Now that infamous door isn't going to go anywhere for YEARS.

I rejoined EVE after a long break so I could finally play the Space Barbie that they promised was initially going to be released in 2008. I was playing the game back then but I deactivated my account after the date for Walking In Stations kept getting pushed back and back, thinking to myself "Typical CCP taking forever to do anything - I'll cancel now and sign up again when they show me that they're actually making real progress on this".

I rejoined recently when I heard that Incarna would be out soon. Great, I thought - finally. When they said they'd make the avatar clothes a microtransaction, I was concerned, because I knew it meant no more free clothes in the character customiser and if there's one thing that customiser BADLY needs it's more, better clothes than the ugly 1970s monstrosities in there now, but I figured, "hey microtransactions are the way things are going these days, and most are usually only a dollar or so per item maximum" so I figured it'd be okay. Then when they priced the NEX store ludicrously high (lets face it, the monocle isn't the problem, even the very cheapest items are way overpriced when you look at their cost ratio compared to the price of ships) my heart sunk. 1000 Aur for the cheapest stuff? Try 50 Aurum, guys - look around you at the market (and also look at the EVE market where boots are selling for less than 10 million ISK, a small fraction of their Aurum cost). I knew CCP simply didn't have the experience in this kind of market to get this part right. Still, I had my CQ and they were going to expand it soon so I could meet other avatars, right? Right?

Now I read that they're "refocusing" on spaceships and laying off 20% of their staff. I don't see how a mass layoff is going to help them produce anything quicker, but more importantly (for me) it seems that they've given up producing anything outside of the Captains Quarters for now. I can see the technical problems of having multiple avatars in the same space chewing up CPU, but damn, I don't care if they dumb the graphics down to get the result - if it looks like Privateer or Wing Commander, or even Minecraft or Nethack, FINE - but I want to be able to meet other avatars. Preferably wearing some cool stuff without paying through the nose for the privilege.

I don't care about ship spinning (my CQ runs fine, graphics card sweats a bit but for me it's worth it), new ships (can barely fly any of the current ones), new features, etc. Bug-fixing is nice, definitely do that - maybe consider a "code freeze" like what Minecraft did recently, and play-balancing is good, especially looking forward to hybrid balancing and not getting a Nyx dropped on me every 2 jumps, but If CCP wanted to make me really happy, they could:

* Top priority - some way for avatars to meet, ASAP. Otherwise, all your other Incarna stuff is pointless and will continue to look pointless and embarrassing until you do this. Establishments would be great, but if they must, they can wait - even if it's just one-on-one meetings for now, to save CPU, I'd settle for that. You should be able to at the very least invite one other person into your Captains' Quarters. Don't tell me that would be impossible to code, if it weren't for the EULA a bored fan could probably knock up something like that in a week.

* Ditch the NEX store and add the clothes to the character creator, or just let users design their own clothes (we've all seen how quickly mod communities work), or if you MUST charge for the clothes, drop prices by at LEAST a factor of 15-25 and for chrissake design some better ones, that might reflect what people may wish their avatars to actually wear. If you're stuck for ideas look at what Facebook games are doing with their wardrobes. Think simple, high quantity and cheap.

If I got even some of that wishlist, I'd be thrilled and I'd start subscribing 12 months in advance - and probably even donating a little bit of extra money whenever I could just to help CCP re-employ some of those poor lost staff. CCP, you've talked to the endless whiners who hate Incarna and want their spaceship game back, now please talk to me. Cheers.

I rejoined EVE because of Incarna, and now they're taking it away?!?

say thnx to 20 ppl on forums with megaphones that were louder then all the rest of player base that play the game...

Oh yeah sure that was it. That's the thing that solved all our problems.
But after I shoot the statue and unsub what am I going to do after that? Glue wings on to my car and start driving it around looking for a gate to jump through?

i am afraid that CCP dont understand some things...
1st. Drop of player numbers is not because WIS... its about CCPs promises they are giving and not keeping
2nd. Expansion that you dont deliver is not expansion and its not guilty for bad things that happen, its broken promise guilty
3rd. Many ppl are expecting WiS for years... you say no... they are not happy at all...
4th. Many ppl that like FiS are not happy if you use development for NOTHING AT ALL... they would not be angry if they see results of that...
5th. Its not smart to get angry one group of ppl... and then the other... you will have one more drop in players then... only ppl that will stay will be that part of playerbase that dont give a damn about future...

This post says it all.
It is very funny that CCP says they have learned their lesson by doing the exact same thing they were suppose to have learned.
The scary part is that the people who want WiS just want a bar and some mini-games and the ability to interact with other avatars and that was pretty much done according to CCP and then they just scrap it.
They could have finished Incarna and pleased the ones looking forward to it all in one go and then focused on FiS.
It's mindblowing and will make WiS even more expensive in the long run.

Apparently the quickest way to affect changes in the Eve universe is to lie, cheat and steal your way to the microphone where you can then impact future policy so that you and your band of thieves and miscreants can further plunder their way to even greater success.

I've been fully in support of the protests and vocal in my support of the necessity to fix FiS, but I think those who are dissing the whole concept of WiS are yahoos.

Of course EVE needs WiS, it needs avatar interaction in stations, it needs an expansion of gameplay in that direction.

Even The Mittani supports WiS, it's so obviously a good idea.

That CCP have cocked the introduction of WiS is granted, that FiS needs some serious attention is granted, but they should definitely not stop development of WiS altogether, they should expand it into an other form of multiplayer interaction within the game.

Had Hilmar not made the mistakes he's spoken about in his devblog and in the Eurogamer article (and brave man that he is for admitting it) there's no reason why EVE couldn't have had both FiS and WiS developed to a much better stage than they are now. It's not the concept that's the problem, it's the way CCP was assigning priorities and developing its business that was the problem. It has been admitted, it is known.

I rejoined EVE after a long break so I could finally play the Space Barbie

I say it over and over again... if you joined a game for wiggly little legs that doesn't have wiggly little legs, you joined the wrong game. Who's fault is that? Second Life is thadaway --->

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNWWxD-q-bg

Irony, HE hates it too

I say it over and over again... if you joined a game for wiggly little legs that doesn't have wiggly little legs, you joined the wrong game. Who's fault is that? Second Life is thadaway --->

You should learn to read better. I and many others joined this game exactly for what it had to offer. Excellent spaceship simulation. That was years ago and I still find new stuff in space to do.

We were looking forward to a new feature which was advertised heavily in addition to that. I will not leave the game, but I will laugh me arse off when it turns out that winter expansion will be a small package for FiS, too, and oh-so wordy "go to second life barbies" idiots like you whine again.

Or do I call you and the alliance blobsters "Blue Blobopaths" and tell you that Black Prophecy is that way --> every time I post? I limit myself to every second time.