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Posted - 2016.10.15 20:07:14 -
[1] - Quote
It is hard to see past certain logical problems with FTP existing alongside subscriptions.
For a start, we can say for certain that FTP characters will have either a good time, or not.
If they don't, they will leave, and it will have been a pointless exercise.
If they do have a good time...... what is the point of paying a subscription? Why not have good time in Eve for free?
Therefore, CCP have to ensure that the FTP experience is not sufficiently fun to attract this subscribers, and yet somehow sufficiently fun to attract new players.
I hate to say it, but this seems like bare faced nonsense dressed up as a good idea.
Sooner or later, CCP is going to have to move away from a subscription model and towards alternate sources of revenue. The numbers are dying off fast, there is a lot of competition in the space pew sector, and the numbers are dying off fast. And the numbers are dying off fast.
Don't get me wrong, CCP impress the heck out of me with their business model. They have had a good run.
There are other streams of revenue that could be harnessed, but it would mean a cultural and structural change in the way CCP opera as a firm. It means ending the pay-to-win mechanics which currently define the game and seriously limit game play development. If players don't pay, how can they pay to win?
I think this change in the fundamental mechanics, away from pay-to-win drivers, will allow Eve to blossom as a proper action game, a contest between players on equal footing. I'm optimistic.
Eve has so much potential. It might be the best thing for the long term future of the game for CCP to crash and burn, as a firm, or to face a hostile takeover with new management ideas. The assets that make up the potential of the game, human and code based, can be salvaged from the wreck and sent in a new direction.
It might also be that CCP do understand the need to change, and that they are slowly gearing up to say goodbye to the idea of developing the game for the folks who have paid the most into it over time. If so, I expect that the FTP characters will be more than capable of having fun in the Eve Universe, and therefore their numbers may grow quickly, allowing CCP to gather revenues from the exposure and allowing them to leave behind the bitter vets who think they have some kind of standing as investors in the firm.
If they don't, and the FTP characters are a waste of time and nothing more than easy fodder for bitter vets, to keep them around a little bit longer, we will know that CCP hasn't really changed it's core business model, and that we continue to sail away into the cold night of pay-to-win mechanics and bitter vets calling the shots in a shrinking community.
Regardless, the awesome work done by all the artists at CCP will endure. Eve will be forever respected as a glorious looking game.
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