Jame Jarl Retief
Murientor Tribe
Defiant Legacy
979
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Posted - 2013.01.22 20:08:00 -
[1] - Quote
Ranger 1 wrote:Of course the fact that people LIKE alts, and are willing ot pay for those alts doesn't enter into your equation.
I'm sure if you ran a detailed poll you'd find that most people don't LIKE alts. It's just due to the game's flawed design alts are a virtual necessity.
Quote:Apparently neither does the fact that CCP is responding to overwhelming popular demand by focusing on fixing and iterating on core features of the game instead of bringing in completely new (and likely somewhat buggy) features all the time.
The demand may be overwhelming, at least in theory. And for the past 18 months or so (basically since Incarna), CCP has been doing just what you described. However, where's the payoff? Has the game hit 500k subs, for example? Nope. It barely recently hit 450k, and out of those how many are alt accounts due to programs like the one we're discussing now?
Not to mention that EVE is unique, in a non-flattering kind of way. It is unique in that many players continue paying without actually playing, just waiting for their skills to train up. In no other MMO in the history of gaming did people continue paying without actually playing, because without playing you got nothing. Unlike in EVE. So, out of those 450k subs, how many are just alt accounts or characters being created for the Bazaar, that don't ever appear in space? Accounts with 1 char that logs in for 30 seconds to queue the next skill once a week? I guarantee you CCP knows. I also would bet ISK that they won't tell you or me what that percentage is. But what good is an MMO where a goodly chunk of the player base can never actually be interacted with? Or is just an alt or a semi-AFK bot-like entity?
That's the irony of it all. CCP tried something bold with Incarna, but failed to deliver and got badly burned. And since then they haven't taken any risks for 18 months and the game is stagnating. In the meantime, there's a number of games in production now which are perhaps not direct competition to EVE, but could easily siphon a nice chunk of the population away from the game, albeit possibly just temporarily.
Quote:I think I'll wait for you to back up your assertion that CCP isn't bringing in any new players before I take you too seriously. 
Hasn't someone in CCP literally say this a little while ago? That they have trouble bringing in new players and keeping them, hence the whole New Player Experience overhaul? Doesn't require much more confirmation than that, IMHO. |