That’s how I feel about this game.
It’s not supposed to be for everyone.
But that does bring into question keeping it sustainable, and riding that line between niche but profitable.
The best part about EvE is it isn’t like anything else.
And that does two things;
People who are devoted to the game because it is one of a kind.
People who are turned away because of how unique it is.
It took me many, many attempts to really get into EvE. But every time I came back I came back because there was no replacement. The most recent corp I joined has made me feel welcomed for the first time and it’s the most I’ve played EvE ever.
I hope to see EvE continue into the future and thrive in some way. It has the power. The sheer scale is amazing. I love that you can start small and the rabbit hole is near endless. For someone who loves to learn, it’s a dream.
I don’t think its just the teaching…I think it is that a corp also gives one a sense of purpose. On one’s own, as a noob, it is very easy to drift into a ’ what the heck am I doing here ?’ mode because progress is slow and all those shiny blingy ships seem so far off. In a corp you can gain a structured progression rather than just randomly guessing what to do next, and can take part in fleets that give a sense of purpose and direction.
I think it’s declining. I think many people are occasionally trying EvE but bouncing off the game hard.
Due to a combination of game mechanics difficult to learn, an unforgiving community in the initial stages.
And if they stay after the first few months, I think they bounce off due to a combination of almost mandatory multiboxing and extremely static and unchanging situations in null and low. Aka: The game tells you you can impact the galaxy, and then you find out that…No, no you can’t.
Sounds like a call to arms is needed. Another massive scale conflict.
Not that those just happen overnight. They take an immense amount of planning [usually] and resources. But I know there are stockpiles of resources at this point. Just waiting for that next ‘tinderbox’ moment.
Or I’ll figure out how to be charismatic and lead my own charge for something silly.
In my experience RPing on DayZUnderground, having a villain faction significantly helps content. So maybe I need to make a corp who’s sole purpose is mixing things up, so to speak.
So I guess that means farming until I have enough financial capital to do said thing [resources/money talk] and/or find enough acquaintances who think that’s a good idea.
Though, I’d want a good RP lore reason for a corp to be doing so, so I guess I’ll throw that topic into the brainstorming oven and hope it’s ready should any of the above come to fruition.
A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I was here. If you follow the Steam stats the game has been in normal decline of 1% for the last 30 days but gained 18% since April of this year. The 1% decline is natural for any online game, especially the summer months, to lose players and gain them back in the winter months. I see there are some recent changes made that had little or no affect on the game. The game is ranking at 271 based on currently 4000 plus (Steam players) on this Sunday evening. I don’t put a lot of faith into Steam numbers, since I don’t play on Steam. According to the launcher there are 31,000 players but we know a lot of them are bots, multiboxers, and other evildoers. This number would place it closer to 48th place currently held by Cats.
People I play with told me the game made some “big” changes in June. Those changes must be either vague or don’t affect me. I barely noticed the daily login rewards, and probably would remain unaware, if someone hadn’t told me already. Other than this, it seems the more they change, the more things remain the same. I just popped in to pick up my profits and reinvest them in the market. Nothing to see here people, move along.
You are a smart man and obviously not a noob like all these fools calling it a sandbox as if the butterfly effect wasnt dead in 2017. Add hisec to your list for mandatory mulitibox and unchanged situations. CCP is driving this game into the dirt and it is not a player driven experience.
Man, To think ive enjoyed almost two decades of this very often times bio worthy content… KB still green, content still rich, changes to the game are healthy and great marketing by CCP imo. Keeping pace with games that have ZERO equitable expansion. Not bad for an archaic 20 y/o OG Titan of MMOs. Full Stop!
It is declining, the recent cost increase is a sure sign of a failing game that owners are going to milk every dollar out of just before they sell the game of shelf it for good.
The context of Altara’s comment is Verlyn’s assertion that the ‘real head population has been on a steady decline since the 2010s’. Since it’s a bare assertion without any supporting reasoning or evidence, it’s pretty fair to treat it with skepticism. Eve regularly goes through cycles where it loses some players and gains some later and a 6 month trend of that magnitude doesn’t look that out of the ordinary to me.
I tend to think that if the game was doing that well then CCP would publish that and dispel the uncertainty, but I can’t prove anything. Even if I could, it wouldn’t really matter to people who play the game and like it as it is. In fact, I’d probably prefer it if they focused on retaining and entertaining a smaller subset of fans who liked the game with its ‘throw you to the wolves and you try to survive’ theme intact over trying to appeal to a wider audience that is uncomfortable with that theme.
