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Victor Andall
Complexes and Abaddons
69
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Posted - 2014.02.06 09:40:00 -
[1] - Quote
No, this is not a thread to advocate microtransactions or pay to win. This is meant as an analysis of why NEX failed and what can be done to overhaul it.
I've searched for a bit and only found one thread in GD that didn't quite cover what I want to talk about.
First, let's get the ugly out of the way.
Incarna pretty much flopped and it wasn't the new character models or the captain quarters, it was Aurum and the NEX Store. EVE players started fearing that CCP is going the Pay To Win route. Which is a valid concern, as there are few companies out there that did Free2Play and Microtransactions in particular right. However, microtransactions, as a purely optional aspect of the game that has little to no impact on gameplay is not a great evil to be shunned. There are people out there, myself included, that like the Captain's Quarters. I don't actively use it, because of the greater loading time and I usually don't have the time and patience to wait for those few seconds when I want to just dock, dump my cargo and undock.
But there are other times when I'm engaged in market activities or PI or whatever, when I go into character mode. But I digress.
There is a way to make the Noble Exchange work. And it's a relatively simple one: get the players involved.
You can see this working successfully with Valve's DotA 2 store.
Players have access to some in-game assets, they make the clothing models, submit them, they go through an approval system and then they become available on the store and the players get a share of the profits (Aurum only, of course). EVE would still need to sell the actual Aurum for real cash.
I am willing to bet that a handful of Eve players would get involved with something like this and that even more would like more diverse ways of customizing their characters (you need only look at the amount of work some people put in posing and framing their characters just to take a picture for the portrait). EVE players seem to be quite involved with their avatars, some more than others (Angelica Dreamstar does come to mind).
Furthermore, this alleviates one of the primary concern of EVE players: CCP dedicating resources to trivial and cosmetic content to the detriment of ship pew pew gameplay.
I think this would require a minimal one-time effort on CCP's behalf to get the approval system set up and I truly think it would ultimately have a positive impact on the game.
I have a few more ideas on this topic, but first I would like to hear some opinions on what I took the time to write so far.
Thank you. I just undocked for the first time and someone challenged me to a duel. Wat do?
http://andallcombat.wordpress.com/current-tournament/ |
Kagura Nikon
Mentally Assured Destruction The Pursuit of Happiness
1248
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Posted - 2014.02.06 09:55:00 -
[2] - Quote
Simple reason why it failed? Pants in eve cost more than in real life!!!
Only an idiot would spend money there. "If brute force does not solve your problem..... -áthen you are -ásurely not using enough!" |
Victor Andall
Complexes and Abaddons
69
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Posted - 2014.02.06 10:04:00 -
[3] - Quote
This is a valid point. Prices would need to be re-evaluated. It's a lot simpler to sell many cheap items than few expensive ones. And studies in Microtransactions have shown that people who spent money once will do so more easily again.
I hate to drum on the DotA angle but outfits (item sets) sell for somewhere south of ten dollars american there. With some pricing adjustments, this could still work. Regardless of whether or not one would spend real money on Aurum, the fact remains that there are people out there that would and do frequently engage in microtransaction spending. Even in games that don't require them to do so in order to keep playing. I just undocked for the first time and someone challenged me to a duel. Wat do?
http://andallcombat.wordpress.com/current-tournament/ |
Tsobai Hashimoto
Evil Monkey Asylum Evil Monkeys Asylum
189
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Posted - 2014.02.06 11:33:00 -
[4] - Quote
I think it could help.....unlocking the door and allowing us to walk among each other would greatly increase the use of the NEX.....
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Victor Andall
Complexes and Abaddons
72
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Posted - 2014.02.06 11:35:00 -
[5] - Quote
I wouldn't think CCP focusing resources on Walk In Stations would bode well with the community as it would require quite a bit of effort and development time on their part. As far as I know the idea is shelved for now. I just undocked for the first time and someone challenged me to a duel. Wat do?
http://andallcombat.wordpress.com/current-tournament/ |
Little Dragon Khamez
Guardians of the Underworld White Mountain Coalition
1014
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Posted - 2014.02.10 23:58:00 -
[6] - Quote
+1 for vanity items only, such as clothes and special ship skins etc, which was the original plan with incarna, all of the rage was about pay to win being suggested in that leaked memo. Dumbing down of Eve Online will result in it's destruction... |
Oberine Noriepa
1435
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Posted - 2014.02.11 06:46:00 -
[7] - Quote
I think the idea has merit. I especially like the user-created content part. Of course, this should be restricted to vanity items only. |
Victor Andall
Complexes and Abaddons
89
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Posted - 2014.02.11 07:08:00 -
[8] - Quote
I agree. Most successful microtransaction models focus on purely aesthetic customization (which has been proven to reliably generate revenue). It's a matter of selling the right items to the right audience. You can have people take requests, organize contests of a sort. There's some potential for emergent gameplay, if only for creating a new metagaming profession: The Fashion Designer.
Take that last part with a grain of salt. :) I just undocked for the first time and someone challenged me to a duel. Wat do?
http://andallcombat.wordpress.com/current-tournament/ |
Naomi Knight
Imperial Academy Amarr Empire
512
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Posted - 2014.02.11 07:23:00 -
[9] - Quote
No way no more lame Walk in Stations, totally pointless, nothing to do there. Instead lets start making ship skins and effects ,we play with ships. |
Seliah
0mega.
2
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Posted - 2014.02.11 08:06:00 -
[10] - Quote
Naomi Knight wrote:No way no more lame Walk in Stations, totally pointless, nothing to do there. Instead lets start making ship skins and effects ,we play with ships.
Walking in stations can be awesome and bring a lot of interesting (spaceship-related) gameplay if CCP dedicates a lot of effort to it, but that's not the topic here.
I like the idea of improving the NEX Store, as long as it's vanity items only. Player-made items would allow for corporations and alliances to design their own clothing, which would be pretty cool imo. That said, items that make it through CCP's approval would have to follow a certain chart to keep a certain graphical cohesion between characters. I wouldn't want to see avatars with bunny ears or cartoon faces.
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Xeator
soldiers.fi
11
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Posted - 2014.02.11 08:31:00 -
[11] - Quote
Kagura Nikon wrote: Simple reason why it failed? Pants in eve cost more than in real life!!!
Only an idiot would spend money there.
ISK/AUR price is irrelevant to real world prices. Nobody pays 5000$ for EVE pants, someone might pay 100bil for EVE pants with no problem at all.
People tend to mix ingame and irl currency as if isk or plex was actually worth real money. It isnt.
I would love to see more clothing options, not necessarily submitted by people. Some sources said that there are lots of clothing models ready, but unreleased. I would just like to see more clothes and especially HATS.
What I would love even more would be more WIS, lots and lots of WIS, but as stated in this thread already that is another topic. |
Ines Tegator
Towels R Us
373
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Posted - 2014.02.11 08:33:00 -
[12] - Quote
Incarna didn't fail, it exploded. Seriously, EVE nearly died in the space of two weeks and CCP was forced to downsize their entire company by 20%. Can you blame them for leaving it alone? That said, there are 2.5 reasons that it did this. Presented in order:
1. The leaked report hinting at PTW transactions to follow ('gold ammo'). 2. We waited 2 years, endured bugs and balance problems that went unchanged, took expansions that added half-finished features, so that you could devote your time to giving us one room and a door??? 2.5. HOW MUCH DID THAT SHIRT COST?!?!
The fact of microtransactions themselves was never the problem- it's the slippery slope to pay-to-win. The way to make the NEX successful then is to release cosmetic-only content at a reasonable price. No more or less then that.
Regarding crowdsourced content, while it is awesome (I love modding my games), it's not attractive to most companies because of IP reasons. There's the moderation aspect too, but that's not the big one. In order to make a clothing mesh, you need the base body mesh, skeleton, rendering format (if nonstandard), modeling tools (if nonstandard), original textures and shader maps, animations, a test platform (EVE won't let you mod game files like a single player game will), and all other clothing assets as well (to test for clipping and animation issues). Very few companies are willing to release that much of their property. I love the idea (and <3 Bethesda games for this reason alone), but really just don't see it happening. - Mission Overhaul - Bridging the PVP / PVE Gap - -áIf the game stops teaching people to fear lowsec, maybe people will start going there? |
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