I guess I would pose this question;
Once they get rid of the alpha accounts, when will they get rid of all the omega accounts?
I bet you did not think about that one.
Fly safe o7
My dumb question of the day would be how much $$$ does CCP make off of such accts?
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Virtually the entire industry has shifted from P2P to F2P. That wouldn’t have happened if they weren’t convinced that F2P models make them more money.
The thing is, free accounts aren’t even supposed to be a moneymaker. Gaming companies know that nearly all their income comes from only 15% or less of players (often less than 5%). Those are the ‘whales’ you hear about.
But whales don’t spend on an empty or dying game. They don’t spend on games they can’t play with their friends. They want to be king of the hill, and that means there needs to be a hill to stand on.
Free players are the hill. They’re the activity that show the game isn’t dying. They’re the friends who are happy to play with you, but don’t care to spend money on a game.
Sure, some of those players spend some money, buy a month or two, or some Plex. A very few of them move on to become the next whales. But the main point is, they’re the ‘content’ that keeps the whales interested. All the gaming devs care about is that they show up and be active. Which explains most of what CCP’s been doing for the past 8 years.
Alpha accounts are in a pretty good place. They have enough access to ships to be active in every part of the game, so they can pad out every part of the game for the whales. And they don’t have access to skills, modules and ships that are key for moving past the beginner stages of the game. T3s, Assaults, barges, cloaks, even just higher implants and more jump clones… all Omega limited.
Alphas can be somewhat useful anywhere, which is good for the game. But to be good at the game, they need Omega. CCPs’ done a decent balancing there, I feel.
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It’s not a dumb question at all. As I see it, there is a lot more here than alpha and omega.
- Omega subscribers - players who pay cash for their omega on a monthly, quarterly, ect. basis. This group is probably the smallest population of all these groups. Their subscriptions might not be the largest revenue. I don’t have those numbers nor do I think CCP would allow us to see the statistics either.
- PLEX Alphas - players who opt to remain alpha, play casually yet spend cash on obtaining PLEX to get stuff from the Eve Store. The population is also speculative on this group but we do exist. Why? Because I don’t want to be anchored to any game with a subscription, I may or may not use.
- New Alphas - This group has the possibility of becoming one of the 2 cash revenues above. They might come test drive and leave or they might stay, the longer they stay, the better the chance they will spend some money.
- Omega PLEXers - We all know this group has the lowest chance of ever buying anything or spending cash on this game. They do fill a gap. They are the ones who mine, gank, do PI, or whatever it takes to buy my PLEX for ISK. I love these people.
As you can see, it isn’t so clean cut as alpha versus omega. Just because you are an omega, my question is how did you obtain your omega status? Did you pay cash or did you just buy some of this alpha’s PLEX for ISK?
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I pay my sub in cash a year in advance so I can enjoy the game at my own pace and not have to grind 24/7 like an idiot in order to PLEX my account. Players who do that have turned EVE into a second job…
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The same day
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The only “Problem” I have with Alphas is that you can create an unlimited amount of them and get “free” benefits.
Thats mainly an issue for having “free” scouts/seeds in enemy space that I can log in any time to check for activity. With just 3 clicks. I don’t need to “send” anyone there who would need to invest time or risks being caught while traveling. I only log in the alpha I have left there, collect intel and report back whatever opportunity I found.
It’s also used offensively, for example if multiple people use one AphaAlt each to create an “Alpha Fleet” on demand to just reinforce a station or POCOs or POS with some Oracles or Droneboats. The defender won’t know who will come to the timer, they do cost nothing to maintain, they can stay logged off and be used any time on anyone without even revealing who is behind them. They don’t need a corp, they don’t need to get a single killboard entry either, because they just ever shoot the first RF timers.
But it is also used defensively, to make sure nobody can ever “roll me out” from my WH. I can have an endless armada of free scanners in there, no matter how many an attacker catches or rolls out when sieging my WH, trust me, I have more free scan alts in there that can provide entries for support pilots than he has patience and attention.
Last but not least, many corps have an entire army of free logout ships. Haulers, Freighters, Orcas, Bowheads, Dreads, FAX… Yeah they “require Omega” but only once to board them (well, required to skill some of them anyway). But then you can let the Omega expire but still fill the ships and leave them logged out at your station or on a safespot as long as you wish. They don’t cost you anything, they can’t be attacked or looted and you can reactivate them and use them within minutes.
All that I consider “alpha abuse” because it has nothing to do with “testing the game” or “allowing poor people to take part” or “filling the game to make it interesting for more players”.
In my opinion, EVE should only allow 1 Alpha account per registered mail / launcher and physical machine (hardware checksum fingerprinted). And fresh Alpha Accounts only get 1 Character slot until they omega the first time. Thats more than enough to “test around” and “be part of the game”.
Yeah, people can try to circumvent that, but thats effort. It isn’t the goal to have a 100% perfect solution. Alphas are fine, but Mass-Alpha-Alts are bad.
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Though in many of those cases the issue is not Alpha players, instead Omega players abusing Alpha accounts. 
Worth making a distinction between the two as each subject requires a different approach to handle.
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Are you referring towards the 2nd or 3rd pilot slot being seen as omega even while no skill training is active due to the Omega slot one is currently using the skill training?
Nope.
Not even sure how you could come up with that idea.
Hey it’s pretty easy to read.
If one omega on one account is active then the other two pilots can undock and do omega stuff
The multiple pilot thingy is just for skill training
You can only sign in one character per account regardless if it’s an Omega account or Alpha.
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Yes one pilot on each account can log in that has an active omega
But the first slot who holds the omega status is in a trading clone no logged in and slot two who is a ganker can log in and set security status to red
I remember every one of those things as they happened. I also noticed that each of those things were an attempt to increase player retention, and bring in more money. Can you imagine them removing anything from your little list? Because I can’t. I also can’t imagine them getting rid of Alphas for exactly the same reason.
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Regardless of where you fall on the issue - I appreciate the discussion - so thanks for all your comments.
It’s rather funny that an alpha can still undock with a t2 blaster
If it wasn’t for this group, I wouldn’t have anyone to sell PLEX to for mass quantities of ISK.
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In addition, Alphas need to be ejected from any Omega ship once Omega is out. Then the Alpha would lose all access to advanced ships. So if you log out and lose Omega, you log back in to your Escape Pod.
Yeah absolutely. Thats why i meant ‘Alpha’ should be limited to one char only / three for expired Omegas. Thats more than enough to test and participate.
Not sure how you can adress the issue differently. Even Omegas need the option to create at least one more Alpha, in case they want to make another alt (to be Omega soon after creation).
I agree that Alphas shouldn’t be able to log out in Omega ships (they would need to eject first or be forcefully ejected on client close and the ship would remain in space or at the station they are docked), but you can’t restrict Omegas from logging out in them and logging back in even of Omega expires during logout. What to do with the ship? Destroying it would be a massive uproar. Sending to a random NPC station or the redeem-window would be absued as magical asset-safety highway.
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Don’t destroy it. If you log out for a month in open space, you’ll likely get destroyed anyway. If you log out in a space station, your ship is safe and sound.
If you log out in space and go Alpha- you get ejected. Your ship is still there. You’re just not in it (of course, it can be blown up or stolen if someone finds it).
If you log out in a station, your ship is in your hangar- you’re just not in it.
Never log out in space. Not for extended periods of time. Friends don’t let friends log out in space. (Unless you’re in Alpha in a crappy disposable ship like a Venture and just don’t care)