Originally by: Silver Night

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Originally by: CCP Navigator

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A fairly critical note has passed testing and will be added to this expansion. This will be a change under Markest & Contracts and reads as follows:

Freeform contracts can no longer be created. This is due to griefing problems. You will still be able to view your completed freeform contracts for now but in an upcoming expansion older freeform contracts will be removed as well.

The new note has been added to the patch note listing.

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Really? What happened to a sandbox? I'll not disagree that there were problems with these contracts - since they were virtually never used for legitimate purposes - but was an improvement instead perhaps considered? A few simple UI changes to make it a little more clear what the contract was for? Perhaps a change to make these contracts private only, and a few other changes, and so make them a means of creating non-standard, enforceable agreements between individuals?

I personally never scam, however it is a legitimate part of the game which CCP seems to be removing one piece at a time. In six years I have also never been scammed myself, because it is not that hard to avoid. Simple reading comprehension in most cases. Which makes this move an undeniable case of 'dumbing down.' Is it perhaps a result of Plexs? That is, in the past, by the time you had enough money to be interesting to scammers, you had played long enough to avoid them. Now, a week old character buys a plex, falls for a scam, and whines in a petition?

Regardless of the underlying cause for the change, calling it 'Griefing' in particular is nasty precedent. Scamming is a legitimate means of making an income in Eve. I have, in the past, not been one of the people in the chorus of 'Eve is turning into WoW.' I had believed that CCP had a clear, fairly well defined idea of what sort of game this should be.

Moves like this, particularly when scamming (a legitimate game mechanic) is relabeled griefing, make me start to worry.

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