Good evening,
Sorry ? I am not crazy ! And even less a lollipop!
I’m trying to understand the mechanism that led CCP into the impasse that we know within New Eden, and which is the subject of many topics, diverse and varied, on this forum.
On this reddit post dated May 31, I recently read someone’s reasoning which, at first glance, may seem consistent with this very catchy title in particular: “CCP needs to hire an Economist”.
I then wondered what the point of such a discussion could be, since this economist has already been around for more than 10 years, and he seems very competent in his field. This is Doctor Eyjo… So I tried to understand CCP’s original state of mind that gradually led them into the current fiasco.
For me, there is now no doubt that CCP’s biggest mistake will have been to start interfering very early in the affairs of New Eden, namely even as early as 2003 if I extrapolate everything I have already read so far. Damn, so many gross errors accumulated in this order:
1- that which consists in wanting to control from the outside the economy of a persistent universe (it is as if God, if indeed he existed, alone controlled the world economy); either the universe is persistent, in which case it must remain so since its creation (this was in particular the general vision of a whole generation of capsulers between 2003-2008, of which I am a part); either the universe is in no way persistent, in which case the publisher of the online game, here CCP, uses an abuse of language from its creation, abusing from the start the credulity of all its customers necessarily becoming little by little unhappy! Here, even the question of the dowtime also arises…
Main consequence of 1-: the instability of the resources of the persistent universe that we constantly come to disturb from the outside by wrongly imagining that we can control their scarcity!
2- that which then consists of wanting to create a physical link between the real world and the virtual universe, and this for the sole benefit of the online game publisher itself, here CCP; either the advent of the PLEXs introduced into the game under the false pretext of a relentless fight against the black market which it covets, even though this black market is in itself the perfect demonstration that the virtual universe of New Eden is very healthy and alive! Here, we therefore legalize cheating as we would legalize the use of a drug in the real world…
Main consequence of 2-: the equivalent of the printing press in the real world => inflation of New Eden market prices combined with a rapid increase in inequalities between all the characters, which is ultimately nothing more than a simple reflection the increase in inequalities between all players in the real world, the exact opposite of the paradigm implemented in Steven Spielberg’s film: Ready Player One!
3- that which consists in wanting to categorize the characters of the players, rather than the players themselves; or the advent of ALPHA and OMEGA accounts! Here, it is the resulting marketing plan, which finds itself in complete checkmate, as it provokes the ire of the gaming community itself…
Main consequence of 3-: the defections of veteran players who have necessarily become dissatisfied over time, all these players feeling betrayed by CCP with regard to their investments, both in personal time and in game subscriptions!
4- that which consists of wanting to make skill points a resource in its own right; or the advent of extractors and injectors! Here, we reinforce even more the legalization of cheating…
Main consequence of 4-: the total annihilation of the identities of the characters and their respective stories within New Eden, which inevitably has the effect of accelerating the defections of veteran players!
5- that which consists of wanting to focus on purely cosmetic offers to the detriment of both the technological and historical evolution of the game; be the advent of SKINs! Here, we now hide behind appearances, and we have been doing this for more than 7 years now…
Main consequence of the 5-: too much cosmetics kills cosmetics! and finally,
6- that which consists of wanting to suddenly increase all the prices of the game; or the advent of record inflation of +33% on May 17! Here, we give a last blow to the whole community that we finally treat as a simple cash cow…
Main consequence of 6-: EvE Online becomes exclusively and definitively a luxury arena!
And I’m not even addressing the issue of the artificial erosion of players’ virtual assets: taxation, PvP, extractor vs. injector, etc.
Finally, CCP was wrong to underestimate its players…
Ully Loom
