Yeah, I know. But it won’t be overnight. In truth, the line will go from CCP to PA for quite a while. Only after that will things begin to bleed through the other way around. Up to that point it will just be directives to CCP for targets, and just concepts / ideas rubbing off on ccp staff. Which really is art / graphics / skin type mt.
So 2, maybe 3 business cycles before effective change begins.
It will be hard to change stuff since everything is coded in beautiful python. Most devs dont even know how to write hello world in it.
Anyway you cant change any of those things in game w/o breaking it. IF they want to capitalize off of eve, they cannot change a thing.
That I concur.
And you are right. Maybe, just maybe, there is a chance it will turn out for the better for EVE as a whole, with mechanics remaining untampered. Because i don’t mind cosmetics as long as cosmetics are just that, cosmetics.
But the track record PA has, the chances of that happening are extremely slim, and I am now bracing for the end of this ride.
Sure PA could sell us limited edition super ships, but thanks to the efforts of code, we can just gank them out of existence in high sec.
Python is irrelevant in the equasion now, since PA is CCP’s governing element. They can just force a hand on administrative level.
Nahh, before Anomalies were released you could aquire a Battleship for 50mil, Anomalies are the type of thing, that causes all the inflation.
Heh. Guess how long that will last. Not only are there several issues of legalities in terms of liabity on virtual goods that are relevant, which in the end would enforce compensation measures, there’s also the bit of projected changes attracting different types of players - thus changing the dynamic itself. Ultimately ending in such counter-mechanisms disappearing.
You just need to look at BDO for how PA approaches matters like these. Now keep in mind that for at least 2 cycles PA will not direct product level policies. They will determine venture level targets. After that, it is open season. Until that time I do not see deep changes in what people are used to in terms of behaviour and mechanisms supporting those. Just subtle changes in preparation.
what do you mean by that
Python is not problen, and there is a lot of Python developers, plus they are already works at DevOps…
Money is only issue.
What do you mean by what do you mean by that?
Parent company doesen’t have to bother understanding how the game or its code works. If, and when, PA gonna crank up to 11 with cashcrabs, they’ll just threaten CCP with layoffs, pulling funding, shutdown etc. should CCP decline.
For those who were there!
Till then I’ll continue to do fishing in Heidel and reading forum. 
okay but if something cant be coded then it cant be coded
Truly an event that rocked the planet…
Well, what is better. The answer is always relative. But it is possible to figure out some things. As a subsiduary studio CCP’s focus will be on achieving financial targets. The past 2 years in preparation the focus in this has been on cutting costs and optimising liquidity. In acquisitions such stimuli do not leave much room for things like expanding core teams or reinforcing resource allocation. Which is why post-acquisition you tend to see one special project surface, and the main product level just receives what it sometimes described as low hanging fruit.
I would not expect mechanisms to remain the same. PA has a very consistent policy of setting targets with stipulations that in practice translate into directives for product development. PA also has its own gaming origins, and it is very much aware that inside CCP there is a strong core empasis on form over function (art / design) and in feature development the goal of simplification (instanced gameplay, npe, etc).
But as mentioned elsewhere, for longer term deep changes it will be good to keep an eye on what the current experimental elements such as mutaplasmids receive in terms of expanded focus. The same applies to items such as skins, implants, learning tools, methods to offset time / ability and such. Those will provide good benchmark points for people to figure out on where things are going at what pace.
I know, from an EU/US gaming and business mindset PA has a horrid reputation which is consistantly affirmed. But look, this is as it is. Nobody or nothing can impact or influence that.
At the end of the day, everybody makes his or her own choice at any given time.
Yes, I would have preferred CCP to remain CCP as we knew it. EVE was their baby. Whatever troubles and turmoil over the years, they shared it with us. It became something akin to life, the first behavioural ecosystem rooted in emergent behaviour, and on top of that demonstrating that a game does not have to be a themepark in order to make a profit.
But EVE as an emergent dynamic died a while ago. Unfortunately. CCP’s old core had their issues with it, in part something players were to blame for, in part themselves, and in part simply because it was a matter of growing up for everyone in the soup. It happened, it was amazing, but this is a closed Door.
It is a shame, because EVE founded on emergent behaviour was a growing EVE. But, admittedly, it was shitty for CCP. They were a part of it, but couldn’t touch it, couldn’t do their own thing, had to hide being part of it, had to continuously keep chasing it to keep up, and at some point it wasn’t even about CCP anymore as a brand, but about the stories and mythology generated by the people in the soup. Commercially speaking amazing, everybody said it could not work, yet it predictably did. And continued to do so until the moment CCP started to try and detach itself from it. At that point fundamental change was inevitable. Which is why that Newsletter drama at a certain point did not come as a surprise.
Since that time EVE has been made ready for packaging, got shopped around, but unfortunately CCP’s company track record in branching out and establishing themselves as a company were less than optimal. That ended up eventually with PA and the acquisition.
I know people don’t like it, but in many ways Hilmar and the other shareholders have made a good choice. Not just from an investment perspective. But also because there really is a DNA match between PA and CCP on a product level focus. How CCP packaged EVE for sale is optimal for an entity like PA. And CCP’s tech and other experience base is something PA lacks. The other way around, PA can provide a number of things CCP were never able to enable themselves. It is a shame that no longer independant in the end they won’t benefit from it, but that is as it is. And CCP presents an entry point for an entity such as PA.
The best case at this point is slow change. We know the direction, we know the form, we know the focus, we know the bottom line. But disruption would be destructive. So from both a corporate, a venture, a studio and a customer perspective, change is required to be gradual.
The risk is PA’s behaviour in relation to its investments and its methods in policies and communication. But as I said, there is nothing CCP can do about that, there is nothing customers can do about that. It is what it is. But it will be quite a while before it becomes a topic. And by that time, customers too will have changed.
Until PA makes CCP to code it.
Create new ship instance.
Give it Limited Ed. ship fitting layout.
Give it Limited Ed. ship stats.
Give it the same Limited Ed. ship visuals.
PA sells the “uniques” for profit killing their value entirely.
Ta-da!
It’s absolutely a theory if “boiling frog” is the answer to how things will go from here on out. If you had read what I wrote, you’ll note that I’m speaking about the future, not the past. Just because this was how CCP approached the point of announcing the sale (which hasn’t even happened yet and is due to be finalized in October), doesn’t mean that PA will pick up the same strategy CCP had shown. It’s one possibility, but it includes the assumption that PA wants to deliberately continue running EVE on the same path it has been running the past 2 years, because they would think this is worth the investment. I doubt it is. There may be reasons to not go for quick changes, but these might be entirely disconnected from the theory that current EVE players should get used to more being milked further. Because that does not sound like a realistical business plan that will pay off considering the hefty investment.
Seriously, even if they manage to milk the current players for twice the amount they do now, it’s still not profitable enough. They have other plans that go far beyond boiling the current players.
Why are there only 55 posts in that topic?
There in itself is the problem. The ONE thing that eve has going for it is the single shard, non-instanced, HTFU ethos it has. Take that away, and EVE becomes just like any other generic cookie cutter mmorpg. Coupled with spaghetti code and a base engine that is starting to show its age, and the game will be put out to pasture well before there is enough p2w theme park players to keep the lights on let alone bring in the desired profit margins. What is keeping the game afloat as it is isn’t in any piece of code. It IS the “niche” playerbase and htfu culture. Game would have died off years ago if the target playerbase was any more “mainstream”. A clear indicator would be the fairly stagnant sub numbers despite the significant effort to water down the game in recent years.
I hate to bring this to your attention, but that is something which no longer works with CCP. Not even because they are now a subsiduary studio. A lot of the “why” of the roadmap to F2P towards packaging for sale has roots in exactly that kind of thing. Yes, CCP did a boo-boo. Yes, things escalated. But CCP decided “never again”, and got the upper hand.
Now the really painful part. You can find a lot of information and reporting on how PA deals with community, both in turmoil as well as messaging. It is borderline racist in its language priorities and selective communications throughout markets, it is functionally deviant in relation to truth in marketing and communication, and it consistantly ignores any kind of community or media feedback or turmoil.
Let me repeat and translate that: PA does not give a single ■■■■ about anything a customer does. The only thing that matters is the bottom line at the end of the fiscal year and insight into options to improve on that without changing modus operandi.
There is no need to warn them. They know, they don’t care. In truth, mad people leaving is what they appreciate as it enables them to accelerate change according to their bottom line. BDO’s recent changes are a textbook example on how they approach and apply their directives.
Let’s be honest. Sure, for the volume of customers they have (which is going down) this has served them well. They have managed to push out what they refer to as non-productive customers, while increasing income points and streams from remaining and new customers. It pays them very well.
Do not think PA is a gaming company. It is an investment company with a firm hands on mindset and strict commercial focus which has chosen the gaming industry as its primary focus. Try to picture it as if CCP’s original shareholders were not maintaining a traditional relation of investing in trust and equity and banking on the company doing its job well. But instead being hands on, setting regular goals, designing goals for both gradual and deep change, and requiring the company/studio to meticulously execute directives and meeting targets.