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I doubt too many players older than say, 3 months will be using this extensively for their mains as the amount of SP added will be small.

For example, if I were to take a 500,000 SP packet and add it to my main, I'd only get 50,000 SP to allocate. To add 1,000,000 SP I'd have to buy 10,000,000 SP (i.e. 20 SP packets)!

What I would do is set up an alt perpetually training AWU V and draining those SP and using the resulting ISK to PLEX that account. I'd use all the alts on that account to do PI, and I'd buy enough SP to get a third AFKtar pilot in the anomalies.

Which is why I oppose this, it will be a substantial benefit to me, to new players I'm not so sure.

"as evidenced by the 70 or so character transfers that happen every day,"

70 per day, not month :)

~25550 per year.

To be able to understand where we are going to, we firstly need to be aware where we are coming from. This is crucial for CCP as well :)


Eve did not become what it is by being easy, simple to understand game for everyone. Being niche game since the start, with a lot of unique features it also differentiated from the other MMORPGs by being very harsh. Only game for a long time where you can actually lose everything you worked on for months. The mistakes were expensive. Be it loss of isk, sp, trust etc.

There were always a lot of new players coming to it, but majority did not stick. They were not "strong" enough. Eve was elitist game, challenge which most of casual, average players could not accept. By not being simple to understand it also demanded players who could actually think and understand, making it mostly kids free, the community was way better than other MMORPGs. So only those who felt they are ready for that challenge would actually stay and fight. In space no one can hear you scream...

As such game, it developed itself and grew on marketing which pointed that out. People were not coming after reading that someone mined yearly record of arkanor (okay maybe some did even for that :D) but majority came when they read that Istvaan Shogaatsu and GHSC made impressive scam, that some corp name m0o killed unique ship, that pirates are terrorizing players, there is that guy Tank CEO that no one can kill, alliance and corporations waging wars and inflicting heavy loses to others, market wars causing people become rich or lose everything, tycoons paying for wars, yulai incident where players had to be "taken out" by GMs etc. People came because there was a lot of adrenaline connected to the game, they wanted to experience it, they wanted to see if they are up to the challenge. Some were and they stayed, some were not and they left.

For all those years, majority did not complain about having to spend time to get sp, isk etc, and to remind you it was much harded than nowadays. Everyone was fighting for its own place in the universe. Kind of like RL, for most of the people it is hard, majority just whines but there are people who take control of their lives and fight to make it the best possible. Such were the players in the EVE compared to other MMORPGs.

And the game was growing and there was pain everywhere. Be it pain of hard work, waiting to finish something or pain being inflicted by others :D People were creating interesting content for buzz and the stories about that content attracted more players who did not want just instant action, they wanted to become part of the stories or to even create them, lead them. CCP from their side added more content in terms of items, ships etc. I would dare to say even faster than needed, but that is something which is hard to measure. Though it did create side effect of players always pushing for more of items and pushing to have them faster.

Meanwhile CCP started making mistakes. Listening to wrong suggestions. Making the game easier.

First important mistake was API, enabling killboards. Killboards have pushed a lot of people from having fun to "caring about stats" mode. Before the killboards people were ready to fight for fun, after them lots of people started fighting only if they think they can win or if they have no option to avoid it. You can negate this as much as you want but as someone living in PF-346 for years (stationed in FD-MLJ), system where people always headed to in order to have fights as there was always someone ready for it in there, we have witnessed a serious drop of regular activity and big increase in blobs. And I am quite sure that happened across the whole universe. That is something which has stopped never since. People playing for stats, boosting their ego with them, regardless if they had real skills or not.

CCP wanted more and more players, which is of course understandable. But they have taken the wrong direction. They have started to make game easier thinking that will keep existing and attract new players. And it surely worked on some. But they did not stay for long. Why? Because by making it easier, mainly by making easier to earn isk, they have enabled players to get bored faster. Players easily earn tons of isk, buy better chars in order to fasten up accomplishing their aims and having isk to buy any ships they have desired. When you earn something easily, you are prone to spend it easily as well. That way they did not really "bond" with their chars and their own accomplishments, but they simply jumped from one to another with higher sp just to speed up the game and achieve what they want. And what after that? Boredom and quitting obviously, some due to reaching their "targets", some because they were burned out in "must make tons of isk" process.

This is something that has been brought up by vets numerous times. They saw where it is heading to. Still, most called it "jealousy" without realizing that anything you enable for new players works for old ones as well. Maybe even better since they have more experience and knowledge to utilize it.

Over the time CCP has made it easier and easier for new players. Yet they have failed to keep the numbers of all newcomers. Beside those who have quit due to fast reaching of "endgame" by having xyz mil sp or having trillions of isk, titans, faction fitted ships I am sure a lot has quite due to "hard game with no content for new players" reason. Which is utter bullsh*t and let me explain you why in the next post.

No matter do we talk about "good old times" for new players it has been quite similar. Start with a small frig. Develop char, earn isk, move in the direction you want to. It worked fine for plenty. It could not work for all as EVE is quite niche game, not something majority of gamers are used to.

They want content and ask for it. Well guess what, EVE is full of content, you just need to go for it. But they are lazy, they want it on the plate. They think content is only in the video clips they saw where capital fleets are fighting, or in trillions of isk. One of the simplest examples are goons. Not just a one player but a whole corp/alliance, so it is not a single exception for example.

They have started as everyone else. But they were pro active, they have organized themselves and they have started flying around the universe in the "noob" ships challenging even the strongest powerhouses. Some, shallow people considered them a joke as they did not have millions of sp or trillions of isk. But they had the most important thing needed to succeed in eve - dedication. Willingness to put effort and time and make their dreams come true. From being a joke they became "annoyance" and after that they became a problem. Then they became a serious problem. And you see where they are now.

Did they had fun on the way to their current position. I am sure they have had sh*tloads. Did they have hard times? Of course, EVE is full of that. But they have committed to their aims and lived up to their expectations. They have created not just their own fun but content for whole universe. They were not lazy and did not have to wait up for anything. They acted.

While personally I never liked them too much as they had too much smacktalk and spam following them and that is something I really dislike, one cannot negate their success. Nowadays I guess they are bored, but that is part of every powerhouse lifespan. At that point their either disband or the new challenger appears.

They have created their empire from a scratch, long after thousands of vets were already in the game. So their enemies had more sp, more isk, more knowledge. Did it stop them? No.

Who is stopped by that? Whiners, losers, lazy asses. People who want everything on the plate. EVE is simply not a game for them.

They are just one of the examples of players/corps who did it that way. And there are plenty more. Majority of the people actually enjoyed the game sine the start.

At every single point since the game went live there were players who had advantage compared to others. Even on day 1. Since there were thousands of players from beta, who already knew how to play eve. Did it stop others from doing it and having fun? Nope. If you want it, you can easily have it in any stage of the game.

Everything else are excuses. So man the f*ck up or quit. This is game for people who are ready for challenges.

The part of guilt is on CCP as well. Beside the mentioned isk earning they have made mistakes in their presentations. I am sure that plenty of people would sign up when they see clips or read stories about epic supercap battles and such. But majority of them comes with false impression that they just need to sign up and be able to take part in such. After first disappointment, when they find that they actually need some time and efforts to get to there, some quit and a lot of them continues to play until they realize how much exactly they need to commit. It does take them some time as the society keeps spreading "only the start is slow and hard" mantra. Which is not correct and I am sure you all are aware of it. Then they whine that the game is too hard and quit. And CCP mistakenly takes that in consideration without identifying the key problem being the wrong perspective those players had when joining.

The same will be with this new suggested system. First I really doubt many new players will do since not much people is ready to spend 50-100$ in addition to subscription to have turbo start. Even those who do it in order to "jump over the starting, boring period" will soon realize the slow ways of eve development. Some of them will quit, some will go earn isk and head to character bazaar, trying to get something out of the game. In previous post I have already mentioned the process which happens after that and leads to their quitting. Not for everyone of course but for majority.

None of them "cheats" eve. They cheat themselves thinking that that way they will find fun. Majority wont as they still wont have it on the plate. Some people who know what they are doing will actually make it to get over some obstacles, but they are in smaller numbers and they are all aware how much more effort they have to push in to get involved in everything that waits for them somewhere.

What CCP should do is to send much clearer message in their marketing activities. They have to realize what a niche we have here and that it cannot attract everyone. They have to call out for the target group. Ship explosions, market wars, huge fleets, roleplaying etc, all that can look impressive, but the message has to state clear challenge in order to be sure that those who are up for it come. Daring ones. As they will stay, they will have impact on politics, wars etc. They will be ready to put needed efforts as they will want to succeed and live up to the challenge. Everyone is welcome to come and try of course, but hardcore gamers are what is needed to continue with EVE as it is.

Other option is to keep making it easier, until you get on CS gungame level. You already have singularity. As if the new players were so interested in having everything "unlocked" it would be full all the time, they would not need to login to tranquility :) But in the most cases actual people there are vets, testing stuff and as usual, going extra mile to be able to do their best on tranquility. Though on this one I have to say that I don`t know if sisi is alive.

holy batman...

yeah, i'll read that later. it's midnight local time and i'm heading off now... but i will read it, just not right now.

I do not see how this affects my argument. If there is any limit, it more likely would be the skill point cap per character. This will increase over time tough.

AFK money could potentially buy up any amount of SP that a single character can hold. So this time it would not be like taking away learning skills. Now any moneysack can join EVE. Join an alliance and profit from their soft skills instantly. Buy up SP and ISK to the maximum and profit instantly. Monetary and Social skills win. AKA pay to win. Just the possibility that one character is getting maxed out this way, degrades the very idea of accumulating SP over time. So I am asking again. What is left?

I was merely pointing out, that I would like to read something more concrete.

I hope this is to your liking.

Even though SP must be extracted to be packaged and sold, it will always be readily available to anyone who wants it.

Whoops thanks, thought it was a monthly number.