I would like first to thank CCP for answering questions from the community.
One of the questions in Q&A sessions was about the mechanics of the Bounty Risk Modifier. The comment from CCP Rattati on that topic was “It is definitely working as intended…” “… and when people are docking becouse of [this mechanic] this is there chioce […] that was the intention.”
I am not in favour of analysing every single word of an interview, but this comment shows the mindset of the head developer of CCP and therefore of the CCP development team.
I don’t want to go into what the problem with the BRM is and how many less people are in space because of it or something like that, but I want to talk about the philosophy of such a mechanic and the mind set behind it.
A player who logs into eve to do something, in this case ratting, he contributes to the life of the game. Someone who rats in space earns money with which he can buy more ships to progress or to participate in fleets and so on. In other words, he enjoys the game. But more than that, a ratter is a target for hunters looking for a target to shoot down. To stop this hunters, locals go out to defend their space. The destroyed ships of the ratters, hunters and defenders in turn create demand for new ships and equipment to keep industrialists and traders busy. To provide these resources, miners go into space, which in turn makes them targets and attracts even more hunters. It is a content upward spiral.
However, if a technique causes players, instead of going out into space, to see that what they want to do is not fun, is not awarding, they log out. If the ratter is not in space, no hunters will come either, who will also log out because they have no contant. This leads to the defenders also logging out because they are bored. This also means that no equipment is needed, so in the long run industrialists have no demand and so miners have no one to sell there goods to. Which leads again to even fewer people in space and fewer hunters again. So it’s a downward spiral.
Of course there are more details but on a meta level it works the same way.
Never should a feature give the player the choice that is better not to undocked because the activity he wants to do is not rewading enough and/or just not fun anymore.
If people don’t undock, not only do they not enjoy the game, but it also makes it less fun for others. People who don’t have fun will cancel their subscription. In the end everyone loses, the players lose fun and CCP loses money.
So I ask @CCP_Rattati and all of CCP to reconsider this mind set. I’m not referring only to the BRM , but to any mechanic that has the possibility of a player logging out rather than going into space. Under no circumstances should such a case be called “working as intended”.
That is my feedback.
Thanks for reading.
