Phoenus
Caldari
Reikoku
IT Alliance
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Posted - 2010.07.18 20:13:00 -
[1]
Edited by: Phoenus on 18/07/2010 20:14:42
Disappointment. That's pretty much the only word I can find to describe my feelings having read the CSM minutes and the Blog here.
CCP's obsession with OOH SHIN... OH LOOK, NEW SHINY is renown, and the state of the game (you can protest all you want that from a Technical Standpoint it's healthier than it's ever been) right now is - to be fair, absolutely hilarious. I jumped into an empty system a week or so ago (yes, empty - I was the only person there) and spent ~5 minutes loading. Bet if I'd lost the ship your Customer Support department wouldn't have reimbursed it. ;)
CCP has a fascination with implementing new content, and then leaving that content half finished - or in a terrible state of array.
Cosmos
Factional Warfare
0.0 Sov Warfare (christ, can we please have the old Sov system back until you can fix the absolute **** we have now?)
What happened to mining comets? Treaties? Bounty Hunting? Any one of another hundred features that were touted as being 'absolutely awesome, and right around the corner'.
Where's your balancing team? Active Tanking, Assault Frigates, Command Ships, Hybrid Weapons, Rockets, Tech 3.
The list goes on.
Last time I checked, it was good business sense to keep your existing customers happy whilst trying to attract new customers. That is, keeping EVE's population content (and fixing the terrible state of the game currently), whilst developing Incarna (lol, testbed for World of Darkness) and Dust514 (will be interesting to see many console gamers will still play this 6 months after it's released).
Instead, the gist I get from the meetings and this blog is either'we think EVE's pretty much a finished product per se currently, let's work on other stuff' or 'oh, they'll stick around for another 18 months till we can divert some more development team resources to keeping it ticking over'. That's a pretty deluded viewpoint, and one that many many people - in this thread and on some of the fan forums agree with.
You created the CSM (a move that I disagreed with, and that I continue to argue is nothing more than a poor PR attempt) as an avenue with which to collect and pass along the concerns of the player base. You single-handedly brushed off the single biggest concern that the CSM and the Playerbase seemingly has (Commitment to Excellence), with the response of 'lol no, shinies attract more players'.
Let's take a look at the specifics:
 Originally by: CSM Meeting Minutes
CCP disagreed strongly with the claim that it isnĘt committed to excellence and feels that the resources being used to constantly improve Eve Online are a clear sign of this commitment.
Originally by: CCP Zulu
Incarna: (9 teams, approximately 70 developers)
Dust 514/EVE link (1 team, approximately 7 developers)
In-Space features (3 teams, approximately 22 developers)
EVE Gate (1 team, approximately 10 developers)
Other stuff (4 teams, approximately 15 developers)
Originally by: CCP Explorer
Originally by: Mashie Saldana
Where did the remaining 200+ developers go as I'm pretty sure it was over 300 working on Apocrypha?
They returned to their projects after Apocrypha.
22 Developers out of 300 you currently employ, dedicated to 'commitment to excellence' (e.g. fixing the fact that your company seemingly has the attention span shorter than that of a 2 year old kid).
Originally by: CSM Meeting Minutes
The discussion focused on introducing new features versus improving existing ones. CCP stated that once Incarna and planetary interaction with its link to Dust are fully implemented, focus will probably shift far more towards improvement of existing features.
You aren't really doing a great deal to inspire any further faith in the organisation you work for, Zulu. If you think that the current playerbase is going to stick around for 18 months with the game in it's current state then I can only wonder what CCP is thinking.
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