So, sub prices have recently risen. Boo freakin’ hoo. Cry me a river. If the price of subs had risen annually since 2003 to match the annual rate of inflation, as literally every other service you’ve ever paid for has found it necessary to do in order to stay in business, I doubt you’d be complaining and you’d still be paying at least as much as we’re paying now if not more.
Just think about all the money CCP has saved you over the last 19 years by not increasing sub prices until now! Yet when a business - who’s bottom line is (surprise, surprise) revenue - decides that it’s time to increase their sub prices for the first time in nearly two decades, all you whiners can do is burn Jita, unsub your accounts and throw temper tantrums like the overgrown infants you are, hoping that by removing yourself from the community you claim to love so much, you’ll show those big bad CCP devs who’s boss, even though they have a well established track record of saying ‘if you don’t like it then leave.’
One thing i’ve observed in my 10 years in Eve, is that so many players follow a predictable pattern. So many bright stars have come and gone in my time and the brighter they burn the more magnificently they seem to fall. All claim to have won Eve by biomassing their toons, often departing with the phrase ‘See you in Star Citizen o/’ (How’s that going for you lol) while saying their departure is due to alienation by the devs. Yes, it seems that distain for this community is the real end-game content for naïve players who lose touch with the fact that CCP is, at it’s core, a business who doesn’t care about what you think, never has and never will. Some of us made peace with that early in our Eve career and it’s part of the culture that has kept us here; we have chosen to adapt to it rather than delude ourselves and throw a hissy fit when we see it in action.
I can empathize with those who feel like the design decisions made by CCP in recent years don’t justify the increase in sub price, and as someone who has both lost friends yet continued to play through every major downturn since the summer of rage, I’ll repeat the same thing i’ve been saying since then: Major fluctuations in subs have been happening for far longer than i’ve been present in this community, and hopefully, will continue to happen for years to come, regardless of whether or not you choose to be a part of that community. These fluctuations are a natural part of a giant we cannot fully comprehend, partly because we are never given all the info by CCP.
I can also sympathize with those players who end up paying significantly more than $20 US for their sub after their countries exchange rates are taken into account, but those players do not represent the majority of Eve players and the fact remains - current prices are not exorbitantly high for the content we are given. What other form of entertainment can you spend 720 hours a month doing for a meagre $20? Take your spouse out to dinner? You’re likely paying $50 minimum and it’s over in an hour. Round of golf? Go to the movies? You get the idea.
For the vast majority of us, working an extra hour or two or even just drinking a few less coffees each month is more than enough to offset the increase in subscription fees. If you no longer enjoy Eve enough to make that kind of sacrifice, if Eve does not represent an important enough social outlet for you to bother making that effort, then perhaps you have officially joined the ranks of the bittervets spewing toxic sentiments, have fallen into the pattern that has caused so many others leave the game, and this community is truly better off without you. Eve has always been a niche game with a relatively small community of hardcore players, and that is as evident now and in recent months as it has ever been.
Ultimately, people who unsub on ‘principal’ are scrubs on the same level as those who complain about ganking or ‘involuntary’ pvp and shouldn’t be playing Eve in the first place. Unsubbing your accounts, you say? Good riddance, I say.
For those of us who truly love this game and what it represents, we view the lower player count and increasingly empty space as an opportunity: An opportunity to take more of it for ourselves, to krab more securely, to make more ISK and to make a bigger individual impact in a community that we aren’t planning to leave until the server hamsters collapse from exhaustion and breathe their final, tortured breaths.
CCP, i’m not a fan of everything (or indeed, many things) that you’ve done to Eve over the last few years, and your siphoning of Eve funds into other failed projects makes my heart hurt. Having said that, Eve remains a significant part of my life due to the friendships i’ve made and continue to make. Personally, this game represents so much more than the extra hour of RL work required to continue paying for my 4 subs after the price increase, and despite your questionable leadership in recent years i’m currently having more fun in Eve than I ever have.
This community is and always has been what you make of it. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the negativity spewing from the bittervets and subreddit these days but it is also entirely possible to ignore that and find meaningful friendships and engaging content in this game. I can’t speak for everyone but in my circle, there is no discussion of the dastardly deeds of CCP, just a bunch of friends enjoying the game on a nightly basis. Perhaps if you don’t find yourself in a similar situation, it’s time for you to look for a new social circle or corporation that can help you find fulfilment once again.
Reality check, CCP doesn’t care about losing your 4-6 subbed accounts and you aren’t proving anything by unsubbing when someone else is finding reasons to re-sub their own accounts for the same reasons that you are leaving and is buying plex on top of it all. It is the whales that keep Eve going and CCP only needs a relative handful of them in order to meet their bottom line. Unsubbing only hurts you.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk o7
