Originally by: Rells

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Every now and then I get an email in my inbox inviting me to reactivate my account for a few days for free and see what has changed. Invariably I take them up on the offer, hoping to see vast improvements in the gameplay. Unfortunately there is nothing compelling about the game anymore and I invariably end up canceling again. This got me to thinking about what exactly killed Eve for the PvPer? There are four main turning points of note that we can point to that have pushed Eve into becoming a carebear game that has a bit of "arena" PvP.

1) The creation of CONCORD. Concord was supposed to be this mild mannered police force when it was created but the developers went to great pain to tell us that they were not invincible and that they could be defeated. Many of us screamed that the introduction of CONCORD would invariably lead to them becoming ubiquitous and undefeatable. We argued that once introduced the non-pvpers would demand that they be more and more effective until they were invincible. We were, of course, flamed out of existence, excoriated as being irrational and overreacting.

2) Addition of Zydrine and Megacyte to NPC drone loot via compounds. Prior to the introduction of dropped refillable compounds the only source for zydrine and megabyte was 0.0. This made a very compelling reason to go to 0.0 to gain more riches. Only so much could be made in empire and to strike it rich you had to go to 0.0. However, that all changed when zydrine and mega were added to empire space. We argued that this would mean most of 0.0 would be a worthless wasteland and that zed and mega farmed in empire would overtake 0.0 imported. Again we were flamed to hell and back.

3) Introduction of the level 4 mission. This was a carebears dream. The carebear could patiently work himself up billions of isk with very little in danger. It also presented a further reason to avoid 0.0 like the plague. Why risk ratting expensive rats in 0.0 when you could burn through missions in peace in high sec. 0.0 went from being the end game to being a 99% complete wasteland. There are 2 or three areas in all of 0.0 now that are worth even owning. The rest of it is a glorified WOW arena.

4) The introduction of Jump drive. Once upon a time alliances made huge convoys of freighters to get critical equipment into 0.0. Those convoys were often attacked by those with the moxy and that required their protection. Supply lines were critical to maintain and the deeper you went in 0.0 the harder it was. After the introduction of jump drives, carriers and jump freighters load up in empire and jump safely to POS shields and stations. Interdiction is pretty much impossible if the logistics people have any idea what they are doing. Strategic warfare was eliminated.

Since these events Eve has been trending more and more towards the carebear. CCP has made half hearted attempts to shore up pvp but introducing new and expensive types of ships doesn't do anything to address the fundamental problems introduced into the game. Furthermore, CCP has been unwilling to provide the tools for players to carve out their own little kingdoms in 0.0. Currently the blob rules 0.0 space and strategic warfare is a joke at best. CCP has failed to introduce things like faction bubbles, faction locked gates, player deployed gate guns or any of a billion ideas proposed by hundreds of players over the years.

..... Continued below ....

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