Veriasse Valence
Gallente
Axitek Consortium
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Posted - 2011.06.24 17:13:00 -
[1]
I managed to scroll through most of this thread, but I did quit around page 130 once I realized there were no new blue posts. A lot of good thoughts in here, and rightfully expressed indignation and rage.
For me, AUR and the NEX fundamentally changed my experience of EVE. I, like many others, have played a number of other mmos that are basically f2p, such as NavyField and WoT, but that have a good deal of microtransactions built in. These games inevitably feel arcadey for it, you are always aware of the fact that this is just a game, I can yank out my credit card and suddenly poof a whole pile of stuff into existence. PLEX did allow a similar influx of ISK into your wallet, but it was not immersion breaking. Kinda made sense, the way they played it as CONCORD pilot licenses, and even if you bought and sold them they were still worth game time you could redeem. Now, AUR makes game time disappear in exchange for horrendously overpriced and ugly customization options in an environment where you may not get to show it off for a minimum of months. The fact it stares you in the face and that EVE is now being developed around it changes the feel of the whole game.
I can no longer load up the game world and feel like it is its own distinct entity, one wherein my hard work is commensurately rewarded with success, advancement, or failure. Now I log in intimately aware of the fact that I can't afford to waste real money selling PLEX or using AUR. At some point this will inevitably mean I am at a disadvantage to others, whether it is because I can't store enough fittings for the numerous ships I fly or that I still use 'lame' faction ammo instead of the fancy new AUR ammo. Sure, those with enough riches in game or in real life can buy lots of these goods off the NEX and sell them to us peons for the usual ISK, but then we'd have to rely upon the RMTers to get the equipment to compete.
Not only that, but speaking as an industrialist, selling anything outside of minor vanity items and not including it in the player economy as something needing resources and skills to create is undermining the basic fundamentals of your own game. Without those resources being used, the only people able to make ISK are mission runners and ratters. Extraction of natural resources in all its forms continues to take a backseat. Mission and rat bounties do not fluctuate based on the inflation or deflation of currency, so while miners continue to make less and less, doing the same old missions on autopilot nets you more in comparison (has to date at any rate). Do we really need to continue to exacerbate this crucial issue?
Really though, the killing blow for me was the change of the entire atmosphere of EVE. I heard it best when someday said they now feel like they are logging into a cheap Korean F2P mmo. As AUR continues to grow in use and importance, as CCP has stated, this will only continue to get worse. Soon enough you won't be able to do anything without CONCORD billboards showing ads for 5% sales on monocles and redeem PLEX now get 500 extra AUR! I always used to come back to EVE off and on, it held my imagination like nothing else, but with the intent on CCP's part of moving forward with this new strategy, the universe they've created has been indelibly tarnished in my mind. I can no longer separate in game fortune from out of game fortune, and I generally play games to remove myself from the real world for a time. Thanks for all the fish, and see ya later.
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