“CCP implemented something in a stupid, simplistic fashion once. Therefore, nothing related to this concept can ever work, no matter how it is done.”
There’s a difference between doing it wrong and doing it right, Sol.
Solstice is correct…
Right now its a level playing field.
This idea is stupid on so many levels.
CCP just gave away 1.5 million SP for logging in.
That in itself says a lot…
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True. It at least says CCP is alright with SP as a reward. So why not attach it to in-game activity instead of just logging in?
Bollocks.
No, go away.
Of course, but people are still people.
They will orbit roids afk with an afterburner running; they will sit in belts, afk, with drones set to auto-aggress; they will use bots to help themselves skilling up faster.
There will be people who will complain about the fact that there are others who have far more time at their hands (and will throw around botting accusations even more than nowadays) and how unfair it is, which I would even agree with, because the current system is fair-ish at least. It was fair in the past, at least, before skill injectors, because everyone more or less skilled up at the same pace.
When skilling up is tied to gameplay, people will game the system to skill up with the least amount of work. There’s simply no way to prevent that, because gameplay can always be automated. Especially in the modern AI driven world, this is even more so a thing than it has ever been.
So CCP would be stuck restricting this form of skilling up to things which require attention and can’t easily be botted, which defeats the whole purpose of the idea. I emphasize easily, because in the end the botters will always find a way, just like they always do. It’s an arms race for a reason.
It’s not a good idea. EVE wasn’t built around this kind of system. Plus, everyone who actually likes it the way it is now - which we can assume is the majority of people, otherwise we’d see this coming up faaarrrr more often - will be upset and potentially leaving, because it’s actually a ■■■■■■■■ system.
Like, seriously, it really is a ■■■■■■■■ system. The whole idea of connecting skilling with grinding exists solely because it helps pleasing the brains pleasure center, which makes addicted customers. That’s why people are so addicted to levelling up. It pleases them to achieve the next level.
Turning this around, games other than EVE would be having a really, really hard time introducing a system like EVE, when their system was based on skilling by grinding. Other games don’t have this wealth of activities available. If other games changed their system to a passive skilling system, people would have far less reason to go out there farming, which would mean that the games reward systems would need to be adapted to accomodate the loss of sense of achievement.
It’s really a bad idea. EVE isn’t compatible with this and actually better than this, because it does not require tying game play to skilling up due to the fact that there are far more things to do than in pretty much any other game.
Hell, one of the biggest reasons why I’ve played EVE was the fact that I could actually play the game instead of skilling up. When a game requires me to play it in a certain way, so my character gets stronger, then I’m not going to play it. I’m not letting myself be abused by stupid psychological tactics aiming at getting me addicted into “grinding for one more level”.
In case dear reader is unaware, I’m talking about activities that aren’t on the scripted path CCP provides, like suicide ganking, ninja salvaging missions, stealing loot from mission runners, extortion. I’m also talking about services like “help me out of this wormhole”, “defend me against wardeccers”, shooting other peoples MTUs, stealing loot from wrecks in big nullsec fights.
The list goes on and on and on.
I hear ya. Not quoting the rest of the post, because by and large I agree with all of that. I only differ in that I interpret a number of your correct points (people will find a way, bots will adjust, skilling to please pleasure centre - although I actually think it is a different, goal-oriented/accomplishment centre but whatevs - addicted to game reward systems, etc etc) differently than you do.
Games are addictive, that is why people play them. EVE is addictive because it plays to people’s inherent need to be competitive, to gain an advantage, to have something up on the other guy, to demonstrate your fitness, etc. Which addiction the game is pandering to isn’t really of concern to me so long as it’s not egregious.
The fact that it can be botted or abused is not an issue for me, that can be more limited and the game is literally filled, end to end, with things that can be botted or abused.
No, instead you’re opting for the stupid psychological tactic of “I have to remain subbed and pay money if I’m to hang on to my competitive edge”, which is pretty much the reason most subbers are so dead set against F2P and play-to-skill. Because other people are eating away at their edge for free.
As I said, there’s a difference between doing it right and doing it wrong.
- Limit play-training to Alpha skills. Immediately stops all long term players from needing to do it.
- Limit it to a certain amount per day, corresponding to a rational play time (2 hrs, say).
- Limit it to a varying schedule of activities/options, so it’s not endlessly repetitively farmable.
- Tie it to accomplishing other game objectives (like the old ‘Opportunities’ system) to expose players to new and different areas.
Do that, and basically you’ve got a system that actively encourages new and Alpha players to play more actively, experience more parts of the game, burn through their Alpha training period faster to bump them up against the ‘now you have to pay to go farther’ choice, get them more engaged with the game than simply ‘setting up their skill queue and logging on every couple days til they reach what they want’.
As always, people tend to look at suggestions and changes in isolation. “If you did this, and only this, it would be bad.” And often it would be. EVE doesn’t need isolated, one-shot changes. This has been CCP’s problem for 10 years now. They don’t think/plan/change the game systemically. They focus on one thing, do a half-assed job at it, don’t do anything else significant for 6 months to a year, then say “well gee that change didn’t do much”, abandon it and move on to the next half-assed effort.
If you look at making changes to the NPE, to sector security, to monetization options, to player risk/reward balances, all as a package, then something like play2skill becomes a much more meaningful option. In the proper context.
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