Robart Baboli
Ferrous Infernum
34
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Posted - 2014.11.26 03:08:16 -
[1] - Quote
To those worried about higher equipment prices, do you remember when CCP first introduced titans, and thought that eve players would never build more than a hand-full, just because of the massive expense and size of them? CCP has underestimated the ability of players, despite having a hell of a lot more in the way of information as far as production. And with higher prices of trit ETC coming because of these changes, i predict that the smaller guys, many of which i knew, who got out of it when the margins were so low they were being bled dry, will return. It takes a certain crazed mindset to actually like mining, so it isn't like they will come out of the woodwork.
But at one point, before the margins crashed, i ran 5 toons on 3 computers, and had to go up and down a flight of stairs to do it. If you think dedicated miners, or even the people who currently get the easy mode on boxing stuff, are going to entirely give up as profits rise, then you are out of your collective minds. I've a bundle of barges i don't use anymore, because i found other, actually profitable things to do with my time. But i think i may put them back into service, and take advantage of my newly upgraded computers.
I will miss Bikkus, our awesome Korean HQ boxer, and his 40 NMs. I'll miss seeing fungu, Nolak, Cube, Nuabi, and Scruffy destroy anything on grid. But honestly, the more boxers proliferated, the less profitable it was to be a real person. The better the site times an incursion boxer could eke out of a given value of ships made it so it was either shiny or boxing to really make isk, which meant that the faucet drip rate kept going up, despite it going into fewer pockets, as more and more sites went to a hoard of toons all run by one person.
I've seen the effects of boxers on incursions, and mining, Two of the stereotypical carebear activities, from the inside. It was great, so long as the boxers liked you, or you could manage to trawl up enough friends to beat them out short term. But as boxing increases in scope, the ease of abuse of it increases. after all, take two guys running for the same amount of time, enough to say plex 3 accounts, and some spending money. the guy who's running a single toon, he makes enough for his three accounts, and is pretty much tapped. the guy multiboxing, he can start up 6 more accounts, and wait the several months for them to train (not an insubstantial investment of time and plex, i admit) . But if he just goes to a minimum survivable spec for HQs, (i'm an incursioner primarily, so i'll stick with what i know), it only takes 3 months. every three months, he has the potential to triple his income and account base. the bar is even lower for VGs, far what i've seen.
This is ignoring the inactive isk sources, be it research or PI, both of which are tedious pains in the ass to do manually, PI from experience, and research from what i've heard. The potential for massive market manipulation also exists, as you can get around limits on numbers of buy orders, or contracts. (although i've yet to hear of someone actually putting this harebrained idea i came up with into practice, so obviously it's a pretty terrible one, since i am dumb, and admit it.)
Then take gank catalysts. The justification for the suicide ganking mechanic i've usually heard is that if you can get enough people together to hit a target, then you shouldn't be immune. But if it's one player behind it, which by the cries of some people here, seems somewhat plausible, although i doubt many of the actual organizations do it, since they have the people, and getting people together to do it is their point. Then it becomes My 20 cheap ships should be able to kill your one expensive ship, cause i bought this program from some guy that lets me pretend i have friends. The arguement for requiring co-ordination among people as a justification is entirely valid. I enjoy seeing when it goes wrong, honestly. That it works so well is a testament to the work these people have put in. I don't want anyone thinking that i don't like seeing work put into whatever facet of eve that you enjoy. I may curse and ***** when ganked, and in the past, i've certainly been the fool for people like CODE. but that's what makes eve brilliant.
It is my firm belief that determined effort and social action are what should be the make/break point for eve. It is after all, a sandbox where CCP insists that all of our actions matter. I do however have a serious problem when one guy can go ahead, and after paying a fee to some group of people, win at whatever actions they take, because their volleys are perfectly synced, the spacing precise. That makes eve pay to win. And it isn't even supporting the people who make the game, or run it. That's what i take offense at, beyond all the various occupations that boxers may take up, making them either unprofitable, or taking up finite resources. Or both.
You want to pay to win at eve, pay CCP. buy the bloody plex, buy a titan, and throw enough isk around people pretend to be your friends. Don't go buy some program that you can pretend makes you better at what is ultimately a social game, because you no longer need other people. |