EVE General Discussion

With regards to the cost, I've seen wholly unrealistic estimates in this thread at both extremes. I don't think there is any way that the price tag is in the millions of US dollars; maybe if it was a government project burdened by bureaucracy and waste, but not for one funded by a commercial entity. Likewise, estimates which only tally up a list of building materials are equally invalid, as they ignore several other important factors, such as the cost of the land, permits, and (what is usually the largest expense for something like this) the talent of the artist.

Just going off of what I've seen of similar sculptures, I would not be surprised if commissioning and building a work like this were to run anywhere between $200,000-$500,000. There's a lot of variation dependent largely upon the prominence of the artist (I'm not familiar enough with the Icelandic art scene to understand how locally renowned this guy may or may not be), but it should be a fairly accurate ballpark at least.

Now, it's not tens of millions in wasteful spending, but neither is it a paltry sum to be shelled out without a second thought. It's definitely substantial enough to make it a questionable investment for a company which has been laying off employees in recent history.

You're out by ~an order of magnitude.

CCP have every reason to expect significant revenue returns from this project. It's a marketing project at heart. A lovely gesture, a compliment to the community, but fundamentally, CCP expect to gain from doing this. As one would expect a commercial company to do.

When it's one of the few places to go to honor your lost loved one there's not much of a choice but to show up there. 50K+ dead makes for a lot of traveling relatives.

For the life of me, I can't see how this is much of a marketing tool.

Yes a few people in Iceland will see it. Is that what you mean, its like a billboard?

Yes a few news sources have picked up on it. Is the few stories that have popped up on gaming sites what you mean?

Are they hoping that next time they mess up people will go and shoot it?

I just don't see it at all.

I mean putting money into the product your selling seems like a much healthier and long term marketing strategy. It's called "Make your product a better product". This monument seems like a pretty bold marketing strategy Malcanis, lets see if it pays of for them.

I'm very much for EvE growth, I'm very dubious of how successful this will be in obtaining more real revenue for CCP. Player retention, which is the biggest hurdle EvE has, will still be low since this really doesn't reward staying with the game after the snapshot. Sure you can get a couple new faces in, but if they don't stick around, your back to square one.
It will only be a gain if the amount of money they make in the small window of the snapshot makes up the cost, since you cant rely on a statue in Iceland bringing a lot of people to the game once the initial hype train has come to a halt.

Slapping "art" on a project results in 10x a reasonable cost.

It is refreshing to see how the monument is perceived. People quarrel about its significance and whether a virtual world deserves a footprint in our well-known one.
It is a piece of art and obviously it is already doing its magic :-)

I am proud to be part of it. Thanks CCP

Maybe, but I doubt it. That would imply that the total cost was barely more than the base materials it will be made of. That doesn't leave much for land, labor, or design.



If that were all this was, and if it was likely to be a productive marketing project, that would be fine. Frankly though, I don't see it. Of all those who used to play EVE, but are no longer subscribed, how many will actually be paying enough attention to hear about this? Of those, how many will care? Of those, some may care enough to sub up for a month in order to get their names on the list. Of those, there may be a few who, after coming back to the game, decide to stick around for a while, but for most, the reasons they left EVE will still remain and they will unsub just as quickly.

So at best, CCP gains a small burst of subscriptions for one month, without any substantial or sustainable increase to the playerbase beyond that. This monument does nothing to explain or expose the game to those unfamiliar with it (except maybe for a few Reykjavik natives, even then they won't understand what it's about). It does nothing for the retention of players. I find it highly doubtful that this investment is going to bring in enough to cover it's own costs, even if you're right about my estimate.

Do you know what good marketing for EVE looks like? Things like the Battle of B-R5RB. That generated tons of media exposure and news coverage, and drew interest from all sorts of people to check out this game world. And that didn't cost CCP anything in marketing funds; it was all the result of players' actions. The best marketing CCP can do is to continue to develop and improve the tools that players need to create events like this, and to improve the methods of player retention, and then just let the players create the right sort of publicity to bring people in.

A lump of stone in Iceland that few people will ever see does none of that.

Personally I like the idea – as did my wife, who normally couldn’t care less for computer games or EVE. It is nice to think I’ll have three of my character’s names permanently recorded on it. It highlights the games longevity, and how CCP is focused on it being around for a long time into the future. (I imagine there are a few people who wished SOE had as much loyalty to some of their games.) I also hope it brings the game some extra publicity.

Hmm, real life deployable? Well it looks space-ish enough, it could be better, but it's still nice as it is