Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Is it time for free to play EVE?

I was thinking (shouldn't do this often) on this a lot recently and wanted to get incite from other EVE players (and forum trolls)

So first off the "worst idea ever"...

- EVE goes free to play!
-- Training queues still require paid subscription, or PLEX to be active
-- Accounts remain active if sub, or PLEX is not updated, training queue is paused
-- Free accounts still get a month or so (depending on current marketing deal) of training time
-- No more "trail accounts" removing cost of activating a new account

That's it...

What would this possibly do for EVE?

- Positives
-- You and the people you play with are not unable to play EVE if they can't afford to sub/PLEX
-- EVE community is grown because monetary barrier to entry is removed
-- Mining bot gankers get more prey
-- CCP gains money because player base grows significantly
-- More players means system wide activity goes up (more pew pew for all)

- Negatives
-- Player base could be negatively affected by weird people who used to not play EVE
-- CCP loses money because thousand of accounts stop training
-- Mining Bot swarms and cyno rats everywhere
-- Players consider paying for training a pay to win model (people HATE ptw models)
-- System overload. Could EVE servers handle millions of active players?
-- Could be much harder/expensive to do logistically than it sounds


I think most the negatives I listed are not huge risks. EVE players are great at self regulation, that is the wonderful sandbox nature of our universe. There are already plenty of scumbags that play EVE; scammers, gankers, and botters (I love you all trust me), but would more ruin EVE?

I do not consider this a Pay to Win model because of the knowledge, tactics, and execution of those that is required to be successful at EVE. Skill points allow people to do more stuff, but not necessarily "win".

From point of view of CCP's wallet I think that free to play models have shown they monetize very well. This model could actually make CCP gobs more ISKies. I for one would not stop training, consistent and quality updates have made getting new skills very desirable. I think this would be the same for most on at least one character. The thing I am not sure of is if the player base doubled would entering Jita on a Saturday be a crap shoot?

Finally...

Is this even possible? I do work in game, so I have a decent idea of what types of logistical nightmares that can come from a significant change. Some can be a few lines of code and testing, others can be theoretically impossible (think starbase issues remaining because Legacy code)

--EDIT NOTES--

What's most interesting about everyone's reaction so far is that everyone points out that CCP losing money is the biggest flaw in the logic. No one has said they would enjoy EVE less if they weren't required to pay. Oddly enough while I was thinking about this I considered I might find EVE less enjoyable, but I am a skill whore, so I would keep PLEXing. Also, It is possible that CCP could gain income from the player base that would come to EVE and stay with EVE. And from all the new accounts people make to try to game the system.

What it seems like has been implied below is a large percentage of players no longer have any desire to train new skills for many of there accounts. These players would stop buying PLEX if this change was made. IF that is true, and the amount of new players does not counter act the amount of non-playing accounts then yes this is the worst idea ever and EVE would die.

As for the wild accusations of putting a cyno character in every system, I say go for it. Have fun with the logistics, and CCP will enjoy your 5,000 X $15 (systems in EVE, est. training cost of a cyno character) $75,000 per human crazy enough to do it.

Please stop, you are bad at it.

Its already free to play.

There just is one big problem with your whole scheme; you can log in a char that has trained before. And play with it. For free. This is pointed out to you above as well.

IE: takes 2 plex to fully train a PI / Mining barge alt THAT NEVER HAS TO TRAIN AGAIN. Basically, it prints isk. For no cost. Or better, 4 plex for a L4 alt or pretty high up mining alt. So you have free chars that can generate upwards of 100 mill a hr per char ...

This will cause a massive market disruption as isk becomes less valuable, it will murder the prices of everything. Plex will become so expensive that people without 'free' accounts no longer can buy it off the market.

Not to mention huge fleets of dual boxed miners, campers, gankers etc...

And I hear you say, hey good points, but what about we limit the accounts to 1 per person? Cannot be enforced and CCP does not have the time to go hunting these people all day long.

So you're saying you don't already do this PI trick w/ your alts...

Cause I did and still could any time... I don't pay (one subbed one plexed) but to keep two of my accounts character training. Sadly I had to pause for my alt to train bot not anymore with multi account training.

People also dual/trip/quad/freak box, 30+ PI account and disrupt market play ALL the time in today's EVE.

PLEX prices are already rocketing up because of multi account training, but that means it's more desireable for all these new players to spend RL money for lots of ISK.

and no I am not going to say limit to one account cause that is impossible and also a terrible idea.

Your missing his point. While it's true that many players don't train specific characters past the skills required to do PI or mining with optimal efficiency, those accounts still have to be subscribed and therefor paid for, one way or another. And you are correct that the price of PLEX is increasing due to demand for multi-char training, this is hardly a bad thing, as those PLEXs need to be bought with actual cash. In these scenarios CCP is making money because the PLEX have to originally be bought from them. Even for the guy who multiboxes 30+ miners at a time and is paying for all those accounts with PLEX, those 30+ PLEX per month are still being paid for by any number of people. But what your suggesting is that instead of CCP getting 30+ PLEX worth of income per month while he plays CCP should opt to get 60 or 90 PLEX in the time it takes to train those characters, and then let them continue to play for free. Forever.

While there is an argument to be made about the effects of multiboxers on the economy, there is still a barrier to entry on some level that prevents widespread abuse whether that be the initial investment required before one can start paying with PLEX or the supply/demand ratio of farmed materials leveling out prices. But creating a system that allows for infinite free bots cannot possibly be justified by any damage multiboxers do. That's like making the argument "Well, the stoves on fire, so I guess I might as well let the house burn".

Finally, the draw to pay for ISK is never, ever, going to surpass the draw to play the game itself. Why should we make people just want to buy currency? If people are paying for the game and then want to, essentially, buy ISK on top of that, then that's certainly better for CCP.

Terrible idea, do you know how many accounts people have that they don't need to train anything on them. Hell with this system I could have a cyno toon in every system of EvE and never have to worry about plexing them active. Training perfect mining toons doesn't take that long. I could have perfect hulk pilots and never need to train sp again and just play the game for free.


Hell I could even be content with mediocre pvp pilot just playing for free with half way decent skills.

This would be an excellent way to kill EvE and CCP.

If I don't need to train my toons I don't need to pay anymore. I can enjoy the game for free for however long it takes the ccp to tank.

People wont need to buy plex anymore.



Seriously worst idea i've seen to date.

I just wanted to add this in



how do you think ccp losing money is not a huge risk? and how do you expect eve players to self regulate the companies loss of money? CCP can't exactly survive off isk....

eve is free to play like many of them who plex .... plexing for hours not for you go play dust or wait for fighter game to come out :)

Had to...

I play EVE I am as bored as they are