Norrin Ellis
Venture Racing
78
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Posted - 2012.04.08 08:54:00 -
[1] - Quote
Assuming for a moment that drone goo and Meta 0 loot are being removed from the loot tables, I'm very interested to see the effect it has on subscriptions. By no means am I enthusiastic about the change, as these are my preferred source of gathering minerals for the few things that I do occasionally build (usually faction ships for friends), but given that I earn the bulk of my ISK from other activities and never risk ships in PvP, I can afford to sit back and watch.
The major problems that I see here are that people don't really enjoy mining and effectively handing a monopoly on necessary high-end minerals to the nullsec cartels only alienates the majority of the playerbase. I honestly think it might be better to remove mining from the game entirely, refund the skillpoints, and make all mineral production the result of some combat-oriented activity, whether it be PvE or PvP.
The simple fact is that this change will drive up prices for everything. Mining is boring. People who get minerals from missions aren't going to suddenly become miners and keep the supply flowing. The nullsec cartels aren't exaactly philanthropists, so I doubt they'll supply anything at reasonable prices once they've got a lock on the market. Those who do mine are easy targets, and driving up the cost to replace their ships or forcing them to hire mercs to fend off wars will only make matters worse. Let's face it--no matter how many escorts a Hulk has, it's going down in flames to any suicide gankers that care to kill it.
Personally, I only undock to do the occasional mission, and I only collect the loot from the drone missions. For me, this change will mean sitting in station permanently and never undocking. I'll also never build anything, as I'm not willing to pay current mineral prices, so I certainly won't pay when the prices go through the roof. Eventually, this EVE experience will become insufferably boring, and I'll have no choice but to close my two accounts. I can only imagine how players of similar interests that do not have similar bankrolls--I have at least 10 billion on hand at all times--will respond to the change.
I expect that when this change is implemented, I will become a one-man ISK sink. I plan to continue making money by providing a meta-game service (join EOH Poker channel), but I will stop spending ISK in the new EVE economy. No purchases. No loans. No gifts. No capital investments. Money that goes into my pocket might as well have been tossed into a black hole. This will be the effect of the change for me... until I grow weary of giving my RL money to a company that clearly has no concern for my interests as a customer.
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