EVE General Discussion

CCP has said that they feel that FtP / microtransactions, as opposed to the traditional subscription model is a growing trend, and at minimum they want to have a system in place in case "customers demand it". Well.. they are right, it is growing, or at least was. However, this is because the vast majority (if not all) top tier mmo's that use such a system have just been wow clones, clones that do the wow model slightly differently, but always more poorly than wow itself. So of course, just doing the same thing over again, more poorly than the last time, will find it hard to attract subscriptions. Other games, such as farmville and it's ilk, are just simply not good games, they couldn't make money under any other system. There are also some people that feel they cannot afford a subscription.

The natural progression of this line of thinking is "How do we integrate the two systems, so that we can attract more customers that are used to a FtP model". I would argue that this line of thinking is a fallacy. You do not fundamentally attract customers by diversifying your payment options, you attract them by making a good game. In addition, EvE is a niche game, the people who play it are attracted to that niche. Your goal is not to change EvE in such a way as to make it more palatable to your typical WoW player, but rather to invite them to join our niche on our terms, because eve offers that fundamentally different experience.

"EvE is forever", It's a good mantra, and it's the best way to think about your business. EvE is your business, your not going to make EvE2, your going to continue to expand on, redo, and maintain EvE. On that road you will have to take radical steps that shake people up, one day you may have to take a hard look at the skill system for example. However don't sacrifice short term gains for long term growth and stability.

The NeX is fundamentally gamplay displacing, and thus a drain on the overall game value of EvE, nobody is out there saying "Hey come play EvE because you can buy shoes for your avatar without playing the game". So, as you've said in the past "HTF", admit that it was a bad choice, and just get rid of it. Perhaps have the NeX items be distributed via semi-rare drops from faction bs's, commanders, plex's, etc. Ship skins are a good idea, but should expand on the manufacturing gameplay, not pop into existence via the NeX. All in game items, with the exception of plex should be derived from player actions in game.

Know what EvE is, attract EvE players, don't suffer from multiple personality disorder. MMO's as a whole are a dime a dozen these days, being niche is a GOOD THING :)

Keep focusing on what EvE is good at.

Pffft... No, I don't think of it as anything exclusive and don't really care about whether NEX is there or not. I just play with it since it is available, nothing more.

Nothing wrong with NEX, use it or do not. For some players it may very well add value to the game experience and for others, they may never even touch it but to not have it at all....that doesn't make sense.

I don't want to get rid of the items that currently NeX is supplying, nor the idea of WiS, or better character customization. I like the idea of all these things. However they should be obtained from gameplay, and like any other item in the game, anyone given enough isk could buy it from other players on the market. It's the NeX itself that I want gone, replaced by gameplay for those items / features.

…except that it steals away content from the normal industrial-economy cycle.
True, but I don't think they expected it to (in part) cause a loss of income in the order of $2–4 million.

Erm this is already the case, grind isk, buy plex, covert aurums.

Erm this is already the case, grind isk, buy plex, covert aurums.