Comparing Alpha and Omega with my own experience, the main reason for me to go Omega with two accounts was that I wanted to fly them together. Sure, there are all the Omega blocks that an Alpha runs into - but honestly, at the end of the day - all that gameplay is simply extrapolation of what you can do as Alpha depending on your goals. If you’re interested in any of the Omega blocked stuff, well, you either Omega or walk away. But if you’re just looking at some casual fun PVE and whatnot, you get a better return on just buying PLEX for ISK than you would going Omega.
Some might say that this is because Alpha has too much access to the game.
Personally, I think it is a case that Omega does not provide enough. There should be value added to the Omega subscription not only to justify the current price point but also the future price point. CCP talking about new content is great for those folks that are interested in that new content. But face it, EVE offers so many paths to play, that the promise of new content simply won’t matter to some people. So the new content won’t justify any sort of price increase for them.
CCP has to be aware of this. They should be able to take a look at snapshot to see where players are located and what they may be doing. This should give them an idea of the different kinds of content that players enjoy, and just how any new content may intrigue them. Short of this new content being so massive as to apply to almost every path of play - well, there’s going to be that issue with folks just not caring about the new content.
So I believe that CCP needs to look at the base value of an Omega subscription and improve that value. There should be more to it. There should be something to justify that new price point to almost all players.
Otherwise, we’re looking at everybody subsidizing the gameplay of others…which is what we have now. Unless you’re somehow spending the time to try to do everything in the game, you’re not just paying for yourself to play - you’re playing for everybody else to play. Would you go into McDonald’s to order a Quarter Pounder for yourself and half a dozen Big Macs for other customers there?
Sure, there is always going to be some level of subsidizing of other players going on. I question the amount that should be going into it, and I believe the base value of an Omega subscription needs to be improved at the core not through some additional subsidized content.
Again, unless this announcement is so massive it improves gameplay for almost all players…