Indeed. If you go through updates.eveonline.com you will see indeed see things in each of the releases, even if often they are small ones like “new SKINs”. But for over a year, the only long-term ‘big thing’ that promises to expand on game play has been ‘Refineries’ which we are going to get over a year after they were originally promised to arrive. Sure, they are coming with significantly new mining functionality, and that is great, but seriously development and communication on the roadmap seem to have almost come to a halt.
Further, there are serious mixed messages coming out of CCP HQ these days. You have CCP Seagull promising things like “opening new space” in 2017-18 at the same time she is saying things like “the roadmap is open” despite them being nowhere near finishing implementing structures let alone new space. Or going onstage at Fanfest in May and promising a PvE-focused Empire expansion (before this new Rubicon space is implemented), reiterating that promise in July saying more details are coming in August, and then taking it down from Eve Updates without a word.
This isn’t Jin’taan’s fault and I get it, developing a complex game over years is hard and circumstances and priorities can change and resources are limited. But really, communication is important and player patience is finite. People will tolerate slipping deadlines here, or a long delay in fixing something there, as long a they feel like the developer has a plan and is working towards it, and acknowledges the real problems with their game. When the developer has no mid-term roadmap they are able to articulate, nor shows any interest in working to resolve serious problems that already exist in the game, all the time finding the resources to rapidly implement multiple monetization “features”, people lose interest in logging in.
Sadly, Jin’taan’s summary reinforces those fears and frustrations with CCP communications as of late. Let’s hope that with summer nearly over, and everyone back at their post, the lead-up to Eve Vegas reverses this growing trend of radio silence and removing information from updates.eveonline.com with a flurry of insight into the exciting things CCP is working on.