Kelvandar
Minmatar
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Posted - 2011.06.24 21:09:00 -
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Wow we've been shafted now for what - 2 years or so? This was the plan for EvE all along, ever since the Dust initial concept, wasn't it? That April fools dev blog with the AmmoAnywhere! joke... a marketing test flag?? How long has CCP been telling us one thing while planning the opposite? It had to have been in the works long before it was ever allowed as a topic for open for discussion in internal newsletters.
This "commit to excellence" drivel that we all heard last year and dismissed as a meaningless platitude when you didn't deliver may actually have been a real and serious goal. Just not one that involved EvE Online as we players were expecting.
How exactly does CCP view EvE Online at this stage? Its been dumbed-down a few times, first with bloodline skillpoint distribution, then with Learning Skills, and just recently with agent divisions. Add in faction rep, ships, ammo and probably skillpoints into a cash shop and then you have a nice Entire Game Micro Transaction set up as an MT for the new Dust players, where most if not all have computers hooked up to the internet ready to go. Not bad for an aging MMO that has been milked to death just prior to the launch. Not a bad deal for the console kids either, to extract revenge on the corp that just wasted them planetside by paying to win. Of course this is all speculation, but now that you've completely destroyed your credibility, reputation and trust I don't know what to believe. But it sure looks like its headed that way.
But unfortunately the timing got messed up. Parasites are not supposed to kill their host. Its not good for them and its not good business for a corporation.
CCP Pann I do not envy you. As the person in charge of PR its your job to deal with this mess, and we're the easiest of the lot to deal with. We're just customers with a vested interest in our ships, corps and skillpoints.
Now CCP has gone from arguably the most respected dev in the business to the laughing stock of the industry. In less than a week. And the trust, credibility and reputation out in the general gaming community includes all of your potential new subscribers for Dust, who at this point have no vested interest at all. Ouch.
Even worse, when all this finally blows over you have your venture capitalists to deal with, who regardless of them being "on board" with the direction CCP has taken, will understandably be very angry at seeing their multi-million dollar investment suddenly become riskier.
Of those three groups, which one will you be addressing when CCP formulate a plan of moving forward? If its us players, then I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.
Credibility and respect can be bought if you have enough money to get back on track and fix the problems, but trust will take years if ever. Nevertheless if you're serious about fixing your game, then I'd suggest a few things to consider:
1) Microtransactions. Do what you will with them - lower them and watch the price of Plex rise, keep them the same and look like fools to the industry, or just scrap the idea all together and dump the resources into the character creator with an apology to the player base. Or just add your skillpoints ammo and facton rep as an offering and watch everything burn. I don't really care that much at this stage.
2) Invest multiple teams into fixing stuff that you should have been fixing for the past couple of years, like faction wars, 0.0 and lowsec. Don't wait for an expansion to release them, do a few things at a time, test them properly and get them out in weekly or bi-weekly patches so that we can see that there's a real effort being made.
3) Communicate with us and actually listen to the CSM, and ACT on the recommendations.
4) Move Soundwave and Zinfandel out of the public eye entirely - forever. Stick them in the mailroom or the kitchen. Their views are what has caused this to blow up in your collective faces.
5) Free Helicity Boson.
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