Hey OP. Did you know that:
-Free to play is just renamed "DEMO VERSION" ? (like "Cloud" is just renamed "the internet")
-EVE is already "true free to play" (PLEX)?
-Star citizen is no.5454866322 game in a row which is going to "kill EVE definitely"?
-You are using textbooks fallacies?
-EVE is here for more than 10 years now only because people like you and your stupid ideas are not in the CCP management?
-you would do a favor for many of us here if you biomass yourself right now ?

Star Citizen is not even in the same game class as Eve Online. The only similarity between them is spaceships.

But they don't even look like spaceships, more like jet fighters. Jet fighters with toilets. I pledged for this game long ago, but the more stuff they show off the less appealing I find sc as a whole.

But they don't even look like spaceships, more like jet fighters. Jet fighters with toilets. I pledged for this game long ago, but the more stuff they show off the less appealing I find sc as a whole.

Did you never play Wing Commander? I mean, if you didn't like that then you won't like SC.

Never did, although I heard good things about it. Wing Commander never was in the "running", however - quite simply, I only do MMOs.

Did you never play Wing Commander? I mean, if you didn't like that then you won't like SC.

You must be young. Wing Commander was before MMO's in the early 1990's. I had a copy on the SNES.

STUFF

I was seriously excited about Star Citizen until they called a corvette size vessel a capital ship. What kind of wimpy space empire can't build anything bigger than that? Dogfights don't interest me one bit, I want grand strategy.

Star Citizen is better,,,no really...Guys?/

Alright guys I've got this one.

At the moment, EVE cannot survive in the long-run, which is what CCP want the game to be a - a game lasting decades, not years. With biggies like Star Citizen coming round with one-time fees and no-subs, there's gonna be some serious questions asked by the players. Questions like this:

"Why am I still paying for this bad bad game when star citizen is a lot cheaper?"

This question will mean people will unsubscribe. We've also noticed a big trend in the MMO world going away from subs, that trend isn't fully done yet. But when it is, who knows what'll happen to the CCP.

The big business model transFORMATION

Okay guys, so here's how I think CCP should do it.

1) EVE becomes free. Anybody can make account, download and start getting scammed by goons.

2) CCP sells character slots, ship paints, golden pods and more clothes and stuff. Basically, CCP sells as much as it can that doesn't have an impact on gameplay.

3) Population of EVE rises. There are huge huge wars because there are so many people fighting and having fun.

4) EVE is a lot better, more dynamic. Look at all of the politics with 400k people fighting for a finite amount of space. Imagine 5 million people fighting for the same amount of space? It would be crazy. Absolutely crazy.

This would probably INCREASE CCPs profits as well. I'd recommend that they do this IPO on the stockmarket they were talking about, as that will get the big businesses interested and posting articles about this awesome sci-fi sim. All of the hardcore eve fans, like the mitani, will probably buy shares - so they'll have even more money to improve the game.

As they improve the game more people play and buy cosmetic items and CCP get richer.

Thoughts please.


Thread update:

Thanks for feedback guys, I think there are a few more points worth adding here.

1) CCP should also consider the option of buy to play. Perhaps a -ú39.99 to get access to the game client, but fees after that - this would ensure there is a paywall to supplement CCP profits and keep out the hacking community. With the increased profits, CCP would have greater confidence in following a strictly cosmetic cash4items scheme.

Buy to play has been an extremely successful model and I think it is particularly relevant to EVE ONLINE. Why? The model in GW2 has triggered slow but steady growth, this is the type of growth CCP has always been experiencing with EVE. http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/08/23/lead-designer-says-guild-wars-2-is-growing-its-playerbase/

2) Secondly, a steam launch as free to play would be a great bolster to current numbers. 0.9 of the world's population has a steam account. http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/10/30/0-9-of-the-global-population-have-steam-accounts/

We have no data on CCP's aura store earnings, so it's hard to say. But I bet if they added stuff like character slots and ship paints, things people actually want, then it would do MUCH better.

EVE cannot survive in the long-run

I want to punch you so bad...

All current subscribers receive free copy of game.