EVE General Discussion

Silent? So...what are SKINS, Character Accessories, Skill Injectors, Alpha Clones?

Seems to me those are ways to make the game more profitable.

In the last few years, starting right around the time we got our Characters; replacing those portraits, CCP has made a major course change...and it seems money is the objective.

Obviously, that's a 'duh' thing. But realistically, EVE can't make money the way it is now. It needs to be easier, with more 'pay 2 skip'. Something to compete with the 'instant gratification' that mobile games offer.

Basically, the game's burn-out rate is faster than it's on-boarding rate.

World of Warcraft didn't get to 13 million by being hardcore. And even though it's at somewhere around 4 million now...that's still roughly 10 times more revenue than EVE generates (counting sub money only).

And that's exactly what a new owner would want...more players for more immediate profit

think positive guys, think valve

We can both agree that making the game more profitable is a good thing for both investors and players. People of the forums were wanting skins, or ways to customize their own ships, for years before skins came out. CCP also fielded the idea of Pay for Skillpoints at Fanfest a few years ago to see the audiences response. So unless the "silent" partners were around back then, skins and skill injectors are all CCP's own internal ideas.

Eveonline will never compete with instant gratification mobile games, ever. It is ridiculous to even say Eve needs to compete with mobile games. However, if you want more things you can do to effect the main Eve game that you play on a pc, from a mobile device, like change your market orders or setting skills then this might be a good idea for mobile.

Eve does have part of Wows game model with the 'healer" class of ships, and also with Incursion play that mimics Wows raids. Eve's learning curve, its unforgiving nature in that you lose everything when your ship explodes, and the fact that you dont level grind are different than WoW. You wouldnt want to change those things though as they are the heart of Eve and make Eve, well, Eve instead of Wow in space.

I didn't mean EVE needs to compete, as in the stay relevant, but they would need to do so to make the money in the quantities that those games make...which is something any investor would be pushing for. -- It's more money for them, they'd be stupid not to.

And, as someone who had a mind for business, I would push CCP to implement 'easy money' schemes (SKINS come to mind). People were asking for them long before SKINS, but CCP choose to make SKINS a 'pay extra for' item.

...and sorry for this, but I would change EVE to be more like WoW, because I want that 15/mo 'times' 4 million people; not that 15/mo 'times' ~400,000 (this may not be accurate anymore; it's the last number I recall hearing).

I don't care if you all quit. Because I, using some formula probably, know I at least triple the number of subs for at least a couple of months.

And I'm a 'silent partner', with legally binding gag clauses so what do I care if the player base gets pissed off. I bought the company to make money not to make friends.

((Remember, this is me speaking as a business man. I love this game dearly and I don't want it to change to the point that EVE is no longer EVE. But you all need to remember, investors, typically, are like house flippers; spend as little money generate the largest possible return in the shortest amount of time. -- You get that by catering to the masses (sometimes referred to as the lowest common denominator, which is wrongly used since you're actually using the mean [or average]; the average person does not want to expend a great deal of time or effort playing -- They want to relax..not work.)))

---

As for EVE's similarity to WoW, I would say it's similar to GW2. As far as 'healer ships' are concerned it'd be closer to how, in GW2, you can typically spec every class to offer some sort of 'heal thy self and thy allies'.

In regards to raids..EVE doesn't have hard threat. I've heard NPCs (like in Incursions) will lock on to the first ship that enters...but I've never seen this first hand, so won't speak on it. GW2 is similar, no hard threat; you all get to tank! :P

I'm glad you have pointed out exactly how an investor thinks when they buy into something to turn a profit. You are correct about that short term profit, to hell with everything else mindset too. This investor/House Flipper mindset is exactly what the player base is worried about and you put that into words that everyone can understand.

Thanks for that.

This is exactly why there are those of us here who are voicing our concerns.

I would not put so much weight on difficulty. There is so much more to it than that. For me EVE is easy, but I am a long term player. It wasnt particularly hard in beginning also, less than I expected. Depth, customization and consequences that feel real is what I always preferred in games. And of course pretty avatars.

My question is who would even want to buy a product that's so complicated, of niche appeal and has a history of nearly being mismanaged to death.

I'm going with Amazon, they're the only company I can think of that would be brave enough to take on such a questionably profitable product.

It's true, it's all gossip.

Honestly does anyone know how much stock in CCP has issued vs. what is outstanding? Who has the controlling stake, CCP or a third party? I'm willing to bet no one knows but CCP and the "owner(s)". This stock isn't publicly traded, and so this could be a change of shares between private parties that has no bearing on the company's day to day operations and possibly not even it's long term strategy.

Gossip, tasty doomsday gossip.

Yay! Can't wait for those console ports and lockboxes!

Honestly the fact that there are people willing to buy the company probably indicates that CCP is doing quite well. Why would anyone invest in a dying company?