Busted…
Well SOMEBODY has to keep the pump primed. We have a goal here.
I’ve read this thread over the weeks off and on…certain parts are more cringe worthy than others…
One thing did stick out by its absence, namely, the competition. I may have missed the single or multiple instances of people saying which competitor they were going to.
RL is free folks. Oh wait…we’re paying to escape RL.
Actually, I’m an inactive active trader, specifically SPX options. The US stock market has been far too volatile for my stye/methods for the past 2.4 years so I play EVE while I wait. Like your Eve nostalgia of 2014, I long for those same days too…trading. So I follow the markets on one screen and play Eve on four others. As such, I play Eve 5-6 hours most days during the week while I do mostly what I’ve always done except execute trades.
So if I were CCP reading the entirety of this thread, I might be wondering who the competition really is.
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The competition you mention is, quite simply, other MMO’s. Yes, EVE occupies a niche in the market as being a combat-oriented spaceship combat simulator. And the concept of permanent loss isn’t commonly implemented with very much long-term success. However, you hit the concept squarely on the head in that EVE Online is supposed to be, in effect, an escape from real life concerns.
Except it is now much less effective at doing this job. When out-of-character concerns such as metagame balance, price points, third-parties to the software (anything from bots to RMT to quality-of-life programs) and methods of changing these standards come into play and trump in-game events as the most important items on the list for players, then the game itself becomes rather toxic to be in for a longer period of time. My point here is that the recent backlashes due to corporate decisions, rather than merely game decisions, have solidly trumped concerns over the health of the player environments we now find ourselves in, which are also something I’ve grown increasingly worried about.
CCP is very much competing for a lot of money per year from its player base to choose their company, their platform for an escape from real life. To (finally) arrive at the answer to your question, everyone else counts as competition. World of Warcraft, League of Legends, just about any other MMO directly competes for our time, and our increasingly limited cash, because we’re not just dealing with inflation, we’re dealing with real-life issues where our money goes nowhere near as far as it did even a few months ago.
And we’re not even dealing with a one-off expense for an experience, either. The company will continue asking for our money each day we log in, whether it be for a monthly subscription, some PLEX to cash in on low-effort space pixels, or even their digital goods that can only be bought with real money. The company will continue asking for money to pay for their backend expenses and whatever side projects they’ve got going on that aren’t profitable on their own yet.
And for me, like so many others, the company increased their prices beyond a point where I’m willing to shell so much money year after year. They used methods I’m strongly opposed to using, including trying to violate the player-only economy by selling fitted ships, or hiding behind a one-month promotion of all things to slip in behind a massive price increase, and I’m not even mentioning the creep-up of microtransactions now permeating the game. And, the content they’ve delivered in recent months does not justify a 33% price increase – not for me, at least. Neither, I’ll add, are the side projects worth me paying CCP for yet another attempt at diverting vital company resources at a time where they’re desperately attempting to make EVE into a multi-game franchise… when their core product could stull use work at its current price point.
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Thanks for the well-reasoned response. You first spoke of CCP monetizing far too many intra-game and even extra-game transactions. In RL entities are competing for your/our moneys through phones, computers, etc all your waking hours - the media is non-stop palms out. So, I don’t hold CCP as special in that regard. In all of this, in my humble opinion, I see emotional reactions approaching that akin to betrayal.
I believe, especially in regard to a computer game, we focus on what we choose to deem important. For myself, most all of what you attribute as negative in your text, I’m whole heartedly indifferent to. What is more important to me is the social aspects of the game and the goals I’ve set for myself. The extra Starbucks latte a week increase per omega toon is a nothing burger, in my view.
Like many here, my expectations of what CCP should do better seem forever unfulfilled. But apparently, for the same in this forum, that disappointment consumes them to the point of perpetual betrayal in what should be a plutonic relationship.
Good luck to you all, I hope you find MMO happiness somewhere. For me, I’m doing fine.
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Eve Shooter, sign me up. But all my secondary accounts are nolonger needed.
Btw, will there be a shared sub with shooter?
When they announced the end of scarcity, I made two new Alphas with the intention to sub when the end of scarcity changes hit. Then they didn’t hit…then ok, I waited for fanfest. Was truly disappointing, I’ll be cutting down to only one or two characters. Just log in when my friends need help, all the things I enjoy doing in space are nerfed to the point that it’s not fun, I’ll just play other games.
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Say Thank you to ruttitutti and ccp kenneth
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They doubled the m3 of ore in all rocks, but now you waste half of it in space dust. Done, end of scarcity.
Not sure what it changed either.
I have been playing EVE since the Rubicon release (12/2013 and on) and I am afraid that after this incredible and downright disrespectful increase of services prices, I have to say goodbye to one of the best darn games that I have had the extreme pleasure of playing. I fully understand the inflation aspect as well as they need to make money to pay wages, but with their massive increase, which is small to many people, is substantial to me where my wage did not increase to compensate obviously. I play with a total of 4 accounts and 3 of which are Rorq. pilots and I did my best to work around the horrible industry and mining changes but this increase in prices for subs and crazy prices for PLEX are too much for me as an individual to bear with. If CCP and Pearl Abyss can not roll out the greatest reason ever to stay subbed to this game, they will lose at least this customer who pays for all 4 accounts via OMEGA auto-subs. While losing me is less than a drop in the bucket to them, I hope they at least think more about their customers more in the future and less about how fat can they make their pockets in a short amount of time. I know there will be toxic ppl who comment on this as well as like minded pilots and indifferent pilots, but I hope CCP hears the complaints of vet pilots and at least revert the Ore changes at the bare minimum. If they can do that by the new fiscal year (July 1 , 2022 for me) then I can find a reason to stay. Otherwise, I must bid them a sad farewell. o7 RIP EvE Online
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Funny thing is, the main reason may actually be the USA rather than Russia.
The player count in the US timezone has absolutely tanked, not long after the big war. Software is a numbers game. More customers means the price can be lower, which attracts even more customers. This price increase has to be a desperate move.
The USA tops all the world charts when it comes to median income, mean income and disposable income. I reckon the Americans who left, were funding a big portion of this game, but CCP can’t very well point their fingers at them. The customer is king and if they want to leave, that says more about the company.
Now if I were a Russian, I’d definitely look into getting the most out of free Alpha accounts, account spinning and isk-PLEXing on rare occasions, like good events. It’s only a virtual game. A dollar has a lot more real world buying power outside of the US and western Europe.
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@CCP_Swift I have no problem with price hike, it doesn’t concern me personally.
Whoever thought up Alpha clones is a genius.
I mean just look at gas price. Most people will cut on online products before real life stuff like food. Still the solution was not INCREASE THE PRICE. If anything it exacerbates the problem, the other way, reducing the price would’ve been a better call i believe. It’s not like they are selling a product with a definite price per unit, selling more of it is a net profit, or at least try to get through the inflation period with as little damage as possible.
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It’s staring people in the face, yet denial is everywhere.
Figure 1: Peak Eve (link is Awards and Accolades - EVE Community)
Average accounts per player is 3. Divide numbers by that to get a realistic estimate.
Also see [Discussion] PLEX and Omega price changes feedback thread - #3302 by Emotional_Support_Clown
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Nope. That makes too much sense.
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Yes. What they could have done instead is conjure up new digital “products” to sell alongside the old stuff, like a Super Omega with a triple training speed, sold at a higher price. Might be worth it to some, while not disturbing the rest of the player base.
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Or maybe try to appeal to new players. Or try to get more people into multiboxing via reduced price.
No, putting player counts in the hands of less customers, disaster waiting to happen.
Multi-boxing should not be encouraged nor depended upon for existential survival, that right there is a death spiral and last grasp to boost revenues.
Average is THREE (3) accounts per customer, that’s a disaster.
If you can’t afford to multi-account, then don’t. Multi-boxers be gone. That’s like crying you can’t afford THREE cars, or THREE houses, or whatever.
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Hope This Was Worth It, Watched Eve Come Down In Player Count Steadily Since The Price Increase, So looks Like Eve Is Going To Die Now, WTF. So Sad The Greed Of The Rest of The World Made It Into Your Pockets. But Your Going to See Real Quick, That It Was A Bad Decision, and You Made More At 14.99 With More Subscribers, Then 19.99 and Almost No Subscribers, the numbers are Dropping So Quick I Dont Want To Pay For Another Month, Everyone Is Leaving, Minus the Few Hardcore Players, And Retired People, You just Totally Allieanated So Many Player’s, that if you fixed it Today They Wouldn’t Come Back. And the Stuff At Fanfest Wasn’t Worth the Price Increase, And The Players, Are Thinking Of ALL THE MONEY WASTED ON AN ATTEMPT AT A FPS GAME, FAILED over and over, BUT LETS CHARGE THEM MORE TO KEEP TRYING ! DROP THE FPS IDEA and apologize to your community and revert the Sub Price. Hopefully it wont be to late… Ps i run 7 sub accounts, and plex, im a 200 USD a month player and im done…
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industry and mining guys do this normally, and it will affect Eve majorly and in a bad way unfortunately They Made a HUGE MISTAKE, So Much That, I dont even Know What To Think Anymore. Inflation Everywhere in The World And Now to Our Fun As Well, Looks Like We Will be Getting out more and enjoying the Sun. Or Find a New Game, Star Citizen is looking awfully awesome at this point… Sigh CCP Dug Their GRAVE…
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