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[Silver Night]

I think it was the monocolegate/Incarna debacle that sort of led to the risk-adverseness. It also communicated to certain parts of the playerbase that they could push CCP in certain directions - and punish them for going in others. That being said, I hope that the moon mining changes indicate that they are not 100% beholden to the large, organized player interests in 0.0. Though I'm not expert enough in moon mining to say 100% that the changes aren't in those groups' interests.

[Ria Nieyli]

I think it was the monocolegate/Incarna debacle that sort of led to the risk-adverseness. It also communicated to certain parts of the playerbase that they could push CCP in certain directions - and punish them for going in others. That being said, I hope that the moon mining changes indicate that they are not 100% beholden to the large, organized player interests in 0.0. Though I'm not expert enough in moon mining to say 100% that the changes aren't in those groups' interests.

They are, actually, considering that lowsec moons will be pretty hard to mine after the patch. Directly cuts off an income stream for lowsec entities and makes them less competetive, securing nullsov from their incursions a little bit better.

There is a reason Snuff joined the Imperium, you know.

[Ursa Dropsus]

I'm sort of hoping some people can convince me this article is pretty biased. Or that things have changed.

Way late to the party, but that article is more than a little biased. I mean of course it is. I watched dudes who just bought houses weeks before it all went to shit learn they'd lost their jobs after ~20 years at White Wolf because people running the show had no clue what they were doing. I wasn't exactly impartial about the rampant coke-fuelled mismanagement and masturbatory self-congratulating music videos and whatnot...and I spoke for people who still wanted to work in the industry, for people who had signed NDAs (CCP forgot to make me sign one. Woops!). Not everything attributed to me in that article was shit observerd first-hand, just stuff I parlayed on behalf of other disgruntled devs who couldn't risk speaking out.

On a far more positive note, the fact EVE Online is still going to this day suggests they figured their shit out. (Smh @ Captains Quarters being shuttered, though. Seriously. What a debacle, lol). Real talk - most studios don't come back from pushback like CCP recieved (achieved?!) at this time. They obviously reigned the bullshit in, otherwise they'd be dead now. I'm actually kinda proud that the game is still humming along. I'm proud that something I worked on is "hanging" in the Museum of Modern Art. That's a hell of an achievement. It'll probably outlast WoW at this rate. It's longevity and adaptability in the face of insane levels of criticism makes even the bitterest of vets like me give it kudos. I've watched the games industry on a wider level become this awful money-hungry beast, and I feel like CCP learned their lesson well before the current round of MTX-related outrage (see Battlefront II, Destiny II, NBA2K18, etc etc etc). In a way, they pioneered pissing people off with MTX outrage, and learned their lesson well before other studios did (or are yet to ). GG CCP. Keep on keepin' on. I have no clue what's going on with this game anymore, but I suspect they're a far more "pure" games company relative to the utter bullshit going on elsewhere right now. 2017 really was a shit-tastic year for gamers, and we did all that stuff a half-decade earlier. There's almost a level of respect you have to give CCP for fucking up first, and rectifying their shit first. True trailblazers, lol.

This is Nick Blood btw.

xox

[Jocca Quinn]

This is Nick Blood btw.

Nice to see you are still around. Unfortunately it seems over the last 6 months CCP has forgotten all those hard learned lessons, some of the decisions coming out of Iceland are back to WTF levels.

[Ursa Dropsus]

  What are they up to these days?

[kalaratiri]

Complete lack of iteration on potentially game breaking balance issues, firing the entire community team, selling skins and skill injectors above any other form of game development, community outrage over an apparently blasè attitude to botting, saying they were switching away from "jesus features" only to go right back to them a year later, ignoring FW entirely for years and years, etc, etc, etc.

There's a lot of problems at the moment, and my motivation to play is as low as it's ever been. That said, I do believe that CCP are aware of the general community discontent and will hopefully be able to turn themselves around.

[MakotoPriano]

Holy shit! It's a Dropbear! Now I'm even more sad I missed the AJ days!

That said, on the last-six-months thing, I think the main issue is two-fold: they probably have some new designers they're onlining, and CCP Seagull had a kid in the last year and so probably wasn't exercising as close an executive oversight.

I don't necessarily think the decisions have been terrible, just that some of them (RW LP store, for instance) have shown a disconnect from what motivates EVE players, or the excessive power of nullsec CSMs to pre-nerf highsec content.

Essentially, new and engaging PvE content has arrived, which we've always wanted, and it's harder than before, which we also wanted, but the rewards feel lackluster, which-- matches our constant griping about Incursion income.

Well, shit.

By the way, Dropbear! While your attention is here, check some of this out:
Blackglass Discourse
CTR Discourse

[Silas Vitalia]

Complete lack of iteration on potentially game breaking balance issues, firing the entire community team, selling skins and skill injectors above any other form of game development, community outrage over an apparently blasè attitude to botting, saying they were switching away from "jesus features" only to go right back to them a year later, ignoring FW entirely for years and years, etc, etc, etc.

Did you write this in 2008 or 2018? 

Actually what -are- subs like these days/CCP health? Or are people spending enough $$ on plex that subs don't count? Does ccp make enough money on whales that they can let the rest go to shit like some mobile game?

Also DropBear, I am truly, truly sorry for the way White Wolf was eviscerated (is there a better word for what happened?).  What a complete clusterfuck of nonsense.

[Alex Hinkelmann]

Subs are at about what they were in 06-10, which is to be expected. Quite honestly it's impressive considering their like 15 years old?

Their public financials show that they're doing better then the "Golden Era" of 2012, all-in-all they seem healthy all bitterness aside.

[Ché Biko]

This is Nick Blood

Heh, did I rouse the Bear from its winter sleep again?
Biko boy known to let the Bear
Mmm, Drop! 

Anyway, thanks for sharing, even though it didn't really comfort me.

xox

[Ursa Dropsus]

By the way, Dropbear! While your attention is here, check some of this out:
Blackglass Discourse
CTR Discourse

I'm not completely sure what I'm looking at, but it's damn sexy all the same. Some kind of player-driven ARG? Incredible work, if so. Very slick, and enticing. So much nostalgia and happy memories 

Sorry I couldn't be more comfort Che! (+1 internet points for BBoys joke though <3). I agree with Alex, 15-odd years is impressive. Gotta be doing something right to last that long~

[MakotoPriano]

I'm not completely sure what I'm looking at, but it's damn sexy all the same. Some kind of player-driven ARG? Incredible work, if so. Very slick, and enticing. So much nostalgia and happy memories 

Essentially, it's a player-run news service! We're keeping the flame alive by doing snazzy event-related lore stuffs, in addition to other ridiculousness we engage in.

Think of it as a sort of player-run A'J with slick corporate wrapping.

[Ursa Dropsus]

Amazing / excellent / all the things! This sorta stuff ended up being how I derived the most joy from EVE as a player too. Photoshop, MS Word, Wikipedia...who needs the game client to have fun? 

That .pdf looks super cool too, and presents like a proper academic paper. Will have to give it a proper read, though I've completely fallen behind all storyline since I left so I already don't understand what are probably key things (Drifters? Sentinels? Oh my). "Tenebrae, C. – Medical Consultation" gave me a shudder-smile to see.

I gotta say, player-driven content so often matches or exceeds what can be produced in-house. A real shame the opportunities with interactive storytelling aren't more fully capitalized upon, both in EVE and more broadly. (Incidentally, I just reached out to a YouTuber a few days ago about potentially doing a video essay on that same topic, so if anything ever eventuates I'll have to share it here).

[MakotoPriano]

Agreed! World-building is brilliant fun. And do hope you enjoy the read!

Itsukame-Zainou Hyperspatial Inquiries prides itself on applying the most rigorous and exacting ethical standards to its research projects! Shareholders may rest assured that only the most humane, effective and efficient methods will be used to pursue our scientific objectives.

Itsukame-Zainou: First. Fastest. Furthest.
Excerpt, IKAME Shareholder Handbook

As to the rest, we've been having some conversations lately, and there's on-going concern that the people making strategic decisions about EVE lack a full understanding of the existing ecology. While that ecology needs to be made to evolve, such an evolution should be handled carefully. The fear is that, with a former EA marketing guy at a high level in CCP now, CCP will essentially 'forget' the lessons it learned so harshly before.

[Jocca Quinn]

CCP will essentially 'forget' the lessons it learned so harshly before.

Personally I think that ship has already sailed, the lessons have been forgotten (more likely there are few left at CCP who remember them).

I'm waiting to see if the players have enough energy to teach those lessons again or will just say f**k it.