Well since quitting the game three years ago, I come back for a month every year or so to see what is going on in the game. I log on and see improved graphics and clients but alas I also see things that haven't changed. I end up playing off and on for a month and then quitting the game again. Now I realize I am probably wasting my time and the devs probably doesn't care but I will say why for the third year I am not renewing again.

Back in 2004 CCP had a game that was dedicated to PVP warfare and it was grand but then they started adding stuff for the non-pvper. And they kept adding and adding and in the process nerving 0.0. Many of us warned this would have a disastrous effect on the intended gameplay focused on player organizations. We ware all flamed like burgers on the 4th of july. Of course it happened. When concord was put in to protect non-pvpers, CCP assured us they would be defeat able and wouldn't become invincible as we warned. We were told to shut up again and flamed again. When they added megacyte to empire space, we warned of the disastrous economic effects to 0.0 economies and we were flamed and told there were only trace amounts and that we were full of it. When they introduced level 4 missions we warned they were pushing all financial incentives to empire and were again flamed to hell. We complained that other than a couple of areas most of 0.0 was now worthless. We were told to shut up.

In the meantime we asked for things. The ability to secure our empires with gate guns and implement real border warfare. We asked for the sovereignty system to focus on border, not jumping 500 capitals into the main heart of the player empire. We asked for low sec to be declared a disaster area (as it always was) and just added to 0.0. We asked for many things to assist players in making their own game.

Some 8 years later all of the bad predictions have come to pass and none of the requests have ben granted. Over the last two weeks I have flown through deserted 0.0 space where the only time you see anyone is occasionally in passing and the deeper you get in 0.0, the more the population density looks like upper siberia. There still is no way to create player made empire, sovereignty management is still a joke and 99% of the population is in empire. Don't take my word for it, log on and pull a star map. I just logged off when there are 43k people online and 99% ofthem are in empire. Empire is a bright star of population and 0.0 is all but deserted. Some people camp the entry gates but otherwise it is largely empty. Once you are past the high sec and low sec chokes you can fly for hours without seeing a soul.

What's more it that nearly 10 years after the start of the game players still can't secure their empires against marauders and form real communities and nearly everyone in the game makes their money in high sec lucrative pursuits and trays 0.0 like a glorified arena. Its very sad and depressing given what it could have been. I still think of the player made content that could have insued from this game and shake my head sadly.

In short, Eve has become a care bear game. I used to make fun of people that played WoW but at least that game has stayed true to its vision, a game with corporation generated content and only a fleeting nod to player content. Eve still says it is sandbox on the front page but its a well regulated, tightly controlled sand box with concord over each child's shoulder ensuring they don't play dodgeball because someone might get hurt. There is almost no incentive to take risks, to move into high sec.

CCP might as well get it over with and keep a couple of 0.0 regions as arenas and make the rest of the game high sec. Say the jovians finally invaded the galaxy and get it over with. Since CCP has been making the game slowly a care bear game for years, they might as well get it over with.

This is the last year I will be back and trying it out. It is a lost cause and that, strangely, makes me sad. CCP, you started something wonderful and then let bean counters and hand wringers mess it up. Its too bad really.

Well, unlike you, I am not hostile, even to you. Its a shame that you didn't see eve in its heyday, when armadas of haulers were running megacyte to high sec and armadas of haulers were running equipment back out to 0.0. It was quite a thing to see all the coordination and teamwork.

The non-pvpers of the game seem to have some idea that before they were there to save everyone, there were no ships to be had, no one knew how to build anything and nothing got done. They seem to think that the advent of the care bear part of the game is what mad the game work when the reality was the opposite.

I remember Flying with Xetic alliance in an epic war over rich megabyte asteroid deposits so deep into 0.0 that the non-pvpers couldn't quite imagine it. It took 45 min of straight jumping, assuming you weren't molested in the meantime, to get to the system and there were armadas of ships working together to get things done.

The care bears in eve have never built a darn thing. They build ships and modules, sure, but that is just following some pre-programmed recipe that involves a lot of grinding out to get the iso, the minerals and then stuff them into a factory and be proud of themselves. That is a load of porcine cleaning fluid. Its a shallow project and they crow about it constantly.

I know people that have BUILT entire organizations spanning dozens of star systems with thousands of players. The starters of Red Alliance, BOB, Mercenary Coalition, Xetic, the Norther alliance, Goonswarm and, at risk of blowing my own horn, Agony Unleashed started something great. However i somehow think you don't have a clue who any of these people are as you are clearly empire bound.

Red alliance and Xetic took thousands of players and conquered star system after star system and engaged in epic battles that strained the servers so hard it made Jita lag look smooth. BoB once spanned half of the known 0.0 universe utilizing, again, thousands of coordinated pilots that were builders, engineers, tinkerers, and organizers. All of these organizations had massive infrastructure needs and massive issues to deal with in managing what was essentially a huge multi thousand player super corporation. Carebears have never built anything resembling that.

Mercenary coalition revolutionized the game more than once with combat tactics and ship fits. Half of the nerfs demanded by care bears on ships were because genius ship outfitters at MC and genius tacticians used their skills to get so much out of their ships that MC ships just steamrolled opposition.

Agony Unleashed was started by me and is still alive today with other very capable pilots at the helm. I started the most well known pvp school in the eve universe and we agains revolutionized small ship tactics and helped take the game from being massive battleship fleets to utilizing every ship in the game. We took literally thousands of players who had never been in PvP before out into 0.0 and showed them how to fight and survive. We proved that they didn't have to be a victim. Many of those players took the information home and used it to fight warded marauders and pirates. To this day agony pilots spend dozens of hours twice a month getting nothing for it to show people how to pvp.

So care bears built a few ships and modules. Sorry, not impressed.


EDIT: Why does their spell checker not recognize words from their own game. Could it hurt to have a bloody dictionary file?