With extra cat ears as an added bonus (for premium currency). 
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New WiS
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donaldtrumpsayingwrong.gif
Avatar based gameplay was the most requested feature since probably day one. They had been developing it from at least 2006 - the WoD MMO was only at storyboarding stage around then at best. Also presented a fairly extensive prototype made with Unreal Engine 3 in 2008. They scrapped that for some reason only Hilmar knows and started to make it from scratch again with Carbon, which indeed was developed for WoD and yes, that was playtested on EVE. They pulled WoD devs to rush the three other CQ’s to EVE because they were more familiar with the engine.
How do I know? Because I was there. I haven’t been with EVE from all the way from the start but almost, April 2004 was when I made my first character. I don’t know how long you have actually played, since this isn’t my first character either and character age means nothing now, but I can’t help but love it when people that started in 2010 or after with third hand perspective come tell bittervets who were there for the whole ride, how the most anticipated feature of yesteryears was supposedly never wanted in the first place.
It’s not that people didn’t ever want WiS.
It was because it was so overwhelmingly disappointing after 5+ years of development, even more years of anticipation to finally step out of that pod, expecting to be blown away but being locked in a janitors closet on a single race’s CQ. That’s why people hated Incarna. They felt betrayed.
Also a large part was the dreaded idea of golden ammo, P2W, macrotransactions and neglect of other development prior to it ,that contributed greatly to the revulsion that people felt and still feel for Incarna.
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They had been developing since 2006, you say?
It was an open secret almost since the time of the CCP/White Wolf merger in late 2006 — the CCP website even listed it as one of their products
They started developing WiS b/c they were developing WoD and they could attempt to share mechanics between the two and use them for testing. Until that failed…
You know another “most requested feature since probably day one”? How about atmospheric flight? There were videos from the beginning showing a Crane flying around in the clouds. Have you seen anything about that in the last decade and a half? Nope…
Last I heard about atmospheric flight was back in 2007 or 2008, yeah. It was also highly requested. And the vid I saw had I think… Slasher? Flying on the atmosphere of planet. Possibly the Badger too.
E: as for the other stuff, I aint a CCP dev so I don’t know if there was parallel development. All I know is that Carbon was specifically written for avatar gameplay, incorporating hair & clothing physics for example, particularly for WoD.
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EVE online was about to get the biggest updates fuelled by management greed during Incarna days, but it all fired like blank. They actualy though avatar gameplay will be a thing alongside the WOD and DUST, microtransactions everywhere, and even there were talks about golden ammo from one of lead devs. They scaled back everything after the rage that made Jita look like a riot ground and people left in droves.
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According to eve-offline the concurrent user dip wasn’t particularly big after Incarna’s release - until about four months later when players realized nothing more was coming. For comparison, after Rubicon there was a much bigger drop - which didn’t even recover like Incarna’s did - yet people don’t scream on the rooftops how Rubicon was the worst expansion ever.
But it was what CCP didnt predict. To that moment they had people coming to their game. They thought people will keep coming. When they have seen that dip, they wanted to calm people, give them what they want, even when its a lie. Of course lie have short legs, and doesnt get you too far. That is why people were leaving later. Then CCP adjusted the gameplay so more alts will be created and PLEX will be bought, so they can have comparable income to the previous years.
http://eve-offline.net/?server=tranquility
Except no. There were similar dips before, after Tyrannis and Incursion. It’s not like Incarnas dip was in any way unique, only the player outrage was - and later CCP, and tons of players have continued to misinterpret the outrage. The outrage wasn’t because of WiS, but the disappointment in its implementation, introduction of in-game cash shop and its ridiculous pricing to boot, and the threat of EVE becoming P2W.
Yet later on people accepted both when it was introduced sneakily enough. vOv
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It was what you wrote too, there were also things like not standing up to their own words before, people were resigning and coming back. CCP said one thing and done another. Some players were leaving, some were coming, more were coming. Hilmar knew this. To that day when Incarna landed on peoples computers. CCP was scared people went so mad about it. So the tactic was to do what they actually did. Calming audience, then doing microtransactions, side projects beside EVE. No WIS as that would mean a lot more money sunk into EVE, potentially wasted and not in side projects that could become succesfull like EVE was in beginning. They got burned with EVE players and went more careful, actually preparing ground for spaceship only future in EVE…
The money were wasted more on side projects and EVE was always bringing profit.
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I hope Pearl Abyss looks at the history of failed CCP side projects and tells them to cut it out and focus on the core game. Maybe CCP wouldn’t have needed to be looking for a buyer if they hadn’t wasted so much time and money on WiS and DUST
WIS would require a lot of commitment away from spaceships and you wouldn’t gain much value gameplay wise out of it
I’d say allow CCP to atract and retain a decently large chunk of new players and then we can talk WIS
Good to see we can agree on something.
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Except CCP made the extensive WIS prototype (had promenade, establishment module, npcs, gambling games, all shown and demoed at fanfest, and ofc CQ) while working on the then biggest expansion, Dominion. Development of wis and spaceships was and should be possible. They also planned to incorporate gameplay, particularly IIRC smuggling and other crime into WIS.
Without avatar gameplay EVE will forever be a niche game, that is a fact. Mind, there’s no absolute guarantee avatar gameplay would explode the playerbase either, but chances would be a lot better.
Anyway, I dont really expect WIS to ever come back and it is not why I play EVE (Obv. I wouldn’t be playing otherwise anymore), but I still like to flap my gums about it.
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If the new overlords think that bouncing boobies in stations will pay the bills, then that’s what we will see. Our avatars in their full glory once again.
Contrary to what the scripted AMA has to say about everything staying the same, it’s theater. It’s a story to keep players from bailing in droves. When has a company ever bought out another company and not completely changed it?
So - yes - the odds of seeing walking in stations again have just jumped by a few thousand percent.
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PA is more interested in CCP’s new games (Nova, Aurora and Galaxy) than with EVE. Your duty as a EVE player is to ensure that PA doesn’t loses money with EVE… but what they really are after it’s 800 million potential smartphone gamers in China, which happen to be behind a door whose key is familiar to CCP.
Kinda sad.
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