So the interesting thing about this thread is that
- Almost the entirety of the reaction is negative
- Almost the entirety of the negative reaction is on the not-unreasonable assumption that the changes will be permanent after this supposedly limited-time event
All of those who object to this do so because we see the long-term implications: pretty much all of us will bet the farm that CCP will make it here to stay, and as such we need to craft our feedback accordingly.
I need to give kudos to @Brisc_Rubal for holding his ground. He could be a little bit less dense about this and say “I acknowledge your concerns and that there is a possibility it could become a problem” instead of saying “there is no problem and there isn’t going to be a problem, your concerns are unwarranted”, but it takes a lot of guts to hold your ground the way he has and I have to respect him for that.
Let us assume this cannot be stopped no matter the outcry from the community, even if we manage to sway some CSM members to our side - then it is our job to provide feedback to make this as least damaging as possible, or possibly come up with ways in which instanced content could possibly be a good thing. Not so much PVE (I think it’s safe to say this is categorically bad and EVE would benefit from the removal of abyssal PVE), but PVP arenas - there might be room for this to be a good thing for EVE in the sense that it doesn’t detract from the sandbox. I say this as someone who is generally opposed to the idea.
How can instanced PVP be not-terrible or possibly good?
First let’s recognize that:
- PVP Arena tokens being a limited resource means people can’t queue up whenever they want (unlike other MMORPGs), they need to possess it first, so this controls the rate at which players are drawn away from the rest of the EVE universe
- PVP Arena tokens being a limited resource means it will necessarily be priced so as to be prohibitive to some, at least those wanting to engage in PVP Arenas with high frequency. Hooray for market forces!
Between the two above, CCP has to be careful with the rate at which these tokens are seeded after the limited time event (during which they should be common) when this inevitably becomes permanent (at which point they should become less common)
- The PVP Arena could be designed to only permit lower-end fits (hulls + module metalevels), such as T1/Faction hulls + T2 mod/rigs + non-abyssals only, thereby:
- Forcing those wanting higher-end content to get it from the rest of the EVE Universe. If you want to use your Deimos or Tengu or Vargur or Avatar, you need to go elsewhere.
- Helping deplete the overabundance of T1 meta modules from market while keeping higher metalevels from being depleted.
- Helping prevent N+1 in the arena itself (other than from skill levels). If the PVP arena promotes “fair fighting” with a lower barrier to entry than FW (thanks to fit module restrictions that FW doesn’t have), then it can give carebears the confidence they need to PVP, while also eventually intentionally becoming boring (particularly to vets who normally sport bling fits) so as to make players want to move on to “real PVP” elsewhere. This would make the PVP Arena fizzle out in favor of the EVE Universe as a whole since “fair fights” get boring as a while.
- For similar reasons, implants could also be limited to at most +3%s and Low-Grades. (Use jump clones to switch to/from “Arena Bodies” if it matters so much)
- After the limited the event, the permanent arena should not have prizes, so the only thing it ends up doing is serving as an ISK sink + training ground for carebears (who might not PVP otherwise).
etc etc