Out of Pod Experience

The Metamorphosis of EVE Online - as interpreted by a random EVE player who has been playing for over 7.5 years, has tried very nearly everything in the game at least once - and who is now quitting, for reasons that will be explained below:



Shocking as this may be to some people - the gameplay and mechanics of EVE have always been pretty awful. Nothing has ever been balanced, and the "content" of the game has infamously been pathetically shallow. As a standalone game, EVE was awful.

However, despite being a horrible game coded by people who were just kind of fumbling along as they went...EVE became one of the largest and most successful MMOs to date. The reason for this was that EVE was *different* than other games - and attracted players who found the mainstream, WoW-style MMO games (for lack of a better description) to be too simplistic/restricting/etc. There is a reason that EVE's player-base was significantly older than the other MMO games, as well as a reason that historically most serious EVE players who "quit" the game came back eventually. That reason was quite simply: there was no other game on Earth that was the same as EVE. The unique *player base* that the original game attracted was solely responsible for this phenomenon.

***Ironic side-note: Much of the ruthless "HTFU" creed that EVE is so famous for is simply due to the developers taking a lazy approach to game design - either because they didn't know how, or didn't feel like investing the effort into preventing heinous actions such as scamming/awoxing/etc - so they simply left them in and called them "features" of the game. I don't truly think anybody could have predicted how well this would go over with what would become the core EVE player-base.


As I see it, the serious problems for the old EVE began back in 2007 - when it was publicly proven that one of the developers was cheating to give an advantage to an in-game alliance. This was too much even for the EVE community, and resulted in drastic changes to the way that developers were *allowed* to interact with the game. They went from *active players and participants* in the game to a more traditional isolated developer role, cut off from direct contact with the player-base inside the game - at least for the most part. Ironically...it may have done less long-term damage to the original game environment/culture to deal with periodic scandals...but we will never know for sure. This didn't directly hurt/change EVE in any way at the time - but I believe it is an underlying factor that has helped facilitate many of the drastic changes we have seen as time has gone on.


Fast-forward 3-4 years ahead to 2010-2011...and here the real change begins. Whether due to financial problems from multiple other games CCP decided to *try* to develop, or just plain and simple greed - CCP decided that despite record numbers of subscriptions and plex sales EVE wasn't making enough money. In response, CCP decided to further Monetize EVE with Micro-Transactions. Progress was initially slowed due to the shockingly high prices and the release of an infamous internal CCP article (http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/PoeticStanziel/Vol-1-Greed-is-good.pdf) - but in the end I think we can all see where the game is at today with regard to these Micro-Transactions. Prices are as high or higher than ever, and even game-impacting items are being introduced without raising any eyebrows. CCP has successfully made the transition to a Micro-Transaction game - and at a higher price-point than any other game I'm aware of to date.

***Incidentally - it is impressive how accurate the infamous article turned out to be. CCP denied it, but they followed exactly what they said in the article, and it turned out as predicted for them. So congratulations CCP on calling that one accurately.

However, despite the success of their campaign and the fact that they didn't really lose too many players at this stage - there *were* consequences. In my personal opinion, this was/is the true turning point where EVE (at least as we ancient bittervets knew/loved it) was truly, irrevocably, mortally wounded.


Between 2011 and now, after the initial uproar died down and people accepted the changes...CCP decided that even with the new micro-transactions, EVE *still* wasn't raking in enough cash. After a brief flirtation with CCP-supported RMT to sell more PLEX (Somer Blink anyone?) which was called out and shut down (fairly ruthlessly) - CCP began looking to their mainstream competition once again for ideas. CCP finally researched popular game theory and put together a *plan* of development, to intentionally transform the game from what it used to be into a mainstream MMO. This is being done in a strong effort to draw in the casual mainstream gamers - the demographic most likely to throw tons and tons of RL $$$ into Micro-Transactions/etc.

Progress was initially slow, but many of the older players started to quit even in the initial phases of this plan - resulting in a decline in subscriptions and in players logged in at any given time. However, CCP was fully committed now - and so they introduced their new accelerated development cycle to begin pushing out new major updates every 3 months instead of only once per year. This was a required survival move, because without the old players, CCP needs to draw in their new target demographic ASAP to get/keep the money flowing.


On a positive note: CCP has finally hired a large, full staff of developers who for the most part seem quite skilled at their profession - and that combined with the fact that they actually have a plan does mean that the recent updates are much more full and complete than updates used to be, despite the accelerated development cycle. Additionally CCP is accomplishing much closer to the results they intend with each update, rather than the wild misfires they used to periodically release.

Just felt like putting my thoughts into writing - and as long as I have done so, I may as well share

Feel free to comment, flame, or just ignore it - as you wish. Just as I say I felt like putting my reasoning down in writing.

Also sorry for the gigantic wall of text - but I felt it was required for this topic

TLDR:
EVE is transforming from a unique HTFU game to a fully developed mainstream MMO that I am no longer interested in playing, even though it will actually be a better game in terms of gameplay.

Thus, I quit.

As an older player, (in game and out) I agree with your analysis. At the moment it remains different enough from the "I'm the hero" MMO's available that it is, for me, the best available option. However, I do believe your prediction of where the game is heading and will end up is accurate. The game has lost much of it's edge and harshness which is what I believe made it a special environment.

Anyway, thanks for the well written summation of many of our thoughts.

o7

It's a wall of text, but a good wall of text. I've rage quit a few times with similar sentiments even back in 2009. Sadly there's no other game out there that comes close so inevitably I returned, and so will you.

I'd really love to agree with, and endorse, the HTFU-shy excuse for why the majority of gamers aren't drawn to EVE. It isn't as though no one's heard of the game. It's that paying to be screwed over by people isn't their idea of having fun. Sure. There is a slim minority (which CCP runs on) who are that perverse, and they do think being screwed over as long as they can screw over others, is an amenable (if that range of sense is in their spectrum) way to spend time. There are also people who like to spend time sleeping on beds of nails and driving spikes through their tongues, so I wouldn't be quite so fast as to laud this sort of pass time.

The misconception, or intended pejorative characterization, of those gamers who shun EVE because they like a game to do their thinking for them, is just what it is, a truism invented to make those who participate in EVE's perversity appear like brave heroes in the face of daring and dashing conditions. (Were they not instrumental themselves in creating these conditions this angle might be swallowable.) That PvP-ing some dink in a computer game isn't nearly as challenging and engaging as trying to solve conditions, situations and problems devised by master game developers seems to be lost on these folks. However, isn't it just like them to equate themselves to those who are not only intellectually their superiors, but who are also on record as having actually created something, rather than toyed around with someone else's creation, then brayed about their own cleverness as though they did more than just move some pixels around.

That CCP decided (for money - money changes everything) to trash the potential of their own creation isn't really much of a surprise. There's plenty of hubris to go around in some precincts. What was left out of the OP's diatribe was the fact the ingenious people who actually invent the games are fired (with some very deceptive press releases "explaining") and the profit margin is padded by hiring the discount coder. I don't know if this oversight was intentional, or just a sign of ignorance of the subject at hand. But, without the actual talent, there's no hope of any development of any significant value. Everything will pretty much be eye-candy and shuffling.

Nay. What I've seen is the departure of people who have the intelligence and capability to take this "sandbox" of potential and sculpt it into something quite intricate and remarkable to be replaced with the lowest common denominator - let's gank for yucks. If you want to characterize this as people just don't like HTFU, go ahead. No one can stop you. However, and fortunately, what the OP claims isn't what happened at all. It's just this person's prejudicial characterization of what little story the OP managed to catch...over that 7.5 years. Woo hoo.

Bye OP. And, I don't want your stuff.

Ironically the mere fact that you are (probably) in the majority in this opinion just proves how much the game/community have already shifted.

Sadly some of you still demand to play the "victim" - even when I'm saying you won...

Give it a few years, CCP isn't finished yet - they are making the game what people like *you* want it to be. So stop being so hostile and enjoy it you ungrateful ****.

I read the words you wrote...

As for the direction of the game, I guess we'll find out in a few years which of us is right won't we? Or at least you will.



I actually unsubscribed the day they released skill extractors/injectors. And nothing since then has made me change my mind. However I was on the yearly subscription plan, so it takes a while for the sub to actually run out, and since I already paid for it.....may as well use it at least a little...

In any case you are stuck with me until the 13th of October. A nice lucky day.

I can't say that I disagree with the analysis, Eve is no longer the game that I started playing in 2009.

Which is a shame.

Some good points in OP and in others in the thread. Gave out some likes read wall of text. Would read again.

Enjoy your Eve retirement OP.