Hey all,

Just dropping by to shed some light on the watch list->buddy list change that was done by Team Five 0 in this release, and the reasoning behind it.

For a long time the watch list has had two main use cases: tracking the online status of friends, and tracking enemies of one kind or another. While we were happy with the first use case, for some time we've had design concerns about the latter. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, the information provided is 100% accurate all the time without any risk to the pilotGÇÖs receiving it. This means that the best (and really only) choice for a pilot is to add enemies, as it doesnGÇÖt cost them anything and they donGÇÖt put themselves at any risk by doing it. We've discussed before how weGÇÖre not really keen on non choices in New Eden (See the clone removal for one example of this). Secondly, a pilot concerned about people watching them has no in-game choice to counter this overpowered source of information. They can either log in and face the fact that notifications have instantly appeared for everyone wanting to hurt them, or simply not play. As you can imagine, thatGÇÖs not a choice that we really want to encourage!

We understand that for many people, this will fundamentally change the way you can use the (now renamed) buddy list, and we apologize for any short term inconvenience this may cause. WeGÇÖre happy to discuss any use cases we may have neglected and any suggestions for future iteration that donGÇÖt contradict the reasoning outlined above.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!