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[Nmaro Makari]

I think its undoubtedly the case that Eve itself has slowed down a lot this summer post monocle-gate and the realization that the pay off for 18 months of no significant new content was not actually very good (CQ). Across the game there has been a general wave of lassitude, unsubbing and only logging in to changeover skills etc and I don't think its in any way specific to the RP community. Now of course, it doesn't help that there isn't really any background or plot development going on for RP'ers to latch onto. I think the research project thing was an interesting idea perhaps, but lack of anything real to do in-space meant that people's enthusiasm for it died out relatively quickly. Sansha plotline has become humdrum (after all, people are "farming it"). FW empire fights - well, we all know the story there, its content that has suffered years of neglect and stasis. So it leaves people needing to make their own content and RP story from whatever corp and alliance mates they have left. For many that is difficult.

In our alliance (star fraction) we've had our routine summer drama llama-ding-dong with people declaring the movement dead and going pirate. (happens every summer) combined with the low activity and general angst at CCP's perceived abandonment of the game universe. In practical terms the impact its had on us is twofold:

Firstly, our maximum fleet size for patrolling and intervention dropped from low to mid twenties to half a dozen to low teens. Most people who were on the fence about activity in Eve seem to have dropped off the fence (on the wrong side) and we're looking an alliance of a few dozen actives total from the 60-70 we had a couple of years ago.

Secondly, our potential target availability has dropped significantly. Earlier in the year placid was full of pirate groups roaming with 10-20 man fleets and bite-sized gate camps were oppressing travellers at all the hisec/lowsec junctions. It was a target rich environment that we often struggled to win against and in away that was a good thing because it made us evolve our tactics and try to find ways to fight outnumbered and often out-blinged. These days the pirates are relatively scarce and potential RP territorialist/enclosurist organizations to wardec rarer still. So that does have the danger of spiralling to a mutually-reinforcing decline.

That said, it has been a positive thing to see we can actually have fun with the smaller fleets at the half a dozen man vs half a dozen target level and it does make the organization feel more personal and camaraderie amongst the hardcore idealists that stick it out is improved. I think if Eve in general does survive the current doldrums and recover and begin appealing to people's broader interests again the veteran's who toughed it out and kept to their principles in the Fraction will have forged a bond that will empower us for years to come.

All organizations have their ups and downs - but I think Eve at the moment is seeing an awful lot of organizations having their downs simultaneously with only a couple of pseudo-rp outfits on the verges keeping their activity on non-rp focus.

Still. There is always hope. CCP may well listen to the climate of protests and unhappiness across the player base at the moment and may realize that they need to fund and properly resource their core game and start making things happen again. I personally hope we hear less of "there is no resource/it can't be done" and a bit more acceptance that unless they start making these things happen there might actually be "no game at all".

Its clear Eve does need a lot of attention and new enthusiasm and passion to make things happen. Something as simple (albeit time consuming and manpower intensive) as renewed Live events with genuine in-space interaction could help. Renewing and repairing Faction Warfare would definitely help. Even looking at enhanced lowsec, mercenaries and bounty-hunters, new faction ships, new anything really can help because it makes people want to log into the game again and prepare to fight for things!

Anyways, to summarize for the op I think while Eve RP did not actually "die" it has gone to sleep now for quite a while. We will need CCP's help to help wake it up, but of course we can help too.

From SF's perspective we really have gone back to our roots moving to this autumn and we're making war on regressive road-blockers and would-be imperialist pirate outfits that have the temerity to charge people "rent" for occupation of lowsec Placid systems. The beginning of our "loops" campaign was basically a statement of intent that we would fight people who dared restrict the movement of our ships in placid but it revealed a hidden criminal network in the "loops" that charge people to live there. We've now advanced our wardec to the landlords and would-be rent-barons and in return got wardecced by some mercenaries paid by the slumlords to defend their business. Its a pretty good angle and looks to be providing some nice mixed fighting of the scale we can currently enjoy and its nicely absent of any traditional "rp community" needle and angst.

So it is possible to enjoy the game even in the current situation. But like everyone else I'm definitely hoping CCP throw us a bone to make it easier to engage people's interest again and recover from the long summer doldrums.

On which point I would close on saying:

I think one big problem with the IGS is people simply use the "RP excuse" to troll their OOC feuds there and it does become corrosive and poisonous. I'd definitely like to see a bit more discipline from old school rp'ers and less internicine bitterness masquerading as "rp". Nobody wants to see talking heads being purely negative about anything anybody else has to say. If a topic doesn't interest you then ignore it. Don't feel obliged to troll and sneer just because its a post made by somebody you don't like. IGS would be a far superior environment if people competed for interest against each other with positive and progressive thread/topic posting representing in-character play rather than used it simply as a way of insulting and demeaning each other with veiled ooc insults all the time.

For my money I'm happy to see virtually anything presented as IC from the single rifter shooting a wartarget punisher if its presented in nice and evocative language. I want to read about people's first wars, their ideals, their principles and their schemes. I want to read about what people are doing and what they stand for. This is all positive. (One great thing about the new forums is that I can "like" all positive posts while ignoring the terrible ones).

I don't want to see put-downs and purely negative posting pretending to be "characterization".
If you want to flame somebody IC then send them an evemail - please don't drag the rest of the community through your personal issues and grudges.

This simple bit of self-discipline on the part of the community would massively improve the atmosphere on the summit.

TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXT WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL

Its great that you put thought into this but surely it can be trimmed a little?

[Kaleigh Doyle]

Is reading difficult for you?

[Jade Constantine]

I think its undoubtedly the case that Eve itself has slowed down a lot this summer post monocle-gate and the realization that the pay off for 18 months of no significant new content was not actually very good (CQ). Across the game there has been a general wave of lassitude, unsubbing and only logging in to changeover skills etc and I don't think its in any way specific to the RP community. Now of course, it doesn't help that there isn't really any background or plot development going on for RP'ers to latch onto. I think the research project thing was an interesting idea perhaps, but lack of anything real to do in-space meant that people's enthusiasm for it died out relatively quickly. Sansha plotline has become humdrum (after all, people are "farming it"). FW empire fights - well, we all know the story there, its content that has suffered years of neglect and stasis. So it leaves people needing to make their own content and RP story from whatever corp and alliance mates they have left. For many that is difficult.

In our alliance (star fraction) we've had our routine summer drama llama-ding-dong with people declaring the movement dead and going pirate. (happens every summer) combined with the low activity and general angst at CCP's perceived abandonment of the game universe. In practical terms the impact its had on us is twofold:

Firstly, our maximum fleet size for patrolling and intervention dropped from low to mid twenties to half a dozen to low teens. Most people who were on the fence about activity in Eve seem to have dropped off the fence (on the wrong side) and we're looking an alliance of a few dozen actives total from the 60-70 we had a couple of years ago.

Secondly, our potential target availability has dropped significantly. Earlier in the year placid was full of pirate groups roaming with 10-20 man fleets and bite-sized gate camps were oppressing travellers at all the hisec/lowsec junctions. It was a target rich environment that we often struggled to win against and in away that was a good thing because it made us evolve our tactics and try to find ways to fight outnumbered and often out-blinged. These days the pirates are relatively scarce and potential RP territorialist/enclosurist organizations to wardec rarer still. So that does have the danger of spiralling to a mutually-reinforcing decline.

That said, it has been a positive thing to see we can actually have fun with the smaller fleets at the half a dozen man vs half a dozen target level and it does make the organization feel more personal and camaraderie amongst the hardcore idealists that stick it out is improved. I think if Eve in general does survive the current doldrums and recover and begin appealing to people's broader interests again the veteran's who toughed it out and kept to their principles in the Fraction will have forged a bond that will empower us for years to come.

All organizations have their ups and downs - but I think Eve at the moment is seeing an awful lot of organizations having their downs simultaneously with only a couple of pseudo-rp outfits on the verges keeping their activity on non-rp focus.

Still. There is always hope. CCP may well listen to the climate of protests and unhappiness across the player base at the moment and may realize that they need to fund and properly resource their core game and start making things happen again. I personally hope we hear less of "there is no resource/it can't be done" and a bit more acceptance that unless they start making these things happen there might actually be "no game at all".

Its clear Eve does need a lot of attention and new enthusiasm and passion to make things happen. Something as simple (albeit time consuming and manpower intensive) as renewed Live events with genuine in-space interaction could help. Renewing and repairing Faction Warfare would definitely help. Even looking at enhanced lowsec, mercenaries and bounty-hunters, new faction ships, new anything really can help because it makes people want to log into the game again and prepare to fight for things!

Anyways, to summarize for the op I think while Eve RP did not actually "die" it has gone to sleep now for quite a while. We will need CCP's help to help wake it up, but of course we can help too.

From SF's perspective we really have gone back to our roots moving to this autumn and we're making war on regressive road-blockers and would-be imperialist pirate outfits that have the temerity to charge people "rent" for occupation of lowsec Placid systems. The beginning of our "loops" campaign was basically a statement of intent that we would fight people who dared restrict the movement of our ships in placid but it revealed a hidden criminal network in the "loops" that charge people to live there. We've now advanced our wardec to the landlords and would-be rent-barons and in return got wardecced by some mercenaries paid by the slumlords to defend their business. Its a pretty good angle and looks to be providing some nice mixed fighting of the scale we can currently enjoy and its nicely absent of any traditional "rp community" needle and angst.

So it is possible to enjoy the game even in the current situation. But like everyone else I'm definitely hoping CCP throw us a bone to make it easier to engage people's interest again and recover from the long summer doldrums.

On which point I would close on saying:

I think one big problem with the IGS is people simply use the "RP excuse" to troll their OOC feuds there and it does become corrosive and poisonous. I'd definitely like to see a bit more discipline from old school rp'ers and less internicine bitterness masquerading as "rp". Nobody wants to see talking heads being purely negative about anything anybody else has to say. If a topic doesn't interest you then ignore it. Don't feel obliged to troll and sneer just because its a post made by somebody you don't like. IGS would be a far superior environment if people competed for interest against each other with positive and progressive thread/topic posting representing in-character play rather than used it simply as a way of insulting and demeaning each other with veiled ooc insults all the time.

For my money I'm happy to see virtually anything presented as IC from the single rifter shooting a wartarget punisher if its presented in nice and evocative language. I want to read about people's first wars, their ideals, their principles and their schemes. I want to read about what people are doing and what they stand for. This is all positive. (One great thing about the new forums is that I can "like" all positive posts while ignoring the terrible ones).

I don't want to see put-downs and purely negative posting pretending to be "characterization".
If you want to flame somebody IC then send them an evemail - please don't drag the rest of the community through your personal issues and grudges.

This simple bit of self-discipline on the part of the community would massively improve the atmosphere on the summit.

TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXT WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL

Its great that you put thought into this but surely it can be trimmed a little?

People think and speak (and write) at different speeds. Diversity is part of the beauty of life. That kind of thing takes me 5 minutes to write. If its too much for you to take in one sitting - have a cup of tea between the paragraphs.

[Nmaro Makari]

Is reading difficult for you?

Incredibly so. For I have no eyes  Nah but seriously I can read, anmd read well.

[Nmaro Makari]

I think its undoubtedly the case that Eve itself has slowed down a lot this summer post monocle-gate and the realization that the pay off for 18 months of no significant new content was not actually very good (CQ). Across the game there has been a general wave of lassitude, unsubbing and only logging in to changeover skills etc and I don't think its in any way specific to the RP community. Now of course, it doesn't help that there isn't really any background or plot development going on for RP'ers to latch onto. I think the research project thing was an interesting idea perhaps, but lack of anything real to do in-space meant that people's enthusiasm for it died out relatively quickly. Sansha plotline has become humdrum (after all, people are "farming it"). FW empire fights - well, we all know the story there, its content that has suffered years of neglect and stasis. So it leaves people needing to make their own content and RP story from whatever corp and alliance mates they have left. For many that is difficult.

In our alliance (star fraction) we've had our routine summer drama llama-ding-dong with people declaring the movement dead and going pirate. (happens every summer) combined with the low activity and general angst at CCP's perceived abandonment of the game universe. In practical terms the impact its had on us is twofold:

Firstly, our maximum fleet size for patrolling and intervention dropped from low to mid twenties to half a dozen to low teens. Most people who were on the fence about activity in Eve seem to have dropped off the fence (on the wrong side) and we're looking an alliance of a few dozen actives total from the 60-70 we had a couple of years ago.

Secondly, our potential target availability has dropped significantly. Earlier in the year placid was full of pirate groups roaming with 10-20 man fleets and bite-sized gate camps were oppressing travellers at all the hisec/lowsec junctions. It was a target rich environment that we often struggled to win against and in away that was a good thing because it made us evolve our tactics and try to find ways to fight outnumbered and often out-blinged. These days the pirates are relatively scarce and potential RP territorialist/enclosurist organizations to wardec rarer still. So that does have the danger of spiralling to a mutually-reinforcing decline.

That said, it has been a positive thing to see we can actually have fun with the smaller fleets at the half a dozen man vs half a dozen target level and it does make the organization feel more personal and camaraderie amongst the hardcore idealists that stick it out is improved. I think if Eve in general does survive the current doldrums and recover and begin appealing to people's broader interests again the veteran's who toughed it out and kept to their principles in the Fraction will have forged a bond that will empower us for years to come.

All organizations have their ups and downs - but I think Eve at the moment is seeing an awful lot of organizations having their downs simultaneously with only a couple of pseudo-rp outfits on the verges keeping their activity on non-rp focus.

Still. There is always hope. CCP may well listen to the climate of protests and unhappiness across the player base at the moment and may realize that they need to fund and properly resource their core game and start making things happen again. I personally hope we hear less of "there is no resource/it can't be done" and a bit more acceptance that unless they start making these things happen there might actually be "no game at all".

Its clear Eve does need a lot of attention and new enthusiasm and passion to make things happen. Something as simple (albeit time consuming and manpower intensive) as renewed Live events with genuine in-space interaction could help. Renewing and repairing Faction Warfare would definitely help. Even looking at enhanced lowsec, mercenaries and bounty-hunters, new faction ships, new anything really can help because it makes people want to log into the game again and prepare to fight for things!

Anyways, to summarize for the op I think while Eve RP did not actually "die" it has gone to sleep now for quite a while. We will need CCP's help to help wake it up, but of course we can help too.

From SF's perspective we really have gone back to our roots moving to this autumn and we're making war on regressive road-blockers and would-be imperialist pirate outfits that have the temerity to charge people "rent" for occupation of lowsec Placid systems. The beginning of our "loops" campaign was basically a statement of intent that we would fight people who dared restrict the movement of our ships in placid but it revealed a hidden criminal network in the "loops" that charge people to live there. We've now advanced our wardec to the landlords and would-be rent-barons and in return got wardecced by some mercenaries paid by the slumlords to defend their business. Its a pretty good angle and looks to be providing some nice mixed fighting of the scale we can currently enjoy and its nicely absent of any traditional "rp community" needle and angst.

So it is possible to enjoy the game even in the current situation. But like everyone else I'm definitely hoping CCP throw us a bone to make it easier to engage people's interest again and recover from the long summer doldrums.

On which point I would close on saying:

I think one big problem with the IGS is people simply use the "RP excuse" to troll their OOC feuds there and it does become corrosive and poisonous. I'd definitely like to see a bit more discipline from old school rp'ers and less internicine bitterness masquerading as "rp". Nobody wants to see talking heads being purely negative about anything anybody else has to say. If a topic doesn't interest you then ignore it. Don't feel obliged to troll and sneer just because its a post made by somebody you don't like. IGS would be a far superior environment if people competed for interest against each other with positive and progressive thread/topic posting representing in-character play rather than used it simply as a way of insulting and demeaning each other with veiled ooc insults all the time.

For my money I'm happy to see virtually anything presented as IC from the single rifter shooting a wartarget punisher if its presented in nice and evocative language. I want to read about people's first wars, their ideals, their principles and their schemes. I want to read about what people are doing and what they stand for. This is all positive. (One great thing about the new forums is that I can "like" all positive posts while ignoring the terrible ones).

I don't want to see put-downs and purely negative posting pretending to be "characterization".
If you want to flame somebody IC then send them an evemail - please don't drag the rest of the community through your personal issues and grudges.

This simple bit of self-discipline on the part of the community would massively improve the atmosphere on the summit.

TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEXT WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL

Its great that you put thought into this but surely it can be trimmed a little?

People think and speak (and write) at different speeds. Diversity is part of the beauty of life. That kind of thing takes me 5 minutes to write. If its too much for you to take in one siting - have a cup of tea between the paragraphs.

No, its not about how fast you write or I read or whatever. Im not really criticising you or anything, just pointing out that it hard to find details or what you actually think from sifting through that much text in every post.

[Jade Constantine]

No, its not about how fast you write or I read or whatever. Im not really criticising you or anything, just pointing out that it hard to find details or what you actually think from sifting through that many words.

Well I guess as they say, takes all sorts! (tell you what though, and don't say I never take criticism!) I've edited the original post and put some bold subject headings in there. Pretend each of the sections is its "own post" and take them separately. How about that?

General situation with Eve Roleplay

I think its undoubtedly the case that Eve itself has slowed down a lot this summer post monocle-gate and the realization that the pay off for 18 months of no significant new content was not actually very good (CQ). Across the game there has been a general wave of lassitude, unsubbing and only logging in to changeover skills etc and I don't think its in any way specific to the RP community. Now of course, it doesn't help that there isn't really any background or plot development going on for RP'ers to latch onto. I think the research project thing was an interesting idea perhaps, but lack of anything real to do in-space meant that people's enthusiasm for it died out relatively quickly. Sansha plotline has become humdrum (after all, people are "farming it"). FW empire fights - well, we all know the story there, its content that has suffered years of neglect and stasis. So it leaves people needing to make their own content and RP story from whatever corp and alliance mates they have left. For many that is difficult.

How my alliance has been impacted with this

In our alliance (star fraction) we've had our routine summer drama llama-ding-dong with people declaring the movement dead and going pirate. (happens every summer) combined with the low activity and general angst at CCP's perceived abandonment of the game universe. In practical terms the impact its had on us is twofold:

Firstly, our maximum fleet size for patrolling and intervention dropped from low to mid twenties to half a dozen to low teens. Most people who were on the fence about activity in Eve seem to have dropped off the fence (on the wrong side) and we're looking an alliance of a few dozen actives total from the 60-70 we had a couple of years ago.

Secondly, our potential target availability has dropped significantly. Earlier in the year placid was full of pirate groups roaming with 10-20 man fleets and bite-sized gate camps were oppressing travellers at all the hisec/lowsec junctions. It was a target rich environment that we often struggled to win against and in away that was a good thing because it made us evolve our tactics and try to find ways to fight outnumbered and often out-blinged. These days the pirates are relatively scarce and potential RP territorialist/enclosurist organizations to wardec rarer still. So that does have the danger of spiralling to a mutually-reinforcing decline.

Well gotta see the upside

That said, it has been a positive thing to see we can actually have fun with the smaller fleets at the half a dozen man vs half a dozen target level and it does make the organization feel more personal and camaraderie amongst the hardcore idealists that stick it out is improved. I think if Eve in general does survive the current doldrums and recover and begin appealing to people's broader interests again the veteran's who toughed it out and kept to their principles in the Fraction will have forged a bond that will empower us for years to come.

All organizations have their ups and downs - but I think Eve at the moment is seeing an awful lot of organizations having their downs simultaneously with only a couple of pseudo-rp outfits on the verges keeping their activity on non-rp focus.

Time for CCP to pull their fat out of the fire

Still. There is always hope. CCP may well listen to the climate of protests and unhappiness across the player base at the moment and may realize that they need to fund and properly resource their core game and start making things happen again. I personally hope we hear less of "there is no resource/it can't be done" and a bit more acceptance that unless they start making these things happen there might actually be "no game at all".

Its clear Eve does need a lot of attention and new enthusiasm and passion to make things happen. Something as simple (albeit time consuming and manpower intensive) as renewed Live events with genuine in-space interaction could help. Renewing and repairing Faction Warfare would definitely help. Even looking at enhanced lowsec, mercenaries and bounty-hunters, new faction ships, new anything really can help because it makes people want to log into the game again and prepare to fight for things!

Anyways, to summarize for the op I think while Eve RP did not actually "die" it has gone to sleep now for quite a while. We will need CCP's help to help wake it up, but of course we can help too.

Looking Forward

From SF's perspective we really have gone back to our roots moving to this autumn and we're making war on regressive road-blockers and would-be imperialist pirate outfits that have the temerity to charge people "rent" for occupation of lowsec Placid systems. The beginning of our "loops" campaign was basically a statement of intent that we would fight people who dared restrict the movement of our ships in placid but it revealed a hidden criminal network in the "loops" that charge people to live there. We've now advanced our wardec to the landlords and would-be rent-barons and in return got wardecced by some mercenaries paid by the slumlords to defend their business. Its a pretty good angle and looks to be providing some nice mixed fighting of the scale we can currently enjoy and its nicely absent of any traditional "rp community" needle and angst.

So it is possible to enjoy the game even in the current situation. But like everyone else I'm definitely hoping CCP throw us a bone to make it easier to engage people's interest again and recover from the long summer doldrums.

A closing point on the way people use the IGS

I think one big problem with the IGS is people simply use the "RP excuse" to troll their OOC feuds there and it does become corrosive and poisonous. I'd definitely like to see a bit more discipline from old school rp'ers and less internicine bitterness masquerading as "rp". Nobody wants to see talking heads being purely negative about anything anybody else has to say. If a topic doesn't interest you then ignore it. Don't feel obliged to troll and sneer just because its a post made by somebody you don't like. IGS would be a far superior environment if people competed for interest against each other with positive and progressive thread/topic posting representing in-character play rather than used it simply as a way of insulting and demeaning each other with veiled ooc insults all the time.

For my money I'm happy to see virtually anything presented as IC from the single rifter shooting a wartarget punisher if its presented in nice and evocative language. I want to read about people's first wars, their ideals, their principles and their schemes. I want to read about what people are doing and what they stand for. This is all positive. (One great thing about the new forums is that I can "like" all positive posts while ignoring the terrible ones).

I don't want to see put-downs and purely negative posting pretending to be "characterization".
If you want to flame somebody IC then send them an evemail - please don't drag the rest of the community through your personal issues and grudges.

This simple bit of self-discipline on the part of the community would massively improve the atmosphere on the summit.

[Nmaro Makari]

No, its not about how fast you write or I read or whatever. Im not really criticising you or anything, just pointing out that it hard to find details or what you actually think from sifting through that many words.

Well I guess as they say, takes all sorts! (tell you what though, and don't say I never take criticism!) I've edited the original post and put some bold subject headings in there. Pretend each of the sections is its "own post" and take them separately. How about that?

General situation with Eve Roleplay

I think its undoubtedly the case that Eve itself has slowed down a lot this summer post monocle-gate and the realization that the pay off for 18 months of no significant new content was not actually very good (CQ). Across the game there has been a general wave of lassitude, unsubbing and only logging in to changeover skills etc and I don't think its in any way specific to the RP community. Now of course, it doesn't help that there isn't really any background or plot development going on for RP'ers to latch onto. I think the research project thing was an interesting idea perhaps, but lack of anything real to do in-space meant that people's enthusiasm for it died out relatively quickly. Sansha plotline has become humdrum (after all, people are "farming it"). FW empire fights - well, we all know the story there, its content that has suffered years of neglect and stasis. So it leaves people needing to make their own content and RP story from whatever corp and alliance mates they have left. For many that is difficult.

How my alliance has been impacted with this

In our alliance (star fraction) we've had our routine summer drama llama-ding-dong with people declaring the movement dead and going pirate. (happens every summer) combined with the low activity and general angst at CCP's perceived abandonment of the game universe. In practical terms the impact its had on us is twofold:

Firstly, our maximum fleet size for patrolling and intervention dropped from low to mid twenties to half a dozen to low teens. Most people who were on the fence about activity in Eve seem to have dropped off the fence (on the wrong side) and we're looking an alliance of a few dozen actives total from the 60-70 we had a couple of years ago.

Secondly, our potential target availability has dropped significantly. Earlier in the year placid was full of pirate groups roaming with 10-20 man fleets and bite-sized gate camps were oppressing travellers at all the hisec/lowsec junctions. It was a target rich environment that we often struggled to win against and in away that was a good thing because it made us evolve our tactics and try to find ways to fight outnumbered and often out-blinged. These days the pirates are relatively scarce and potential RP territorialist/enclosurist organizations to wardec rarer still. So that does have the danger of spiralling to a mutually-reinforcing decline.

Well gotta see the upside

That said, it has been a positive thing to see we can actually have fun with the smaller fleets at the half a dozen man vs half a dozen target level and it does make the organization feel more personal and camaraderie amongst the hardcore idealists that stick it out is improved. I think if Eve in general does survive the current doldrums and recover and begin appealing to people's broader interests again the veteran's who toughed it out and kept to their principles in the Fraction will have forged a bond that will empower us for years to come.

All organizations have their ups and downs - but I think Eve at the moment is seeing an awful lot of organizations having their downs simultaneously with only a couple of pseudo-rp outfits on the verges keeping their activity on non-rp focus.

Time for CCP to pull their fat out of the fire

Still. There is always hope. CCP may well listen to the climate of protests and unhappiness across the player base at the moment and may realize that they need to fund and properly resource their core game and start making things happen again. I personally hope we hear less of "there is no resource/it can't be done" and a bit more acceptance that unless they start making these things happen there might actually be "no game at all".

Its clear Eve does need a lot of attention and new enthusiasm and passion to make things happen. Something as simple (albeit time consuming and manpower intensive) as renewed Live events with genuine in-space interaction could help. Renewing and repairing Faction Warfare would definitely help. Even looking at enhanced lowsec, mercenaries and bounty-hunters, new faction ships, new anything really can help because it makes people want to log into the game again and prepare to fight for things!

Anyways, to summarize for the op I think while Eve RP did not actually "die" it has gone to sleep now for quite a while. We will need CCP's help to help wake it up, but of course we can help too.

Looking Forward

From SF's perspective we really have gone back to our roots moving to this autumn and we're making war on regressive road-blockers and would-be imperialist pirate outfits that have the temerity to charge people "rent" for occupation of lowsec Placid systems. The beginning of our "loops" campaign was basically a statement of intent that we would fight people who dared restrict the movement of our ships in placid but it revealed a hidden criminal network in the "loops" that charge people to live there. We've now advanced our wardec to the landlords and would-be rent-barons and in return got wardecced by some mercenaries paid by the slumlords to defend their business. Its a pretty good angle and looks to be providing some nice mixed fighting of the scale we can currently enjoy and its nicely absent of any traditional "rp community" needle and angst.

So it is possible to enjoy the game even in the current situation. But like everyone else I'm definitely hoping CCP throw us a bone to make it easier to engage people's interest again and recover from the long summer doldrums.

A closing point on the way people use the IGS

I think one big problem with the IGS is people simply use the "RP excuse" to troll their OOC feuds there and it does become corrosive and poisonous. I'd definitely like to see a bit more discipline from old school rp'ers and less internicine bitterness masquerading as "rp". Nobody wants to see talking heads being purely negative about anything anybody else has to say. If a topic doesn't interest you then ignore it. Don't feel obliged to troll and sneer just because its a post made by somebody you don't like. IGS would be a far superior environment if people competed for interest against each other with positive and progressive thread/topic posting representing in-character play rather than used it simply as a way of insulting and demeaning each other with veiled ooc insults all the time.

For my money I'm happy to see virtually anything presented as IC from the single rifter shooting a wartarget punisher if its presented in nice and evocative language. I want to read about people's first wars, their ideals, their principles and their schemes. I want to read about what people are doing and what they stand for. This is all positive. (One great thing about the new forums is that I can "like" all positive posts while ignoring the terrible ones).

I don't want to see put-downs and purely negative posting pretending to be "characterization".
If you want to flame somebody IC then send them an evemail - please don't drag the rest of the community through your personal issues and grudges.

This simple bit of self-discipline on the part of the community would massively improve the atmosphere on the summit.

Very helpful 

*raises hat in appreciation

[Nmaro Makari]

Am I the only one who thinks the rise of incursion farming is just the icing on the cake? When it comes to RP at least.

I mean it was a superb idea but it seems that all 4 empires have been completely removed from the equasion, as was discussed in this thread http://eve-search.com/thread/1544201

The empires were supposedly in flux after the events of the Empyrean age, i.e. had their internal workings massively f***ed up, yet they've all remained in pretty much a complete stasis.

So really, the reason for a lapse in RP is simple: Theres nothing to talk about. Or at least, nothing that hasnt already had the legs discussed off it. Theres only so much ground that players can make up by themselves, so really the bakcstory, which is the foundation of RP, needs some serious Dev Love.

[Esna Pitoojee]

Am I the only one who thinks the rise of incursion farming is just the icing on the cake? When it comes to RP at least.

Not at all.

So really, the reason for a lapse in RP is simple: Theres nothing to talk about. Or at least, nothing that hasnt already had the legs discussed off it. Theres only so much ground that players can make up by themselves, so really the bakcstory, which is the foundation of RP, needs some serious Dev Love.

Pretty much, yep. As I said in my post a while back, it's fallen to the individual people to drive their own storylines, something many people find very, very difficult to do for extended periods of time - not to mention the fear (real or imagined) of just spawning more dramallama.

[Arkady Sadik]

Pretty much, yep. As I said in my post a while back, it's fallen to the individual people to drive their own storylines, something many people find very, very difficult to do for extended periods of time - not to mention the fear (real or imagined) of just spawning more dramallama.

Well, it's the sandbox concept applied to RP. )

My biggest problem with that is that there are so many PF gaps on everyday stuff, and I can't really invent that, either (inventing stuff everyone knows/does/etc. feels to me like godmoding, imposing my ideas on others, and I hate doing that).

So, small storylines to develop. Works fine. I'm currently having a lot of RP around developing the direction of my corp, for example. It's the kind of RP I like the most: Gameplay-motivated RP.

[Bastian Valoron]

Completely player-driven events have several advantages: They don't have to scale well, they don't have to be open for everyone, they can be targeted to a selected audience, they can be partial and biased and the players never have to sit back and accept god-modding. The disadvantages include the difficulty of finding players and to some extent the lack of proper in-game tools, other than shooting.

Although it would be nice to see the inconsistencies of the backstory getting fixed and the open storylines going somewhere, I think we could do perfectly well with a static and vague backstory, without any active involvement by the CCP employees.

Or is it just me? RP community is very quiet. Summit is endlessly Amarr...what's going on? Was it the summer, if I'm just being paranoid?

I'd go with the monocle gate explanation: When players leave, social networks collapse and it takes time to build them up again.

[Bacchanalian]

Secondly, our potential target availability has dropped significantly. Earlier in the year placid was full of pirate groups roaming with 10-20 man fleets and bite-sized gate camps were oppressing travellers at all the hisec/lowsec junctions. It was a target rich environment that we often struggled to win against and in away that was a good thing because it made us evolve our tactics and try to find ways to fight outnumbered and often out-blinged. These days the pirates are relatively scarce and potential RP territorialist/enclosurist organizations to wardec rarer still. So that does have the danger of spiralling to a mutually-reinforcing decline.

You know, teaming up with Caldari loyalists doesn't really help your target situation.   

[Kaleigh Doyle]

[Insert bravado and posturing here]

[Jade Constantine]

Secondly, our potential target availability has dropped significantly. Earlier in the year placid was full of pirate groups roaming with 10-20 man fleets and bite-sized gate camps were oppressing travellers at all the hisec/lowsec junctions. It was a target rich environment that we often struggled to win against and in away that was a good thing because it made us evolve our tactics and try to find ways to fight outnumbered and often out-blinged. These days the pirates are relatively scarce and potential RP territorialist/enclosurist organizations to wardec rarer still. So that does have the danger of spiralling to a mutually-reinforcing decline.

You know, teaming up with Caldari loyalists doesn't really help your target situation.   

Do you have an example in mind?

[Bacchanalian]

Secondly, our potential target availability has dropped significantly. Earlier in the year placid was full of pirate groups roaming with 10-20 man fleets and bite-sized gate camps were oppressing travellers at all the hisec/lowsec junctions. It was a target rich environment that we often struggled to win against and in away that was a good thing because it made us evolve our tactics and try to find ways to fight outnumbered and often out-blinged. These days the pirates are relatively scarce and potential RP territorialist/enclosurist organizations to wardec rarer still. So that does have the danger of spiralling to a mutually-reinforcing decline.

You know, teaming up with Caldari loyalists doesn't really help your target situation.   

Do you have an example in mind?

IRED, former Amarrian lapdogs and Caldari loyalists. 

I don't follow the IGS so was amused to see you flying with them.  v0v 

[Insert bravado and posturing here]

And no, believe it or not Jade and I can get along just fine.