is PvP in eveonline causing CCP to lose customers?

Is PvP causing CCP to lose customers?

At the recent fan fest in Iceland, there were some interesting developments. New ideas in the game and the presentation of an uncontrolled CSM. More though, was the perception of a game changing  seed, a change that will affect all Eve-Online players, some more than others. PvP can happen anywhere in Eve-online, players know it can occur anywhere and at anytime.

As long as the aggressor gains in some way from the action of PvP, then CCP let it happen. It is a part of the rich experience of playing Eve. When a pvp player takes on a non-pvp player, sometimes called a 'Care-bear', and turns that pvp into harassment, or greifing, it is no longer acceptable to CCP.

An emerging trend is for some PvP players, to believe they have a right, to constantly pick on new players, forcing them into a very one sided pvp action, until the new player, with mounting losses, gives up. He leaves the game and never comes back. That is for the hardened pvp player, a win situation, having forced yet another care bear to leave the game, stops paying monthly subs and never shows up again.

I feel bad for the new player, he probably was enjoying the game, mining and or missioning, maybe had a second account to assist mining, or grabbing the mission spoils. The fact remains, the losses caused by unwanted pvp, made the game untenable for him and caused him to leave.

I think CCP will see this activity as PVP versus CCP directly. If CCP start losing customers, and that customer loss is attributable to a group of players within the game, CCP are going to look at that group of players and take steps to reduce the loss of players and their subscriptions.

Don't get me wrong, but CCP use the Eve-Online game as a vehicle for Income Generation, it is their primary concern.

Players paying their way with in-game currency are I imagine financially less attractive than players paying their subs with new money. CCP needs new players to like the game, to stay, and to pay monthly dues, and in the future, be receptive to buying goods from CCP to be used in game.

CCP are teamed with Sony and Nvidia. Those concerns need to see a regular solid customer base contributing to their income generation. If we mess up that flow of real money, there is no doubt that CCP will intervene. If you feel that you have a greater right to play pvp and scare people into leaving, then I fear you may not have fully grasped the reality of Eve-Online.

If a few hundred players get upset and attempt to destroy the fabric of the game for fee paying players, CCP will intervene, Sony, Nvidia and others are probably counting on it.

This blog complements my YouTube channel and can be seen at http://youtu.be/vs5DNOoT210

Mittani or Riverini for CSM Eve-online by CCP.

The Mittani Vs Riverini - Communication Skills for CSM

I think it was The Mittani who played the language card, pointing out the CSM will need to have good, quick and intelligible communication skills. I feel his view of Riverini was suggestively scathing pointing out his language skills may not be up to the job.

I do not speak any Italian so Riverini's use of English, being better than my Italian, makes me respect the man, however, The Mittani can only take cheap shots at the guy based upon his perception of language skills.

Riverini, maybe a fast interpreter could work for you, you can speak in your native tongue and have that relayed in almost real time in US American so the nose biting MIttani has to find something more solid upon which to base his argument.

Overall, don't tell me what the other guy didn't do when you should be telling me what YOU can do for me.

Don't change the subject all the time to the same boring topic you feel more comfortable with.

and please CSM's don't waste assume our intelligence is so low we don't understand where your allegiance is.  

Talk the truth, tell us What you want to do,  How  you want to do it and in what Time Frame you want to do it in. That's all we need to decide who is the best CSM candidate.

Laughing at Jita Scammers in Eve-Online by CCP

Laughing at Jita Scammers in Eve-Online by CCP

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R 020830Z FEB 12

FM FWDPOST,Suroken Fleet

TO EVE REBROADCAST

BT

UNCLAS

EvE Buyers save Millions in Jita

Every now and then, our corporation sends a shipment of trade good to Jita to earn enough Isks to see us through another couple of weeks. We are not a large enough corporation  to earn billions of Isks, but doing level three and four missions and a little Planetary Interaction provides all we need for our game play.

We could sell our trade stuff locally, but to make the real money, we need to find the busiest market. That market however, may not be the one paying the most for some of our stuff. But for the most part, most of what we sell seems to attract the better prices.

There is no software in the world that will tell me what an orca full of stuff is worth, but a keen eye and market familiarity will give me a good idea to the nearest 10 Million Isks. Whether I am turning a laden Orca round or dropping off a battleship filled with munitions, the process is the same and  a player can earn the same respectively regardless of the size of the hold if the basic precepts are understood. or If you know how.

Here is how to make a fair return for your investment.

Go to the market with the best chance of finding buyers. Ice Miners do not sell well in systems where there are no ice fields, however, when they do sell, they can return a very good profit. If you are prepared to wait for the return you can ask almost any price you like. Jita is a good example of a vibrant and fluid market place. 

Many people are willing to pay to a limited amount for any item you want to sell.  In Jita you will find players offering 800 Isks for your Miner II, you will find people offering them for sale for 180,000 Isks. If you sell for 800 you are giving them away, but looking at the market, you find one jump away people are selling the same item for 120,000 Isks. So what is the right price?

I offered mine for sale at 130,000 Isks in Jita, and they sold before I could move onto the next product, thus freeing up a slot in my sell orders. I made 1.3 Million Isks in a heartbeat. People think the Jita guys are demanding too much for their Miner II's, but are too lazy to jump one solar system to save 60k Isks, so buying mine they safe an opportune 60k Isks. They win and I get a fat pay check before the inks dry. 

Watching all the scammer in Jita's open channel is worth a good laugh too, people were offering an unopened shipping crate for hundreds of millions of Isks, telling you that there may be a Tech two ship in the box. Keep drinking the snake oil guys, one day a sucker will come along and buy your empty box, and then complain about only getting 800 Isks for his Miner II's.

Fly Safe

BT

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As found in 'Second Life' and 'World of Warcraft'.

Over the last few days, we have been seeing within Eve-Online, more comments relating to ‘Things to do in Null Sec’. It transpires for some, probably those who like a little planned ‘unplanned mischief’ in their lives, the survival needs for grouping up in Null Sec are a needful way of things. Go around strange space and you get caught between the dichotomy of “Not Red, Don’t Shoot’ and ‘Not Blue, Shoot’.

Groups tend to stay amongst groups of like minded loyalists, it can be safer. Smaller groups simply avoid everyone else. Its all about Risk Management, or Risk Aversion, but either way, it can lead to tedium when not at war, between blob battles or simply waiting for the next element of career training to mature.

Now, CCP in their infinite wisdom and with unbounded generosity have clicked in the ability to explore enhanced DED’s, rats with ‘Powa’ and ‘Attitude’. Kill the boss to get faction BPC’s, Treats or trinkets, something  special will drop when the Boss is killed.

This week we have seen the unbridled extension intention to copy elements of Second Life and now, we have an unabashed declaration of warm fuzzies for World of Warcraft. At the very least, it will be something for the zoonies in Null Sec to Farm between weekend ventures.

Wait! What was that? Second Life and World of Warcraft in the same week? Yup. Eve, has the capacity to be unique, that means ‘like no other’, and here we are watching Devs introducing elements practiced in other online experiences and coaxing them into Eve as some kind of filler.

I am not going to plea for Fixes to be Fixed before new content is included, enough players do that, and like many eve players, I yearn for new gizzits and spanglies like no other. We have seen suggestions for Mining Barges being able to turn their powerful Lasers onto other boats, we have seen suggestions for a decline in status mirroring three strikes and your out (of high Sec), we have seen ‘asks’ for Hi Sec ratting to give better standing increments, and we have seen the encouragements for rats to drop faction goodies randomly in High Sec. I know all the above is either underway, in progress or so far off the back burner, it is in the jon three blocks away hanging from a nail.

So many good ideas are coming from the customers who live, sleep, eat and breath Eve-Online, without a need for a single Dev to regurgitate elements from other On-Line Genres.

Fly Safe

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2000 ships lost as Jita Scammer hands out billions of prizes to bandits and blaggers.

Have CCP squeamishly bequeathed the responsibility to its customer base to the hands of a pirate who hides away in Jita? Rather than review the failing mechanism that permits players to destroy unarmed ships going about their business, that business they pay their monthly subscription for, they have sequestered the errant scammer to decide upon who shall live, and who shall be paid for removing from the game, those who have chosen to play a different game style.

This brazen usurping of CCP’s ability to be responsible for its large customer base, a customer base drawn in by pretty, graphic, soul reaching trailers promising the actions of a single capsuleer can change the very nature of EvE-Online is played, should now perhaps be changed to “Unless you play as a Jita Scammer has decided you will play, your ships will be destroyed and our prize winning peccadilloes will have your tears emblazoned on their jug of victory”

This morning, as a watery sun rose above the grey leaden skies of eastern England and a chill wind squirreled about the shoulders of those running for their trains to the office in the city, news was breaking of disasters worldwide, not the least of which, as was revealed in a picky scabbing indictment to testosterone tumultuousness, it read “2072 ships killed (144.24 Billion Isk)”

CCP have lost control of their income generating baby, and while it farts Isks about in a wild and spasmodic manner, prizes are being laundered like nothing seen since the grey steeled submarines had claimed an early victory in the North Atlantic, or the cod farmers had brought to bear great gun ships to declare the waters around Iceland are safe for normal fisherman in the acceptance of their right to fish the dangerous stormy seas.

The developers on Eve-Online fail to see that permitting bandits, thieves and scammers to destroy the ships of 2000 players is anything but a positive step forward. They spoke so eloquently only a few years ago about their need to change the way the game mechanics work, CCP Fear stated that it had to be changed. Congratulations, changed it has, and now new players are seeing how the space lanes are controlled by jerk off pundits who exploit a game mechanic at the cost of CCP’s customer base.

Simple way to make more from Manufacture in Eve-Online

It doesn’t take five minutes for the average Eve-Online player to realise there is more than one way to make game money (Isks) in Eve. Some ways are straightforward, buy something and sell it in another place for more  money, steal something and sell if for anything, convince others what you have is more than a pig-in-a-poke, when it is actually just that, a pig-in-a-poke.

CCP, the owners of Eve-Online, a sandbox style MMORPG of space ships, interstellar trading and galactic space for generating all types of income; have allowed the mechanics of the game to be biased positively in favour of the old adage, Caveat Emptor. If that phrase sends a thrill through you, then Eve-Online is most definitely a game for you.

A friend of mine recently started a POS, or Player Owned Structure deep in Zero-zero, and a part of this is a Lab that permits blueprints to become more evolved, changed to require fewer materials, or to take less time in manufacture. I chanced my arm and asked if she could run a few blueprints through the POS for me.

A few days later, she returned my blueprints and they now required ten percent, (as near as makes no difference) less materials! My heart skipped a beat as I realised that if I make ten Iterons this week, the tenth one will be pure profit.

The builds take less time too, so I was able to use the spare time to make some more free ships and get them to market in time for the weekend. Such deep joy.

There is often more than one way to make a simple change to earn a little better income, and getting some one to shave off a few hours from your manufacture time, or reduce the cost of manufacture is always a positive thing.

Fly Safe

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Empty Promises from Game Devs in Iceland

Eve-online, a CCP owned game, consisting of countless thousands of players all around the world, paying monthly subscriptions are being denied the ability to play the game as advertised, by the very people they trust in delivering the game they want to play.

CCP, being a responsible Icelandic company, have invested heavily in mechanisms to promote sound reliable game play, knitting together many cultures around the world, with many languages, and then they promote how good and wholesome the game is, and how they are going to make it possible for anyone else to take what is digitally yours and laugh with glee as you complain about people using the very tactics CCP reported that they were unhappy with, in 2008.

A report was published written by CCP Fear, where it was reported they were looking into suicide ganking and other overall security standing issues. CCP wrote “We are not happy with the current ease of suicide ganking and the relative “no hassle” it has become. In many cases, unsuspecting victims have no chance of escape, nor any help from CONCORDE. We want to change this.”

At the time of writing 2011, the website promoting Hulkageddon IV, shows that 1,587 ships have been killed by way of suicide ganking in the last three days, a financial loss of 122.28 Billion Isks with once simple underlying tone, every ship destroyed by these suicide ganking capsuleers, is unarmed, heavy and slow.

To understand the method, we need to look at how it happens. In the game, if some one shoots at you, you have every right to shoot back. It is acceptable and a much enjoyed mechanism.

However, the Suicide jocky, loads his cheap ship in such a way that it will deliver an incredible amount of damage in a short time.

The suicide ganker has between five and 25 seconds to deal enough killing damage to the victim before Concorde police turn up (spawns) and interferes with the gankers progress.

If the ganker has armed his ship well, the victim will be in no shape to survive when CONCORDE does interfere. The victim is an unarmed hauler, mining barge, Freighter or salvager, carries no ability to use weapons and apart from shields, has no defense.

The suicide ganker is destroyed by Concorde and often, a willing but detached accomplice scoops up anything worth salvaging from the wreckage. The Suicide Ganker loses a few points on his security and a cheap simply armed ship. The victim loses an exceptionally expensive ship, its contents and any adaptations he is using to maximise his ability in the game. All in All, the victim loses an incredible amount, while the attacker gets a slap on the wrist.

This mechanism is exploited by a group of players who have formed a twice yearly competition to see who can kill the most ships in the given time of the event, about nine days. They have a score board advertising the suicide gankers successes and the victim’s failures. Other players sponsor large prizes to encourage suicide gankers to kill more and more ships in a frenzied attempt to outdo previous Hulkageddon events.

The name being based around a Mining Barge called a ‘Hulk’. Now the competing players are encouraged to include a variety of other defenceless unarmed ships that are simply going about their business within the game.

Reflecting upon CCP  Fear’s words, how CCP were unhappy with the ease in which Suicide Gankers could ply their trade, I can only suggest that as it is now a supported event, and by that, I mean that CCP do not seem to be doing anything to interrupt the flow of carnage caused by the loss of over 1500 ships in three days and are permitting the event to continue unabated.

So when they promised they would do something about it, they have, they have made it easier and are now supporting it with supportive entries on their front page.

Quoting CCP’s Blog from 2008, “But what for the future?”, a taskforce (named TaskForce Doughnut!) is dedicated to looking over these changes and proposing plans for the future. All I can say is Doughnut is pronounced ‘Do Nought’, CCP seems to be encouraging suicide gankers to bravely destroy unarmed ships in the pursuit of large prizes and the promises for the activity to be curtailed, prove to be as empty as the clearest blue sky that ever there was.

Fly Safe.

References:
www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=577

flying-in-a-tincan.blogspot.com/2011/02/empty-promises-from-game-devs-in.html

hulkageddon4.machine9.net/killboard



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