Hey, just so we’re clear on this: I’m just sticking to the narrative in this thread. I’ve started the “harrassement” before you did and thought you picked up on it, so I played along.
Indeed, but the gazelle says no because it’s a gazelle, not because it has a choice. In fact and for a reason yet unknown to me, our “gazelles” seem to be living with a reduced set of choices by default.
The ones representing actual game mechanics and defending its design. This is not hard to understand. Why would you even need to ask?
Maybe I’m wrong on this, but your whole point appears to me to be built upon the “carebear’s delusion”, which is treating EVE and MMOs generally as if they were a second life they can escape into. Their characters are an extension of themselves and they project this belief onto everyone else. They don’t seperate the player from his figure. This is not only not a healthy perspective on computer games and life in general, it’s also disrespecting perspective of the game itself.
For an interesting reason we never see such people become mighty pirate leaders, running big corps in highsec or owning sov in nullsec. Never. Not once. Not one of those who complain about the game have ever been in any position that matters. They’re all gazelles and completely void of any higher meaning or purpose in this game.
But maybe I misunderstand you. Maybe another angle is better: CCP are the ones who are right. What the players think doesn’t matter. In this sense, the players who are right are also the ones who stick closest to game design and its mechanics, because that’s how the game works.
CCP has spent the last years changing the game not towards carebears in general, but towards whales who also belong to the species “carebears”. You know whales. The cash cow of the industry! CCP did all this crap in the last years, because whales bring money. Whales aren’t smart. It’s easier to make money off of people who don’t think too much about things. Thinking about spending money equals saving money. CCP has spent years making their numbers look better so their investors can get a better deal.
NOW that the whole thing is settled and done, we’re seeing CCP slowly backtracking on what they did and pushing PvP again. Here we can also see that the ones who stuck to the game’s design being the ones who are closest to being “right”.
Even CCP disagree with the gazelles. CCP never agreed with them, they simply wanted their money. What we think doesn’t matter at all, but as you ask who is more “right” or “wrong”, I only need to point at CCP’s behaviour to show which answer is more likely the correct one!
If I needed to summarize the last years and the current development, i’d say: CCP abused the whales to get their money and now they’re slowly going back to how it’s meant to be, because they’re not anymore in a position where it’s required to attract money at all costs. The game is stagnating because there are too many whales and stagnation means death of the game, as evidenced by years of increased boredom overall and negative PCU trend. The only ones who weren’t bored were the ones who contributed to the stagnation in the first place: The Lions are bored and leaving the game, because the ones who the game was catered to in the last years, the Gazelles, prefer a boring life of stagnation and “Second Life”. The Gazelles wish to be left alone when they’re drinking at the pond.
CCP has spent years changing the game towards gazelles and they’ll spend another few years going back. The last weeks and months are evidencing that this game is not going into the carebears’ direction. Their money is not needed anymore. The “herd” needs to be “culled”. CCP apparently is now in a state where “pissing them off” is fine, despite them being their cash cows for literally years. I say that’s a good thing!
“Black Out”, “Trick or Treat”, “Kicking over Castles” : Gazelles are food for Lions.
