Ban Bindy
Bindy Brothers Pottery Association
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Posted - 2012.05.27 13:14:00 -
[1] - Quote
Quote:
From 2006 to 2008 the game had a steady gradual increase of active players. During the whole year of 2008 that amount leveled off. In the first half of 2009 there was quick growth, then in the middle of 2009 there was a huge drop that leveled out for 6 months. That is the longest stretch of time with a steady low amount of players making it the low base reference point ..Since then, growth has been sporadic and short term followed by a large initial drop and a long steady decrease in player numbers each time. The current amount of active players now online is less than what it was in the middle of 2009.
Also back in the early years it was indeed much safer due to the low amount of active players online. I will agree with you on one point, this game has definitely become "an overpopulated cesspool of cowardly, over-entitled, self-proclaimed sperglords" who think suicide ganking a bunch of Industrial ships makes them elite PvP's.
CCP perpetuates the myth that the player base continually grows in order to appear healthier than it is. Supposedly there are 400k subs now, even though the online numbers have been declining for a while. It's good to see real data to confirm the trend downward. Given all the free subscription deals that CCP uses, I don't doubt that the number of subs is higher. But Eve has never been good at retaining new players. In my old corp we had to recruit 5 newbie players for every 1 that we kept.
The fake hatred of miners is all about justifying ganking as real PVP, when it isn't. There is an adrenaline rush that comes with harming a real player, and ganker types become addicted to that. But if the only thing that satisfies you in the game is that adrenaline, then you're basically after a game experience that's more like a drug high than anything real.
The whole concept of MMOs is getting tested by the fact that they're all aging and having a hard time keeping players interested. Eve has found a couple of formulas that work but they are at war with each other. The PVP sandbox and the industrialist sandbox are in conflict with each other. Too many people on the forums think that it's only the PVP possibilities that keep people in the game, but a lot of people play Eve long term for the complex economy and the intricacy of making things. Those people are being driven out of the game by the miner jihad mentality. |