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Farewell

I’m quitting Eve. I suppose I should have done this a long time ago when I first realized that my Eve burnout was not going to end anytime soon. One of the biggest reasons I still remained subbed was because I was afraid that if I came back, everyone would have far more SP than me and I would be “behind the curve” in PvP. But now I realize how silly that is, because I doubt I will return unless CCP somehow manages to drastically increase its player count by attracting new players. And nearly 50 million SP is still quite a lot.

What will I do now that I’ve quit? Well, I have just started college, so I do not have very much time for gaming. But when I do, I mainly play League of Legends. It has the advantage of being far briefer than Eve (60-minute max for a game vs. 3 hours roaming). Plus a lot of my college friends play it (while almost no one has heard of Eve Online). Also, when Star Wars: The Old Republic goes live, I will give that a try with other ex-Pythons.

This blog will go inactive; I do want to blog about other games but do not want to mix content on this blog. I will also stop maintaining the #tweetfleet list. Due to Twitter’s 500-person size restriction on Twitter lists and a lack of any good list management tools, pruning inactive accounts from the #tweetfleet is a fairly time-consuming task. And I feel that my work on the #tweetfleet is done. Just like CrazyKinux’s Blog Pack and blog lists helped promote Eve blogging, the #tweetfleet list helped organize and unify the Eve twitter community (from 15 Twitter accounts in 2009 to over 500 in 2011!). But now that the #tweetfleet has grown, the list has become less practical and less necessary. If someone else wishes to maintain a list, feel free to do so.

It’s been a great two and a half years in Eve. So long, and thanks for all the fish. o/

2011: 09/01
POSTED BY: 00sage00
CATEGORY: Uncategorizable Fun
TAGS: eve
11 comments

CCP is Killing Eve

It is easy to write off the dissatisfied players and bittervets as anomalies. But are they really only anomalies? Why has nearly every recent devblog produced a threadnaught? Why is subscription plateauing? Is it because the players are becoming less thankful toward CCP?

No.

It is not the players who are at fault. It is CCP, for CCP has forgotten what Eve is.

Eve is not remarkable because of its spaceships. It is remarkable because of its players. The players who run the market, engage in huge fleet fights, and create resources in and out of game are unlike those in any other game. The players are not numerous – only a hundred thousand or so – but they are active and passionate.

CCP, like other MMO creators, wants to expand. But that desire has consumed CCP and blinded it to the players’ wishes. CCP no longer cares about the players. It only cares about the revenue.

CCP’s latest actions have been complete fiascos because of their changed mindset and priorities.

Why does CCP want to implement microtransactions and Aurum? Microtransactions in a free-to-play model are understandable. But Eve is a pay-to-play game.

Why licensing fees for anything and everything related to Eve? CCP is trying to stick their hands into the pockets of players who create killboards, apps, and resources for free. Those players create things and share it because of their love for the community, not because they want to make money off of Eve.

Why only new content? CCP releases new features late and broken, promises updates in the future, and never touches them again. Large chunks of Eve are nearly a decade old and feel like abandonware.

This complete disregard for those who made Eve what it is is incredibly saddening, and I cannot help but wonder what Eve will be in a few years if that continues.

2011: 06/16
POSTED BY: 00sage00
CATEGORY: Uncategorizable Fun
TAGS: ccp
eve
9 comments

State of the TweetFleet 2011

The TweetFleet, a group of Eve Online players on Twitter, is more active than ever, with hundreds of tweets posted per day by its members. The TweetFleet has grown tremendously since its creation in October 2009: In a year and a half, 40 members has increased to 282. Additionally, some of its members have also created TweetFleet merchandise; links to them can be found on the TweetFleet information page.

While new members are joining the TweetFleet all the time, some older members stop tweeting for various reasons, usually because they no longer play Eve or have forgotten about their Twitter accounts. Until now, I simply left those inactive members in the TweetFleet list, as they might return someday. Unfortunately, Twitter has capped list size at 500 members, a limit that the #TweetFleet list reached last week. Unable to add any new members, I asked the TweetFleet whether I should form a second list or remove inactive accounts from the TweetFleet. There was unanimous support for cleaning the list up, so I moved all members that had not posted a tweet in the past two months to the TweetFleet-Inactive list. The list now contains 282 highly active tweeters (I often have trouble reading all of the TweetFleet’s tweets) and has room to expand once again.

2011: 02/22
POSTED BY: 00sage00
CATEGORY: Uncategorizable Fun
4 comments

Blog Banter 24: In Real Life

This month’s Banter topic comes to us from the ever helpful Eelis Kiy, capsuleer behind the “Where the frack is my ship“ blog. She asks: How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE? Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfill in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently? Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a Good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it? Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behavior, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

The blog banter essentially echoes the lyrics of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody in asking, “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” However, there are a lot of questions being asked so I will answer them individually.

How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE?

As would be expected, there are quite a few similarities between my real life persona and my in game persona.

Analytical – In game, I pore over ship fittings, game mechanics, and battles. I spend far more time reading and theorizing about Eve than I actually play it.

Frugal – I dislike wasting ISK. I always pinch pennies, buying the cheapest modules for my ship (most of my ships are not even rigged) and flying inexpensive ships (the only faction ship I fly is the Slicer, which costs 20 million). I also hate seeing wrecks go unsalvaged, a trait that my corp mates often tease me about.

Quiet – I do not talk much unless I have a good reason to. One of the byproducts of this is that sometimes my corp mates will constantly say “Hi Sage” on Vent until I say something.

Competitive – I do not play to lose. If I am poor at flying a particular ship, I will switch to something I am better at. If I lose a fight due to my own mistakes, I will berate myself and resolve to do better.

Loyal – I value loyalty and trust as much in game as out of game. That is the reason why, during my two years in Eve, I have only switched corporations twice (once because the CEO was abusing his power and once because my corp did not PvP much).

Despite the similarities, there are also some differences.

Pen Fifteen Club – Being a member of the Python Cartel and a valiant Defender of Pen isLand, I sing of the virtues of certain male parts. In real life, this is not the case.

Smack talk – It is well know that smack talk is an art perfected by the Python Cartel (what other corporation comes back from roams with half its members gagged by GMs?). I often smack talk opponents in local, often accusing them of having small genitalia and equally small brains and courage. In real life, most of my friends consider me to be a nice, caring guy (which I really am, honest!).

Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game?

Although I do not have a leadership position in game (aside from managing the Tweetfleet) due to not playing frequently enough and having poor internet, I believe that a good leader is effective both in and out of Eve.

Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst a Good Samaritan away from your keyboard?

I commented earlier in this post about how I smack in game but am nicer out of game, so initially it would appear that I indeed “thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst a Good Samaritan away from the keyboard.” But I do not believe this is the case. Schadenfreude is not one of my traits. I smack for fun, not tears. And I PvP for fun, not tears. Things like can baiting, ninja salvaging, and neutral RR do not appeal to me. Many times after killing a new player I will convo them to teach them about Eve, lowsec, and PvP and give them ISK to buy a better ship.

Additionally, the anonymity of the Internet is not something I take advantage of. As stated earlier, I value loyalty and trust. I have never ‘Pythoned’ anyone (invite a newb to fleet, warp to them, and kill them). I have never used aggression mechanics to kill people in highsec. I have never scammed or stolen. Of course, I am not judging people who engage in such activities; I merely do not do them myself.

Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behavior, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

To the best of my knowledge, no. All the similarities I listed were already present out of game, and the differences obviously are not present out of game (otherwise they would be similarities, not differences).

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Blog Banter 21: No Man’s Land

Welcome to the twenty-first installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month’s topic comes to us from @ZoneGhost. He asks, “Is lowsec the forgotten part of Eve Online?” Is it? Is lowsec being treated differently by CCP Games than nullsec or empire space? Can one successfully make a living in these unsecured systems where neither alliances nor Concord roam to enforce their laws? What is needed? Or is everything fine as it is?

It is unquestionable that CCP has neglected lowsec recently. I do not want to rehash this again, as most Eve players and bloggers strongly agree with that statement. I believe that CCP is not intentionally mistreating lowsec – it is simply that their current strategy for adding content to Eve is failing miserably.

Take Planetary Interaction for an example. Theoretically, increasing the amount of resources as system security decreases would make lowsec more desirable than highsec and nullsec more desirable than lowsec. Except that whoever designed such a system never properly took into account risk vs rewards. Maintaining colonies in a 0.5 is infinitely less risky than doing the same in a 0.4. And ironically, friendly nullsec and wormhole space have both greater rewards and lesser risks than lowsec.

Planetary Interaction is just one example. CCP has applied the same broken thinking to nearly everything else – minerals, NPCs, missions, etc. With lowsec at such a disadvantage compared to other areas of space, it is quite obvious why only 8% of all Eve players reside in lowsec.

Earlier, I mentioned briefly that the risk in lowsec is significantly higher than in any other area of space. Highsec has Concord protection, discouraging most PvP of any kind. Nullsec has powerful alliances, which maintain intelligence channels, jump bridges, and constant gatecamps at key entry points. Wormhole space has collapsing entrances, which gives the defenders a significant advantage and deters all but the most dedicated hostiles. But what about lowsec? All it has are sentry guns, which only deters small ships from attacking (unless you are an outlaw).

With such high risks, making a living in lowsec is extremely difficult. And for the select few who do manage to make a living, the stress saps most of the fun from playing Eve. You cannot run missions or complexes without checking the scanner every few seconds for probes. You cannot mine without worrying about getting caught. You cannot manufacture without having to worry if there is a stationcamp outside waiting to pop your industrial. You cannot even PvP without the fear that losing the ship you’re in will consume a month or more’s worth of hard earned income.

Only a few pilots – mainly those who hunt missioners with cloakies and a gank squad – can hope to break even through lowsec alone. Everyone else must make their living from other areas of space. For example, despite having a 97.38% PvP efficiency and stingily T1 fitting my ships, I still cannot live solely off of loot and ransoms and have to mission and trade in highsec for ISK. And the pressure to survive is brutal: every time I warp into a fight, I find myself worrying involuntarily about the cost of replacing my ship instead of how fun the PvP should be. Clearly everything is not fine as it is, unless CCP intended for lowsec to become a hellish no-man’s-land.

What can be done? Lowsec needs its own unique perks. It should not simply be the “area between highsec and nullsec.” This could take the form of unique lowsec-only minerals or modules or implants or ships. Or it could have higher quality agents than in highsec. Or some sort of bounty hunting system. Or a less punitive GCC and reworked sentry guns. Or outlaw-only items. There are literally hundreds of ways that CCP could make lowsec more enjoyable. I just hope that CCP changes their broken content addition strategy and actually gets around to revamping lowsec.

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00sage00's Romps Through the Eve Universe

Farewell

CCP is Killing Eve

State of the TweetFleet 2011

Blog Banter 24: In Real Life

Blog Banter 21: No Man’s Land

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