KFenn
Percussive Diplomacy
125
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Posted - 2011.10.06 22:13:00 -
[1] - Quote
This is what we want to see. Now if you follow through all will be well.
The biggest issue with EVE today is it's lost the one thing that truly separates it from other MMOs; a compelling player-driven story. EVE is more than a game; it's an interactive space opera. A few years ago the game was full of epic-scale conflicts, fraught with stories about espionage, betrayal, massive wars, alliances crumbling, constant power-shifts. No other game offers this experience; EVE is so grand in scope on the social level that's it's actually breathtaking. No other game has such high-level player interaction. No other game can generate such a huge amount of player-driven news, tales of bravery, intuition, foolishness and luck.
And then suddenly, it all stopped. The ridiculous imbalance of super capitals turned nullsec into a cold war, and made an alliance's power based on who had more, rather than who could come up with sound strategies, well FC'd fleets. The most notable example of this is the DRF moving into the north. They're famed for their incompetence in subcap fleets, but the DRF had more supers and the NC was powerless to resist them. Losing a fight because you were out-manoeuvred, out-played or out-strategized is fun. Losing a fight because of a broken game mechanic or imbalance is not.
The same is echoed everywhere else. PvP is becoming stagnant in lowsec because there's just no-one around. FW used to be fun but there's less and less active pilots everyday. FiS has had so little love recently that it's become stagnant and even PvP has lost its touch. Fighting always used to get my heart racing; that edge-of-the-seat feeling when you know you could easily die but you still had a chance of winning - going into a fight completely unsure of the outcome used to be such a rush. But now I'm becoming desensitized to it and it just doesn't produce the same feelings.
EVE is the only game that's ever had the ability to bring me to the extremes of emotions - the joy of first entering nullsec, getting my first Raven, my first PvP fleet back in the glory days of IAC, my first solokill in lowsec. The frustration of losing my first battleship, losing my first pirate implant close, every time I lose a fight that I was so close to winning... no other game can create such compelling experiences. But lately EVE has just stopped being as fun as it used to be. These experiences are few and far between, and it's slowly making me want to stop playing. I don't log in nearly as much as I used to because the tedium is completely unbearable.
EVE is a game that has always had unrealised potential, but it only really set in with Incarna. The expansion offered nothing in terms of gameplay, and it doesn't add nearly enough value to the game for the resources that have gone into it. If that time had been spent on spaceships then the game could be so much more and it's frustrating to think about.
Basically CCP, this is a sincere request from a long-term fan for you to not **** this up. For lack of a better word I love this explosion simulator/spreadsheet/epic space opera and I want to play it. I want the old tales that players would spend hours telling. I want to be enthralled, frustrated, angered, excited, scared, all the emotions EVE used to be able to produce, because the apathy that's replaced it just isn't fun.
- KFenn
P.S. Sorry for wall of text, kinda got a little caught up. 
Commanding Officer of the Treacle Tart Brigade
SLAPD Director |