Dani Leone
Gallente
Freelancer Union
Unaffiliated
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Posted - 2009.02.04 13:50:00 -
[1]
I think this is great news, but really only a start.
I want you to consider a longer que, much longer in fact.
Whilst I can see reasons for not doing this, I don't think they are compelling now that ghost training has been removed.
Don't get me wrong, I think that being able to set training for a 24 hour period is truly excellent and will be very helpful.
It is this sort of thinking that I am worried about:
 Quote:
While it¦s cool that you can advance your character when you are offline, we did worry that if we introduced a skill queue some players might just set a queue for a year and become less active in EVE. That¦s not what a massively multiplayer ONLINE game is about. EVE is a social game and we want you exposed to other players so you can start making legends out of you or corporation and strive for domination. A long abstinence from EVE would ruin this for us.
Firstly this is a non sequitor, there is not one reason at all to consider that many players might decide to become anti social simply because they can set a large raft of skills in a que.
More likely but equaly not certain, is that players who are already intending on taking a sabbatical from New Eden would be more likely to return (and to remain subscribed) if their character had advanced along during their absence.
There are quite a few players for whom a long abstinence may be totally unavoidable.
Those in the military, in particular, who might go for months at a time without being able to log in. These people are no worse off now than before, but wouldnt it be nice to allow them something better? So that they can keep up with their comrades who have the luxury of being able to log in every day or so? As it stands, they might as well cancel their account and re-enable when they return.
Also I don't think that alt farming, one of the other most often quoted concerns, would be cost effective.
If everyone could do it, the prices would drop to at or below the ISK cost for GTC/Plex and effectively cost more to train than the farmer could hope to profitably sell for.
Removing Ghost training in effect removed the hidden subsidy that farmers could make use of to farm characters at below the real cost that full time players could.
In an ideal world, I would want to be able to plan my training in Eve-mon and upload several plans to Eve, then switch between them as it suited me. This kind of flexibility would, I think, increase customer retention rather than threaten it.
In the mean time though, thanks! I hope to make good use of the 24 hour que  |