You are right, it’s not the whole game that was affected negatively. It’s just a segment.
I think that the level on which that segment was affected, was disproportionate to the point that eventually it percolated to other layers within the game.
Like everything in a closed environment, there is always some degree of reaction in general for any action in particular.
I think it was a negative impact in general, considering daily concurrency numbers as index and the increased lack of content in several areas in Null since BO, which is a localized issue. But the question remains: In the case of Bots, and if they were an objective, was the introduction of BO a direct action as pest control? The answer is no.
Keep in mind that index is treacherous and it’s data is contaminated by SP giveaways and promotions. All those things add up to simple number susceptible of multiple interpretations but to say that bots make a bigger part of whatever that number shows, is to patronize that number irresponsibly.
Today for example, I heard a convo about that, analyzing the bots thing and the recently published security report, citing numbers and quantities, etc. That would not be much of a topic if the concurrency index wasn’t dire. Bots have been subject to bans, which is their inherent insecticide not this time, but every purge around, so their numbers are recurrent in history and not exclusive to this particular moment in time. They are a recurrent statistic. Talking about them in contrast to BO or chaos can only be acceptable if those recurrent statistics are pondered too.
Bots are being addressed with specific tools pretty much constantly. The real people that are not showing on that daily concurrency index, are not. Their quantity is by far, more important than most degrees of bot infestation. One should worry about one over the other and avoid pushing the bot agenda IMHO.
No doubt the most toxic player base out of all the games I have played over the years. Now, these elitist know it all’s are paying for being toxic with a dead game. The player base has left in droves. The low for online players is sometimes just over 12,000 and the high 20-24,000, whereas 1-2 years ago it the high would be 35-37,000 with a low of 18-20,000. Put a stake in it these toxic vampires have sucked the lifeblood of new and old players alike right out of the game.
Some data that may support his thoughts would be how production, mining and bounties have dramatically fallen since the blackout, but destruction has not.
It would suggest that the players leaving are primarily, if not completely, farmers. Activities that botters, afk players and multi-boxers have an affinity for.
Ack, I miss the good old days. I’m not a bitter vet now, just don’t have the motivation to log on anymore. The Eve Community was always special and being part of this game has influenced my life and augmented it with so many good memories. CCP chipped away at what made the core fundamental of this game unique. They have continued to do this after selling out and now all the cash grabs and shameless free incentivised sp. @Solstice_Projekt I miss you also
We need to learn to let go of the past and concentrate on the present.
We also need to make sure that no extremists again force CCP’s hands, because most nerfs were the doings of a few people not caring about anything but themselves.
After so many years I doubt it’s the game that’s the problem.
I believe it’s us being stuck in the past, forgetting that we can just “reset” and start over.
It’s not my problem if ccp upper management have brought us to this point. I don’t feel like logging in - but the numbers concurrent also speak for themselves - this is systemic and indicative of the direction the upper management have taken this game down the shitter. I hope the shareholders are impressed @CCP_Hilmar
Sure, in the long run their crusade to “expand the fanbase”, as marketing said, really didn’t go to well … nonetheless there is a chance for change, because apparently they’re desperte enough to “cause chaos”.
I’m not having my hopes up, but people like you and me need to point out where there’s room for improvement … even if it’s just because we’ve got first hand experience. The one thing I know is that they can’t back down from “chaos”, because that’d literally kill the game for good.
Soo … we’ve got that going for us, which is nice! Also less of the self torturing by looking at PCUs, reading reddit or reading the toxic carebears’ nonsense around here will probably help a lot too.
Not sure given the concurrent freefall of active players anything can be reversed now. Trying not to be bitter, but the good times are gone, the decline is here - if anybody wishes to defend the numbers and why ccp upper management aren’t responsible for bringing the community down this path - then please do
When enough content creators start creating content again,
then it acts as a multiplier helping to keep people around.
People loved us for a reason. : - )
And I must say, I’m quite sure that at least 50% of the reason why highsec is so boring nowadays is because most of us stopped creating content. It’s not like there’s no content to be made, but we’ve somehow crippled ourselves into this passive mindset of “let someone else fix it” which is just … terrible.
I mean … in the past it was our game. Nowadays it’s CCP’s game and I don’t actually like that at all.
Good, because then consumers not unlike yourself will start enjoing the game again.
Not for the mindless consumer’s hoarding instincts.
Not for isk, SP or skins.
For actual content.
I think a lot of the older players like myself anyway have given up on the game a long time ago, but still play. Or stopped playing but are active in the forums for some ungodly reason in the hopes that CCP will pull their head outta their ass and actually “work” to fix the game. I think I’ve had the rug pulled out from under me by CCP enough times for one lifetime.
I don’t see an intelligent fix for anything in the foreseeable future.
That being said, I’m going back to the party where were “almost” done with a complete resto of a 69 Camaro ragtop. The AMX next door is next! My truck after that. (I’ll link some photos in out of pod sometime) This game did me a favor by driving out my online friends and when I had to move back north, (because of my now 100 yr old mother) I reconnected with old friends.
But sure as hell, I miss those guys. We had a “Band of Brothers” that I will never forget.
Back when I was in the financial industry, there was a book or seminar or program or something going around which had the core idea that “successful/happy/contented people tend to find something that works and they do it. Then, since that worked, they have the comfort zone or the leverage to move on to the next thing, and the next thing changes their schedule/expectations/whatever, and then they stop doing the thing that created their success/happiness in the first place.”
This applied to work, to relationships, to health regimens etc. People are willing to do X, then they establish a new baseline or comfort zone or level of effort they are willing to put out, and after a while they are doing Y and Z and W and wondering why they aren’t quite so successful/content/happy any more.
Check this article, and specifically what it took for the Goons to gel into a successful force: The Great Wars of EVE Online
Specifically the portions where the Goons took in their new members and taught them how to work as a group and achieve something even with crappy ships, or even when they are ‘losing’.
Nowadays, of course, such activity is mostly “too much effort, too little reward” and so they leave things up to various ‘junior partner’ corps.
But people keep referring to the ‘grand old days’ of EVE, and assume the changes are all CCPs coding fault (which TBH many are)… but like you just pointed out, a lot of it is because even the players who love those days simply don’t do those things any more.
