'Massively's Brendan Drain spoke with Decker and EVE's Hilmar Petursson at a press event yesterday. We'll have more information on how the new hire will impact EVE this afternoon!'

Obvious awoxer.

If I had a former EA executive on board, I'd rename him Frank.

If I had a former EA executive on board, I'd rename him Frank.

This could truly be a "Eve is Dying" thread.

The best they could do was hire a guy from EA. EA is only good at one thing ... marketing. As far as games go they suck. Without Madden, NCAA, and The Sims EA would sink faster the Titanic. Not to mention this guy was VP of their P4F division. Makes you wonder if CCP is considering P4F again.

Do we shoot the monument in jita yet?

Decker comes to CCP from game developer and publisher Electronic Arts (EA), where he spent the last 12 years in a variety of key production leadership roles. Most recently Decker was vice president of EAGÇÖs GÇ£Play4FreeGÇ¥ group, built from the ground up as an integrated organization focused on building, publishing and operating games based on the free-to-play business model. In that role, Decker ran numerous studios around the world that released games played by tens of millions of registered users.

Decker will lead the companyGÇÖs worldwide game development, overseeing the companyGÇÖs studios in Reykjavik, Shanghai, Atlanta, and Newcastle.

If I had a former EA executive on board, I'd rename him Frank.

More like Eve is Dead, Jim.

i would definitely say there are some concerns here with his ability to merge his former mentality and production philosophies with EVEs hardline attitudes.

I'll reserve actual judgement until we get more info on what the guy is doing. But in the meantime it's fun to jump on the hyperbole band wagon;

EVE is a game all about backstabbing, underhanded play, deviousness and generally trying your best to screw over every other player, right? At least that's what the low sec players tell me. So CCP hired a guy from a company that is well known for screwing over players. Seems like a perfect fit.

CCP Games, the worldGÇÖs leading independent developer of massively multiplayer games, today announced it has hired Sean Decker as its new senior vice president of product development. Decker will lead the companyGÇÖs worldwide game development, overseeing the companyGÇÖs studios in Reykjavik, Shanghai, Atlanta, and Newcastle.

If I had a former EA executive on board, I'd rename him Frank.

That lesson would be very hard to unlearn.

Looking through his game Credits.... He might not be too terrible, but since it's still EA



OMG, I could log in without paying 5 bucks!

I always believe in giving someone a shot so I'm not going to flame the guy right off, but coming from EA I'm on a "zero tolerance policy" for bovine excrement.

Threadnaught by ?

My guess - Wednesday morning 06h00 server time, if this thread does not get locked.

I just thought. What if Frank is leaving EA because he hates it too?

Another thought, What if EA asked Frank to leave because he screwed up EA even more than it was?

Another thought, What if EA asked Frank to leave because he screwed up EA even more than it was?

Another thought, What if EA asked Frank to leave because he screwed up EA even more than it was?

even tried to re-brand Maxis.

This is the end of :freeexpansions:

Every expansion will now be branded as DLC, which...
.
.
.
... you won't be able to buy with dollars, euros, yens or dirhams, oh no. You'll have to pay for them with Aurum; and each DLC will cost less than a certain multiple of AUR. So you'll always have to buy more AUR than you actually need.

Oh, and for all those "hisec is a carebear wonderland wah wah" nullbears? Just you wait - in two years time activating weapons on a player in hisec will be impossible and wardecs will be abolished. You know, to attract more newbies/money.

So... Does this mean that EvE will turn into an over simplified arcade-mode space game? Shall Dust become a generic fps title? Will The EvE universe now be targeted to an even lower common denominator than WOW?

So when can we expect a post from Frank?

Obvious awoxer.

Before you realise it, CCP could be turned into another EA takeover.

He at least worked for BF2142

Great now I'm covered in vomit.

but it is worrying that he immediately steps into a position involving both EVE and Dust.

EA ... are not exactly popular.

Flaming pitchforks aside. I am curious about the decision to literally go from Goliath to David.

But seeing that EA isn't, and really hasn't been, pushing the F2P business model on any platform whereas CCP pretty much are the pioneers with F2P on a console (correct me if I am wrong), I wouldn't put it past Mr. Decker that is one of the reasons why he joins CCP.

Perhaps a solid statement of intent from the new VP could calm some fears and distrust ?

Ahhhh... fu@k....

Why CCP... Why?

Absolutely. I cannot imagine a more confusing scenario than the VP of product development stepping ino a position that involves the company's products.

Wait, yes I can. It would be way more confusing if his position somehow didn't involve EVE and Dust.

Perhaps a solid statement of intent from the new VP could calm some fears and distrust ?

Perhaps.

Ship skins, perhaps.

Yeah, 'cause nothing says forethought like publicly announcing what you're going to do after your first 6 hours on the job.

Not pushing the F2P model? Then what it is this?

Ever consider his thought process was "EA is horrid. I want to go work for a company that has some idea of how to do things, like CCP"...?

I must admit I did panic a little when I saw EA tags.

How long before we can give him our welcome to EVE verbal bath and get him to dish the dirt on EA? Oh he must have stories!

Do you believe he got the job without having a good idea and mindset about what it entails and how he might be able to 'improve" things for CCP ?

This is a VP you're talking about here

A Bloke like this is well-briefed and got the job because of ideas he proposed in order to seal the deal on the job.

Do you believe he got the job without having a good idea and mindset about what it entails and how he might be able to 'improve" things for CCP ? This is a VP you're talking about here, not a Dust merchandiser. A Bloke like this is well-briefed and got the job because of ideas he proposed in order to seal the deal on the job.

Not because he's 6 hours into the job.

and here I was, really looking forward to another 10 years of EVE Online.
I guess that dream is now in jeopardy.

Looks like my post was missed or deleted. I apologize for that comment, it was funny in my mind and after rethinking, it wasn't appropriate for the post.

Still funny in my mind.

I will happily march with whomever wants to go straight to the starter systems and suicide gank every damned newbie I see for daring to break our game.

CCP learned with the Jita riots and Incarnagate. If they bring another useless change like that then they'll see a repeat of that.

Looks like my post was missed or deleted. I apologize for that comment, it was funny in my mind and after rethinking, it wasn't appropriate for the post.

Still funny in my mind.

Any "special list" or "Elitist Gold" equipment will just **** the populous off.

Special "buff potions" will **** and unbalance all pvp.

Skillpoint gaining potions/implants will wreck the market, character bazaar, and cause animosity to those who skill their chars vs those who now megabuffskill characters.

CCP learned with the Jita riots and Incarnagate. If they bring another useless change like that then they'll see a repeat of that.

EA is a black eye on good games.

We're looking to see what Baaaaad crap comes down.

DLC... Will kill the game

Expansion purchases, can't work no way to segregate the population, which also kills the game.

Any odd idiotic move will wreck the economy.

Any "special list" or "Elitist Gold" equipment will just **** the populous off.

Special "buff potions" will **** and unbalance all pvp.

Skillpoint gaining potions/implants will wreck the market, character bazaar, and cause animosity to those who skill their chars vs those who now megabuffskill characters.

EA infiltrating CCP with an trustworthy alt that has a clean record
EA alt take the backseat for a couple years, to build trust and to whisper in Hilmars ears.
EA alt opens up the "backdoor" on a dark and stormy night, when Hilmar is drunk
EA Corp moves in and Hilmar wakes up, finding himself sleeping on the street.

~Game Over~

That said, please keep your feedback and discussions in this thread polite and reasonable. Personal attacks, insults or other forum rule violations should be avoided, thank you!

There are few things as remarkable as blind unwavering hysteria.

It's like a living thing that need only feed on itself to be not only sustained, but to flourish.

Because subscription system model is out dated and Eve is maybe one of the last ones remaining and still being successful.

Now look at that from a business stand point of view, if Eve is successful while keeping an outdated business model (you want alt accounts and whatnot) imagine what it could be if was a free to play game with current business models.

Now, I'm not saying this is what I want not this should be happening but on the long term this might happen. I think however this guys is probably the one to get Dust514 from what it is and make it successful , one can hope for Dust and team guys working on it.

Don't want to see my Eve become a free to play with massive nerdies and junk players turning around buying golden ammo and federation navy Megas when I, special snowflake Megathron nerd, can only dream some day CCP puts a BPC of it in my hangar.

I remember a presentation video that from an exec from BF:H that was the impetus for the incarna Aurum rollout. Is this the guy who made that presentation?

Anyone remember that video? Where the guy was talking about how the forums on BF erupted but the majority of the player base stuck around and paid to play. Which of course led to the famous Hilmar quote of: "watch what they do not what they say"

Hope that isn't him.

I am guessing that now would be a good time to GTFO.

Monthly Subs FTW.

I remember a presentation video that from an exec from BF:H that was the impetus for the incarna Aurum rollout. Is this the guy who made that presentation?

Anyone remember that video? Where the guy was talking about how the forums on BF erupted but the majority of the player base stuck around and paid to play. Which of course led to the famous Hilmar quote of: "watch what they do not what they say"

Hope that isn't him.

A bit early for that, although I always keep that as an option.

EA doesn't listen to anyone, period. All that time I was on their forums IF an EA representative posted anything was to post some official message. One sided convo only.

But it's the one game company that doesn't ban you for posting your views. That is not the case of MMO sites, which would ban if you sneezed.

But it's the one game company that doesn't ban you for posting your views.

What the ****? Seriously? I assumed this was a troll?



Hey guys we have a studio reknowned for its independent mindset, customer oriented approach, brave approach to risks, focus on good gameplay over mass-appeal or monetization. Who should be our next leader?

How about a guy who heads up the monetized-softcore games group of the worlds most creatively-bankrupt gaming megacorporation?

That really sounds like a good fit.


I give it 20 minutes before DUST is closed down and Eve relaunches as a free2play social game

First Mintchimp, then this EA guy. Who is next? Adam Orth?

CCP you are ******* up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ

Wait... that happened? (maybe I should have followed the news more during that time instead of unsubbing)

blind unwavering hysteria = EA Sports

Sean Decker = ex-EA Sports Vice President

New CCP Vice President = Sean Decker

CCP = blind unwavering hysteria

CCP = EA Sports

If CCP wants to tackle the 800lb gorilla in the room to have some presence in the MMO industry, they have to make friends with Activision-Blizzard's enemy, and that's EA.

So in EvE terms, Gallente is teaming up with Caldari.

... on that black day I will happily march with whomever wants to go straight to the starter systems and suicide gank every damned newbie I see for daring to break our game.

Respect.


Listen to what this man says and lets hold them to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJqsLgIRvys

That is all...now calm the F%%K down please.

It was Ben Cousins not him, false alarm.

http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win

By what you said sounds like they don't read them.

Do you believe he got the job without having a good idea and mindset about what it entails and how he might be able to 'improve" things for CCP ? This is a VP you're talking about here, not a Dust merchandiser. A Bloke like this is well-briefed and got the job because of ideas he proposed in order to seal the deal on the job.

Not because he's 6 hours into the job.

Dear CCP we already went trough this once. Do you really want "Summer of Rage, mk2"? You already have a fricking megatransaction in EVE that is PLEX, something that almost no single MMO out there has. PLEX based economy is working and should be sufficient for your greed.

What you propose ("make friends with Activision-Blizzard's enemy, and that's EA") may be the course of action that CCP wishes, needs, or should take, but I think you need to lay a bit more foundation before making such a substantial claim.

More to the point, I fail to see how hiring the former executive of EA constitutes "making friends" with EA. Either EA let Sean go, or Sean chose to leave EA. In the former, I can't see how EA would find CCP's hiring of Sean of any interest, while in the latter I can see how EA might consider it "poaching" of talent (which can't really be good for friendship-building).

Edit: third possibility: EA let Sean go with the express intent of having CCP hire him. Perhaps that was the plan between EA and CCP all along, but before I bite into that heaping helping of paranoia and collusion you're going to have to provide a little more evidence.

MDD

Doing something like this will have a significantly bigger impact than Burn Jita could ever hope to. I would happily fly beside you and blow every last ISK I have in the process. Once nothing is left, biomass ever char I have and cancel my subs.

How will you gank noobies if......you..can't shoot?

So in EvE terms, Gallente is teaming up with Caldari.

How long before you see frank scamming in jita?

The best they could do was hire a guy from EA. EA is only good at one thing ... marketing. As far as games go they suck. Without Madden, NCAA, and The Sims EA would sink faster the Titanic. Not to mention this guy was VP of their P4F division. Makes you wonder if CCP is considering P4F again.

Funny how one Dev has posted on this and it was just to say eve will live on.

Awww you white people be trippin'

Our job is to rehabilitate Frank.

Edit: third possibility: EA let Sean go with the express intent of having CCP hire him. Perhaps that was the plan between EA and CCP all along, but before I bite into that heaping helping of paranoia and collusion you're going to have to provide a little more evidence.

The merits of the guys career aside, in case you havent noticed, marketing has been something that CCP has been rather bad at in the course of EvE. And since more subs = more money, and more money means more staff. There is a good chance that better marketing would actually accelerate EvE's development cycle and deliver all of that stuff they promised, sooner. It could mean bigger expansions and better artwork. And it could also mean that the doors to the captain's quarters will open before EvE enters its third decade.

PC gaming is on the decline.

I for one won't do any long-term subscriptions for now and probably move some laser ships close to monuments. I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Just for clarification, part of my responsibility is forum moderation and that also involves investigating if our forum rules are followed or not - independent of the raised questions and replies. I want to remind everyone that your feedback is welcome and always will be welcome, but it needs to be constructive and must not contain gross insults or personal attacks. I ask everyone to respect our forum rules when posting here.

When will Frank be saying hello to us?

When will Frank be saying hello to us?

Move said ships closer to newbie systems. If the **** does indeed hit the fans, and this new Senior-VP convinces/drives CCP to compromise what makes EvE EvE for the sake of "drawing in new players," suicide-ganking those very new players would be a much stronger statement.

Continuously repeating this won't make it any more true, http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/28/pc-gaming-in-still-not-dead-shocker/

Edit: wrong link

I wouldn't bet on just only 10 more years ... in fact I am looking forwards to a couple more decades!

That said, please keep your feedback and discussions in this thread polite and reasonable. Personal attacks, insults or other forum rule violations should be avoided, thank you!

I'm not saying it because I like it, I'm saying it backed up with evidence.

When the #1 game publisher says it's on the decline, and offers the financials...yeah, it's on the decline.

You can put lipstick on the pig. You can dress it up to look like a cow, but the numbers show the decline.

I'm not saying it because I like it, I'm saying it backed up with evidence.

When the #1 game publisher says it's on the decline, and offers the financials...yeah, it's on the decline.

You can put lipstick on the pig. You can dress it up to look like a cow, but the numbers show the decline.

EA isn't known to be the most user friendly company in gaming for ... the last 5 years or so(?). So for CCP which has had it's fair share of hiccups in PR (Monoclegate) but has learned from those mistakes, and started to listen to it's players and is one of the more user friendly gaming companies out there, this decision makes little sense. I have nothing against the man himself, however, by association with EA, well... lie down with dogs, wake up with their flees type of scenario. Just saying.

Also, it would probbably be a good idea for "someone" or more ideally, a few someones to put out some dev blogs explaining this decision. Calm fears etc.

Guess EVE will have mandatory online soonGäó,

this does explain the bloated new launcher however

I'm not saying it because I like it, I'm saying it backed up with evidence.

When the #1 game publisher says it's on the decline, and offers the financials...yeah, it's on the decline.

You can put lipstick on the pig. You can dress it up to look like a cow, but the numbers show the decline.

I use to play Earth and Beyond from Westwood. I loved it. The interaction between player accomplishments in game and the expansions based on it was brilliant. Oh! and the fishbowl raids! Westwood had a winner. Then EA came along and the game was shut down within a year.

Fortunately there was a new space mmo coming out at the time. Hmmm, what was it called? Oh ya, EVE.

EA was voted the worst company several times and the CEO voted the worst serval times. So, is the new guy running away from EA or bringing EA with him?

I use to play Earth and Beyond from Westwood. I loved it. The interaction between player accomplishments in game and the expansions based on it was brilliant. Oh! and the fishbowl raids! Westwood had a winner. Then EA came along and the game was shut down within a year.

Fortunately there was a new space mmo coming out at the time. Hmmm, what was it called? Oh ya, EVE.

EA was voted the worst company several times and the CEO voted the worst serval times. So, is the new guy running away from EA or bringing EA with him?

EA isn't known to be the most user friendly company in gaming for ... the last 5 years or so(?). So for CCP which has had it's fair share of hiccups in PR (Monoclegate) but has learned from those mistakes, and started to listen to it's players and is one of the more user friendly gaming companies out there, this decision makes little sense. I have nothing against the man himself, however, by association with EA, well... lie down with dogs, wake up with their flees type of scenario. Just saying.

I agree.

Good bye, EVE. I loved you.

You know, when a senior producer or even sub director yada ya starts doing crap stuff there are some other guys above it to slap it right in the face and he will calm down, the other side of the medal is that he might as well have no other option than follow orders just like every other employee.

Do not do the mistake of judgement before the man has even acted, do not judge someone for his past actions or decisions but for the present ones and atm this guy hasn't done a single one regarding Eve so calm down and step back, wait untill you guys have real material to get the crap out of it and gank his posts, until them stop being lazy followers.

Frank's rehabilitation program:

- Spend 1 month high sec ganking (to understand the tears)
- Spend 2 weeks mining rocks (any more than that and he'd gouge out his eyes)
- Spend 2 months in low sec/FW (getting a feel for how ruthless the game can be)
- Spend 3 months in null sec alliance (getting a feel for how ruthless the players can be)
- Must post at least once a day, with one post a week being content filled and not jabbering with the players.

Should we add ccp yet to the list of developers that EA has killed ?

I'm not saying it because I like it, I'm saying it backed up with evidence.

When the #1 game publisher says it's on the decline, and offers the financials...yeah, it's on the decline.

You can put lipstick on the pig. You can dress it up to look like a cow, but the numbers show the decline.

Who is on that list, again?

Attracting new players is one thing, and is an admirable ambition. Sacrificing everything that makes EvE unique and turning it into another pump'n'dump game in order to do so is not.

Obvious awoxer.

This again?

Your "evidence" is nothing but your usual nonsense business people sputters from time to time. Example, EA's CTO said back in May that the Xbone and PS4 was a generation ahead of high-end PCs. Hilarity ensued!

Some links:
http://business.time.com/2013/02/11/game-over-why-video-game-console-sales-are-plummeting/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/03/06/gdc-2012-pc-games-raked-in-18-6-billion-in-2011/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/07/ea-misses-slightly-on-revised-earnings-but-hits-its-revenue-targets/
http://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/03/28/pc-gaming-is-big-and-getting-bigger-good-time-to-be-a-developer

So if anything is evident here, any sane person ignore the "predictions" from doomsayers and see how PC gaming continues to thrive through indie, F2P and other exciting technologies like Oculus Rift and Omni VR.

IBM said they would only sell 5 computers once.

b..b..but Ace is our resident expert on all things MMO and gaming companies that aren't CCP.

An interview with him from 2009

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/eas-sean-decker-interview


Have to say his answers could have been a lot worse.

And Bill Gates said we only needed 640KB of memory.

Look at Microsoft today.

Makes more real money than Goons ever hoped to e-v-e-r acquire in their lifetime.