Mifune
The Rusty Muskets
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Posted - 2016.01.19 06:16:05 -
[1] - Quote
So I will preface my post in saying that I have been playing eve for a very long time, since before it was released. Before most people knew the game even existed and before a fair number of the people currently working at ccp. How eve in its infancy grabbed me was its unabashed approach to its players. It expected the players to bring their brains to the game if they were to succeed. I remember playing eve before there was even a "set destination" and you had to look at the map, write down you're jumps, plan you're route to go somewhere in the eve universe and then do it again to go to some other unknown solar system. It truly felt as if you were a space farer. When the game takes a direction to specifically make the consequences in eve easier on the player base, out of fear of consequences from the player base... It takes away the uniqueness that brought so many of the players to the game in the first place.
Firstly when eve started and us "old vets" trudged into the cold embrace of new eden, we felt freedom, adventure, we felt something that no MMO before it had given us. It was a game for adults, It was blade runner, it was ascendancy, it was what our imagination of space and alter egos craved. Finally having a world in which we could truly escape our normal daily life and dream of the stars and the universe which we could not reach.
What we were privileged enough to experience was one painful kick in the pills after another from eve. Eve forced us to learn the game as well as the developers or better. What can be broken, where are the boundaries and most importantly what are the consequences of failure. If a player messed up they lost, in whatever they were attempting. Every decision in eve meant something and those who took the time to think before making decisions would be rewarded for their efforts. One major element to eve was (as of this dev blog) character grooming, taking the time to plan which skills to train and when. This was just as important as applying those skills in game. Taking the time plan for you're characters future was you're responsibility and no one else's. If you messed up you had to deal with it. No get out of jail card, no take backs. Over the years eve has slowly made bad decisions "less" bad. In recent years I have been worried that the eve I grew to respect is changing in ways that may not be reversible. Catering to a player base that wants everything on a silver platter and complains even then that is not good enough. This the antithesis of eve to me.
While some in the community may say HEY JACK! theres a character bazaar.. so we should have skill buying also! (yes it is skill buying not trading folks). Well my argument to that is the character bazaar was a 110% bad idea in concept and implementation. It was a feel good moment for a dev team that they earned their pay check for a quarter but unfortunately the community has been paying the price ever since. Secondly two wrongs do not make a right.. Every player in eve up until the bazaar had to be responsible for their actions, the bazaar broke that and I would argue should be ended.
Now if we are going to argue that Pandora is out of the box and there is no going back, even then skill buying is such a bad idea on so many different levels. There are so many blatant flaws to anyone that half thinks about the impact on the game going into the future. The only positives Ive read thus far benefit the impatient or the regretful. Someone made a comment about telling a corp mate they have to wait to play with the big boys. Like ever other player that came before them? Put in the time and work... or would you like a silver platter my dear?
As to the regretful, as I said consequences. I have skills I look back on and think... why did I train that? what a waste.. but you know what? Its a part of my character, a part of me, a lesson and a reminder. One that will guide me into the future.
Looking at the proposed plan my question firstly is why? (anyone remember station environments?)
Is there really a demand for what you are trying to implement because I just do not see it. Every player I have talked to so far regardless of their time in eve have said this plan is a bad idea. The great thing about eve atm is that ever player is subject to the same rules.
As I see it there are three obvious paths for eve to travel down.
Monetary - Dumb down eve, make it easier and more inclusive to the general audience, less consequences and more feel good's and ata boys. Flexibility and hand holding for anyone not willing or capable of playing the game.
Longevity - Understand how eve came to be, why it is special and what you can do to make it better. Realize that you as developers have the power of life and death for eve and take ultimate responsibility for you're decisions with that in mind.
Role change - Conclude that the eve that once was is not a financially viable option to continue with. Convert eve from a game of mind and consequences to a modern game of micro transactions and pay to win.
I am not going to make my personal assumptions on which path ccp is choosing and/or has chosen. I would say that this decisions if carried through on will have major consequences.
What I would ask is to think deeply on the "consequences" of this decisions. Not because players may quit playing but because we are reaching a tipping point at which eve is not eve, its just another replaceable easy P2Win MMO. It may not change over night but it will eventually arrive at its destination. I hope the choice is the second, and that development will take the foundation that is eve and blaze a path into the future with the same level of imagination that eve started. I feel as if eve has been chasing ghost so to speak. Tweaking things that were already balanced, changing things with no benificial purpose.
Time to make eve... Not change it. |