The Blackout have already shown beyond any doubt that AFK ratting and botting was an issue needing taking care of. The immediate impact has been great and while having lost my own easy access to ISK (through VNI ratting) i applaud the change. And there’s a simple reason for it:
I’m running 3 accounts at the moment and i pay for all of them. I could quite easily plex at least two of them every month, but i prioritize having fun when i play over saving money. My accounts all do different stuff and i play them more ore less actively depending on what i want to do. Sometimes i scout, sometimes i mine, sometimes i explore. It all depends.
Now i hear people running 5, 10, 20 or even 100 accounts, and i think something is wrong. Plexing is an unique way of getting access to a game - but the price of plexing should be time invested. Now, when somebody can run 100 accounts - or even 20 - it should be a sign of something very broken. The Blackout is part of the fix, but the people i know who run really large account-parks are using the skill extractor trick to do it.
So this should be next on CCP’s list, in an attempt to normalize the market and get rid of accounts that does not contribute with anything ingame. Skill extracting should have an overhaul so that it is no longer a viable option to keep up an endless amount of Omega-accounts.
Plexing should be achievable for any active player in EVE who invest time and prioritize a free game over ISK. It should not be easily accessible in any form of afk activity.
He does not. Olmeca’s and Marshy’s alt armies, which are undoubtedly funded by skill trading and some other means, add tremendous value to EVE. Just as an example.
People should be allowed to have as many accounts as they want, either alpha or Omega.
That’s not gonna change, a lot of people have legitimate uses for them.
Yeah, I’m not a fan of skill farms personally, but they’re just one of those things. Our players will always find ways to min max and make ISK.
On the subject of extraction/injection in general, there’s a lot of people who don’t like it.
I’m a 17 year vet of EVE and I wasn’t a fan when we first discussed it internally - I actually lost my ■■■■ and had a “NOT IN MY EVE” moment, until I spoke in detail with CCP Rise and he ran through the design with me.
I have no issue with extraction/injection now, but I would certainly restrict it a bit more. If it was down to me, I’d prevent the ability to inject any capital/supercapital skills - caps and supers have always been an “endgame” or “veteran” goal in my eyes, and if you want to fly them you should have to commit the time to actually train into them.
It’s not too late they can remove titan bpc/bpo from the game let the last ones die off and then after some time reinburse the titan/super sp players invested in and boom eve server will be in a great spot after that.
Completely removing the ships would be a really silly idea, but my personal view is they do need injection restriction, and they need more defined roles for sure.
But the harm has already been done and restricting injectors now would negatively affect the possibility of competition on an even field. At least that will be an argument in case such an idea gets announced.
That was always a perceived barrier for entry, though, not an actual one. It makes sense to take measures to dispel that false perception, but not to treat it as reality.
There was always a majority of players who had buttloads of SP but not a clue how to use them. 1 month old players who applied themselves were always competetive in PvP against veterans long before skill injectors were a thing. They just weren’t flying capital ships.
Skill injectors haven’t been as game-killing as I had predicted them to be, but I don’t think they add any value to the gameplay experience. There used to be a greater sense of progression and character development. Now you see a tendency to skip right to endgame content, with no appreciation of the journey.
Respect for a company that originally made claims about a game developed by gamers which just gives one aspect of sticking to the game up for hard cash.
I totally understand the business reason, but I dont have to respect that choice.
You still have the competitive advantage of the in-game experience and real skill that comes from using that ‘skill-book’.
It’s like saying new Formula One drivers should start racing in a 2005 car, upping by a year each new season - while you also up by a year each season, so they can never catch you.