As you may be reading this letter, please first allow me to introduce myself, I’m a player from 08 and afked for 10 years since 2012. In my recent return, I have observed some drastic changes in the EVE world, especially in the huge user churn and devastatingly low user amount. After some calculation, it is not difficult to point out this game’s revenue generation and cash flow may be unsustainable for its normal and continuous operations (I may be very wrong, but if the active player count is 10x the online player count, your income is only about 4mm USD, possibly much lower, this is not enough to make any invention of any kind). From the standing perspective of a player who treasures EVE very much, there are two issues that needs to be addressed: Retention and Inflation. (I have also observed the failed changes made in EVE China.)
For Retention, you need to protect the PVE players as we are lambs of the game. It is needless to point out the evident fact of significant user drop in the recent years, perhaps due to changes in game or other forces pushing the silent masses away from the game.
a) I am a PVE favored player by nature, and I would speak for most players of my kind who are in fact the majority of players in the world, we are the lambs of MMORPGs, PVP players harvest from us, and for any healthy game or organization or society, It is critical for us to have a tool to fight back and balance out the relationship, in EVE, such tool does not exist. Providing secureness in high sec or partial protection in low sec in one minor change, the other important change you need to address is to provide voting power to the masses through the wealth distribution system, players would only stay if they feel they are important to the game/themselves/others or they have a say to the world/universe of the game, to simplify, you put such power in the format of balancing out the output throughout the system, we would discuss in details in the inflation segment.
b) The apparent lack of PVE content(storyline and other non-player interactive contents) is also pushing some players away, even worth, the insecureness exists in most if not all regions in the game deters the PVE player’s ego to play and achieve(There is obviously no incentive for you to achieve anything in the game).
c) Trying to drive the PVE players down to null sec and participate in PVP does no good for both the company and the game, lowering the high sec or mission output is never a smart choice. Moving to Null sec is a problem for a significant portion of players as well, moving to null sec, the action itself contains the willingness to give in and obey to a corporate in exchange for protection, corporates more likely than not abuses such power and demands more player contribution than what the corporate actually provides for the player, thus the relationship is not balanced, therefore, living in Null Sec shall be voluntary, but the current game setting makes it a more than voluntary option. Null sec is not the only option in the world, players can choose to leave the game for good.
d) Provide a well constructed and balanced out PVE content and achievement system. People enjoy PVE in this game, let them have fun and re-launch your plans for the in-station interactions, do PVE plots, massive storylines, make every ship or player useful.
For Inflation, inflation is key to every game, especially in EVE for the level of player interaction is significantly higher here. In terms of isk/material/skills, you need to do an open balance sheet and interactive response system to the yield of the universe. It is plain simple that in the real world, there is friction in production and management, and the friction grows exponentially when the size of the objects grows, such friction does no exit in the game thus you have no effective way to control inflation in ISK or the expansion of corporate/alliances or the gap between skills. I would propose:
a) Set up a VAT like tax for all transactions and gains. Those who farm little or only plays for a while in the game should not be punished the same way as for those who farms 23.4hr/day in the game. For ESS, a key way you wish to deter farming/RMT and encourage PVP. This does little. The only way you could actually control inflation is to set a bar for PLEX/ISK conversion, only the PLEX/isk fluctuates, the entire universe’s output changes respectively in response, thus deterring the inflation or deflation. And for anyone who farms above the universe’s average or your reset value, ie ISK/day, you should charge incremental tax up to a certain percentage(100% may be). Thus normal players do not feel the impact on them and professional farmers are deterred. And for transactions, please set a incremental VAT for all transactions including contracts. The richer pays more is the only effective way to control inflation, yielding several billions a day from escalation or worm hole is healthy for the game in general, there is no any other game with the level of yield discrepancy like EVE does.
b) This mechanism works the same for skills. For players with skill amount 200% higher than the universe’s average, charge a breakthrough effort loss(whatever you may like to call it), so they slow their skill training down, just like in the real world how scientist spend decades in a break through. For the new players or just players skills lower than 50% of the universe’s average, give them a boost to catch up.
c) And the same works for any material/item dropout or output or mining as well.
d) And for the inflation in the corporate size and regions they control, you need to re-invent the null sec. my idea would be setting up the null sec in some hidden way, after some player found it by accident, players could go into and establish the place, but do have some very challenging PVE rogue/pirate/alien/whatever invasion happening in the most recently discovered 0.0s to consume the materials and increase the difficulty. In other words, balance the game’s output.
For Revenue generation, selling plex is one way of doing it, you should also think about selling skins at a higher price, please. Skins and special variations of ships (with no material performance enhancement) etc, or paid-in PLEX insurances. Etc. when the new version of EVE China launches a couple of days ago, the paying users are there.
Restart the universe. For the above to be effective, you need to re-launch the universe, start a new server.
With revenue and cash generation, you need to invent and enhance the gaming experience, provide in-station and possibly in-ship interactions, moving cross platforms, provide the cross-platform mobile experience under the same account.
I believe the game itself even though has existed for many years, there is no material defects within it, you need to balance out the players, especially the players who do not speak, if promoting and retaining the corporate CEOs and null sec PvP players is the only goal, you shall wish for a very strong luck in this decade. Corporate CEOs could ask me to f-off just like when they said to players who vote against their interest, but the fact that this game is dying does not change no matter what they say or think, it is this game and company that you need to save, not the corporate CEOs. I shall say no more.
it is less about PVE/PVP, but about retention, control inflation and keep the game going. every player may choose how they like to play the game, but at least ccp should offer such options. with 20k active at any time, this game is not generating the cash flow it needs.
Then why do you come here and try to push for more of the same that has already led to the game declining.
Countless carebears like you asked for more safety and to make the game more carebear friendly. CCP listened, removed ways people can shoot each other and made the game more boring in the process, so players left.
You ask them to go even more down this road. It hasn’t worked so far. Do you know the definition of insanity?
And then you ask to do even more monetization. It’s already over the top. The game looks more like a store front than a computer game.
People like you are the reason this game is dying.
Skins are already extortionate compared to the same in Elite Dangerous. Far more Skins would be sold if the price came down AND wasnt in PLEX but actual Earth Money
This would be much better as a closed letter. Preferably a much shorter one. All you really needed to say is "I’m a PVE player returning to the game and I want to earn a lot more and pay a lot less. I want everyone who makes more than me penalized. I also want to be very safe while I earn lots of stuff. And everyone who’s paid more or played longer at the game than me should be penalized so they can’t continue to be better than me.
“Just like in the real world” I want to be one of the elite, without doing the work or putting in the time. Just penalize everyone else and give me stuff until I’m at the top of the pack.
I’m sure everyone agrees with me.
Thank you, please email me when I’ve won EVE."
Seriously, you’ve miscalculated the player base, you’ve totally miscalculated CCP’s revenue (which is on public record, look it up). You don’t know how VAT taxes work, and you’re trying to use “just like the real world” arguments to prop up some ridiculous “make all the PVE players winners” demands. (Pro tip: it’s a game where you’re an immortal spaceship pilot flying disposable spaceships. It’s not “just like the real world”. That’s the point.)
You’re also a bit early on declaring the EVE China server changes “failed” since they’ve barely started yet.
OMG I don’t even… There’s no point looking at the rest. You’re beyond braindead here.
Please, for heaven’s sake, do your homework. Learn a little bit about what you’re talking about. Don’t blab on like a rogue Karen, and please go back to being one of “the players who do not speak”.
I can’t count how many times this has gone around and around and around since 2003…lol I’m getting dizzy, EVE is PVP always has been and always will be…it does not cater to your Desire to be wealthy, it does not care if you die in space, it’s a LIFE simulation in space…that’s it nothing more or nothing less…The single biggest problem with the player base now as to a decade ago is the MMO market is flooded with these types of games some for free, some with P2W some on SUB’s , and some with both, you want then game to get more players? Stop supporting all the other EVE wannabe games out there.
You’ve obviously put a lot of thought into this post. Rather than poke more holes in it, (like I’m sure others will do), I want to highlight what I feel CCP is least leveraging.
PVE while dull to most of the current player base is actually a really well done and addictive part of New Eden.
With some tweaks it could provide many more subs/lambs to the slaughter. They just need to feel more involved in their systems/region/faction and the story of New Eden.
As to the tweaks/MAJOR F’N OVERHAUL you propose… I let those who snark better than me speak.
Gets tiring finding his main points then I need to think of counter points to the same points presented by a person/many people over the years.
I want to say this. No number of open letters will change the course of EVE online
CCP will manage their business. CCP will ask us for limited input on game mechanics and major things they are planning. But again, EVE online is shaped by CCP ultimately and it has been for the most part.
thanks for saying this.
it’s very interesting to see people say “we don’t need any change in this game” or “what you propose is worth nothing” while totally ignoring the fact that the population is declining, revenue is down, nordic capital had probably lost money on their investment, the latest financial report is more than probably horrible, and the revenue for this game is not likely to support its on-going development and there are people leaving the firm(as i may have heard).
To think and respond is more than likely better than doing nothing. there are so many PVP players left in this game who are very vocal and sometimes aggressive while most of the masses who left the game aren’t probably as vocal and expressive or aggressive, thus the end result been what’s been heard is of the few, and a large portion of the population who may say otherwise just left the game. If the developers of the game does not face the above facts, the only path down would be into a dilemma where they seem to be improving games on suggestions however going into a downward spiral(just like what happened on EVE China, the new server they made is mostly on suggestions based from what they heard, but, the representativeness of what they heard is limited).
I’m writing and speaking only because I treasure this game and wish it could extend its longevity. mocking or dismissing what I said there provides no progressive results to the company. if anyone could put in something that actually generates revenue for CCP inc, control inflation and bring back population, i would be more than happy to hear and highly likely to accept.
So much that you played a bit for 4 years then bailed on it for 10 years.
Well yeah, if you only visit once a decade you’re gonna need it to last for quite a while just to get started.
Here’s the thing… you’re hopelessly out of touch. You’re not speaking ‘facts’, you’re spouting hare-brained knee-jerk opinion. You haven’t researched anything or even checked to see what’s going on (with finances, player base, change of ownership or anything else).
You’ve got some notion that “player numbers are down” (the only thing you got right), without any context. Your ideas are simply terrible. I’m no fan of CCP’s game design and generally, when someone is complaining of the state of EVE, I try to pick up on any idea they’ve got that’s half-decent and see how it can be improved.
Your post does not contain one single idea of any value.
It’s literally a re-hash of every bad “I’m PVE and I speak for the silent majority and if you make us safe and give us more and penalize all those bad people who’re shooting me, the game will succeed” post ever. It’s so bad that if you weren’t both obviously sincere and utterly clueless I’d suspect somebody of using it as a strawman troll post to lampoon the “PVE gimme gimme” crowd.
You bailed for 10 years, and you show not the slightest cognizance of the current situation or what’s actually going on with EVE.
Sure, speak your mind. But use your mind before speaking.
No, they are saying “Not your changes”. PLease accept the fact that you may be aware of a problem without actually being able to solve it with your first guess.
