salty comment incoming.
I’m quite mad about the extension of the presidential reward track;
For the last weeks I have been spending a good chunk of time farming political and presidential favors. It was a nice incentive, and I thought it to be a good way to make some ISK as a player with too little time to join high-risk-high-reward-Activities. So I saved most of the items I traded with the intention to sell them when they get rarer once the event is finished. It was a gamble, but seemed to be a way to be able to compete with other player who could finish their reward track earlier and thus could sell their rewards when the prices where high and thus to “even out the odds”.
When I logged in today after a four day break I noticed that the reward track has been extended, with the last rewards being significantly higher than the previous ones. So the market-worth of political and presidential favors has dropped, as well as the worth of any campaign-specific item. As a result, I have lost around 1B ISK (not quite, but approximately) in item worth - which is a lot for me, with only 2B on my account. I wont be able to complete the new milestones, because I have already finished the challenges I am capable of finishing, and I dont have the time to finish them again when they give only half the progression.
To be honest, this feels like a scam by CCP. Im totally fine with making losses when I gamble on market prices. But this is a rather direct market-manipulation, which was not forseeable. I feel cheated out of my ISK, but mostly I feel cheated out of my time that I spend grinding for those items. And it is especially frustrating because this measure favors players who spend a lot of time in EVE, who could sell early for higher prices and can now profit from their bonus-favors. It is totally fine that more playing-time equals more ISK. But this event could have been an opportunity for players like me to get at least a fair chance to close up. Now, instead I got the impression that CCP doesn’t care about casual players and sacrifices fairness and transparency willingly for a chance of higher short-term player-activity and engagement by spontaneously changing game-mechanics. And - disregarding my personal frustration - it simply reeks of lack of planning to short-handly change event-mechanics.
I know players like me are not “important” for EVE, neither for the ingame-community nor for CCP because I don’t spend a lot money on the game. But I have been a returning player for 15 years now. Things like that make me think about quitting completly. It seems that one big thing that makes EVE special - the consistent economy - is not so consistent anymore once CCP is trying to force player engagement - ironically loosing people like me on the way.
So, please stay transparent and predictable, CCP.
It was mentioned that the event track would be extended right in the first announcement of the event.
It’s not unfair, everyone got the track extended, nor is it spontaneous given they told us this would happen right from the start, and the fact that they’ve already had these event extensions toward the end for the last couple events.
Yes, I too hope they will keep announcing that the event track will eventually be extended at the start of the event.
I would still argue that “some surprises” being a “rather inflationary amount of the same items you were able to collect in the previous three weeks” is bad design. I’m tottaly fine with giving a little extra to people who are able to complete the bonus-round. I’m less fine with the bonus devaluating the previous rewards in hindsight. Even if I had read the notes I would not have expected this. Maybe I could have, if I had participated in the last events. Which I didn’t, because I play casually, which is my point.
In the end, I guess it’s the old EVE discussion about which risks should be part of the game-experience and which should be mitigated. Gambling on higher prices was a risk. But the event-items dropping in price because of a not-so-transparent (and I stick to that) decision by CCP seems like an external, not forseeable factor. Moreover, I was hoping and expecting this event to be rather carebear-friendly, which it turned out to be not exactly the case. Maybe everything worked exactly as intended. Yet for my gaming-experience, it had a negative impact.
For one - my impression is that having money is not a bad trait if you try to get into politics.
And second - the presidential candidates giving out favors in exchange for support hints towards a rather transactional understanding of politics in the republic, further underlining the importance of ISK.
I, for one, had planned to invest the money in better ships and equipment for exploration in order to contribute to the galactic knowledge of the people, which in my mind is essential for a democratic system. So I would say that CCP strengthend all authoritan tendencies by robbing me of my funds.
Republic, from “res publica”, can be used to describe any form of state that derivates its power from its inhabitants, in contrast to monarchies or theocracies. The use of the word differs between languages, but in its tradtional, latin sense it is used that way.
But nevermind; If you insist, I would agree to disagree on that. “Federation” would have been more precise, yes.
That was gonna happen anyway. The prices for all of those items had been dropping steadily and will continue to do so the longer the event is live.
You can still do that.
It’s no scam. They’re giving out rewards for those who have the time and willingness to put in some extra work. The value of those items was always gonna be cheaper at the end of the event than in the beginning or middle.
This is more referring to the capital changes to the Rogue Drone sites. The track was extended and surprises added to the sites. As for the rest…you still have a few days to get your rewards that have been available for almost a month now.
