why are you so determined to prove that Eve is dying? The only possible outcome is that new players will be put off joining Eve by reading such comments, thus hastening it's end.

Just wanted to point out that people who invest for a living think it's going to be enough to have invested $30m in CCPs VR venture.

I doubt even you would quit if CCP changed it. There's a lot of people that like to threaten to quit because they know CCP buckled before and probably will again, but I very much doubt many would and if they did it wouldn't be for long. I was here for that and back then it was a bunch of overly entitled idiots shooting a monument and it would be the same today - no big deal.

I love this. This is basically "if you disagree with me you are either inexperienced or stupid". Combine that with your frequent use of personal attacks and you still think it's everyone else that CCP will be ignoring?

Just wanted to point out that:

1) TV screens with 3D capability where you had to put on polarizing glasses where supposed to be a big hit around 2010-2012.

2) If we disregard stereoscopic video (google cardboard) and low-end mobile VR (Samsung Gear), then most of the proposed VR solutions require high-end hardware. I do see VR growing over time in the future, but I don't see it becoming a smash hit right off the bat. So I don't think that Valkyrie will threaten EvE:O financially within the first two years.

3) Even if Valkyrie would become a smash hit, with millions of adopters and a huge cashflow. Do you think that CCP would shut down EvE:O while it is still profitable ? Or do you assume that almost every EvE:O player switches to Valkyrie and unsubscribes from EvE:O ?

4) Investors take risks, but also balance those risks by spreading their investments. I wouldn't assume that every investment is going to be a guaranteed success. Let's not forget that we're cushioning the fall with our monthly payments, should Valkyrie fail tremendously. Although I think that Valkyrie will be succesfull. How big of a success, that only times will tell.

Is there anything of real interest to post about elsewhere?

And I don't care if it is dying or not... but it is declining and Valkyrie isn't going to make it better.

You have a point here. That sword has been looming over us since the subscription fee MMO market began to shrink. But I don't worry too much about it. Not yet