Disclaimer before going into this: Just because I say they ‘pay more attention to one thing’ doesn’t necessarily mean I’m saying all their changes specifically help that area.
CCP definitely favors the largest scale PVP stuff, which tends to favor the largest null blocs. They get the most marketing material out of that, the most ‘world records’ etc. That does not mean they only pay attention to that area of space though, just that many of their changes are more concerned with those areas of the game than others.
Next, I would probably say the ‘nano gang’ people probably have the most sway, because most of them tend to be streamers and the like. Again, not all, but most. Look at most the viable doctrines right now, and roaming ships. Almost all of them are kitey-nanoey stuff. When was the last time a serious change was made that legitimately made heavy armor doctrines a desirable choice? Even most the armor doctrines fit long range weapons. The meta has heavily favored small fast stuff, or caps for a long time, because CCP doesn’t know how to balance against these. And a fair bit of griping whenever they try.
Most the changes tend to primarily affect null in someway or other, sometimes with secondary effects on low and HS. The ESS changes, the supercarrier respawn thingy, the super/capital EHP rebalance… (Yes, I’m looking back through the devblogs to make sure I’m not talking out of my ass), the botting focus…
This ends up leaving large swathes of space stagnated. Sure, there was the Triglav stuff in high sec, and the drifters as well, and sure these do have some impact, but, now that the events are over, how much more are they being developed to continue to enrich those areas of space? Kinda like the Sansha incursions, yeah? Or Faction Warfare, which is still suffering.
I’m actually not sure the current stable of CCP dev’s have the vision, gall, or know how to fix any of this stuff, let alone the backbone to try it. Like, the high sec missions content is pretty much the exact same content it was when I started playing a decade ago. Sure, there’ve been the burner missions, and AI updates and some mission updates… but stick the two next to each other and tell the average player to spot the difference. Oh, they attack your drones more and have new icons, got it. Why isn’t CCP doing something like putting two hubs near each other that offer frigate only missions, hey this guy is doing a mission for the Caldari, go kill him while he’s being told to come kill you, or Concord saying ‘Hey, this dude has a 1bil bounty, we’re selling a license for you to go kill him and we won’t intervene.’ Or all kinds of other, much more dynamic, innovative stuff they could do. Yeah, yeah, I know there are some challenges to overcome, but seriously, same missions, more or less for a decade+? I mean, credit where due for those materials acquisition sites, but still. There are just a lot more creative things they could do that I’m not sure they have the guts to even try.
