The Map Is Great, But Hold Off On The Trophies

So this conversation happened on twitter:

So, to clarify my position in more than 140 or less characters, yes it is great that they are finally working on the map. As long as they continue to work on it and enhance it to the point where it exists as a viable option for pilots of numerous roles to use instead of Dotlan maps, I will be happy.

But I'm not going to cheer for CCP for the beta maps that (a) do not go far enough and (b) should have been started over 5 years ago. It would be like rewarding my kids for finally picking up a mess of toys after ignoring it for hours since I asked them to clean it up. Everyone knew the map sucked yet it was left to languish to the detriment of many a pilot, both new and old.

Do not mistake my position as not supportive because I am one of CCP's biggest fans. Nor do not tar me with a brush of "whining" or "bitching" because I had the temerity to suggest we hold off our congratulations for the finished map product. I will not give out kudos where they are not deserved until the in game map provides the complete functionality we need.

That is not a bar too high to hold CCP to.

Development 101

One of the most important things in any complex application is enabling the user to find things that are relevant and important to them. Its development 101.

I was playing with the industrial changes and explored the teams interface. I figured out the difference between teams already at work and teams up for auction, saw how to bid on them (not a fan that you *have* to hit enter after typing a solar system name, but not a big deal), and decided to throw a bid on a team as an experiment.

Note: not pleased the bid had to come out of my alt's personal wallet instead of a corporate wallet, but again not a big deal.

I log off and logged back on the next day and decided to check out that bid I made.

And I would if I can find it. 

I don't know if the auction finished and I was outbid or if its still running. I simply cannot find it as I did not explicitly write down the team name as I made the bid. That's crap, CCP, that is unacceptable. It should be simple as a check box to see the teams I've made a bid on, or at least that have a bid from my system / a specified system. This is a big deal.

Seriously, can you tell which one I've bid on?

The interface knows my bids because if I hover over the right one in the auction column it tells me my bid amount! It should be obvious at a glance which one it is, and ideally if my system I bid for is the current winning bid or not.

(And no, I do not think this is a good spot for the API and a third party developer to step in. This is a good spot for CCP to develop a new feature properly. Their QA department should have caught this.)

On a positive note, I'm pleased with how many active teams there are and how easy it is to browse for the ones that impact a certain blueprint. Still need time to tell how feasible it is to get a team I want though.

* * * * *

In other news, the first of two pre-Crius Archon builds comes out in two days, so after I get back from a long weekend family trip I'll evaluate what changes to my Archon build there will be. Look for that post Monday.

Strangle Them In Their Sleep

I admit I wasn't too excited about this month's Blog Banter topic. Not because its not interesting or worth exploring, but because it makes me so mad. So prepare for a rant.

EVE Online is a harsh universe where complexity abounds, both "good" and "bad" kinds. It has some problematic areas like trying to understand moon mining and if you have it set up right or setting the corporate roles and permissions interface, but these are minor compared to the overall state of the game which is quite sound when you get down to it. And not unexpected for a game this mature; you should be able to confidently log in and get in a space ship and go do something without too much difficulty.

But where EVE falls down is the risk to reward ratio that changes as characters age in the game.

New players are risking a lot, sometimes everything, as they play because the extent of their wealth is small compared to the ships they fly, and they lack the skills and knowledge and experience to protect them from mistakes or traps. How many newer players have lamented about undocking in a hauler and doing something that gets them killed? Or taking their new shiny destroyer out for a spin in low sec and ending up on the wrong side of a blaster?

Conversely, at a certain point a player is wealthy and experienced enough to lower the risk per action they take while the rewards only increase. Veteran players think nothing of losing four or five cruisers in a busy night, and very veteran players simply through entire battleships or carriers to the wolves for the sake of *content* and amusement.

EVE is a backwords bizzarro universe where the neophytes face the biggest dangers and challenges and the journeymen never fear nor struggle.

To make matters worse, for the uninitiated of EVE's PvP culture, we hide away the best tools and resources away from easy access. In game map? Pathetic compared to DotLAN maps. In game fitting tool? Useless for experimentation and research, you need EFT or Pyfa or Osmium. Guides and teachers are found in teaching corporations and websites and podcasts, but nothing in game. ISIS was a good start to directing people to what kind of tanking and weapons a ship requires, but the tricks to fitting a ship properly are still obscured and found only by trial and error for those without a mentor.

The new player is ignorant of these things, the veteran takes them for granted. Go ahead, veterans, play EVE for a week without any out-of-game tools, not even using the in game browser you cheater. Try leading a fleet without DotLAN or Dingo toolbox. Plan some skills without EVEMon. Come up with a new ship fit. I dare you.

And as a new player once you discover these resources? Things get better, you reduce your risk and increase your reward. Congratulations, you are no longer a newbie.

But until that magic point those players are handicapped, crippled, and mocked. Mistakes happen. We say "oh that player is over a year old so should know better than to undock a battleship and go into lowsec with three different weapon systems and dual tanks" but outside of the relatively new ISIS feature how can they know better? Where is the Clippy assistant to say "looks like you are trying to dual tank, that might be a bad idea"? No where, that's where. So they undock, they go to the wrong place, and they die.

And we mock them. He hold up the killmails, jeer in local, and chase them back to station. We take them on podcasts, blogs, twitter, and mock the fools.

The community as a whole despises weakness and ignorance so we mock and shun them, those unfortunate ones who failed to find the magic key of the meta-community and tools. We bring the new players into our house and then try to strangle them in their sleep.

#NotAllEVEPilots

No, that's true. There are many noble souls who try to help out. Sindel Pellion's Angel Project, EVE University, OUCH, RvB, numerous corporations and entities that will help mentor players into the enlightened status, but they are a minority compared to the overwhelmingly uncaring majority.

So, while the in game resources are so paltry, while the risk is so high and reward so little for the new players, and while we hunt them and mock them without mercy for the most part, new player retention will continue to be a problem for EVE. And if it remains a problem in the long run, old player retention is going to suffer too.

People Are Stupid #21339940321

CCP gives us tools and performance improvements to make 1000 vs 1000 pilot fights possible. Players escalate warfare to coalition bloc level, because min-maxing power gamers do that, and try to jam everyone they know and their brother into a system for a 2000 vs 2000 fight. Predictably, the node falls over and bad stuff happens to the pilots involved.

Pilots then petition ship losses. CCP, predictably, tells them to forget about it. Players then whine and complain. Those players deserve an Eagle Kick to the face.

Those players deserve an Eagle Kick to the face.

This Time of Year Is The Death Of Me

Rant On.

I hate this time of year these days.

The Twins are bringing home all sorts of germs and viruses that attack my immune system and drag me down, not enough to stay in bed and sleep it off but enough to make me miserable.

Plus, all the free time is being eaten up by christmas shopping, wrapping, or planning. Or all three. And all fo this stress is for one freaking day of madness. Which we are not even spending at home this year so no quiet afternoons playing video games either.

All this whinging to say, blogging is light, Eve time is nonexistent, and I'm grumpy.

Rant Off.

Its Not The Ships, Its the Venue

UPDATE: CCP Navigator responds on the forums.

Last month I wrote this: 

Who?
I've been in the Eve blogging community for seven years, podcasting for over two, on twitter, and paying attention to Eve during that whole time and not ONCE do I remember hearing of this guy.
EveTimeCode.com, however, has been visible in the community practically during that whole time and Diana Dial has supported podcasts frequently. Battleclinic has widely recognized loadout section, forums, killboards, hosts EFT and supports the community as well as selling Game time codes for Eve. So I'm not sure how I missed Markee Dragon.
I think it was a poor move on CCP's part to choose to highlight one authorized reseller as a "community spotlight" while ignoring all others that have also contributed to the community in arguably equal or superior ways.
Am I the only one?

Now we have this:

UPCOMING COMMUNITY EVENTS W/C 23 SEPT 2013
25.09.2013 11:32 By CCP Navigator
Spacefaring Capsuleers,
As we move in to Autumn and closer to our winter release I wanted to let you know about some cool Community events planned for this coming week. The big reveal for the winter expansion will be streamed live from ourTwitch channel on Thursday, September 26 from 20:00 UTC.
After the success of the 1 Quadrillion Bonk at SOMER Blink and to celebrate EVE Vegas 2013, we wanted to do something extra special that would allow players to participate in a lottery for some exceptionally rare ships and items. Starting today, an ‘EVE Vegas Blink Blast Party’ event will be running in which players can win currently unreleased items from the NEX store, Collectors Editions, Ishukone Scorpions, Guardian Vexors and Gold Magnates. I will be talking more about this along with Somerset Mahm on the Blink Forum Thread so feel free to pop in with your questions.
Later in the week we will be bringing back the Dev Incursions. CCP Unifex will be leading three Marshal Class CONCORD SWAT battleships and a sizeable support fleet into an unknown low security system for good fights. During the rest of this week we will give teasers in this forum thread and through our Twitter and Facebook pages.

(Emphasis mine.)

There appear to be two big objections to this announcement, one I think is relatively minor and one I think is another poor misstep. 

The first is the re-issuing of a limited number of hulls of the Guardian Vexor and the Gold Magnate. I've written about these ships before (see links) but they were one time rewards for events early in Eve's history and the single Gold Magnate was destroyed and there are about 20 Guardian Vexors left, unique in its ability to field up to 10 drones instead of only 5 for subcaps.

The objections I've heard centered around a belief that CCP has gone back on their word, i.e. they said they would never release them again after the special events and now they have changed their minds. This somehow lessens Eve's rich history as well as devlaues the remaining ships. I'm less opposed to the Gold Magnate being released since there are none in game and nobody is loosing any real ISK value (only emotional value), but I can sympathize with Guardian Vexor owners that might see their net worth dip slightly. As I've said in skype channels, they are only internet spaceships and I don't think we should say that CCP is never allowed to change their mind on the uniqueness of ships or the rarity of them. 

The second major objection is using SOMERBlink's lottery system to raffle them off. The problem is that SOMER Blink is a for-profit organization that sells Eve Time Codes as well as hosting their well known lotteries. By using SOMER Blink, the reasoning goes, CCP is directly benefiting this company and that is seen as favouritism over the other ETC sellers. 

For the first objection, I have some minor sympathy for current Guardian Vexor owners but not much; the devaluation will be minute and I think CCP should be allowed to re-release these old ships as they see fit within reason. I don't buy into these emotional appeals that this will somehow cheapen or lessen Eve's history; I think it can enrich it by making the history more alive and relevant to today's players and not just the players who were around 7-10 years ago, much like the current Alliance Tournaments keep the old ones in the forefront of player's minds more-so than the would if they had stopped completely three years ago.

 For the second objection, I generally agree. I think CCP has the wherewithal to build its own lottery system quite easily and they are taking the cheap way out by using SOMER Blink, and it does show favouritism over other ETC sellers and lottery sites. 

CCP, I think you should reconsider (but I somehow doubt you will).

(By the way, anyone who was not upset at the community spotlight for Markee Dragon but is upset over SOMER Blink being used as the lottery for these ships is a hypocrite.) 

For the record, I do not hold SOMER Blink in fault for any of these proceedings/events that have occurred. Full disclosure: I do advertising for them on this blog which I am paid for, and have used their services happily in the past for my own lotteries.

Who?

I've been in the Eve blogging community for seven years, podcasting for over two, on twitter, and paying attention to Eve during that whole time and not ONCE do I remember hearing of this guy.
EveTimeCode.com, however, has been visible in the community practically during that whole time and Diana Dial has supported podcasts frequently. Battleclinic has widely recognized loadout section, forums, killboards, hosts EFT and supports the community as well as selling Game time codes for Eve. So I'm not sure how I missed Markee Dragon.

I think it was a poor move on CCP's part to choose to highlight one authorized reseller as a "community spotlight" while ignoring all others that have also contributed to the community in arguably equal or superior ways.

Am I the only one?

Low Sec Podcast Episode Rebuttal

On Crossing Zebras episode 28 Xander Phoena had Marc Scaurus and Rixx Javix, two people I have a lot of respect for (except Marc, he's a dink  ), on to talk about low sec and for the large part they acquitted themselves quite well. However, there were a couple things I took issue with.

First, there was a little bit of historical revisionism by Rixx when he complained that the old faction warfare plexes from last year were superior to the current model because (and I'm paraphrasing here because I don't have the exact quote) "they had rats you had to fight and you couldn't just sit in there and spam deep scan".

Let's remind ourselves of last year, shall we? Faction warfare was infested with noob alt characters that trained enough to fit an afterburner because on a Tech 1 frigate that's all you needed to speed tank the rats in the plexes. Plus, since the buttons to orbit were 50-60 km away from the warp in beacon they didn't even have to spam deep scan to watch out for trouble, they just waited until you were in the plex and approaching then they warped off.

At least now in the current plexes they have to kill the 1-2 rats that spawn or the timer does not count down, and if they miss hitting deep scan, they are usually in point range when you land, both big improvements. The number of farmers has dropped substantially and while I sympathize with Rixx's frustration about the proliferation of warp core stabs we must remember that the farming PvE'rs will always try to adapt to field before they just up and leave altogether.

But this little confusion is indicative of a lot what these two low sec denizens had to say about faction warfare.

Marc expressed the thought that faction warfare people must get frustrated by the pirates that don't get locked out of stations in faction warfare systems like the opposing militia does. Never, absolutely never, have I heard that sentiment in faction warfare circles. We welcome the targets! We fight pirates as willingly as we engage the Caldari (perhaps even more so as pirates tend to fly flashier ships).

The opinion was also expressed that faction warfare happens in low sec but its not part of low sec, that it does not incorporate the core values of low sec because it has these mechanics with plexes and farmers and system control, etc.

This pissed me off a little.

I was a pirate in low sec years before the original Empyrean Age faction warfare was introduced and I can assure you it was a wasteland. Pirate groups dominated the entry points, anti-pirates would try valiantly to push them back but both groups were few in number and fighting a losing battle as it was near impossible to make enough ISK in either occupation to afford replacement ships. Beyond the occasional newb ratter/mission runner/miner the kills were few and far between and usually consisted of pirates fighting each other. There was nothing of value for groups to really fight over, excepting the occasional moon. Low sec was effectively dead.

The first iteration of faction warfare breathed life into the husk that was low sec, but it was a temproary reprieve as it languished with broken mechanics and bad design decisions until Crucible/Inferno/Retribution turned things around. Faction warfare is now the major engine that drives low sec and makes organizations like Stay Frosty even possible. It brings pilots into low sec, it brings fleets into low sec, it gives both militias and pirates somewhere and something to fight, and fight over. The increased rewards in low sec (better rats, tags for sec, better exploration) have helped increase population density but only faction warfare has given enough cover for those activities to have a chance. In the old days, any neutral in a system was detected and hunted to extinction by very efficient apex-predator pirates.

I've been on both sides of the fence. I joined faction warfare over a year ago and before that spent a year or so being just a low sec pirate. You want a glimpse of what low sec's core values are without faction warfare? Visit the few areas far from the militias and you can see it: pirate wasteland. That's not a core value worth integrating into.

Marc and Rixx seems to hold on to this romantic notion that low sec is all about the fights and proving yourself as a pilot. I can support that but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that Faction Warfare is not the engine and framework that allows that notion to exist.

Dire Straits - Risk Aversion, Warp Core Stabs, Blobs, And Bloggers

Not quite what I meant...

Rixx Javix posted a dirge for Eve last week that can only be described as depressing:

Consider this fair warning. This is indeed a trend. Perhaps you are too blind to see it, but I'm not. This has been building for years and it seems to be picking up speed. Null sec is static. High-sec is entrenched. And low is increasingly full of avoiders and big hammers. ( Big Hammers are those that will only engage when they have far superior numbers, yet another risk aversion tactic )
To much has been invested in "the way things are". The wealth is building up in station. The ISK is easier to acquire. The benefits of taking risk have been mitigated to a nominal result. The biggest rewards fall to those that take the least risk. This is backwards thinking at its worst.
If this trend continues Eve will peak and then slowly, very slowly die.
Not screaming and kicking. But mired in wealth. Spinning in station.

Then the next day posted that "no, no, you don't get it!"

Writing 954 posts about a single subject can also get rather boring and repetitive. I strive to write about new things, new perspectives, new subjects and be as entertaining as possible at the same time. Mostly for myself of course, but judging by the numbers, for others as well. It can be difficult at times.
But even then, I am careful about my words.
I would never sink as low as to stand on my soapbox and scream that "Eve is dying!". A careful reading of my post yesterday would clearly indicate that indeed I feel the opposite. Eve is better now than it has ever been before. And yet...

I think I've read Rixx's blog as long as anyone and I can safely say that the first post sounded like an "Eve is dying!" post but perhaps I didn't read it carefully. ;-)

To be fair, Rixx is not altogether wrong. Although his current frustration with warp code stabilizers is misguided in my opinion, and I'm not sure that risk aversion is on the rise so much as we're more aware of it now than ever, but I definitely agree that risk aversion is a problem in Eve and one I don't know how to address since it is so fundamental to human nature to strive to minimize/avoid loss and maximize gain/victory.

Its not hard to see actions that reinforce this behaviour either. We mock the player that undocks and dies in a sub par fit or in a bad situation to superior numbers, and scream in frustration at the payers that fit warp core stabs or fly with friends and off grid boosting alts. We shake our heads at the play that jumps into a gate camp without scouting first and curse at an enemy "blob" that catches us at another gate camp. We tell the players that express frustration at some game mechanics to "go back to WoW" and then turn around and expect people to respectfully listen to our ideas.

We are in a game that celebrates success and shames failure to a degree that it should be no surprise that risk aversion is rampant: everyone wants the former and no one wants the latter.

So, is Eve in trouble as we march down the road to the future? I'm more optimistic than Rixx in this case; I think its a self correcting problem especially with the tiercide initiative and tech 1 ships regaining a lot of lot glory. I've come to terms with my strength and weakness in the game and the resulting failures and successes. I find that in faction warfare I have found a balance between small gang/solo and fleet gameplay that suits me. Perhaps Rixx needs to mix it up a little for a while to refresh his perspective. 

But off grid boosters, man, they have got to be changed! ;-)

Integrating Map Functionality

Here's a test.

In game, go to the star map and tell me the number of jumps it is via shortest route from Stacmon to Vey in Placid region. Don't use out of game tools like a printed map of Placid or Dotlan Maps. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Done yet? I bet you that unless you were in one of those two systems already (or know Placid really well), you used autopilot waypoints to figure it out: set one waypoint to Stacmon, made note of the number of jumps, second waypoint on Vey and subtracted the number of jumps to Stacmon from the total to figure out its three jumps.

Of course, no one uses the in game map unless they are ignorant of out of game tools like Dotlan (or a complete masochist). With Dotlan you open up the region map and in two seconds (or three if you live in null sec *burn!*) you count the three jumps between the two systems. At a glance.

Why is it not that easy in game?

The new feature that shows your autopilot route in space mapped on the stars is neat. Useless beyond some immersion factor, but neat. But it highlights how incredibly shitty the in game map tools are. Dotlan maps should not need to exist. All of its functionality should be part and parcel of the game and the fact that it is not is primarily due to the age old CCP tradition of letting players who love the game cover their asses for them.

"We don't have to work on the star map because players will dedicate their time and money to create tools to do it for us!" That's pretty cynical, CCP, even for you.

The first thing I tried to do when I saw that route in space was click on a star for name and sec status info. I knew it wouldn't work; I pay attention to the dev blogs, I knew what was coming. But still, I wanted it to work. I want the map tools in game to be as handy and full featured and easy to use at Dotlan maps. I want the fitting tool in game to allow me to explore ship fitting possibilities like Pyfa and EFT. I want my directional scanner to provide summarized information on detected ship types like Dingo's Toolbox.

I want tools in Eve to BE awesome instead of just hinting at it.

Watch Out For Stealth Tornados

I undocked today to sort out my Myrmidon's new drone layout and there was a hostile Prophecy on the undock. I kept an eye on him while I did my business but as he was not yellow boxing me I was not worried.

Then I was in half armour. WTF?!?!

Turns out there was also a hostile Tornado 50 klicks off and he was targeting me. Fortunately I docked and was safe.

I did some checking and saw that my overview settings had new check boxes for the Attack Battlecruisers that Tier 3 battlecruisers have been rechristened as, but it defaults to unchecked.

Seriously.

I didn't lose anything, CCP, but I bet sure as hell someone did.

Remember to update all your tabs' settings, not just your current on.

Don't Buy Your Own Propaganda

On the latest episode of Shunners and Sinners podcast they get into a short discussion of the almost-war between CFC and HBC and start talking about how the war was averted because no one wanted to grind the trillions of structure hitpoints involved to wage this war.

Huh.

Really?

The structures we are primarily talking about, TCUs, SBUs, and IHubs, existed as of November 2009 when Dominion was released. Another structure to grind, POSes, have existed since many years earlier.

You got that? This shit is not new.

How many wars do you think the members of the alliances that make up the CFC and HBC have been in since late 2009? That's 3+ years for the chronologically impaired, and includes more recent highlights like the scouring of IT from Fountain and Delve, the crushing of White Noise and NCdot, the brushing aside of the Southern Coalition and vanquishing of Triple A... etc etc etc. Go ahead, think on it for a minute. I'll wait.

Back?

Ok, now consider this: what the hell has changed in early 2013 to suddenly make the thought of an all out war with an enemy that will bring huge good fights that, ostensibly, everyone wants such an unbearable burden that the leaders of said coalitions will do anything to avoid all out war?

The answer is, of course, nothing... and everything. But this post is not about the reasons for why that war was aborted. No, this post is a message to all those CFC and HBC grunts who are spouting structure grinds as a reason for not having a war, and the message is simply this: don't buy into your own propaganda. It makes you look foolish.

This is not about structure grinds, its about protecting space empires.

Dear Other Bloggers

Are captchas really necessary on your blogs? Do you get that much spam that you need to frustrate real commenters with impossible to read letters of made up words?

Or maybe my blog is so unknown and sad that the spambots ignore it out of disgust. *shrugs*

TEST Approaches 10,000 Members, Not A Good Thing

I heard a rumour that Test Alliance Please Ignore (aka TEST) (also, awesome alliance name) passed 10,000 members recently, a milestone and record for Eve alliances. I checked out DOTLAN Maps this morning and see them close to that mark at 9882, and it looks like from the history graph they may have hit the 10K mark earlier this week.

Regardless, congrats to them for bringing together so many characters into a single entity.

Unfortunately, it's indicative of what's exactly wrong with null sec at the moment.

I took the top 121 alliances ranked by member count (because in null sec, member count is the only resource that matters) and plopped them into a spreadsheet. Then I calculated the percentage each alliances membership accounted for the total of the top 121 alliances.

Both TEST and Goonswarm are nearly twice as big as the next largest non-renter alliance individually, and together are almost as large as the combined total of the next 6 largest non-renter alliances.

For all intents and purposes, null sec has devolved into a single superpower political structure. I know that the TEST led Honey Badger Coalition is a separate entity from the Goon led Cluster Fuck Coalition, but as long as they are nominally friendly to each other, it is fait accompli that there is no alliance that can threaten them. For all the fault that lies with Against ALL Authorities for their handling of the Southern Coalition and failures in the recent Delve war, one wonders if they ever really had a chance.

However, the thing that really bugs me is players belonging to these two mega-coalitions centred on the two most massive alliances in the game complaining how stagnant null sec is and bitterly complaining on podcast after podcast how CCP needs to "fix null sec". (I'm looking mainly at you Selene, but there are others.)

Eve is a sandbox; CCP has given tools and the players have decided to make null sec a uni-super-power political landscape. If you don't like it, members of the coalition blob, do something to change it. Its the height of hypocrisy to sit in the most stagnant-inducing power structure and complain about state of the game.

Stop waiting for CCP to magically bail you out with some magic bullet that will never come. Mix it up, shake things up, do something different. Because right now you are not "winning Eve", you are merely contributing to the problem you rail so furiously against.

CSM7, We Have A Problem

I'm calling you out CSM7. You have let me down. You have let the entire playerbase down.

Your failure is being cataloged as one of the worst in all of CSM history. How you could stand by and let this travesty stand without a word in protest is explainable. And Unacceptable. You should all resign RIGHT NOW.

What am I talking about? WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT!? YOU FOOLS!

I'm talking about this!

And THIS!

You get it now, CSM7!

What do you mean "what's wrong with them"? NOTHING is wrong with the new Stabber and Vagabond models. They are beautiful updates on a an old hull. Incredible kudos to the art department for their work, I can't wait to sit in them.

The problem is, you obtuse representatives, is this:

AND THIS TRAVESTY:

How could you let them update the Stabber, which was not all that bad to begin with, honestly, and yet not insist, nay DEMAND, an update to the ship that causes more damage to the enemy through its looks alone than its weapon systems!?

THIS SHALL NOT STAND CSM7. I'LL HAVE YOUR JOBS FOR THIS FAILURE.1

1 - I have no authority to take your jobs. 

Harassment Versus Interaction

I'm not going to go into The Mittani's actions at fanfest and the subsequent debate as a lot of others have weighed in and I don't feel I'd bring anything new to the discussion.

Instead I want to focus on this post that my friend Andrew pointed me to at a site called Muckbeast:

Poisonous Online Communities and the Apathy of Developers

Every time another news article appears about EVE Online, I am reminded why I would never play this game. I’m consistently impressed by their open world, single server, high skill cap design, but depressed by their encouragement of a community based on harassment, abuse, and betrayal.
CCP launches investigation after Eve Online FanFest panel accused of mocking suicidal player

“I want to reassure you that CCP in no way condones the harassment of players”

Huh? That’s an asinine statement from CCP’s PR folks. CCP openly condones and encouragements harassment (and worse) of players.
There are so many utterly poisonous game communities out there right now. EVE, WoW, League of Legends. I don’t understand why these game developers just let it get this bad.
Yes, community management is difficult, but not so difficult that you should just throw up your hands and surrender.
Perhaps this is why games like our own Threshold RPG can thrive despite being 16 years old and wayyy behind the curve technologically. There was a time where I’d say our USP was “required roleplay.” I still think that is the case, but I’m starting to think “a community that isn’t evil” is starting to be just as important.

 (Emphasis mine)

Wow! That's some vitriol!

But this view of Eve Online by people outside of the game and not as accepting of the large latitude of human interaction it allows is not uncommon. So used they are to games that try protect you and your in-game items from other player's interference that the "wild west" atmosphere of this game can seem oppressive and exploitative.

I emphasized three points in that post, let's look at them.

"[CCP's] encouragement of a community based on harassment, abuse, and betrayal" and "CCP openly condones and encouragements harassment (and worse) of players."

The word harassment comes up  in both sentences there and I think its fair to say that the definition of this word that you use in your head changes those sentences a lot. These sentences also change their tone a lot if you think of the target of the unwanted interactions as the character in the game or the person behind the character.

So let's be clear and state up front that CCP allows free interaction between people in game as their characters. This is why suicide ganking, war decs, scamming, corp theft, etc are allowed: its one character's actions impacting another character. CCP in fact does encourage this free form interaction and its worth noting that it also allows players for form helpful corporations and act as guides to other players, giving donations, helping out in PvP scenarios, running missions or mining ops together, etc. Its easy to only focus on the negative of the free form interaction in game.

While they allow character harassment to a point, they do draw a line and have some little known stipulations that prevent endless griefing of a character or killing of new characters in starter systems. What they do not allow in any manner is actual harassment of a person. Death threats, hacking, impersonation are all examples that CCP comes down hard on.

Essentially, CCP openly condones and encourages free interaction between players within the confines of the game (and some exceptions).

Now let's look at the last bolded part. "[Eve is one of many] utterly poisonous game communities". I think that is a pretty big brush to paint everyone in Eve with. Out of 350,000 accounts, even if 1% of them were complete sociopathic jerks, that is still 3500 accounts with up to three characters each to make a bad impression with the rest of world. My point is that you don't see news article after news describing the kindness and selfishness of Eve players yet it happens day in and day out. Eve University is running on 6 years of players doing nothing but teaching people how to survive in Eve. Agony Unleashed has classes on PvP. Open University of Celestial Hardship for null sec survival. Even Goons, the most hated of hated groups, is extremely helpful and supportive of new players in their ranks (as long as they came from the common outside-Eve community of Something Awful).

Hell, Project Halibut takes donations from vets and gives away free ships to newbs. For every betrayal you read on Eve News 24 there are thousands of loyal wingmen that would give their best ship for their wingmates. For every alliance disband, there are hundreds that live and die with loyal members. For every corp theft, there is a corp with an open hanger policy that is never raided. For every scam, there are tens of thousands of normal contracts for goods and services at regular market prices.

Eve is no more "poisonous" than any community of any size out there, and honestly, reading through the blog pack and podcasts might convince you we are on the whole nicer than most.

Calling Out CCP Diagoras

New item in the Eve Online News RSS feed? What's it about then...

csm debate live on eve radio tonight!
reported by CCP Diagoras | 2012.03.02 10:52:33 | NEW Tonight there will be a debate between two of the candidates in the upcoming Counil of Stellar Management elections broadcast live on EVE Radio. The broadcast begins at 00:01 on the 3rd March. Make sure you don't miss what's certainly to be an entertaining debate!

WHAT?!

No offense to Eve Radio- I'm glad they are getting some press for their work- but what the hell CCP Diagoras? Why advertise one CSM related radio show when there have been so many done by other hard working  Eve community sites over the past couple weeks covering many more candidates?

Voices from the Void podcast: http://www.voicesfromthevoid.net/ --> 4 candidates with 5 more upcoming

Lost in Eve podcast: http://www.lostineve.net/ --> 11 candidates in 4 shows

Fly Reckless podcast: http://www.flyreckless.com/blog/ --> 1 candidate (but it was the best one ... go Aleks CSM7!)


Once again this appears to be a case of not what you do, but who you know to get official CCP notice.

They Still Don't Get It

The Nosy Gamer blog is an awesome one to have in the blog reader because he periodically digs into topics more than your average writer. Case in point: he uses Xfire member numbers to create rankings of the top 12 MMORPGs and updates them weekly to see trends. For example:

Why the overall decline in hours played from last week?  Last week was a down week for the hours played in the twelve most popular MMORPGs on Xfire.  The overall decline of 5.6% was lead by four games that saw over a 10% drop in playtime from the previous week: Star Trek Online (-20.7%), Star Wars: The Old Republic (-14.4%), Maple Story (-12.5%) and Aion (-10.9%).  Those 4 games accounted for 82% of the overall decrease in time played.  Why?

He goes on to talk about possible reasons for the decline and I want to jump on the point for SWTOR:

The fourth pillar is crumbling - I can explain what is occurring in the first three games fairly easily, but what can I say about Star Wars: The Old Republic?  This week's 14.4% decline in time played is just part of a larger decline of 49.1% in time played since 15 January.  15 January is a significant date as it is the last date that everyone who had purchased SW:TOR counted as a subscriber.  Starting on 20 January people could decline to subscribe.  If the Xfire numbers are representative of the entire player base, EA and Bioware are in danger of not having the 1 million subscribers they feel they need to be successful. 

I've been preaching for years that end game content that is fixed and scripted will fail to keep players engaged for any long term period because ultimately, players need freedom in order to stay committed. Freedom to choose how they play, how they succeed (or fail), and how they interact. The vaunted "fourth pillar" could be more accurately described as a fourth wall of a jail cell. Ultimately, once players have pounded through your content (no matter how well described and voice acted) once or twice, they quickly realize its the same tropes in various guises and lose interest.

Yet Eve Online, "a terrible terrible game" with some of the worst PvE content in the genre, has players hooked for years at a time. Why? How? Simple: the best end game content is other players. Bar none. There is no story as glorious and as fulfilling as the one you write yourself. Sure, maybe its not as pretty and maybe the voice acting is terrible, but it is real, dynamic, unexpected, filled with twists and turns, failures, successes, and underdog and villains.

Don't build a game with four "pillars", build a world with no rules.

CCP and The Just-Don't-Get-It File

On January 27th in a dev blog discussing community events at Fanfest (still so mad I can't go) CCP Navigator gave this piece of news when talking about the prizes for the poker tournament:

The first in-game Ishukone Scorpion skin will be awarded to the overall winner as well as having their name added to the in-game description of this ship.

 Excellent! I've been waiting for any vanity ship customizations since Incarna was on the drawing board. Then he had to ruin my excitement with the next paragraph (emphasis mine):

This leads on to another question, does this mean we will be seeing ship skins for sale in the NeX store or by some other method? That is currently not the plan and is not in development so the short answer is no. The Ishukone Scorpion was already created as the first prototype and Game Design plan to release it to everyone at some stage. The winner of this event will just be granted the first one, before anyone else has ever owned it, along with the bragging rights of having their name in the lore.

 The one bright spot about the NeX store for most pilots in Eve was the thought of being able to spruce up the hanger with various different ship skins. The technology is there, the NeX store is there, this is a no-brainer to push the cart over the finish line and at least get some useful mileage out of the debacle that was Incarna and you are not going to do it?

Sirs, I am disappointed.

Seriously, disappointed.

I Was There - Blog Banter

"In recent months, the relationship between CCP and it's customers has been the subject of some controversy. The player-elected Council of Stellar Management has played a key role in these events, but not for the first time they are finding CCP difficult to deal with. What effect will CCP's recent strategies have on the future of EVE Online and it's player-base? What part can and should the CSM play in shaping that future? How best can EVE Online's continued health and growth be assured?"

I was there.

I was there when the new tier III battleships and tier II battlecruisers were released and changed the face of the game forever. What would Eve be with the Drake, Hurricane, Maelstrom, and Abaddon?


I was there when the graphics were overhauled and Eve went from being pretty to being drop-dead gorgeous.

I was there when the Drone regions were opened up and a new land rush began.

I was there when planets were redone and looked so amazing and real.

I was there when the awesome Empyrean Age downtime occurred and factional warfare began with a bang.

I was there when the wormholes opened and the Sleepers awakened, and I read reports of pilots getting lost in space for days or forever, leaving empty ships behind as they podded themselves to escape.

I was there when the Sansha incursions started.

I was there.

Eve is about space and spaceships. I don't care that you are developing Incarna and the Noble Exchange, CCP. In fact, I support you in that endeavour. But you can't stop working on the spaceships. We came for the spaceships, we'll stay for the spaceships, but we won't stay for a bar on a station.

I don't give a rat's ass about the CSM, CCP's communication strategies, or the colour of my avatar's pants.

I care about spaceships. Give me more reasons to say I was there, or I might end up saying "I used to be there."