EVE General Discussion

Confirming... all important zero bots must report front and center to kiss the crevice of The Mittani's posterior.

+10/10

I think BPC's would be about the only thing that I would be OK with selling through NEX. They would have to be BPC's of items that do not have BPO's however. No BPO's selling through NEX.

This is turning into the best threadnaught ever!

Very much agreed.

Mittens bleeped


And this makes them less important how? Perhaps there is a realisation that 7500 people like you (Goons) and 30000 don't, i.e. not Goons.

Unfortunately, because at least half the player base plays Eve for personal enjoyment they haven't formed up into a voting blob to get voted in. This makes your perception of being elected by "popular casting" as being "representative" of the Eve player base.

And I know you're happy with that Mittens. It's part of your "social experiment".

Albeit, in fairness, most of what Mittens has to say is correct in my view. My biggest beef is in HOW it has been said, WHEN it is said and more importantly, WHY it was said.

I saw (and still see) the whole "Taking this public - war on CCP" as nest feathering and simply gave Mittani more motivation to add to his usual egocentric diatribe.

Unfortunately, just like blobs in 0.0, we can't fight it. I votes the CSM get's nerfed and a more representative system - across the whole of Eve - is debated and implemented.

My evidence is

1. The leaked newsletter itself, which is very clear on this subject. I linked it in two of my posts in this thread, and here it is again for you and your soul mate Mendolus: Fearless.

2. The series of statements on this subject by a notable CCP ex-employee Seleene (a.k.a. CCP Abathur), and I quote from here:

"Fearless is supposed to be there to help employees digest what's going on in the company and the company mindset. It is not just an opinion piece and I never took it as such when I worked there. I always saw it's primarily purpose to be getting people to have their noses pointed in the same direction so that by the time a feature is going live there has been internal messaging that says what is coming is going to be awesome, so be ready for the awesome. Here are some cool pics too, ta da!

Just because some of the CCP folks that the CSM spoke with said they never read it / don't pay attention to it / think it's pointless does not change what it has been used for in the past. While I do accept that the most inflammatory bits (with Soundwave sounding pro MT) were 'staged', it does not make the content any less true and I think CCP's efforts to downplay it just prove the point that it's not to be dismissed out of hand."

3. The leaked Hilmar's email, linked earlier in this thread.

Now I'd like to see some links to your "evidence".

1: You have already graciously provided links to the "evidence". Thank you (although your link to the copy of the Fearless PDF is pass worded, fortunately I already had a copy).

By the way, Mendolus and I have many issues we do not see eye to eye on. However, if not believing that CCP had plans set in stone to sell non-vanity items via the NeX at the time of the Fearless newsletter makes Mendolus (along with countless other people) and I soul mates in your eyes, so be it. Apparently it's a big family.

2: I've always liked Seleene, ever since our first Cap ship engagement against MC in Tribute years ago. More to the point, Seleene points out that much of the Fearless edition is clearly staged for arguments sake, but that in the past the Fearless newsletter was used to "get people to have their nose pointed in the same direction". Notice that he does not state that it was a vehicle to specify new corporate policy, nor does he take issue with the editors opening piece which clearly states that Fearless was taking a different direction than it had in the past, encouraging different points of view to be represented.

Now the different articles (not 2, by the way) look at various aspects of CCP's interest in the use of MT in their various offerings. The article that brings up the most controversy (other than the staged piece in page 6) is the article by Scott Holden on page 8. Now I'm sure Scott is great at what he does as Director of Content Design in Atlanta, but he appears to be dealing with information that is either out of date or was reconsidered after the article was written (published in May) but before Incarna was released. He makes multiple references to things that simply didn't happen, such as a much lower pricing scheme (sunglasses should not equal a faction BS), micro-PLEX, selling in batches, brokers fee's, etc. in addition to his comment that they might also sell things like ammunition and ships. As he says, the devil is in the details.

It's pretty apparent that some parts of the MT game plan underwent a re-think before Incarna went live (or the Fearless issue was leaked), no doubt reinforced by public opinion after release. Idea's were thrown out there, kicked around, perhaps seriously analyzed and considered... but ultimately did not make it into the mix. Scott wrote up an article outlining the broad strokes as he understood them before May, and he either got a few of the details wrong or the details changed between that time and the release. These things happen.

3: Yes, Hilmar's email references an issue of Fearless. Fearless covered a lot of ground, most of it advising caution and restrain in developing MT for EVE.

Yea, but there's a very big difference between, "We plan to sell game breaking merchandise for nothing but AUR that will destroy the very nature of a player driven economy." and "We plan to sell ease of use goods that entice newer players, but require item exchanges that do not directly and irrevocably harm the player driven economy."

As Malcanis said, any amount of goods they introduce that have different attributes than the items that are traded in to get them, are redundant and damaging to the overall bottom line of us already having all that in place as it is.

However, the vertical learning curve, as he or someone else pointed out, is also at issue. What keeps most players away from EVE? The complicated and steep learning curve and the perceived time and effort required to compete in the game.

You know how many friends I have had that absolutely refuse to even do a trial of the game because they think it takes too much time and effort to play for little reward? No matter how I tell them and in any way I tell them, they just don't believe me, that the game is well worth it once you get over the initial hump. The trial is free ffs... and yet they refuse to even give it a shot...

EVE needs something... it was fine for it to be a niche game for years while it was still a fledgling project with low overhead and upkeep, but there have been expansions every six months for almost a decade now, and the subscriptions are still teetering in the 300s, it cannot continue like this forever without CCP reaping either new subscribers or finding new ways to get more money out of the ones that they already have.

Again, as Malcanis pointed out, this is a matter of which fork in the road CCP decided to go with, and it seems pretty evident that they are trying to make the game more friendly to the mainstream element, than to continue with the theory that more FiS brings in more subscriptions, which is arguable at best.

I do agree that up until Apocrypha, I and a lot of other people had no reasonable expectations that CCP would ever put out an expansion that did not viably add to the existing content in a way that should theoretically bring in more and more players, BUT the problem is that I think EVE has likely gone through the players it is going to be able to in nearly ten years, and at this point, its own age is working against it, i.e. CCP may think that EVE needs to be more shock and awe, and modern, trendy, and shiny, as noted a few years back with the CSM summit when they basically said exactly this, and I think at this point, they're lost to us.

i.e. they had made their bed, and it is highly likely we are going to have to either lie in it with them or move on, by this point, because they have already committed to the long haul, whether they back down on various aspects of it or not at our discretion or admonishment, such as with ship spinning, and the like. But gold ammo... I do not want to see it in my EVE either, but if I have no other choice, I want to at least see what they actually intend to do, before I make a judgement on whether or not I can stomach it. It is what most reasonable people do, after all.

Anyone that has worked in a company or corporation before knows those newsletters are not just LOL RANDOM.


They set the tone and intended direction of the company. And are used to let the staff know the direction that the company is going to go.

CCP and their sycophantic brown nosing fans downplayed them but its pretty clear that the newsletter is closer to the truth then they want others to know.

Again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWMBeLrZoyw everyone watch it especially CCP CEOs and Investors.