Jade Constantine
Jericho Fraction
The Star Fraction
1027
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Posted - 2011.12.24 12:13:00 -
[1] - Quote
its a big issue for CCP this one. There is a high danger if they tried to introduce Ship skins through the NeX store then a lot of the bad feelings and player rage from last summer will come back because it does represent the creeping contamination of overt paywall microtransactions Eve online. It also makes people question the value of their subscriptions which though remaining constant are no longer covering all the content. (Think of it in terms of subscription to a tv sports channel where you expect all the matches in a particular league to come with your subs - then the cable company decides that some of the matches are "special" (vanity only) and you only get them if you pay extra). That can't do other than make you question the value for money of your subscription.
Its the hidden flaw of the "hybrid model (subs+microtransactions) really because there is a cost associated with going down the microtransaction route in making subscriptions less attractive as a baseline. For example if you had 200,000 subs ongoing and you considered that making ship skins for $ would bring in an additional say $100,000 you might think - "excellent! get me the new car showroom on the phone!" But the problem is that hiving off some content to MT makes the subscription look less attractive and you might end up losing 5000-10000 subs plus a lot of good will. That means your $100,000 profit from MT suddenly turns into +/- $25,000 combined with player discontent that knocks on to negative word of mouth commentary in the pretty interconnected universe of pc gaming.
Compare with simply releasing ship skins in the client and attainable by traditional gameplay methods. Lets say they put ship skins in the faction loyalty point stores:
1. It makes sense from a game lore perspective. Have Caldari custom skins through their loyalty point stores, Blood raider skins through theirs, Sansha skins through theirs, hell, have some lovely softy SOE skins for hospital ships and mercy barges from their stuff. This shows attention to detail - the right organizations in game will be selling the stuff.
2. Having skins through loyalty point store means all players with the standings can access the content and another secondary market is created for people to mission to sell skin paint jobs to those without the loyalty points (or inclination to mission).
3. Since its a purely ingame activity there will be absolutely no inclination to make these things permanent (as is the case with the NeX store clothing abortions once applied to an avatar..
4. Most importantly - the perceived value of the subscription will have been enhanced. Eve players will feel their subscription $ is hard at work making their game options better and their ships more attractive and will tell their friends that CCP as a developer are delivering a fair product that doesn't disembowel its own Prime Fiction and game universe credibility in the search of every additional cent of disposable income in its player's pockets.
(On that last point lets remember we are supposed to believe that NeX (an Amarrian company where the Amarrian government is the majority shareholder) has been granted a full monopoly to sell capsuleer clothing from every space station in known space including thousands of stations that the Amarrian state is actually AT WAR WITH. And that every capsuleer in Eve including Minmatar Faction Warfare pilots (who are fighting the amarrian state) must buy their clothing from the enemy. )
Now sure, call it roleplay fluff and say "who cares really." But CCP used to be a company that DID CARE about these details or why bother creating the lovely detailed background in the first place.
So I say by even considering putting factional colour schemes in the NeX store they'd be hugely compounding the appalling misjudgements of last year (which we hope have now been well and truly buried with Zulu passing the torch and CCP monocle nowhere to be seen).
NeX store needs to go.
Ship skins through Loyalty point stores appropriate to the faction worked for.
Corp logos should be something default in the game not a paid extra.
The reality is that the strong player groups encouraged by Corp and Alliance identity do more to maintain healthy subscription income for Eve than almost any other facet of the game. CCP need to be rewarding corporations for keeping players playing - not trying to shake them down for extra MT fees for things that should come as default to the eve gameworld.
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