All I see is hilarious internerd rage. Has my daily EVE experience changed? Nope. The core of EVE as a single server virtual universe is still there? Yep. Do I know of any game that has what I like about EVE? Nope. Buy the product or don't. The rage to me looks like drug addicts whining and rageing about their dealers changing the product a bit and thinking they matter. They either continue their habit or quit. Imagine a junkie crying "Baaw, my highs aren't the same anymore and now they want to charge me for gold needles too, what is the world comming too. I'm quitting now, ha! Take that you evil drug dealing people..."
You're right, the basic gameplay experience is still the same on the 25th of June as it was on the 24th. What has changed, through the coincidence of several events that we probably need not recap right here (just listen to the EVE Radio panel recording), was a significant change in the underpinnings of the play. Although I'm sure it's been true for a long time, this massive PR failure has laid bare in a striking way the relationship that exists between CCP and the players. The happy assumption that the players were invited to come and experience a thrilling, challenging sandbox game and that the people who shaped its rules ultimately agreed with the community's vision -- that they were, despite being devs, fundamentally our fellow players in the sandbox (if not friends, brought together by a shared love for a hobby) -- is rather rudely dashed by:
I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what our players do and less of what they say.
In general, I'm not easy to offend, but after the fourth or fifth time a friend flips me off and tells me to go eat shit in one day, I start to wonder if they're not joking.
My point really is that EVE is a commersial product and no one forces you to buy it. CCP are free to do whatever they want with EVE. A lot of EVE players seem to think they have some odd rights to decide about the product more than to buy it or not. People just prove how addicted they are when they just can't make a clean break but linger around for years after they quit the game (or so they say =P ) bittervetting and whining on forums.
That's true, but it's not the way I think a lot of people looked at it. Rather than a product, many see EVE as a shared
project. EVE gameplay is about creation. It's about making what you will of the cluster. What you do, even what you say, matters. It is unlike any other MMO on the market and for a long time the dynamic that existed between the company and the customers felt more like a partnership than a transaction. The community and the devs were creating something unique together. CCP still has a chance to reclaim that image, but they've got a steep slope to climb to get back to the top of the hill.
Basically, the rich kid who lives in a huge mansion with a fun park in the backyard invited us over to play, and for a while it seemed like he genuinely liked having us there and the fact that it was
his house and
his toys and
his rules didn't have meaning because a sense of friendship trumped all that. Then one day, we overheard him telling his parents how he really felt about us and the opinions weren't very flattering. So, there's a choice to stay and keep playing because the toys are neat, but in doing so, you go on with the knowledge that your "friend" really isn't.
