Over at reddit CCP Convict did his job by asked the communtiy how we feel about EVE right now. You can find the thread here:
It is telling that he didn’t went to the official EVE Online forums first. The problem with censorship is that if the censored can move elsewhere you lose any control over the discussion. It’s nice that you lot want to play with us again. You may find that prior to joining a player corp you have to talk to players. I’m inviting all of CCP Games to get some practice right here. So, how do you feel about the game CCP Convict?
EVE got a big spot in my heart so I wont wait for an answer. In fact I believe that in a sandbox game it’s my resposibility as a player to create content. I hope the following post is less boring the it is long.
Please allow me to introduce myself before we come to my feeling. I’m gfldex, I post with my main and am playing EVE Online since the end of 2004. I joined right after the first expension. I was told that was a good move because before Exodus downtime was what happened between 2 node crashes. I joined a corp that lived in Stain 2 weeks after I started playing the game. One day after that I killed my first player battleship. Granted, there where 10 other guys in my gang. But still I ruined the day of that dude. After a short stay in highsec to get some basic skills up I stayed in 0.0 for years. I died a lot. Before the dmg mod and sensor booster nerf we just died a lot. When you got primaried in a fleet fight you didn’t warp out. It was pointless anyway. We just died a lot and had a blast! After CA died I joined a dedicated PvP corp and moved around the map while avoiding highsec. There wasn’t much to do there anyway. We where piss poor and happy. Things got bigger in EVE and I grew with it. Both as a capsulier and as a person. You can learn a lot about leadership when you are resposible for 120 dudes and their battleships when you warp your fleet into a hostile camp. I was in BoB before and after we got disbanded. I like PVP but don’t like how it changed. I strongly dislike capitals and I loth supers. I took few short breaks from the game when I had to move house. And then I got an overdose of shooting Citadels. I blame Mitch Taylor for that. I still love you tho. Then Hilmar had an interview. (somebody link it please, can’t find it right now) I returned because of the Chaos That Shall Be. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! Sorry. Where was I? Yes, I returned with a plan. A simple plan actually. I place a gamble on the fact that retention rates go up. I then join a corp of new players. As I found the old farts hardly ever log in but are very quick to tell you what you do wrong, new players seam attractive. New players means empire space. Did I tell you that I loth supers? Login traps are lame but hotdrops are fine? I’m bittervetting. Sorry for that. Anyway, empire means making ISK in highsec so I improved my setup their and build up funds so I can actually focus on PvP and support a new corp. Tip your FC dammit! If all you sorry sods hand over a few MSIK to your FC after an evening of fun, that FC can atually focus on leading you! Those who lead carry a great burden in EVE. I got the ISK and my alts are set up to. Now I only need to wait for CCP to deliver to make EVE grow again.
I you are still reading this, you must care about my feeling. So here we go.
This is how I feel about EVE right now.
Some years ago I was helping players with killing Dagan. Those who ask for help got it free of charge. If they didn’t asked I helped them anyway and contracted Dagan to them for 5MISk. Somewhere between 10-20% engaged with me. Could you imagine this? Player interaction in highsec! If they stated not to have 5M they got my help for just 1M. Pretty much all who started a chat with me also asked for advice. The game doesn’t make it clear that the 2nd last mission in the lvl1 arc is designed to provoke teaming up with strangers. Since I know how the game works I could tell those who asked how to fit their ships properly. The GMs put an end to it. I was send an EVE mail by a GM telling me that I broke the official rules (yes, the also got official rules) by messing with new players in a starter system. I looked up that list and found that most of the lvl1 arc missions where not on it. So I filed a petition asking to take that final warning back or to add the mission systems to that list. The senior GM who handled my request choose to put an end to non-voluntary competitive PvE in lvl1 arc systems. Mind you, there where hardly any pilots younger then 30 days that got forcefully helped by me. The management of CCP allowes their GMs to shorten the petition queue by changing the rules. And slowly but steadily EVE becomes more boring.
A few weeks ago I was in need of help of the GMs myself. With the new “netcode” and the slicing up of the EVE server into micro services the game has became quite crashy. We always had closed sockets. With the new login scheme I often can’t log back in right away but have to wait 3 minutes before the launcher manages to acutally start a client. In the good old days we used to prelaunch clients so we only had to hit enter to start a reconnect. That does not work anymore. This sucks in PvP. Given the nature of PvP in EVE - which is essentially a waiting game - it is tollerable. In abysmal space it is not. I did many of those sites and since I had a buffer of 4 minutes a crash didn’t kill me. I was back in game after 3 minutes and could escape the inevitable collaps of space around me. Until one day the game refused to connect for a little more then 4 minutes. I tend to listen to streamed music why I endure the boredom of shooting the same NPCs over and over again so I can spot easily when my internet connection goes down. It didn’t. Since abysmal space is desinged (by a moron) with the assumtion that the socket is never closed I asked a GM for help. As it turns out they are only allowed to help with ship losses due to bad service of CCP Games if lots of players lose connection at the same time. 5BISK down the drain. I wont go into abysmal space ever again and if you plan to do so make damn sure you never have any sockets close on you. How to do that I don’t know. Neither does the BH who closed my bug report without even reading it.
CCP Convict, can you guess how I feel about customer service of CCP Games?
As the previous section shows I’m a bad man. What can you do when you want to play solo for some time because you are working at odd hours and don’t believe that EVE Online should be a boring game? THAT MEANS WAR! I got an alt that could fly a Drake and a Catalyst well. The best thing to shoot with a Catalyst is clearly a Hulk. So I found myself an active corp in highsec and declaired war. I kept a log that can be found here:
The cool bit happend at the end. One of my victims that I griefed badly by fighting 12 guys solo asked to join me. If he got a good bargain on a backstabknife or was truely impressed by the fact that in EVE Online a single player can take on a whole corp and win we will never know. Actually we can. If he is still playing he will surely answer an EVE mail I shall send right away.
Highsec wars used to have a function. It showed new players that there is more to the game then to shoot the same NPCs and rocks over and over again. A new or not so new player could learn if his (or in very few caes her) corp got good leadership or if it would be a good time to move on and find a proper corp with competent leadership.
When Dark Rising was quite young we spend a few weeks in highsec. And since Mitch knew that I was familiar with the area he asked me to find a suitable target for a war. I did find a corp that had more numbers but less guns. We had one battle with them that could have went the other way. It didn’t and we moved on with reinfocred confidence to go after the first installment of Red Alliance. Dark didn’t stay to fight them but I wanted to so I joind a corp in Veritas Immortales. To my surprise I was greeted by the corp I picked as a war target some months ago. That highsec war was their first taste of PvP combat and they liked it. In fact they stated their explicit gratitude that I showed them The Light. Does your heart beats faster just before you go to battle? Do you get the shake? Do you know any other game that does that? Well, not in highsec. Not anymore.
CCP Convict, can you guess how I feel about the wardec changes?
When I was in Evolution I found a true gem on the corp forum. A reply of a GM to Molle stating that there are no employees or associates of CCP Games left in his corp. After the t20 debacle it was a reasonable question to ask. BoB was always accused of dev favourism. We had very high recruitment standards. Both in skillpoints and player skill. Some ppl got accepted without any questions asked. We did favour devs indeed. And all we got in return was betrayal of our core values by a player that should never have been allowed to join in the first place.
End last year we got surprised by a very special gift. Devs are now allowed to play with us even if we get knowledge of their devdom. There was one thing missing in that announcement. That any dev cough cheating is looking for work the next day. Any other company whould have fired t20 on the spot. At least for me what was the reason why I didn’t want to play with devs anymore.
CCP Convict, can you guess how I feel about well known devs joining my corp?
Some years ago we shot the statue in Jita to show our dismay about being “milked”. A clear statement that we don’t want pay to win micro transaction in a game made for hardcore gamers. A seamingly compromise was settled because the value of pay to win items is regulated by routing PLEX sales through the ingame market. CCP tried to buy the vocal playerbase by sharing them in the deal. I accept cheaters and in turn they pay my subscription. Also I get to shoot them, which is nice.
I used to say that EVE is pay to lose. I make some ISK and buy minerals to build a Drake that you buy with your $ turned into PLEX. I then shoot your Drake until it pops. You are welcome. Some time ago a fellow complained on Reddit about a ban just because he turned $1000 into PLEX. I told him to call his bank and ask if Visa nuked his CC via the Online Watcher. (I’m working for a bank. That’s likely what happend.) Best wishes to him. But that leaves the question what he intended to spend $1000 on. I’m quite confident I could solo his Drake. His Avatar will prove difficult.
Skill injectors and PLEX are a godsend for botters. I personally don’t mind some russians competing over players dollars with CCP Games. What I do mind are those who deflate the value of honestly spend screen time. The bordom of shooting NPCs is giving ISK value. If you are clever and know the game well, you don’t have to. Or you just use your credit card. Unless you are russian ofc.
CCP Convict, can you guess how I feel about $1000 “micro” transactions?
I hope I have anwsered you original question by avoiding to name my feelings. Instead I provided how I see EVE right now. I hope the description of reality as I perceive it is more helpful then a clear bittervet statement.
That leaves the qustion why I am still here. I’m not here because all those shiny new ships or fancy graphics. 3 clients on a 4k screen? Potato it is! I don’t play for all the changes to the worse made in the last 10 years. I’m here because I remember the fun I had with Zena, PD, birdog and the other guys sortly after CA “was destroyed from within”. Us shooting them had nothing todo with their demise! We didn’t have timers. There was no dotlan. We first joined teamspeak to talk to our mates and then logged into the game. We acutally played the game and did so together instead with an army of alts. There was no ping on Discord. We where piss poor and had ■■■■ tons of fun. EVE was different back then. Simpler, purer, hardcore. We went into any fight expecting to lose our ships. It was a rush! Also we killed more of them they they killed of us. A clear victory. We had clear vicroties and I remember those very well. I hardly remember what happed in the last 10 years.
A note to Hilmar: It’s nice that you care for EVE again. I agree with your assesment that she needs help. She didn’t speak to me in a dream tho. Your drugs are clearly better then mine. What I don’t agree with is that you voice your concern through an intermediary. You don’t need an interviewer. You can speak to me directly - I’m right here. And I think you owe me as much. Literally. I payed (a very small portion) of your salary since 2004. I was there. And that’s not some marketing blurb. I was there when “we crushed that alliance”, as Oveur put it. You owe me becaue I keep paying even though EVE got changed into something she never meant to be. You owe me because under your watch Xetic Federation - Antipirat - Carebear - Krabs - or however you want to call the risk averse - won EVE.
