There is no formal merging. There is no formal migration. It is still a politically sensitive challenge, due to local legal and other frameworks.
CCP does state that they will provide current Serenity customers with updates as they become available, and from the stated intent towards a smooth transition it should follow that CCP still is working on a seperate followup of commercial operability.
A more important question is whether Serenity players will sit through that. Again. Particularly considering how many of them take the risk and make the jump, and have already made the jump. In spite of some (technical) limitations, a lot of them already have vested interests on Tranquility.
CCP faces not a straightforward business challenge here, but a perception problem challenge first. Any decision, any next steps, it should take that into account. While it may be clear from the statement, in spite of its vagueness, CCP has already figured out that political and cultural differences are factors. So these are also factors in whatever next steps may follow. Question is, does that take into account a migration already being in effect regardless of the business challenge.
Am I reading between the correct lines in saying CCP have politely told Tiancity to FO because they’re not happy with how they’re handling things? Including, but not limited to, RMT, botting, and unwillingness to roll out the latest updates?
The one question that I have is how they’ll be able to make a smooth transition. Let’s say CCP has a more stable and reliable partner now and let’s say they develop a plan to bring players back to Serenity or drive in new ones.
How are they going to face the challenge to deal with the game as it is now. I’ve never logged in over there, but I read several times from Chinese players that the material wealth in-game through botting is unassailable.
Is asking people to throw away their (virtual) life ok? Picture this for Tranquility. EVE, even with the specific issues it has in China, isn’t just a game. Yes, CCP could make stupid amounts more money by following the advocated ST:O model, particularly in China but also here, but that would be a very very risky transformation (how to boil frogs) because it is rooted in being more than a game.
I think it is smart of CCP to address those concerns. People make virtual lives. They create experiences. They create history. There’s a lot that has to happen in order to be willing to write that all off, even if that were in a format of archiving/rememberance and then a clean slate.
As for a potential new publisher, and any transition, naturally CCP will strive to make that as smooth as possible. It is part business, part technical, but also part human. If there is one, it is in everyone’s interest to have an efficient handover and a clear timeline on when / where / how for customers to pick up their virtual lives again.
I mean, sure, CCP is not perfect. What business is? It is all human activity, and humans are, well, flawed - regardless of that is because of chaotic stumbling in evolutionary adaption to stimuli and conditions or by someone’s twisted ideas of game design
But CCP does what it can. They may miss things, they may stumble, but they always do their best. And when push comes to shove, even when it comes to ego and inner circle, they are careful and discrete but they are honest.
The point the Chinese players themselves raise is a valid one. On one hand they have built up identity, networks, history. The stuff that makes people go deep and engage each other as well as any challenges.
But yes, the control of high order organised subversive activity is integral to Serenity. Even stripping away TianCity’s part of that, it is still just that: integral to organisation, there is no way around for Chinese players. Even removing what is available through reporting of individual levels of such activity makes no difference, as it is a completely different arena that the Chinese players are pointing at.
A big question there is quite simply how much insight CCP has in these matters. If they have to rely on TianCity, probably none at all. But CCP wouldn’t be CCP if they were to stick to just that. I worry a bit because here on Tranquility they can’t seem to identify organised subversive activity either. It is a challenge.
I do agree with a lot of the Chinese players who say that whatever happens, they would hate to lose their identity and history, but they would mind less of everyone losing everything else because Serenity needs - as they put it - cataclysm. In a nutshell, a lot of them are saying that if Serenity gets a new life, it needs shaking up so fundamentally that it needs wholesale wiping in many ways.
I don’t know about that, but EVE does have one innate vulnerability for the foundation elements of it rooted in emergent behaviour, regardless of whether it is Tranquility or Serenity. EVE has no entropy and no acts of god (in the proverbial sense, see game theory for how these apply).
In Serenity’s case it is clear that unproductive behavioural choices can become so ingrained that they become integral to functionality and operability even if the majority of demographics doesn’t want it that way.
I don’t think CCP is willing to consider that. It reaches back to older days and issues which really have no place on a forum to discuss these days. It would be better if they did, but from more than just a commercial perspective I can understand why they would not.
Look, it’s messy either way, and it is a risky situation anyhow. But apply some mirroring here. What if someone told you that Tranquility would likely close, again, and possibly open again, but more information was not present at current but to follow in the future. Meanwhile you know that Tranquility is a place to play, but it is stale and segmented in status quo and you can’t do all of it as it is rooted in subversive behaviour. But there is another verse, the underverse - err another server. Though technically you are not allowed on it.
What would you want. What would you accept. CCP / Tiancheng have made clear that everything is getting packaged up for handover. Technically complex I am sure, but that is at least something.
Yeah exactly, but how to do this? One way would be a fresh start, but it comes at the possible danger of making the few currently active players angry. Another way would be to simply continue, but then the problems might carry on from TianCity to NetEase.
EVE does have acts of god, they are called mechanical changes. I think that’s also necessary, due to the nature of the game between sandbox, single shard, continuous (in 2nd decade right now), still interesting for new players.
Handing it over to NetEase is one thin and I can’t predict anything about that. However, there are issues on Serenity itself it seems and stay they untouched, it might continue to be a problem even with a new partner.
I’m not surprised, disappointed or anything else. Serenity was a piece of CCP out of their control. It had to be reined in or cut off at the stump. I have a feeling Serenity is not gone, just in transition. No one can say definitely what will happen next. Watch and see.
Having non-US born traditional Asian in-laws for the last 2 decades, I have learned a lot. They think differently. Tact doesn’t exist and that can be painful at times. My Grandmother taught me “Give someone an inch, and they’ll take a mile.”. That describes my Asian in-laws perfectly. It’s not good or bad, it’s just the way the are.
EVE doesn’t have acts of god, or have you see a solar storm recently wiping out the shields of all structures in a constellation, or a flux event disrupting warp enges for 40AU from a sun in a system And these are just natural /environmental examples.
Mechanical changes are just development. There have been some attempts, like Drifters, to introduce a potential of NPC specific acts of god, but that died before it got out of the birth canal.
Anyway. CCP wouldn’t wipe stuff. Simple as that. I just see no real potential for a fully fresh start. Consider that Serenity players are getting stuff (conditionally) before things shut down, so packaging and handover is aimed at continuity.
As for Netease, who knows. It’s not like CCP has not been busy with this challenge for a month or so. The agreement to shut things down is what, two years old or so, it just hasn’t been advertised even though it did get out.
And yes, Serenity has, let’s put it this way, behavioural issues But who knows, CCP isn’t dumb, they might very well have seen the potential of making use of exactly those traits.
For current Serenity players who know (of) TQ and what something else, that may very well be a concern. And thus this should be a factor for CCP, but that again makes continuity important.
In Chinese culture, throwing ones friends or countrymen under the bus for money is common practice, even for as little as 50 rmb. Ripping off an IP franchise is just being a good Chinese entrepreneur. Scamming, organized crime, human trafficking, and corruption is everywhere. You can find industrial grade chemicals in locally produced food products, and knock off prescription drugs that will kill. There’s a great deal of xenophobic nationalist nutjobs running around who murder foreigners. it’s nearly complete anarchy.
New Eden fits right in; China’s a cesspool and CCP might not have even had the choice of a “handover.”
I would love to see that in EVE. The constant NPC’s being the only threat makes me yawn. Diminish encountering NPC’s to 1% of current rates and bring in the natural disasters. Explosions affecting nearby ships would be exciting. Of course it would be based on ship size, shield/armor strength, explosion damage, etc… but wow. Bringing in anything more real regarding physics would make EVE better.
Personally still praying for orbiting planets…(sigh).
You said in the proverbial sense. Nah, EVE absolutely has acts of gods aka CCP. To name just a few:
Banning, Reimbursing
Creating and changing the stats of modules and ships
Changing the way physics work (Warp acceleration change, Jump Changes)
Technical steps forward or backward (see Moon Mining becoming handwork)
Acts of god in that sense is anything that break or change the rules of the sandbox without player interaction.
That is CCP. The game couldn’t exist without it.
That’s really the question. Is it always better to continue under any circumstances or is there a strong enough force in the (former) Chinese playerbase that does not want this kind of continuity. It all depends on wether or not the new SY will be bot-land again or not. If not, players shouldn’t be able to transfer all the wealth that has been acquired by botting. Maybe 25% of it, for good measure, but that’s it.
Behaviour can be somewhat influenced by setting the framework in a different way.
I can’t tell from the waffly state of that dev blog, but usually when a company writes a statement like that and spends 5 paragraphs praising another company before saying that unfortunately we have to part ways it usually means f-off m8 you fugged up. The more pre-emptive praise that is written the worse job said company did.
Yeah Gneeznow, that’s what made me sit up and notice - if TianCity is as good as CCP say there are (were) they would have been sticking with them - not dumping them.
I think you get a quicker response on https://twitter.com/eveonline?lang=en than here it never seem to amaze me more that a company will use another company software to give info about their product that use their own forums
I want to encourage people to consider viewing the problem of RMT and botting as less of an EVE problem and more of a RL problem. People wouldn’t do these things nearly as much if their financial situation had been decent. I believe this might increase the chance of eventually reaching a permanent solution, instead of a constant stream of temporary quickfixes like banning botters, which probably just moves the problem to a different place/game or something. Even though the RL side of the problem might be too daunting to take on for many people, every tiny step in the right direction helps.
EVE was born 15 years ago in 2003. Only 14 years earlier, in 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. Which is a bit mind boggling to me. It took many years to tip that particular scale, and suddenly it tipped. It’s hard to predict when these things happen, or how much pressure is needed to make it happen.
I believe that EVE, with its vast diversity of cultures and languages, can help tip the scale and bring down RL barriers in areas like government and economy. I also believe that EVE, with its focus on longterm gameplay, can help the world get less hooked on instant gratification and focus more on building the future. Less quickfixes and more permanent solutions.
Just how can EVE help with this RL problem? I don’t have all the answers, but I feel that judging botters less for trying to make ends meet in a messed up RL economy is a very good place to start. Building some compassion for the pain and struggle causing the problem. I keep finding that true compassion can be a gamechanger. It makes me consider new perspectives and ideas I didn’t see before, and it makes me reach out to people in a way that is much more likely to truly connect with them.
Others can’t build your compassion though, everyone has to build their own. And this is one way that you can help tip the scale, by becoming the change you want to see in the world. I know it’s hard though, I keep struggling for years and years…
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And these are just natural /environmental examples.