Eve Concurrent Average Online under 20k now :(

Communications Center General Discussion
827

You’re 100% right, players are proving they can’t provide the content, or at least aren’t willing to do so. I’ll admit, I don’t know all that much about PVE missions or ratting or whatever because I don’t ever do that, but it seems like every new activity pushed by CCP is just another “invasion” of some sort, with a few new ships included. New variations of the same old things. Nothing original and potentially game-changing until the past few months, and then all the crybabies cried, and they took it away.

I never ever went to null sec before the blackout. I was in a few corps but didn’t like the BS, especially being told to dock up and hide because “a neut is in local”. I’m mostly a trader…believe it or not, I like playing the game this way. I manage money in real life and actually enjoy the strategy behind it. However, after so many years of doing this, it too became tiresome and I was about to quit for good and then the blackout happened…and it gave me a reason to stick around to try something different…

I’m not very good at PVP, like I said, I haven’t been doing it all that long despite playing this game for years. Decided I was going to try solo pvp, not interested in fleets, just me and my one account. I tried this before the blackout but it took hours to find targets. Everyone either docks up, fleets up, or ships up as soon as you show in local. Lame. It’s a God-like source of intel that tells them everything they need to know about me…what I fly, where I likely came from, if I have friends, etc. Everything.

The blackout was new content, gave me a reason to try something different. I didn’t even get that many kills utilizing it but I was getting better and better at solo pvp and it was FUN again…then it ended. I flew around for three hours and every pilot I came across hid in station as soon as I entered the system. I said screw it, JC’d back to high sec and started trading again then though…do I really want to do this for another year or two? Not really. Most of my friends on here have long since quit for good, but I found something different and it kept me…and the my subscription payments to CCP around for a little longer.

You’re 100% right, we need new content…truly original new content…because the players aren’t as willing to provide it as before. Farming is the status quo for many people, as it becomes in nearly every MMO I’ve ever played as it nears it’s end. “Eve is always dying”…yeah, yeah, but this time it really is…it won’t be a bang, it’ll be a very slow decline where long-term players leave and the galaxy is left quiet and empty except for the botters, scammers, and a small population of farmers.

We don’t necessarily need another blackout but we do need something to make this game exciting again before it dies it’s slow uneventful death.

1 Like
828

I think you miss the point in that the core drivers for change that have brought the game and the community to this point has been the ccp upper management decisions to plough eve sub cash into new projects which have bombed at the expense of neglecting the only core product that was a success. As far as content goes, ccp killed low sec conflict drivers and killed low sec per se. They have watered down the game considerably over the last few years to try and pine on attracting casual players not realising the fundamental nature of what made Eve popular and maintained a loyal player base in the first instance. Ultimately, I could continue iterating what ccp has got wrong and why, but I don’t really have the appetite to do so, same as playing eve anymore - the numbers speak for themselves and are veritas - thank you CCP Upper Management for your direction and decision making over the last 4 years - I hope it’s all been worth it bottom line.

3 Likes
829

I think engaged players =could= create content with the right tools. I’m a legacy game dev/designer who’s blown away by games with open API for design. The wealth and quality of player-made zones, encounters, storytelling, etc…DLC made by players for the love of their games, because the engines were made/adapted for that kind of thing.

Which isn’t what CCP has now, but could. =That= is a true sandbox situation not just for null but for all zones. The code is there, it will take adapting for player use, it will take some guidelines, and only those inclined would actually devote the time to create…but it’s one way to infuse some new life into an MMO that’s in retention mode more than development mode and lacking the larger design team.

And yet, would we ever see this…::sighs: Pardon me while I finish Angel Extravaganza for the umpteenth time in 15-ish years.

3 Likes
830

Anyone who started playing EVE during or after middle to latter Kali won’t remember the first three years or so of the game, when null was “out there” but we couldn’t do anything with it, nothing was happening in it, and there wasn’t so much of it. Compared to that, we have an amazing EVE at this point. The problem is, when you build a bigger living room, you need more furniture. People gotta sit, after all.

1 Like
831

If Eve was amazing the concurrent numbers online wouldn’t have dropped concurrent for the last 6 years - I think it would be fair to say the community does not agree with the grand visions and failures that ccp upper management have advocated and thus sanctioned over this period. Are you endeavouring to suggest I’m wrong in this assessment?

3 Likes
832

I keep telling myself to stop posting in this thread, but alas. Tickles Eivar under the chin with a buttercup. If anybody wishes to assert that I’m wrong in any of my opinions, please do. Bed time for me. Good night.

1 Like
833

You may have seen… or might appreciate… this 2018 Fanfest talk about CCP’s challenges and some of the mechanics involved in their content authoring.

834

Yeah, I can’t argue, that is something that undoubtedly played a huge role in it. They certainly have watered down the game so you’re right, I can’t place all the blame solely on the crying PVE-crowd. I did miss this because they whine the loudest, but you’re right, CCP is just as guilty, likely more so, for Eve’s declining numbers.

835

We have a very intelligent (and unintelligent haha) player-base, so I’d love to see what content they’d come up with if given the right tools. That’s beyond my skills but I know we’d see some great stuff if they allowed player-created content. Something like that would revive this game, I agree 100%.

1 Like
836

I don’t think you’re wrong, I think you’ve brought up some very good points that I’ve missed.

837

I did see this, but it’s not a vision shared by all devs, or even players, looking at EVE. I doubt the devs in that panel were out of middle school when the game was first designed and they face tremendous challenges given the stricture of their code. But…of all the things one should rip out of a game and redo, should it be null local or a system that’s aged poorly?

Mind you, I don’t think I have any answers, just observations from pert near as long as the game’s been live. When I first heard about it, I chuckled. How long can space, in any form, hold a player’s imagination without constant content churn…and I still kinda chuckle, albeit sadly, because yeah…it can’t hold at least my imagination these days. I think I mostly play because I enjoyed Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Roddenberry and Leiji Matsumoto :stuck_out_tongue:

1 Like
838

Compared to EVE 2004, it is amazing. I was trying to say that, clearly I failed :smiley:

G’night!

2 Likes
839

Well, if you over-farm the PvEers, there will less of them the next time you want some content…

1 Like
840

Eve was Always a niche and It’s more difficult than before for niche game…

  1. the Young generation has less money and in an era where people wants free stuff, it is difficult to make them sub for a game…

  2. There are gazillion of games available and people wants instant fun and rewards. If they Don’t have it, they just jump to another game… But just realize how difficult and complex EVE is? Even with the help of a corporation, you need months to master the complexity of the game and you also need months to have skills necessary to have more fun in the game. Most gamers in 2019 Don’t have the patience to wait for that.

Most players start the game, play the tutorial, get bored and Don’t even reach the career agents…. If by luck, they finnish the career agents, most are lost in the sandbox and Don’t really know what to do after that. If sadly they are ganked in HS, that the end for them….

The retention iin this game is atrocious…. On 100 players starting the game on Day 1, how many do you think still play after day 30? I might say, less than 5, if not less….

  1. Eve is really play time consuming. It’s not the kind of game you can launch, play 2 hours a week and come back the week after… It’s nice when you are a teenager of student… But as Eve players are getting older, they have less time for Eve with the family life….

To conclude, not even talking about the change in the mechanics of the game, Eve players are getting older, they are leaving the game because their life changed and because they don’t have time anymore for games or wants to try something new after all those years and There is not enough new players to replace them…. So the popolation is shrinking…. and the trend will continue because I fear there is no solution to this problem…

4 Likes
841

You sound like a total wuss…

842

You assume too much. :wink:

1 Like
843

Thats their problem

844

That’s not true at all. The evidence shows clearly that players who are ganked are MORE likely to continue playing the game.

2 Likes
845

No it doesn’t.
All it showed is that there was a correlation between people who played longer and people who encountered PvP.

There was no isolation of factors of any kind, it does not show that Ganking increases retention. It is a possibility but the same data could also support ganking driving people off if you isolate it in the right way or a different way.

Right bow, it’s just a weak correlation with no causation.

2 Likes
846

Ah, so unless we do a double blind study in which we create two alternate universes, one in which EVE allows ganking and one in which EVE does not, and then measure the variables with scientific precision, then we can never deduce the obvious fact that people want to play a game in which spaceships go pew pew pew… Uh huh. Cuz the “fun” exciting way to play a game is to target a rock with ur mining lasers and go AFK for an hour.

3 Likes