WIS is a stupid waste of time and resources...

Immersion is not content, and not that really important in the long run.

I'll tell you what's wrong, a bunch of dudes emoting each other.

No seriously tell me about this fascinating dudes emoting each other in a pretend-bar drinking pretend-drinks, like lol I've got drinking V I can handle 50 shots and my screen aint even blurry? I mean it just sounds pretty useless.

So we agree that it's pretty much useless. Usually, I just alt tab and wait for the call on the no-chatter channel. I agree with your prioritization.

By this logic, if people want it who are already paying for the game without it then the development time was wasted.

Also, I believe such claims of "popular demand" for what essentially amount to dance clubs in Eve Online may be somewhat overstated.

Too say the least.

The draw of 'Avatar Gameplay' to would-be new players is lessened by the fact that it means Eve no longer stands out from the crowd so much. Imagine you're a gamer who's never played an MMO before and you're looking through some gaming website for one to dip your toe in the water with. Row after row of screenshots featuring humanoid avatars with swords or guns or magic wands... and then there's that one with the gigantic spaceships and asteroid belts and laser cannons. Maybe this appeals, maybe it doesn't, but it definitely stands out as something distinct from the rest. Replace that screenshot with one of a humanoid avatar walking around a space station, and the new player just lumps it in with KOTOR and STO only without the recognised IP advantage.

A good part of my scepticism towards the whole WiS project is that is has an uneasy feel of CCP following the crowd rather than innovating. I hope there wasn't some board meeting where senior management said "Everyone else has humanoid avatar characters, we need to follow suit", but I can't be sure. The fact that CCP then tried to lump it in with following the crowd with micro-transaction cash shops (surrounded by some CCPers outright saying that they needed to look at micro-transactions because everyone else was and they needed to go along with it) just reinforces the thought.

No they didn't. And for a long time objection and praise for Avatar content have been roughly 50/50. Times change though, and now with the greed is good and $80 manacle massacre a distant memory, as far as I can tell, there is a strong majority in favour of Avatar based content. Most of the objections you hear now are from people trying to make sure that if it does happen that it wont be just dressing up dolls and emoting to each other with no actual content linking it to the Eve universe. Which is where CCPs ideas for Avatar based wreckage exploration comes in. I don't think anyone really objects to that, because it's a fantastic idea. Even the most hardcore of anti-Avatar content posters can't find a good reason to say no to that.

I do feel as though there is something we should be doing to grab CCPs attention. "I'll get to it later" is something we've been hearing from CCP since 2006, and frankly, if we keep letting them say it, we will never get the content they have very close to promised us. The popularity of the issue must be obvious to CCP, they can't be that ignorant, so now we have to show that this majority is willing to do something about it. Something needs to happen.

They did make one and it hasn't done too well it's called Mortal Online so the CSM is WRONG

I'm perplexed as to why CCP added a solo captain quarters experience, a clothing store to go with it but then decided not to add the interactive social experience of actually walking out of the quarters and interacting with other players. How could the potential or success of WiS be evaluated when WiS was never properly implemented? CCP just half-assed WiS and then gave up on it.

It would be easier if they knew what to do and what to say about it, becasue it pretty much looks like they painted themselves in a corner. EVE is a spaceships game and they wouldn't be able to develop it further throguh avatars even if they figured or wanted to.

Just they don't dare to say it openly. Remove the CQ, the NEx and evertyhing but the bare character creator delivered with Incursion. If they won't make it, then should break it and stop the pain.

well basically, CCP indicated that all you emote lovers are SOL, until they come up with some content, after dust gets off the ground.

They have said something similar many times. Problem is, people don't want to believe it. Like with POS overhaul. CCP did't promised anything after all. It was a presentation on fanfest, where they made their marketing magic with PowerPoint and everyone was like "POS overhaul - CCP is thinking/prototyping/developing/finishing it". You just made this hype, because it was what you wished for, and it was needed by you, but CCP was just like always.