PopeUrban
El Expedicion
14
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Posted - 2013.07.08 17:33:00 -
[1] - Quote
AFK mining is just symptomatic of the actual problem. That problem being mining is terribly, horribly uninteresting.
From a design standpoint you can't make any fundamental changed to mining because the cycle times for mining necessarily need to be long enough to attach a modicum of risk to an activity where you literally shoot a laser at a rock and get paid for it. Mining is so integral to the economic and risk/reward meta that making any sort of effort to increase or validate more active playstyles would fundamentally change the game at a very basic level.
Mining is profitable, but boring, is it any wonder people click on and AFK? What, you expect people to sit with rapt attention for an entire cycle in hisec, white knuckles clutching their overpriced gaming peripherals, enthralled at the breathtaking spectacle of lasering inanimate objects and occasionally watching drones blow up a belt rat?
If EVE were developed today, I'd wager mining as an activity would be very different. It's a relic of an era where it was acceptable to make people do boring stuff in games. There'd be some sort of interactive actual game attached to it, and someone would have attempted to design some fun in to it.
HOWEVER we can't just graft more fun on to hisec mining at this point. The act and ability to afk or semi-afk mine is the backbone of the EVE economy, and why a large portion of things every player buys are actually affordable to purchase or produce.
AFK mining IS bad, but it's not abhorrent from a player standpoint. CCP made mining boring, so its no wonder people will AFK it. That ability created an entire casual miner subculture that you can't just crap all over because it's a large part of your community.
I mine in a little side window at work, clicking over to drop stuff off every once in a while. As a supplement to my actual job it's kind of enjoyable. every once in a while drones blow up belt rats, the scenery is nice, and it gets a little passive income for when I got home and do actual gameplay. I wouldn't want to give that up at this point because it's such a big part of how I play EVE. I can only imagine how it feels for people who's primary activity IS mining. |