EVE General Discussion

Speaking from personal experience here, a player drop during the warmer months seems to be fairly typical.

For the longest time (when I was a broke teen/college student) I would typically only have the money (and attention span) to play during Winter/Spring when it was still too cold to do stuff outside.

I'm very rarely subscribed for more than 6 months out of the year.

This isn't just something you see in EVE though, other MMOs like WoW always have a large player base spike after new content releases, which typically happen in Q4 or Q1.

In the months between major content releases player numbers inevitably drop as the once shiny and new thing has now lost its luster.

Shhhhhh... How are you still crying about that? It was the addition of a switch to turn off a dumb and redundant corp feature. Get over it.

Don't forget all the other things that were predicted to do the same thing. It's basically wishful thinking combined with a misunderstanding of the idea of comparability.

People who are compatible with the kind of experience EVE is are going to play the game despite it's flaws (this includes most of us who currently play) and thus "more safety/ease/better npe" is wasted on that type. The kinds of people who are fundamentally incompatible with the game are incompatible for profound personal reasons, and no amount of tinkering with the NPE, ease of the game, or safety is going to entice them to stay.

For example, last year a buddy of mine returned to the game and brought with him 4 friends from some browser based game he played. 2 played for a bit and quit saying EVE wasn't their kind of game (understandable, they were brothers and like faster paced games they could pay quickly because both had wives and kids)). The 3rd is still playing and fell in love with FW.

The 4th played for a while longer than the 1st 2, but he complained the entire time. He didn't like how when you blew up you lost your stuff. Couldn't stand how the skill system was time based because "skills should increase by me using them". There was simply nothing EVE could have don't to keep him without a major gameplay overhaul, even then I doubt he would have stayed.

Some people want to think there is some kind of easy thing or things CCP can do to EVE to get more people to play, but there isn't. EVE is a polarizing experience with very little middle ground which is part of the reason it's so awesome for some of us.

This is true, which means that if a person is one who needs "a sense of progression" based on skilling, that's an incompatibility that they have with the game. Some people over come that, others continue to dislike it but play anyways, while others can't overcome their dislike and leave.

Personally, I never cared for that "skilling up" thing other MMOs had, I remember reaching a level in WoW where I could turn into a bear and it was cool for like 5 minutes then I got bored with it. Same in other games, it doesn't "do anything" for me like it does for others, which is one reason why I don't care for traditional MMOs but do like EVE. EVE doesn't make me feel like a hamster in a wheel trying to get some cheese ie the next level, it says "make your own goal, don't count on me to throw artificial goals at you".

That's why I'm compatible with EVE and was incompatible with WoW. One of the reasons anyways. And i think lots of people are like that, which is why all the ideas people (and CCP) have about 'growing the community' tend to fail.

Lucas, they don't look like tears to me. That looks more like an indifferent, you got it wrong post.

I'm sure they'll come back. Reputation these days is overrated anyway.

Looking at the eve status monitor, it looks like the average has been sitting at 20k for months. Summer is over, and the on-line player count is not rebounding.

Makes me think CCP could be doing something better trying to get these new "don't know what i'm doing" players into the game. Maybe a CCP sponsored newbie corp, readily available with a 1- 2 week limit schooling program about basics, which could be much better then any tutorials or opportunity system. After that period, a referral program to affiliated newbie friendly corps based on favorite actvities.

CCP knows how many trials go up in smoke, and how many get subbed and unsubbed after a month or 2. Maybe not that many, maybe they're just happy with the current state of the game, and don't really care much about how thick that smoke gets.

For better and for worse, maybe they're more interested in having most of the game's player base be veterans? That would be interesting.

Or it could be that ex players that go on to new games tell potensial new eve players that this game is atm mostly filled with griefers, gankers, bumpers and god knows what else in what should be high security space. And that they will lose a months worth of isk in a heartbeat if they the do even a minor mistake.

Face it, this game has lost a ton of subs, and from looking at stats it seems high sec players are the ones that has left. And its ppl like you that's responsible for a big part of that. But go on, do tell me how fun it is to gank miners and haulers for no reason what so ever, and please tell me how much it benefits CCP at the same time.

"Should be high security space"? It is high security space, high being a RELATIVE terms. CONCORD doesn't come help you anywhere but high sec. High does not mean absolute, and if anyone (new player or not) can't understand that, that is their problem.

And if someone is flying something worth "a months worth of isk" and get blown up, that's how yout each people not to fly something that is worth that much if they don't want to lose it. God forbid a game that has mechanics to require you to think and be a little bit responsible for your choices and actions.

The funny thing is that when CCP looked into the question, they found zero indication that "gankers" had a negative effect on retention. What si way more likely is that people are discouraged by all the fear mongering and nay-saying they get in high sec by people like you that is more likely a cause of people quitting.



There is no such thing is "no reason" in a video game. you do realize you are playing a video game where people have guns right?

People like you amaze me.