Arthmandar Valikari
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Posted - 2006.03.06 19:53:00 -
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I find this entire thread fascinating and ironic... Anyone who has played Eve long enough to have watched it evolve (and I count myself, as of 5 months, as being in that group) has experienced the thrill of a change being made that favors them and the disappointment of a change being made that does not.
I think the idea that 'Predators' evolve and 'Prey' does not is insane, personally -- the point of the OP sounded like he had found his niche in his own evolution, and was playing the game the way he wanted to, and then he had to change in ways he didn't like. The concept is fine, but the predator/prey analogy sucks -- better is 'evolving' or 'static' for gameplay. People who log on and do the same things they always do are playing the static game. People who go try something new are evolving their gameplay. Both hard core PvPers and 1.0 battleship miners can be static in their gameplay. Almost everyone I know plays statically 95% of the time.
-- Which is perfectly fine. The great part about Eve is you can find the subgame you *want* to play, and play it. We all know people who love to play solitaire, and odds are if you play Eve, you think solitaire is a little bit uninteresting. But people love it anyway. There are people who love 1.0 veld mining. They are people who love trading, hauling, NPCing, mission running, space conquest, fleet warfare, capital ship combat, and even just staying in station and building their skillpoints. Eve allows all of this. It's fantastic that way.
The fact that Eve evolves is both the best thing about it and the worst thing -- one day your favorite subgame disappears. Maybe it is enough that you quit the game, CCP accepts that as life in changing the game. Maybe not. There is absolutely nothing wrong with people who don't want to evolve, to choose to quit evolving -- at least, within a game. They're not bad people, they're not playing the game 'wrong', it's just their thing, or it isn't.
So again, we've all had points where the game has forced us to evolve our playstyle. Personally, I've spent my five months in game preparing to be a very hard core scientist to play the tech II lottery, and I know it's getting revamped and reworked in Kali. It may be changed in ways that invalidate all of the goals I've played with to date. If it is, well, that's life. If it sucks that the subgame I wanted to play has disappeared, I don't owe it to CCP to stick around if that's a deal breaker, and CCP understands that, and accepts it. On the other hand, Eve is the richest game I've ever played, so odds are I'm going to explore all of it before leaving, but that's just who I am.
So recognize that CCP may someday evolve Eve into a game you don't like. You can leave, you can stay and find something else to do. I guarantee CCP is hoping it never evolves Eve into a game that nobody likes. But from a business perspective, they do have to work the common denominator side of things. On the other hand, giving large groups of people what they want, is almost always a bad idea. I don't envy them the line they have to walk.
The OP is right about a few things, though -- evolving your gameplay is hard, and when you've got something working and it disappears out from under you, that's harsh and frustrating. Eve is the first MMORPG I've played, but I definitely get the sense that CCP dares more change every two weeks than many dare at all. Sometimes it is awesome, sometimes it sucks, but that's just the territory, and that's what you're paying to play. When it isn't fun anymore, stop. Until then, enjoy the game you play today, and recognize that tomorrow, it might be completely different for you.
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