EVE Information Portal

The more i ponder this the more I am left with one bad feeling:

I pay for this game, a monthly fee of 10-15$ a month. The wonder of EvE is that at any moment I can lose everything that I have built up. However I am losing it to someone who is my equal - someone who has paid and built up their version of the game. So in a sense we are equals.

Now we are going to have a new class of folks, those that have invested nothing in to the game, paid not a nickle, and they potentially could have the same effect of destroying all that someone has built up and actually paid for. That to me does not seem 'fair'.

In every other MMO you don't lose your stuff when you die. You simply re spawn and move on, maybe pay a repair bill to take the damage out or refresh your armor. EvE is that unique and wondrous thing where dying has consequences.

Not that I should be stupid and carry everything in a T1 hauler, but there are those out there that do that. The more I think about it the more these accounts MUST be restricted in high sec. They cannot be allowed to gank, period.

I can justify dying to another sub, because we both have 'real isk', on the line. But dying to someone who has not paid a penny just simply does not seem fair.

I also have concerns about how they can be used in some of the war dec corps. Abuse of war dec to gain "ganking" access will be something CCP has to think long and hard about. We want newbro's to join corps, but to allow them to be abused by people who use VPN or other technologies and open up dozens of gank alts, this is where there is going to be a problem, I am not sure CCP has the technology or the staff levels to monitor and ensure that this is policed and does not become an issue.

I think those that wish to have the full pirate/gank experience should have to pay for it like I do. Failing to restrict these accounts from ganking will I believe be the nail in the coffin of this game, as many players I have spoken to are feeling this right now, we paid for a game, now someone can come in for 'free' and potentially destroy all that we have built, but never pay a cent or invest in EvE's future.

What I'm most worried about is the scenario where a pile of curious Alpha State newbies show up and are promptly sent running in tears for the exit by the terminally awful NPE and loudly telling all their friends not to bother with this impenetrable weird spreadsheet dressed as a game, as happened with previous influxes (This Is Eve, etc).

What is CCP doing to improve this situation?

CCP dev posted earlier that NPE will be getting an overhaul.

I was searching for the correct word to use, but kept coming back to fair.....I agree one of the greatest appeals of EvE is that you can lose everything. To some that is fantastic to the risk adverse its utter terror.

For me its more about having paid and invested in to something, only to now have to lose it to someone who has done nothing basically, except fit a kitty or thrasher which are the most basic of basics.

You sir are 100% correct SWTOR has become nothing but a meh game attached to a Pay Shop.

On Reddit, of course. No sense in making mention of it in the Dev Blog that's devoted to an idea to bring new players in, nor anywhere in the 30+ page thread it spawned.

Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/50hcpc/welcome_to_free_to_play_eve/d741gzt

A long-time player who's been unsubscribed could log back on to their existing character in the Alpha clone state and play the game that way for a while, reconnect socially, and maybe buy a PLEX in-game or pay for a subscription if something exciting happens or they decide it's worth it, and drop back to free play when things slow down for them.

A veteran player who's paying monthly now but has to take a month or two away from serious Eve play for personal reasons could end their subscription but still log on occasionally to stay involved, then resubscribe and be back where they had been when it makes sense.

A player who would love to keep playing but can't justify the subscription cost can drop back to Alpha status on their existing character and stay involved, remain connected with their corp, fly in fleets with their friends, and be under no pressure to grind out the ISK for a PLEX.

If clone states were just an extended trial, it wouldn't offer these options to veteran Eve players.

It is this that I support 100%. During the past year and half I have had 10 weeks of chemo and a bunch of other bloody awful things happen. I did unsub for a bit, and I truly missed those friend I had in game, not being able to just stop in and say hello etc.. I still had some I could text and stuff, but it was somehow not the same.

Now that I am partially better I have resubed, however should the need arise again I may have to unsub, now I can at least come back and say hello when I am able. That is a good thing I think.

this is why my friends and i use things like TS and even a FB page for our in game toons

In that case, however, the free-to-play mechanics came in AFTER the game was already headed downhill in a hurry, and that was entirely related to the lackluster design of the original game. It was basically a 4-player co-op game that attempted to also be an MMO and failed.

I think you guys are getting your causation mixed up. Yes, in the majority of cases where an MMO went free-to-play, it came in after a dramatic loss of players associated with bad design decisions, but that isn't the case here. EVE has experienced a slow decline in players primarily due to old veterans growing up and moving on with their lives, and more people deciding they don't want to get locked in to spending $15 a month for years to play a video game.

The whole thing of every reduction of the PCU count being as a result of CCP driving away their customers is bullshit. That's the same bullshit that was brought up before EVERY update this game has ever had even while it was expanding in player count year after year. As many people have pointed out before me, EVE Online is the game that has been dying and in it's last few months of life ever since it launched in 2003 if you believe the Forums.

Again, pointing out your concerns so they can be addressed is exactly what CCP has been requesting multiple times in each of these last two DevBlogs, but throwing around doom prophecies because you're scared of change isn't going to help anything.

Yes, when Skill Injectors were first announced, I had a STRONG knee-jerk reaction and thought it was a terrible idea. Then I took some time to think about how the idea was presented and how it would function and realized that it would actually have no impact whatsoever on my day-to-day experience and would be quite beneficial for others. Everyone here in this thread right now needs to give themselves the time to calm down and think rationally.