As far as the situation with wardec’s, this is obviously something that’s been going on a while. However the fact that CCP brought this means it has come on to management’s radar. Look at some of the phrasing:
“CCP Fozzie says that at this point they are waiting for a more detailed request from the senior management to see what the business goal is in this case, but are still investigating the potential mechanic changes.”
“CCP Fozzie goes on to clarify that the metrics for the current system clearly show that it’s in a state that CCP is not happy with. The current system is extremely skewed in the favor of aggressors. There is also the fact that people involved in wars will simply not play whilst the war is ongoing.”
“CCP Larrikin pulls up activity data for players of corporations that have wars declared against them and it shows considerable activity drops in all activities during the war. They also show that the low activity continues after the war ends. Brisc Rubal noted that the numbers here were so stark, it would justify immediately removing war decs as a mechanic and promising a fix after the fact. The CSM in general were surprised at how stark the numbers were and noted it was clear this mechanic was having a significant impact on player recruitment and retention.”
For everyone thinking there is a simple ‘fix’ or ‘we need to just change one thing’. Guess again, the last sentence is quite damming. For everyone comparing today to the 2012-2013 heyday, guess again. Highsec demographics has changed significantly in the last 5 to 6 years. Where before you saw senior players in highsec all the time, and corp’s led by senior players actively flying with, recruiting, and teaching new players, those people have left highsec (or EvE) to a large extent. What was a minor inconvenience 5 years ago, has become ‘significant impact’ today. I know quite a few people love this style of gameplay, and it pretty much goes back to the roots of EvE, but if this style of play is ‘significantly’ hurting the game, to expect CCP to sit by and do nothing, is pure folly.
CCP works for a gaming company now, a company that (quite correctly) has shown a strong respect for the ‘bottom line’. Needlessly losing new players (in significant numbers, it seems) won’t sit well with any company looking to grow. I have my own ideas, but that’s not important now. I expect drastic and significant changes are coming. Whether I agree with them or not is immaterial if the intent of the change is to ensure EvE grows and thrives for another 15 years (at least).