Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Reverse track. Reintroduce vanity items as player produced commodities acquired through gathering, BPCs, production and trade. Some can still be extremely high value through rare materials and expensive in game designer BPCs, but high value in isk, not aurum.

I strongly believe that the long term health of EVE is benefited by developing vanity items as player produced commodities unlinked from player/company monetization. It breaks a very basic conceptualization of EVE that sets it apart from other games on the market, and is disappearing.

It is a different game layer than in game items that produce quantified effect (ships, modules, stations, etc.), but the quality effect of not breaking immersion, and having clothing/ship skins be an acquired asset tied to game mechanics/production/physical inventory/play adds enormous value to the game, it's powerful and meaningful to make everything beyond pay and login be part of the in game world, and not part of the between game/life world.

I agree the current iteration is comparably conceptually well done, but only considering/comparing the current paradigm of monetization and how acceptable it has become for the vanity level; games need to pull back and consider the immersion/merit-of-action breaking effects of creating more game assets that aren't strictly acquired in game. This is no golden ammo, I know, and thank you deeply, but sometimes the most subtle cracks on a game's facade are ultimately the most damaging.

And people who think that they are entitled to all the items in the NEX store without needing to help support CCP through micro-transactions for cosmetic items need to stop, step back, and think;

Would I even have this option if it were only a time and money sink for CCP?

And the answer is No.

CCP is a company out to make a profit. That means that actions which do not bring in new players, do not generate more revenue from existing players, and do not significantly increase player retention rates enough to justify their implementation DON'T GET DONE.

And P.S: This includes basically the ENTIRE Nex store, other than ship skins, which might have been implemented in some form anyway.


TLDR: You wont be getting all the NEX store items for free simply because you think it slightly hinders your personal "Immersion" CCP has people to pay, that the fee's from PLEX and Aurum go to pay. No money from Aurum = fewer developers to develop things.