The goal is to increase the overall player base and subsequently increase plex sales for more services rather than having a smaller player base with subscriptions. Dont make it impossible to be alpha and have all the good stuff, make it possible but difficult.
Omega clones
Faster training
Able to extract and inject skill points
Lower taxes on industry and science jobs
Infinite skill queue
Multiple accounts online at the same time
Simultaneous character training on a single account
If thats what you want feel free, the point is that by opening up the servers to more people, you have more players willing to spend money in the game overall.
And I listed many benefits that have nothing to do with skill training but with industry, mining, lower taxes etc.
Also alpha clones, just by existing, add value to the game due to its nature. More people in general means more people that get their ships blown up, which in turn might not necessarily get omega clones but they might want to buy some plex to keep blowing ships up. More potential for micro-transactions as the player base grows.
Alphas allow you to play the game. They also allow you to do that for free. But CCP needs to charge for the development and maintaince of the game. So something has to give.
Looking at the injector market, it seems that players value skill points above of all else. You already can run a full Omega account for almost free once you have 5.5M SP and if you are willing to efficiently train, extract and sell your SP. Maybe that means there is room for making alphas more powerful, but it also kinda undermines your claim that more players will play the game.
Personally, I don’t think F2P with benign microtransactions is a viable model for an unbalanced, competetive PvP game like Eve. I’m not sure why CCP started down the path following the industry given how unique the core concept of their game is. I’m not even sure the blatant selling of power they are doing with Skill Injectors is long-term viable, at least not without some more significant work on tiering the game so there is fun to be found for all power-levels of players.
But more to your op, I think alphas will always have to be hamstrung. Not just because of the potential for abuse - industry skill for example like PI will always be restricted as they can scale with infinite free acounts and make income while logged out bypassing the “one alpha login” rule that is a major part of what makes them at all balanced. I think it is more workable to allow alphas access to more power when it comes to PvP and destruction, but for industry, they probably already are too useful and useful to those seeking to cheat at the game. But that is hard to do in a sandbox game like this one.
So no, I don’t think less restrictive alpha ability is the path forward, at least not yet or without other changes. And I am also not convinced it will attract more players. If this is more about your experience, I suggest you just set up a SP farm with your account and bypass the alpha restrictions that way.
The whole point of limiting Alphas is to give players incentive to buy Omega time. If everyone just played as an Alpha, CCP would go bankrupt and EvE would shut down right quick.
Alpha clones have never been about letting players play for free indefinitely (although they’re certainly welcome to), they’re intended mainly to get people interested enough in EvE to pay to unlock all the benefits that a paid subscription provides.
Personally, what I’d do is add another state between Alpha and Omega. I’d keep the current Alpha state (minus the skillpoint limits, so you could fully train any skill you have access to without having to buy skill injectors) but call it Gamma (or whatever other Greek letter you want) and have it cost half as much as the current Omega state. Then introduce a new Alpha state that’s much more like the original: few, if any T2 modules, limited to cruisers and below in terms of ships, but is totally free to play.
So players can train to a certain level and then never pay again?
No this is just a terrible idea.
When alphas were first proposed it was argued that it would increase the playerbase…but it didn’t. Now you’re doing the same. Instead it’s hard to see where handing out freebies has resulted in any long term player boost.
I got to hand it to you @Black_Pedro you are one wise eloquent, experienced dude. Have you ever considered running for CSM? Juts paying some respect. Now don’t come bombard my threads!
What I like about alphas is that they allow for people to maintain a level of participation in the game when life would otherwise make Eve impossible or impractical to pay a subscription. I primarily view alphas as a social tool to either get new players started, or to allow established players to still participate to some degree in ongoing activities. I don’t really want to make them indefinitely self sufficient.
I remember watching a CCP presentation and one of the organizers of Red vs Blue was on stage. He wanted to get people more involved in Eve, and said instead of another round of CCPlease, that they’d make social channels that try to direct people towards content. These channels were not as active as I would have liked, but I do think that this is the more valuable approach. What can we, as players, do to make Alpha players want to stick around? What can we do to make them want to upgrade to Omega?
I think it’s important for Alphas to be able to fleet up and be valuable to their fleet, and I think it’s important that they be able to sample the variety of activities in the game to decide what career path is best suited to them. If they hit the Alpha wall and have not found any friends or interest enough to pay for a subscription, then I see no harm in letting them either continue to play for free as is, or move on to find another game they do like to play. They are welcome to come back any time if they change their mind.
I would be happy to include Alphas in what my corporation does. It never hurts to have another person defend your space castle. It never hurts to have more dps on a roam. It doesn’t hurt to have someone haul your ore back to the station, or scout a gate for you. The list goes on and on.
The best way to increase the player base is for each of us to be one of the reasons those players should play.
I can understand much of the resistance to the free to play model. But I think everyone will need to steel themselves against the possibility that CCP may eventually have to travel down that road if the subscription model ever proves unsustainable.
I think @Black_Pedro has a fairly good grasp of the current gaming market, and I would agree that EVE is a fairly unique game concept. However, from what I’ve read, over 75% of all gaming revenue is generated by the F2P business model. And one F2P game in particular, which I’m sure needs no introduction, made an incredible $2.4 billon in one year, a point at which even Netflix considers them competition, fighting for leisure time in general.
Not to mention, since around 2010 or so, the new generation has pretty much been raised on free to play apps. It will likely only get more and more difficult to try to get this new generation to switch to the older subscription model.
I am rooting for EVE whichever path it must take. It would be interesting to see if CCP could make their subscription model work for the long haul. But as long as EVE were able to retain its character and vision regardless, does it really matter whether CCP were to generate revenue through subs, or alternatively through micro-transactions?
Now don’t come bombard my threads! 
