cyndrogen
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Posted - 2011.04.11 19:30:00 -
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Originally by: Akita T Edited by: Akita T on 10/04/2011 14:06:22
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We're patient. We can wait. We want quality.
We don't care about your so-called market research that tells you rushed and unpolished new features would sell better than older, sturdy, polished content. That might be the case for WoW clones, BUT NOT FOR EVE. You had some major dips in subscription counts after each new expansion lately, and those were the expansions with heavy-duty advertising and plenty of "new features" (which didn't quite work right, and most of them still don't). Overall, on average, the subscriber count slope didn't get steeper. In fact, one could argue you have been losing momentum.
Save your money that you spend on advertising, word of mouth got you your userbase, word of mouth WILL KEEP getting you a larger userbase. Customers you get from "shiny new stuff" (that doesn't actually work properly anyway) won't stay long enough, and by the time you pumped everything full of barely functional junk, you will have alienated a big portion of the user base.
Didn't the last fanfest reactions tell you WHAT the userbase wants ? Didn't you hear the cheers after the announcement of MINOR polish stuff ?
Learn from your mistakes, CCP. It's not too late to alter this self-destructive new policy. STOP RUSHING OUT UNPOLISHED JUNK AND FOCUS ON FIXING WHAT'S BROKEN BEFORE PROCEEDING.
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This goes BEYOND the "commitment to excellence", it's actually a plea to whoever inside CCP has eyes to see and ears to listen. You need to try and convince your boss to convince your boss and so on and so forth. As long as the mindset amongst CCP's leadership is that "shiny junk sells, old polish doesn't", the EVE vision of future will end up a resounding flop.
Take a look at sales charts, spank some accountants, DO SOMETHING, just stop this madness.
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Originally by: Vaerah Vahrokha Here's my MS Paint approximation about the next months in EvE's subscriptions market, even if CCP changed their ways and approach to quality (players discontent inertia):
http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/2381/futuresubsu.jpg
As you can see the trend is exhausting (increasing volatility on the upper graph). The yellow lines show the slope changes in the "123 zig zag", the cyan are some areas of support or resistance. and getting more "whipsawing" which is another sign of trend exhaustion. This trend will peak either at the current high or a next lower high (not drawn) then there will be a sharp drop down to the lower support. It will break because we will be in summer (low subs period of the year) and an even sharper drop will happen. After a rebounce (typical bottom W formation), IF CCP changed their ways, they will slowly begin rising up (red line). If they stay as is, we'll see a further drop (blue line) to dynamic support and then who knows.
The user base may be patient but I doubt that the people who hold CCP by the balls will be as understanding.
Iceland is all but bankrupt, their three major banks have enslaved the people of Iceland by borrowing and reaching FAR beyond their GDP. CCP has to increase their use base and show they are successful even if the game is rotting from the inside. Just keep painting over the dead wood and hope no one notices.
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