Originally by: Frenden Dax

---

All the CCP defender types seem to cling to that as their little bastion of resistance "LOLOLOL DON'T BUY MONOCLES THEN NOOBS." "Incarna didn't change anything, it's still the same game." I'm waiting for that old standby "adapt or die" to come out of the woodwork too.

It's not about the effing vanity items. It's not about CCP's forcing the entire EVE community to mass-test the engine for their new Twilight MMO. It's not about the fact that CCP introduced an expansion that has almost zero spaceships content in it whatsoever. It's not really even about nebulous but probable future microtransations such as plex for faction standings, ships, special items, and so forth.

The above do cause some anguish, true. And rightly so. Are they the sole cause of the rage that's sweeping the forum? Not even close. What then?

Betrayal. Despair. Abandonment. Choose your own word for it - the short version is that CCP is no longer the company that it was in 2003. It no longer seems to care about its player base, or about delivering the best gaming experience possible. Instead, its priorities have shifted from creating the best space sandbox possible to drawing as much money from EVE as possible.

CCP has been heading down this road for a while. New content is introduced and - when not incomplete or buggy - never iterated upon again. Player suggestions are almost entirely ignored. Development of its primary property (EVE) is put on a back burner, as emphasized by the now infamous :18 months: statement. Worse yet, CCP has gone on record as stating that its priority is no longer improving existing in-game features, but introducing new features designed specifically to attract new players to the game. Features that in turn are abandoned in favor of the next shiny marketing device.

It is a company, in short, which has lost the spark that first created EVE and drew so many of us to the game. It is a company has become nearly completely divorced from its player base. It is a company that has abandoned meaningful development and iteration of its core product in order to attempt to generate more revenue. And it is a company that seems hell-bent on running its sole revenue-producing asset into the ground.

Have I unsubbed? Yes. Will I come back? If EVE continues in its current vein, no. Am I angry? No. I'm sad, instead. I and others see what EVE could have been and might yet be, only to watch it crumble under the greed and incompetence of CCP. You can only lie to yourself so many times, and many of us have hit that point.

---