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EVE Online: A study in internet spaceships and bad posts

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Posts

  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    transfers are likely only going to be to other low pop servers to try and buff them up

    PiptheFair on
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    but if you are defiant, sunrest the the PVP PA guild

    PiptheFair on
  • FandyienFandyien But Otto, what about us? Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    gay

    i really wanna raid but people are half incompetent half really stupid about segmenting the server population by guild

    rift servers are so much smaller then other games, everyone earns reputations way too fast at 50

    Fandyien on
    reposig.jpg
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Fandyien wrote: »
    gay

    i really wanna raid but people are half incompetent half really stupid about segmenting the server population by guild

    rift servers are so much smaller then other games, everyone earns reputations way too fast at 50

    high pop servers are still pretty big

    and how do you fail most fights are straight up dps tests or spank and tanks jesus christ

    PiptheFair on
  • FandyienFandyien But Otto, what about us? Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    PiptheFair wrote: »
    Fandyien wrote: »
    gay

    i really wanna raid but people are half incompetent half really stupid about segmenting the server population by guild

    rift servers are so much smaller then other games, everyone earns reputations way too fast at 50

    high pop servers are still pretty big

    and how do you fail most fights are straight up dps tests or spank and tanks jesus christ

    because the guild i was running it with straight up refused to bring like a dozen good players because of their guild affiliation choosing instead to bring shitheads from their guild

    we couldn't even get to baron

    -_-

    Fandyien on
    reposig.jpg
  • Mortal SkyMortal Sky queer punk hedge witchRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    ugh fuck

    I got the free five days and they ended up being super busy

    and this is the last day for the $20 three month offer

    what do I do, because fuck I wanna play EVE but I need a guarantee that I'll get into 0.0 first because fuck being a pubbie for three months

    Mortal Sky on
  • DruhimDruhim Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited June 2011
    wait, where is this 3 months for $20 deal?

    Druhim on
    belruelotterav-1.jpg
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    3 month for 20 deal what

    PiptheFair on
  • Rawkking GoodguyRawkking Goodguy Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    It's a discount on game-time only available to people who receive the 5-day free reactivation offer, basically to snare you back into the game.

    Also to Mortal Sky, sometimes if you click the link you receive you can still get that three-day reactivation even when it "expired". CCP generally won't let a day or two keep you from hooking you into giving them your moneys. I know I've used that deal a couple days late before.

    I've reactivated my account after spying on the corp me and my RL buddies tried to run for a few years and am now interested in spying on Merch. Probably a long shot since I don't know anyone currently in corp quite well enough to get a sponsorship (Baidol you clearly know from having participated in two phallas with me that I can be trusted with everything ever, right?) but might as well send Random a PM.

    Rawkking Goodguy on
  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    You actually have posts on the forums, which already puts you a step ahead of some of our more famous members.

    Baidol on
    Steam Overwatch: Baidol#1957
  • Rawkking GoodguyRawkking Goodguy Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    I certainly have a pretty rad post history, but I can appreciate the level of paranoia corp leaders have to have in this game.

    We shall see, I suppose.

    Rawkking Goodguy on
  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    What I'm saying here is that you're overqualified.

    Baidol on
    Steam Overwatch: Baidol#1957
  • FirmSkaterFirmSkater Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    You have 3,000 posts. I'm fairly certain you will be accepted to the corp. Just follow the instructions

    FirmSkater on
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  • PharezonPharezon Struggle is an illusion. Victory is in the Qun.Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Gonna get into this game, this time. I'll do it.

    Pharezon on
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  • MugginsMuggins Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    No you won't

    You won't do it.

    Muggins on
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    hey satan...: thinkgeek amazon My post |
  • Rawkking GoodguyRawkking Goodguy Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Mortal Sky wrote: »
    ugh fuck

    I got the free five days and they ended up being super busy

    and this is the last day for the $20 three month offer

    what do I do, because fuck I wanna play EVE but I need a guarantee that I'll get into 0.0 first because fuck being a pubbie for three months

    To revisit my earlier point tonight I just resubbed with the (actually $20 for two months) offer, well after the offer allegedly "expired".

    And yeah I was a silly about my chances of getting into MerchI, in corp and in deklein now.

    Rawkking Goodguy on
  • DrIanMalcolmDrIanMalcolm Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    DrIanMalcolm on
  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    So much hilarity from this.

    Actually, I'm just going to crosspost this to give context as to what is going on
    france_riots.jpg
    imagine there's a monocle in the car

    CEO Update: :ccp:

    It's been a busy few days. You may have noticed: EVE is on fire and reeling, and not in the fun "we're at war and having space battles wheeee!!!" sense - though there are space battles taking place - but in the slightly more hysterical yet increasingly real "holy shit, CCP seems hellbent on becoming the next Sony" situation.

    What The Fuck Has Happened?

    First, some context. Within the course of about two weeks, CCP stunned the playerbase with a series of hijinks. First was the Golden Scorpion controversy, which CCP climbed down from - using AUR to buy a Scorpion with a golden paintjob from the ether. Then there was the $99 Monetization scandal, where CCP announced that they wanted a hundred bucks a year for "3rd Party Apps" which might also include fansites. Again, CCP climbed down in the face of howls of protest. The Alliance Tournament Final ended up rigged, which wasn't CCP's fault but infuriated many of the viewers (I thought it was funny, but w/e). Then Incarna was released with $70 Monocles, and EN24 leaked the Greed Is Good CCP internal newsletter, which showcased their apparent love of all things microtransaction.

    The real controversy, of course, is not the silliness of a $70 monocle, though that does seem to indicate the venality and greed of the CCP higher-ups to many players. The controversy is the shadow lurking behind the monocle, hinted at in the Greed is Good newsletter: gold in the sandbox, a "pay to win" gold-ammo situation in EVE. Pay to Win is common enough in Free to Play MMOs, and quite profitable, but the fear among players is that CCP is trying to meld both subscription and FtP revenue models into an especially shitty, expensive product.

    A product that allegedly is busy melting down ATI video cards. :cripes:

    So hot on the heels of Greed is Good, CCP posted an absolutely comical "please be nice to us" thread on eve-o, which has become the largest threadnaught in history. This went about as well as could be expected; reports of mass-unsubbings became rampant.

    In order to try to staunch the bleeding, CCP Zulu posted a devblog which has now famously equated virtual widgets with real-life goods. PC Gamer has picked up on this blog, and not in a good way. The tone of the blog and the follow up post, which amounts to 'shut up ugh :colbert:' is readily apparent.

    Meanwhile, Jita, Amarr and other hubs have been brought to virtual shutdown by 'protests' of pubbies shooting statues and overloading the nodes while howling for CCP's blood, mad about the NeX, the Captains Quarters, Incarna sucking, the spectre of gold ammo, or just setting things on fire for the sheer primal joy of watching everything burn.

    And to think, it gets worse!

    Last night, while I was on Eve Radio discussing the unfolding crisis with some other CSMs, another leak broke: a global email sent from Hilmar, CCP's CEO, congratulating the company on the 'successful launch' of Incarna and selling a whopping 52 Monocles. Most froth-inducing was the statement that:

    "Currently we are seeing _very predictable feedback_ on what we are doing. Having the perspective of having done this for a decade, I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what our players do and less of what they say. Innovation takes time to set in and the predictable reaction is always to resist change."

    So that went well. CCP appears to be leaking like a sieve. Given the recent authenticated reviews of the company that have popped up on Glassdoor during the past month, that's not a surprise.

    What's happened here is a whole nexus of rage from many corners of the playerbase was ignited by one catalyst. Some are angry that Incarna has no real content for veteran players. Some are angry about NeX vanity items being too expensive; some are angry that NeX exists at all. Most appear to be horrified by the lurking shadow of Pay to Win, and just about everyone is pissed off at the dismissive, condescending and money-hungry attitudes displayed in the CCP newsletter, the Hilmar email, and the damage control devblogs.


    Why Do We Give A Shit?

    I and the rest of the CSM have been extremely blunt in our demands that CCP issue a formal disavowal of 'gold ammo', non-vanity microtransactions, or otherwise bleeding gold into the sandbox of EVE. My impression is that a quick "Look, the monocles are expensive, but we're not doing gold ammo" would have ended this crisis days ago and CCP wouldn't be down at least 2500 accounts. The fact that CCP has remained silent on the issue is increasingly being taken to imply what everyone fears - that a company which would without irony charge $70 for a space monocle will issue $250 i-win lasers.

    A few years ago, we saw the impact that 'oligarchs' had on the nullsec metagame, when Red Overlord had SerLordex spend a hundred thousand dollars on Eve Online, A Bad Game. The kind of economic distortion that would come from a legalized and pervasive 'gold ammo' style of gameplay would mean that, in order to stay competitive, every PvP entity would be obliged to acquire and use gameplay-enhancing gold items or suffer for their austerity. Perhaps some of you think that 'Pay to Win' is acceptable in a competitive subscription MMO; I do not.
    evesubs.png


    What The Fuck Were They Thinking?

    This is my impression of what happened, not based on any NDA information or CSM Secret Squirrel shit.

    CCP's Virtual Goods store tried to imitate the business concept of Starbucks. The great Starbucks trick was coming up with a fancy setting and bourgie babby coffee shops, changing the environment of 'buying coffee' enough that the consumer was willing to pay $4 for a cup of coffee where previously he would buy the same drink at Dunkin Donuts for a $1.

    Reading Zulu's blog where he emphasizes that EVE is a 'premium experience' and references designer jeans, it seems like the CCP Marketing department hoped to do the same thing. EVE is so special and spiffy and cool, you see, that in EVE you're not buying a hat for a dollar or two like in Team Fortress, or an entire wardrobe in Star Trek Online for seven bucks. Those games are Dunkin Donuts. EVE is Starbucks - it's just so different that you'll buy ~virtual goods~ that are almost ten times the prices of comparable MMOs.

    The problem, of course, is that EVE is a broken game. The ship balance is terrible, nullsec desperately needs a revamp, the PvE is laughable, and playing without goons is like stabbing yourself in the balls over and over again. EVE is not a 'premium experience' as it currently stands - particularly if your ATI video card just overheated and died when you tried to load your Captain's Quarters.

    So it flopped. CCP tried to distinguish EVE from other MMOs in terms of microtransaction pricing, and now people are running around in lynch mobs wardeccing and blowing up anyone who's actually bought something from the NeX. Selling a virtual shirt that costs more than the real shirts in your own company's store was probably not the suavest move, either.


    Where Could This Go?

    Rumors indicate that ~5000 unsubs have occurred already; there is already significant media blowback over the Monocle, the protests and the CEO letter, with the gaming press unilaterally taking the side of the outraged playerbase. Unless CCP deploys effective damage control and takes charge of the situation, the risk is that the game itself could see an exodus and abrupt subscriber deflation. Meanwhile, a number of 'famous players' such as Ombey, Helicity Boson and Lallante have loudly thrown in the towel and are playing Perpetuum or Tanks or whatever. These people may be pubbie fucks that we don't care about, but many other pubbie fucks follow them as they are ~opinion leaders~.

    Even without the head-up-ass public relations crisis, the Incarna release doesn't look good for CCP. Usually an expansion results in a huge activity spike in subs and online users. While we don't have access to subs information, anyone can chart the downward slope in average users online since January 2011.

    While in nullsec we have ties to this game that are primarily social and competitive, Joe Pubbie just wants to spin his CNR in a mission hub; there's not much holding the 80% of the Empire subscribers in this game, should there be an obvious stampede towards the exits. And if they do, the economy of the EVE goes into the shitter overnight, CCP's planned 'revenue stream' to fund DUST and WoD vanishes - which will make them even more eager to extract capital from what players remain in the game - and the media has a field day making Horse Armor and SWG:NGE jokes. That's the Doomsday Scenario.

    Baidol on
    Steam Overwatch: Baidol#1957
  • QuestionMarkManQuestionMarkMan Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    As someone who has tried to play this multiple times, I am loving all of this

    QuestionMarkMan on
  • OwenashiOwenashi Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    So wait, people are protesting in-game over having to spend money on avatar clothes and other items? Isn't this the same sort of thing other MMOs (RPG or otherwise) do?

    Owenashi on
  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Depends on who you talk to. What we take issue with is the possibility that CCP intends, as implied in their "Greed is Good" document, to put up useful items (such as improved weapons or ammo) for sale using this system, thus making the game "Pay to Win".

    Baidol on
    Steam Overwatch: Baidol#1957
  • OwenashiOwenashi Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Ah, I can see why that would suck. They haven't set up anything similar to that system where you can use in-game cash to buy time in the game?

    Owenashi on
  • Bendery It Like BeckhamBendery It Like Beckham Hopeless Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Welp, I canceled my sub, I have an awful ATI card and if I can barely play before incarna, no sense trying to play after incarna.

    Bendery It Like Beckham on
  • DarmakDarmak RAGE vympyvvhyc vyctyvyRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    I love that graph, both the old and the new version.

    Darmak on
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  • BaidolBaidol I will hold him off Escape while you canRegistered User regular
    edited June 2011
    Owenashi wrote: »
    Ah, I can see why that would suck. They haven't set up anything similar to that system where you can use in-game cash to buy time in the game?

    There is.

    For $15 dollars you can purchase a PLEX worth 30 days gametime. This PLEX can be sold in-game for isk. Essentially providing a legal method for the purchasing of isk in the game using cash. Using the plex/cash conversion is where the $60 for the monocle comes from.

    The difference between paying for gametime and paying for isk is that, with sufficient cash, you could imagine instantaneously creating entire fleets from nothing equipped with fittings that outclass anything that can be fielded using normal means.

    Baidol on
    Steam Overwatch: Baidol#1957
  • Just_Bri_ThanksJust_Bri_Thanks Seething with rage from a handbasket.Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited June 2011
    To be more correct, trading the PLEX for isk means you have to buy things that already exist in the game environment. As an example, you can buy lots of plex, trade it for isk and then use that isk to buy a titan that someone in game spent the time to build. That titan is baller, but it is no better than anyone else's titan.

    Trading plex for AUR is where things are created from the ether. Once you trade a plex for AUR then you can only use that AUR in the NeX store (cash shop). You can then turn around and sell those NeX bought items in game for isk if you wanted to.

    The thing about AUR is that there are no supply lines or production facilities to disrupt, as well as the concept that these NeX purchased items may very well throw game balance out the window. How would you like to fight peeps that just trade real money for instantly created ships, weapons, and amo that are better than anything you can get in game without also resorting to Plex-for-Aur conversions as well?

    I'm not into that.

    Edit: No one really give a crap about the horribly expensive cash shop clothes. I mean, they would love to shoot you if you set yourself apart by wearing them, but Eve players need little excuse to primary someone anyway. It is the inclination towards 1337 equips that have people in a rabid seizure.

    Just_Bri_Thanks on
    ...and when you are done with that; take a folding
    chair to Creation and then suplex the Void.
  • PiptheFairPiptheFair Frequently not in boats. Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
  • B_RB_R Registered User regular
    edited June 2011
    SA needs to do a weekend web episode on the eve online forums.

    B_R on
  • DruhimDruhim Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited June 2011
    SA needs to crawl up its own asshole.

    Druhim on
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