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Dr BattleSmith
PAX Interstellar Services
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Posted - 2010.07.13 03:37:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Dr BattleSmith on 13/07/2010 03:38:13
You have built a wonderful company that functions in an amazing way and for a long time has filled a great many
with confidence in your abilities to persist through thick and thin.
CCP has been a shinning light in the games development community, I hold CCP in high regard when it comes many
areas of your operation. For example with deployment CCP does an amazing job, apart from mess-ups like boot.ini
the manner in which CCP manages to deploy software is admirable, even when compared to companies like Microsoft.
However it is becoming apparent that Eve is quickly approaching it's moment of truth. This time comes for all MMO
games, unless dealt with openly and with vigor by the developers, the result is often a mass exodus within short order.
Hilmar, we need your hands on the tiller now, more then ever, with strong leadership your company can avoid the coming storm.
Some of the problems:
* CCP is fixated on tangential products
DUST is a risky venture no doubt. The diversity it could bring would be good insurance policy against Eve collapse
however being a console FPS game this is not the most solid of footing to build on. Eve Online is much more solid
with much more of a future then DUST can ever have. Eve Online also has existing customers who are happy to keep
paying as long as they are delivered fixes and improvements to existing features within reasonable timeframes.
There is a rush to get these products to market before the market shifts and both Eve and DUST become lost to history.
This rush to market is adversely effecting Eve development to a starkly noticeable level by the average Eve subscribers.
One of Eve Onlines major selling points is that it's a game for which the developer, has in the past, been closely involved
in making it better rather then moving onto other projects. The CCP past mantra of excellence has helped create a very
strong product that could survive any kind of external pressure based simply on it's customer loyalty.
CCP seem to be chasing stability through diversity while ignoring the stability that their loyal customer base provide.
Eve was in a position where no game could ever de-throne it. For example Codemasters (one of the worst game dev
companies ever) would have zero chance of hurting a CCP at it's height of excellence.
However if CCP throw away all of the customer loyalty through continued failed expansions that deliver nothing but shinny,
continuing to ignore bugs and issues that effect a large proportion of the player base. Then the diversity gained with DUST
will be for naught as players will already have lost faith and any competitor at this stage has an easy time enticing away
long-standing CCP customers.
How long are your willing to stretch out DUST development at the expensive of Eve Online customer loyalty?
How many unhappy customers is this next product worth to CCP?
Will you ever regain the foothold you've lost by neglecting Eve Online for so long?
How much longer will your neglect Eve Online? A year? two?
* Developers are isolating themselves from the community and ignoring problems brought up by users,
even after release when they become major inescapable issues.
Many of the failures of the recent expansion were discussed in detail by users during testing, however none of the critical
changes suggested were included and release was not delayed to ensure a functioning product resulted.
CCP were made fully aware of the contacts folders, limits, standings, and other issues before launch.
They were also informed about the general disgust in the community over the click-sink included with PI.
These issues were ignored in favour of meeting the deadline with yet another disappointing product.
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Dr BattleSmith
PAX Interstellar Services
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Posted - 2010.07.13 03:42:00 -
[2]
Then you have things like Faction War and the head developer stating with some angst that they have no interest in ever finishing it.
Hearing that I personally was disgusted and a lot of good faith was lost. Remember how much hype was spent on Faction War?
What was the marketing budge for Faction War? What was the fix budget?
Hilmar, please talk to the actual devs and not just the team-leaders, it seems you're being isolated from reality by them a little.
* Is PLEX killing Eve?
I personally still pay for subscriptions but I imagine there are a great many who play with PLEX.
Does this mean your company is forced to chase new subscribers via hyped expansions to gain cash-flow?
Can you not survive for any period of time on existing recurring subscribers with low churn numbers?
Is this why we're seeing less in working code and more in shinny hype?
If you are able to survive on existing customers then I'm sure you could reduce churn a great deal
by focusing a development cycle on fixes rather then hype, massively articles and promotional videos.
If this is in fact the cause behind the lack of real substantive improvements on existing features,
then could you please have a long hard look at how to restructure to avoid this race to the bottom.
Some of the issues are strategic, some are procedural. I agree that expanding the Eve universe onto phones and FPS games
is a good idea for diversity and ensuring the Eve universe is established as a multi-faceted proper game universe.
However CCP must remember that Eve Online is it's core business. It is the Eve subscribers who have made the expansion
of that universe possible. If you wish to grow this universe then you need to take us with you, not just the new
subscribers from whatever you promised in the last expansion. If you wish to take us with you then you need to focus
primarily on Eve Online, the game we pay for and play.
Please Mr PFtursson we need you in the office focused and making sure Eve Online and CCP run as well as they once did.
I believe that a large proportion of the Eve community does not have stomach to take yet another marketing based expansion.
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Dr BattleSmith
PAX Interstellar Services
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Posted - 2010.07.13 04:32:00 -
[3]
To those that still think PLEX is exactly the same no matter who purchases it.
Notice the difference in the purchaser.
As older players are more often self-suffience.
As newer players are isk poor.
As older players more often PLEX to play.
As newer players more often PAY to play.
Yes money is incoming regardless. duh.
The demographics of who is purchasing is slanted towards new players, hence CCPs thirst for hyped content expansions.
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Dr BattleSmith
PAX Interstellar Services
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Posted - 2010.07.13 09:32:00 -
[4]
I agree things do overall work. Things do need expanding. New players are needed. PLEX are fine for the most part.
Personally my main beef is that I enjoy half-finished content which had a massive hype.
This expansion was stripped of devs and has had no further fixes specifically to it's game-play.
My fear is all of the coming content will suffer the same fate unless CCP tightens up.
Shouldn't each new expansion retain a Product Owner for a period of time after launch?
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Dr BattleSmith
PAX Interstellar Services
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Posted - 2010.07.14 02:13:00 -
[5]
 Originally by: Khorkrak
EVE runs on Microsoft Windows servers and Microsoft SQL Server.
They get free hardware/software and MS look after them as a partner.
It's impossible for them to break free of this sub-standard database technology.
We just have to live with them needing ever increasing mountains of hardware to run.
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