When people realise there is no way to compete, thats when they realise spending money on this game is a waste.
Sadly they think its a competitive game from the start for some reason.
Survival is the only game in town.
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This thread made me think quite a lot about ‘Pay-to-Win’ and monetization. I’ve come to a few conclusions:
There are 2 main forms of ‘Pay-to-win’:
- Pay-to-Progress: Where you pay to skip some of the time it takes to ‘complete’ or progress through the game.
- Pay-for-Advantage: Where you pay for an advantage over your opponents.
Generally people tend to not like the latter of these options as it seems ‘unfair’. and arguably that is correct. But actually it doesn’t matter if it is unfair or not because it is the impression of unfairness that is important.
Pay-for-Progress is a problem in EVE though because people see progress as ‘winning faster’ - the reality is that this game has people who have more skill points than you - does it really matter how they got them? More time, more grinding, more money, does it matter? Well yes if the impression is that it is ‘unfair’.
Where does that leave CCP? They can’t really implement Pay-for-Advantage monetization as people clearly don’t like it and when they implement ‘Pay-for-Progress’ monetization then people also complain about how they promised not to sell SP and how people progressing faster is ‘winning’. Basically vets want it both ways: they want newbies to catch-up but at the same time they want to stay ahead, obviously this is a contradiction.
Over and again people suggest the subscription as the answer. But:
- The subscription is NOW (I realise before alphas it wasn’t) both ‘Pay-to-Progress’ - faster skill acquisition and ‘Pay-for-Advantage’ Omega unlocks skills.
- The subscription is the reason I did not try this game for over a decade, despite knowing about it and knowing I would enjoy it.
Ironically people keep bringing up Fortnite, but Fortnite has:
- Regular updates - maps, weapons, vehicles.
- Regular events.
- Monetization that is cosmetic and definitely is not ‘Pay-for-Advantage’.
Not so bad really.
Personally I don’t mind them selling skill points. I’d rather they sold progression than advantages. If someone wants to blow thousands on progression through a computer game that is their problem not mine. I don’t really see the point in doing this in most games, you’re basically paying not to play the game - but I can see the point in EVE as skills unlock things rather than provide a measurement of progress.
I also don’t mind if they sell ludicrously expensive cosmetics - I won’t buy them, but if you think £60 for a virtual monocle is good value that’s your choice. I’m not sure price is an important reason why something is good or bad monetization. The value of something depends quite strongly on who you are and where you live.
TD,LR, In my opinion SP and cosmetics are ‘good’ monetization.
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See I want to be a fan of Jove and I do recall warping around inside a Jove wormhole once (not the ones where they have that mirror sitting in space I am talking about Jove Space. I have been there with this pilot. (I even have the system change log on this HD)
I want to fly a mother ship and be invincible
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Nobody ever says it is unfair if the person who skipped the skills queue loses their ships. I mean, its not like one gets a message saying ’ you were venturing further ahead than your actual experience…so here’s a refund '. So it is equally not unfair if that person zaps a few ships.
I’m not sure that people see it that way though. The belief that someone who started on the same day should be at the same point in the game gives the impression that it is unfair.
Once you’ve played for a while it becomes clear that the game is full of new and old players and the flat, wide skill tree means that skilled-up players are not many times more powerful than you.
But some players must still believe it is unfair otherwise they wouldn’t complain about the sales of skill points.
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Even in that mothership Aiko and co would gank you. 
Some players dont understand that the realistic minimum requirements to be “competitive” are finite, and havent changed in years.
Triglavians not withstanding.
Yes, and those players blob to compensate. Even if they have the skills they can’t seem to put it all together without overwhelming odds.
Im not sure what that has to do with buying SPs
The best way to win at anything is bring overwhelming resources to bear as long as those resources are not being risked inherently by the act.
The sad reality is people are so addicted to lootboxes surprise mechanics™ that they are willing to spend ca$h on the thousands if not tens of thousands of $/€ even for a fraction of a % chance of getting a chance of getting something overpowered and not for the slightest moment care to think if it’s worth it. So basically almost 100% inherent guaranteed loss and they still do it.
Though not even sure if they can be considered winning but whatever.
After I fell into a P2W hole in WoT a couple years back, I came to realise the only losers are the buyers, the only winners are the company CEOs, everyone in between… meh, just play the game.
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They aren’t hence it is not pay to win. 
At what point would you consider one a “whale”?
I don’t think I’m anywhere close to that…
What are you trying to say?
*Tongue in cheek
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I mean i would say the average of us probably spend 2-3K a month on skins and other packs but nowhere near a level that would cause any financial burden or whale status.
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Are you talking isk or dollars?
I’m not even spending more than 100 a month on Eve as I just have 3 subs and 1x plex currently.
2k on Skins in the NES store? The only skin I am waiting for is the Astero Police Skin!
dollars of course. USD
Me thinks you exaggerate much…
Got some data to back your claim up?
