Mecinia Lua
Galactic Express
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Posted - 2007.01.18 09:04:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Dr Slice
If CCP completely gave in to the bears, then it would ruin the game only for those that don't adhere to this playstyle, thus ruining the game for many people (many Pirates/Outlaws).
I watched StarWars Galaxies go through the same thing the OP describes in those other online games. Its not very difficult to completely ruin what was once, a great game.
SWG didn't fail by giving into the carebears. It failed by continually trying to reinvent the wheel instead of just pumping air into it. It failed because they didn't listen to the playerbase, and continue to not listen to the playerbase.
In fact the majority of the playerbase left because of the rollout of the NGE as well as an incomplete NGE, even now over 13 months since its release it is still not finished.
Now contrast that with CCP. Thus far they have enjoyed a continuing rise in subscriptions. It benefitted from the failure of SOE in SWG in that some came here, it has benefitted as well from those leaving WoW looking for something more difficult.
The greatest challenge I see for CCP right now is getting new players to join and to stay. Increasingly Empire is not as safe as it should be perhaps. Its becoming harder and harder for the new person to find a spot. Asteroid belts are being wiped out in massive numbers.
Folks are to afraid to venture into 0.0 or low sec because at that skill level you simply do not often have the funds to replace what you have. This is further complicated by Empire wars that keep folks from getting the resources they need.
Wars though are also a necessary part of EVE, without them there is nothing for the carebear to do since if ships aren't lost they don't need replacing.
Its kinda a vicious cycle :(.
I see EVE as being in a bubble though. Thus far the buble has been expanding. However as it becomes more difficult to have new players find a spot in High Empire where they can flourish, we are going to see fewer of them staying. At the same time folks will move on to other games or RL will take them. Thus I believe that we will reach the point of saturation around the third quarter of 2007, then the game will begin to contract.
There are some ways the devs might could alleviate this. One would be to introduce more Empire space to provide noobs a greater chance. Two they could increase bounties on rats in low Empire and increase yield and minerals in belts in low Empire thus enticing some to leave High Empire. Thirdly they could introduce more entrances to 0.0 alleviating congestion and some bottlenecks. This would hopefully get more folks to go into 0.0 and thus leave High Empire behind.
Eve's entering its 4th year though, and it still has an expanding customer base for the moment which is something the devs should be proud about.
It may soon come a time they need to consider another shard. Perhaps even allowing some character transfers for free in order to break things up a bit more.
CCP though has done a good job listening to players I think and achieving a balance between the PVPers and the Carebears than other companys have such as SOE with SWG.
Its not a perfect decision or balance, it never will be, balance is illusionary in these games and lasts only until someone discovers the next great combo.
I think they've done a much better job here than SOE, yes they've had to make compromises in order to maintain the game. Warp to 0km wasn't an antipirate move it was an antidatabase overflow measure that impacted some pirates but I've seen others adapt and do well. The same with the idea of local showing standing ( it doesn't show your sec status, it only shows the standing they've set you to or your corp to). We were all maintaining to large a library of bookmarks and buddies for the database to continue to work with.
I'm about out of characters here but that's just my thoughts :)
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