Jita Park Speakers Corner

Idealists alone never get a deal. Pragmatists alone don't get anything but a deal. You need both to get the best result. I'm still looking forward very much to working with Trebor, because he'll be able to help me get better results than I would without him, as he's no doubt looking forward to working with me, because he'll be able to use me as bargaining weight to get those deals dealt.

If he gets more out of the arrangement than I do, then it sucks to be me.

We'll see

Good to see that the candidates are confident, at least.

The whole point is that both of us get more out of the arrangement than we could achieve separately.

Now I'd like to get back on track and answer someone else's question. Wescro has been waiting patiently with his hand up for several pages...


Yes, stuff like that happens. That kind of thing flows out of the normal everyday conversations we have. We mention something, or a dev does, and there's a conversation, and maybe a Scrum story gets added or tweaked. But the hard work is done by the devs, and the credit belongs to them.


What would I love to see?

New regions of space (or subsets of existing space) with different rules. WH space is the best example of this, but I think CCP could get even more radical. I'd love to have areas of the game that are like the Mutara Nebula in The Wrath of Khan, but that's just an example; there are tons of things that could be done.

Nullsec needs some serious love, both from the standpoint of sov and farms-and-field stuff. Same goes for industry.. and POSes.. and a ton of other things.

But the problem is one of resources. CCP simply doesn't have the resources to do all these things quickly. Their new development system is a good start, but it will take years to get through the to-do list at current levels of staffing.

So this means that if we want stuff to be done faster, we need more devs. And the best way to do that is to get subscription numbers up. More income => CCP can afford more devs.

There are basically three things that can be done to achieve this:

1) Get more people to try EVE. You can do this by creating cool new content (attracting more of the current demographic) or by creating new niches for players with playstyles that EVE currently doesn't support. This latter aspect is one reason why I have pushed CCP hard to look at the actual numbers regarding stuff like Wardecs and Hisec risk/reward -- if a place can be made for players who currently avoid EVE because of certain aspects of the game, without significant effects for the current community, then that's something that needs to be looked at very, very seriously.

Purists hate this position, but IMHO they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

2) Convert more trials into subscriptions. EVE is notoriously noob-unfriendly, and I think a lot more needs to be done here. This means a better tutorial, making mentoring a profitable in-game profession (something I really would like to see), and finding ways to hook new players into social groups as soon as possible.

3) Keep people subscribed for longer. CCP's on track here. The last two expansions have been full of fixes that improve the game for existing players. Maybe not fixing sucking chest wounds, but stitching up the scalp lacerations. That needs to continue.

I see you've taken Malc's correspondence course in analogy stretching. In all honesty, there has to be a balance between artistic and commercial sensibilities; if you walk the line correctly, you produce something that is esthetically satisfying and lets you keep paying the rent. Again, there are already rules in the game, the arguments are (a) whether or not something could be changed to achieve some goal (artistic, commercial, or both), and (b) whether it is a good use of resources given all the other things you could do.

Different people will of course have different opinions about this -- which is fine. My goal as a CSM member is not to tell CCP what to do (well, not any more than any other EVE player), but to make sure they consider all the options before making their decision.


That's already been tried. It's called My Little Pony.

I agree with your sentiments, but we have to have a little chat about your priorities...

Alphabetical is as good an order as any!

Pearls before swine.

I note your careful use of terms, that is, "will make of" rather than "will think of".

I rather doubt EVE will move far in the direction of WoW. I do think a small kiddy-pool is worth researching, but for now it's just an idea worth thinking about. The actual problem is giving people who are used to themepark games a gentler introduction to the sandbox, and providing more opportunities to get them hooked into the social fabric (because that's a big "stickyness" factor). I'd love to see discussion of multiple different ways to work on that.


If they're staying in the kiddy pool, paying their subscriptions, and are lower-maintenance than other players, then they are subsidizing the sandbox and not getting in the way of the big kids. They're renters.


I think new players that match current EVE demographics will want to play in the sandbox and would leave a kiddy pool pretty quickly, especially if the risk-reward was properly set (easy to say, hard to do, though). The really interesting question is whether or not it would allow CCP to tap into a whole different demographic that currently runs away screaming at the very thought of downloading the client.


I limit myself to the occasional sarcastic counter-troll. Firing the first shot is not the way I do business.

Except for voter reform, but I kid.

Thanks for the replies. I thought they were really good.

I suppose if I had joined EVE without playing WoW so much, I would be a strong supporter of yours.

I mostly saw EVE as being really new to the MMO world really. I don't just mean the sandbox either. Most MMOs follow the role playing fantasy with swords and alchemy and whatnot game a whole lot, and it was very nice to find EVE after playing those games for so long and finding myself burned out.

Of course it is hard, to just wait around waiting for different players to be burned out, so they will pick EVE up. So I see why you want a better introduction and easier place for awhile to attract new players.

Also EVE is small in a way, so just gaining more players, seems like such a big bonus to everyone who plays.

EVE is a pretty hard place as well, and is probably worth debating whether that is important to hold onto, when faced with the improvements we could get. (CCP says, they like the way EVE is hard, from CCP Seagulls dev blog. So we shouldn't feel like we go to far as well with a discussion.)

As for the My Little Pony reply, That series was pretty popular for EVE players it seemed like, so maybe a newbie area would be popular amongst EVE players as well. ( I also meant more like Naruto but timesed by 20, as well as watered down.)

Also the Beatles and Depeche Mode started out being pop music, before taking more serious turns. So even if EVE did go to far of a sell out, could always go back.