Eve diminishing base is not unique to Eve. After the pandemic in games that I play aside from Eve has experienced this same thing. During the pandemic. People were trapped in their homes. Work from home was the norm for most of the world. Here in the United states as elsewhere. Companies are now demanding that workers return to the office.
We can discuss why companies are demanding this, in my opinion, stupidity. But in the end it is happening. Leaving people with less time to indulge in games. When one spends a great amount of time commuting to and from work. Most people get home and decide, I would rather veg in front of the TV. Than to fire up the PC and play.
Is Eve dying. Personally I do not think so. It is going through the same issue that many games are facing today. The challenge is to ride it out. Continue to attract new players and woo old players to return.
At some point the numbers will stabilize and hopefully grow. But that will be up to the marketing team to advertise on as many platforms and media outlets as possible. The devs to create content that people will enjoy and management not screw the pooch. Yeah, I know the last almost invariably happens even in the best of times.
Though real world challenges are going to make this harder in the near future. Presuming trump carries out his threatened tariff war with China. To a lesser extent with Europe and incredibly Canada, But I have confidence that CCP will be able to ride this out and come out the other side still kicking.
In the end Eve is not dying. Just facing challenges that just about every gaming studio is facing at the moment.
Well, EVE may not be âdyingâ but itâs definitely getting old and probably senile. Just like every other MMO thatâs over 10 years old. I canât find any old MMOs that are âslowly growingâ rather than slowly dying.
Older games typically settle into a stable decline with a small fraction of their old playerbase and a smaller team of devs. CCP has done better than most in that theyâve kept a fairly full-sized development team active for all this time. (Although of course itâs open to debate what theyâve achieved with said team.)
Recent EVE login numbers are more indicative of free acounts, multiboxers, bots, and the fact that EVE doesnât kick players offline after X minutes of inactivity, as most MMOs do. Itâs not about âgrowing popularityâ.
The only way to shake this âslow lossâ trend is to introduce new and interesting updates. However CCPâs game updates have begun to resemble more âtheme parkâ game updates - short term events and changes that donât make lasting differences to the way the EVE is played.
Fundamental change is needed if EVE is going to stave off the steady decline. Multiple long-term players have written about this - hereâs one example:
Some headings from it:
Players have solved the game
The game gives players no reason to fight
There is little for experienced players to aspire to in the game
New players are at a significant disadvantage in almost every part of the game
Each of those headings could well be an entire topic on itsâ own, and others as well. CCP is trying to address some of these issues with tiny tweaks (ESS, Drills, Merc Dens for instance to âgive players reasons to fightâ). Those tweaks are relatively tiny, because CCP canât afford to rock the boat - they donât want to lose large chunks of the paying player base if they change too much.
Personally I believe EVE is going to need more fundamental changes than CCP has been making. And those changes need to be based on a better understanding of why players play and what EVE really is, rather than on relatively minor tweaks to existing systems.
What i find disturbing in this regards is the introduction of âEVE Fontierâ. Many new concepts happening there, but this is not tied to the original game and might cannibalize on the already niche userbase.
Unfortunately, many have an opinion but do not offer a solution. An opinion without a solution is just thatâŚan opinion. You know what they say about opinionsâŚ
@Aiko_Danuja , i gotta say that your attitude to have fun (and generate good content) no matter what is the reason i respect you. You deserve all the fkn simps and im never saying anything nice again⌠obviously this toon isnt my main and i give no chits about being liked but⌠Players like you keep this game going.
There is no change that CCP could do ( short of changing the entire premise of the game ) that will steer EVE away from the collision course.
EVE had itâs time. Now itâs time for other, more gentler, MMOs.
And before you kill the messenger, I donât like it either but I donât shy away from hard truths.
Thorkâs reply above has some truth⌠itâs too late for CCP to reverse the direction of EVE back onto a growth path. However they can reclaim some previous players and recruit a few more newer ones to keep a more stable population. This breaks into 3 issues:
Attracting players who are more aware of what EVE actually is and using an NPE that better prepares them for the realities of EVE. (Rather than essentially steering all new players towards mining.)
Changing systems that drive players out of the game / or re-working efforts like Blackout/Scarcity that do the same, to no actual good effect for the game.
Implementing new systems that encourage more interest and interaction and tempt older and newer players both into various kinds of gameplay.
The common element between these issues is that CCP needs to better understand player motivation and how EVE actually works and what it actually is (ie., itâs not primarily a PvP game).
Again, weâre too far into a fairly negative thread to delve into ânew ideasâ. Start threads on any topic you want to discuss in more detail. Here are some thumbnail sketches of things that could be considered:
An NPE that actually talks about PvP and introduces it.
Changes to corp benefits in ways that make it meaningful for corps to actively recruit and help new players in non-exploitive manners.
Get rid of Concord, replace it with a player-driven system that makes âspace copâ or âbounty hunterâ a career as valid and profitable as ganking.
Alternatively, get rid of ganking and change the mining systems in High sec and low.
Add a contract system of Mercenary defend/protect/escort/kill/destruction contracts.
Add a system like Resource Wars should have been (search my older posts for Resource Wars).
Add a system of randomly appearing black holes into new, short-term regions holding various resources and loot, but with limited forces able to enter and fight for them (basically Extreme Resource Wars).
An extensive rework of resources and ship types available through High and Low sec (eg. no capitals in Lo .4, .3 and .2) to encourage more activity there.
Rework Wardecs so non-PvP corps have options other than either fight a guaranteed losing PvP battle or leave the game.
Many of these would work best together: eg. Ganking changes, Cop system, Mercenary contracts and Wardec rewrites would all work better together than as standalone changes.
One of the most fundamental changes needs to be in design philosophy. CCP (and some players), have for way too long clung to the notion that EVE should be a game where wolves hunt sheep. And CCP and the gankers/wardeccers/campers etc. have been crying for years that they âneed more sheepâ and also crocodile tears that 'oh darn we just want good fights, WHY wonât these carebears fight back?".
Which is utter BS, since fights exist all over EVE in Low, FW, WH and Null space. Or even in High but against corps that actually can and will fight back. But the self-termed âelite PvPersâ of high sec do everything possible to avoid real fights and focus on weak targets to pad killboards and loot drops.
CCP needs to realize that the incoming stream of clueless sheep they had over a decade ago has dried up, and all the âelite PvPersâ are doing is cannibalizing their own playstyle. If CCP canât shift to a focus where PvPers fight other PvPers for valid reasons and worthwhile rewards, then EVEâs decline will be even more rapid.
Which would beg the question. Why are you here? If it as you say. Then what possible motivation for staying? A game by its very nature is a time sink. Why are you wasting your time on a game. That you have stated is already dead and is a zombie?
