Good Monetization vs. Bad
I got asked what I thought ‘Good’ monetization was, if SP sales were ‘good’. So I thought I’d clarify a bit.
To start, I don’t mind if EVE is “Pay for Advantage”, so long as both the pay and the advantage are reasonable and well presented. That’s OK in a game that’s never been advertised as being ‘fair’. And as long as the advantages you can buy don’t get game-breaking.
“Good” monetization is anything that favors helping new people starting the game get into a reasonably useful setup quickly at a reasonable price. It gives various useful options to both new players and old. It facilitates trade between players. It’s advertised in a discrete manner that doesn’t stick useless ads in peoples faces.
Most of the ship/skill/starter packs in EVE qualify as good monetization, except to the extent that they sometimes don’t represent a reasonable price. (CCP tends to overprice a lot of their packages, eg.: Zakura Packs another marketing fail?)
SP sales are basically only enough SP to get a player up to speed on a couple weapons systems and maybe a cruiser or something. SP Extractor/Injector sales allow players to get into larger skill sets, or reconfigure a character’s skills you no longer need. If you gave up on industry or mining, for instance, and want to use those SP for something else. So those are sandbox-friendly “play as you choose” options.
“Bad” monetization is when the drive to monetize damages the whole game. It may be by ruining EVE’s reputation (popup ads and cutting in to player markets), or by ripping players off (new player packs that give $7 worth of stuff for $9.99, advertised to new players who don’t know better). Or it can be more subtle, like basically everything CCP has done since 2010 - nerfing most playstyles other than “Move to Null and join a massive bloc and sub 3+ accounts in order to farm ISK and resources endlessly and build your own Titan!”. That particular drive on CCP’s part ended up causing 80% of the gameplay in EVE to stagnate and to concentrate the game’s income in the hands of a relatively small portion of the player base.
When your business model concentrates on farming whales instead of a broad diverse player base, you end up in trouble when those whales start to bail. Because every one of them leaving has a larger financial impact and you have few ways to replace them.