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CCP Zulu wrote:Dear concerned citizens of New Eden

This week has seen quite a controversy unfold. In almost the same instant as we deployed Incarna, an internal newsletter with rather controversial topics addressed leaked out. To further compound the confusion there was a clear and rather large gap in virtual goods pricing expectation and reality with a large segment of the community. Iæm going to address both these issues right here.

Fearless

Fearless is one of our company values. Itæs also the name of an internal newsletter that has been designed and developed specifically to catalyze discussions on controversial topics. One of the biggest elephants in the room these days, not just for EVE but for the gaming industry as a whole, is virtual goods sales and microtransactions.

Therefore we dedicated an entire issue to exactly that topic. Itæs worth mentioning that the topic of the issue was "Greed is good?" as a way to ask a question that would then be debated back and forth and often exaggerated purposefully to draw contrasts and make points. The result of that is now widely available on the internet.

The opinions and views expressed in Fearless are just that; opinions and views. They are not CCP policy nor are they a reliable source of CCP views as a company. The employees who submitted articles to that newsletter did exactly what they were asked to do, write about theories and opinions from an exaggerated stand.

While itæs perfectly fine to disagree and attack CCP over policies or actions we take, we think itæs not cool how individuals that work here have been called out and dragged through the mud due to something they wrote in the internal company newsletter. Seriously, these people were doing their jobs and do not deserve the hate and ****storm being pointed at them.

We make a commitment now and forever to only use microtransactions for vanity items. The discussion in the newsletter was theoretical, and we can understand the impression that it gave. We sincerely apologize for the reaction it caused, and will insure that we consider the community before having these types of discussions again. We never should have had a debate about non-vanity microtransactions, considering the community's feeling on this matter.

Pricing structure

People have been shocked by the price range in the NeX store, but you should remember that we are talking about an initial offering. We agree that our initial pricing was too high, but we will gradually introduce items at other price points, definitely lower and possibly higher than whatæs in the store today. We hope you enjoy them and are as passionate about them as you are of the current items that are for sale. Expect the vast majority of future clothing to be in the <1000 Aurum pricing, with selected luxury items going higher. We apologize for the disconnect between expectations and reality of the initial release of items in the NeX store, but are quickly working to expand our offerings and bring it more in line with your expectations.

Hangar View

We believe that the Captains Quarters are an exciting development, and are a great basis for future gameplay options. However, we understand the interface, loading times, and performance are negatively impacting people's enjoyment of other aspects of EVE. We are beginning work on a patch to restore the original hangar view that many of you know and love. Players will have the option to default to the hangar or CQ view upon docking, with transitions available to move in between as needed. We expect that as we begin to expand the features available in CQ, along with opening stations and player driven station shops, that more of our customers will begin to use CQ regularly, while still preserving their ability to multibox and quickly access needed services using the hangar view when they need to.

I hope Iæve addressed your concerns and cleared up a lot