Ugh... Internet Spaceships

 Well, I haven't updated this blog in quite a while. Truth is, I don't play Eve right now.

 Eve is a game about research, planning, preparation, and finally action. The "action" consists of getting into internet spaceships to do "stuff". Unfortunately there is a problem...

 That "internet spaceships" part of Eve just isn't fun. Until CCP can reinvent that part of the game they won't see the sort of growth they are hoping for. Worse yet, their baby is going to get stolen by some of the bolder new IPOs on the market.

 We'll see what happens.

 MJ

Quick Dust Update

So I sat down and gave Dust another shot. In all fairness, it is a fun FPS game. There is still a lot of work to do but I can't get much more specific then that.

Everything in my previous post still holds true for me, though.Therefore I think Dust is being released at a severe disadvantage. However, because its free there will definitely be an influx of players. Will those players buy anything and pay CCP's bills? That's something I certainly can't answer...

 MJ Out

Dust 514: Implementation Is Everything

Below is a blog post I began writing well before Dust 514 was in Beta. Hence you'll notice that most of the critique does not center around game play, nor should it. I believe all of my arguments still hold true today -even more so after extensively playing the beta... I will have even more to say later once the NDA is lifted.




So first things first: I hate incessant whining and blogs where the author complains about everything endlessly. They aren't fun to read, especially when little or no constructive criticism is given. With that said... Its about time to explain why I am not excited about Dust 514 in the least.

Unsustainable Platform and Fickle Customer Base

 At some point the decision was made to put Dust exclusively on consoles. It was then realized that the only console with a gaming network capable of supporting what CCP wanted to do was Sony. Hence we have Dust coming out on the PS3 only.

 First lets look at the platform. The PS3 is near the end of its life cycle. Sony has publicly stated they do not intend to release another gaming console -whether this is true or not we don't know. Either way the PS3's days are numbered. How much longer will the console even be supported by Sony? One Year? Two years? Perhaps this doesn't matter to CCP, but it should. (I will explain why below.)

 Our next consideration is the transitory nature of console gaming and gamers. We all know the pattern well. Play the hell out of a game for a week or two, then move on to the next "big thing". Perhaps the game will be picked up again some other time, but most likely it will just be put back down again. This marketing model benefits Sony. Does it benefit CCP or any company marketing a long term product? Obviously the answer to my rhetoric is no. Sony doesn't want us playing console games too long. They want us buying the next hot product. This is the strategy Sony uses to make money, and what the customer base expects, and to a large extent, wants.

 As the customer base on the PS3 falls off, which it will, the players left will find less and less reasons to play. Anyone coming back to the game will find less opportunities to play. This is the the spiraling problem of online games developed exclusively for consoles. CCP has effectively attempted to merge a very short-term venture into a very long-term universe. What could have solved this? Releasing a PC version, for one.

 For these reasons I think  releasing Dust on console only, and exclusively for PS3 was a huge mistake. Once any initial excitement wares off CCP can expect zero support from Sony and a dying customer base.

Duplicated Development Paths and Limited Tools

 CCP has spent a vast amount of resources completely rebuilding Eve Online from the ground up in a way that supports future development and all new environmental rendering, aka Walking In Stations.

Do you think this rendering engine could support an FPS game?

 This begs the question: Why would CCP then pay to use the Unreal 3 Engine (U3E), which is dated and has inferior graphics to reproduce a large portion of the work they have already done? For a game directly tied into Eve? Clearly they did not choose U3E for cross-platform compatibility. Was it for a faster development to market cycle? For ease of console programming? Whatever the reasons it is a clear duplication of work already done for the Carbon engine.

 Of all the poor decisions made by CCP regarding Dust I find this one to be the most striking. They have locked themselves into an engine with severe long term limits. There is only so much retro- fitting one can do to the Unreal Engine graphically or algorithmically. I guarantee you CCP has already hit a number of these limits. Worse yet, how much the two games can be inter-connected is permanently limited by this decision. More on this one below...

 A Future Vision Lost

"Eons ago" when CCP first gave clues they were working on an FPS game at Eve Fanfest I was really excited. An FPS game in the Eve universe? What could be better? As any dreamer would, I began to imagine... I could see myself docking in a station to take a shuttle to a planet. I could see wars spanning from battles in space, to fights in stations, to fights on the planet surface and beyond. I could see all this intertwined within a single system in which players could take on different roles with the same character, or at least within the same seamless universe.

 Sadly, none of this possible, at least not between Dust and Eve. Platform and Engine incompatibility has created a hard wall which limits any possibilities of major expansion between the two games. Could Eve ultimately be updated in this way? Perhaps... But certainly not any time soon, especially with such a large portion of CCP's staff working on an entirely different product. I really think a massive error was made here and great opportunities lost. The vision of a true science fiction simulator was thrown by the wayside.

The Culmination of Errors

 So lets recap:

 - A game released on a single console with an extremely limited software life cycle.

 - A user base that does not stay with any game for too long.

 - A dated engine that limits expansion.

 - No possible cross platform compatibility.

 - The repeating of work done to produce 3D environments for Carbon and the Unreal Engine.

 - Future merging of these two worlds is largely impossible.

  I really can't see Dust doing well at all. Note you, I haven't even begun to talk about the game itself. These are all simply business decisions.


 For these reasons, when CCP Helmar issued a public apology I fully expected it to end with him stepping down as CEO. Why? Because his business decisions as the leader of the company had been so poor. Those of you not living in the states may wonder why our companies tear through CEOs so quickly sometimes. The reason is simple. When leaders exhibit a certain level of incompetence it compromises the trust others can give them. This includes subordinates within the company, but more importantly investors and customers. Do I question Helmar's ability to lead CCP into any kind of future considering the disastrous decisions he has made regarding Dust? You bet, but then again, I want to be proven wrong (more on this below).

I Hope to be Proven Wrong

 I am not one who enjoys condemning others to failure or simply being right. I hate the "told you so" mentality and general negativity. I want Dust to succeed and CCP to prove me wrong. I own a PS3 and intend to give dust another go on its official release. However, for all the reasons given above I cannot see Dust being successful long term.

 Maybe CCP doesn't care as long as they can make enough money in the first 3 months -who knows? But to be honest, I am nervous. I think CCP is a good company full of smart people who love what they do. I also think Dust failing miserably could end CCP games, or at least geld it so badly recovery isn't possible. Only time will tell, but this one where I really want to have gotten it completely wrong.

 So what do you think? Got a strong argument why I am wrong? Do you love Dust 514 as it is now?

"And the noobs shall inheret the internet space ships"

 So in my absence from blogging my corp joined Test Alliance. I was very nervous about this move. What could trolls and noobs do in Eve? Well, the answer is.. Everything.

 After joining Tests I got a fast and very informative lesson on what makes alliances successful. To put this more succinctly, I got a lesson in what makes social groups of semi-anonymous nerds over the internet successful.

 The first proof that something was different about Test was that they... Responded! That's right, they responded to our request to join quickly. We had contacted other alliance of "elite PvPers" and been waiting for weeks. This was with sponsors inside these alliances attempting to get us in... Pathetic really. Test contacted us promptly and was very friendly. The rules for joining were clear, as were the expectations. Behind this veil of idiocy was a well organized leadership.

 After joining we were given access to a massive amount of information to help new pilots, and those new to Test. These were pages and pages of wiki  documents that clearly took hours worth of someone's time to produce, and all to help the new player be successful. Having been in some great alliances, I was stunned by this. I had never seen anything so clear and informative in my years of playing Eve.

 After sorting everything out and joining fleets it was clear operations were quite different here. Test wears their stupidity like a badge of honor. They laugh with their new pilots.. and at them, but its all in good fun. After seeing pilots get yelled at and kicked from other alliances for fits, and foolish losses, this was really a great change.

 Test has created an environment where new players can flourish and have fun. Attrition will kill "eliete PvP alliances". As all their 100M+ skill point pilots lose interest in Eve what will they do? The answer is they will die.

 While nothing is perfect, and I could live with a few less EULA violations.. Say once every 15 minutes instead of once every 5 in fleet chat... It is quite obvious that alliances like Goons and Test are going to run this game. Alliances that turn their nose up to new pilots and the inexperienced are going to slowly die off as the Eve universe expands.

 Get ready because a swarm of scrubs are coming to piss on your parade.

Well, its been a long time my... self?

 It has been a while. Most of my limited free time has been spent actually playing Eve instead of blogging about it.

 Think I need to update this page at least once a week from here on out.. So.. Here we go!

/* RANT!

 If I ever got the alliance leadership bug again, which I most likely won't.. but if I did the alliance would have exactly six rules. Honestly I think six is too many but it was hard to boil it down any further. These are listed in order from most important to least important:

 1) We are nobody's bitch
 2) Don't  be a bitch to other alliance members
 3) Don't be stupid
 4) Don't shoot blues
 5) If you pirate someone and they agree to pay a ransom you HAVE to keep your side of the bargain.
 6) Everything else is just guidelines

 Now I really want to talk about rule number one... Why in goddamn hell would you play a computer game to be to be some other alliances little bitch? What do I mean by this? They tell you where to go and live, what you can and can't do, who your friends and enemies are, and who or what you are shooting.

 In the modern real word we all have to get along, and to do that we have to accept all sorts of things we hate. Bosses who treat you in a degrading manner, jerks who let their dog shit all over your yard, old ladies who think they are protected enough to yell at you from their front porch -and these are just the little things. In every one of these situations you have to take the high road and accept their poor behavior. In fact, they know they can get away with acting so bad exactly because most of us are socialized and decent enough to not walk over and snap their neck. When you think about it, these asshats are depending on the good will of others just so they can turn around and treat those same people like shit.

 In Eve you don't have to accept this bullshit. If someone acts like an asshole you can lay plans to kill them and take their stuff. Even if you don't have the time or inclination for a planned killing you can just tell them where to stick it and kill them if the opportune moment comes. This is part of what makes Eve fun. So why in the hell would anyone, let alone a whole damn alliance willingly subject themselves to degrading subservience? To get better rocks to mine? To make more isk? To build bigger ships? Perhaps they are thinking "Hey, maybe if we keep our head down and do what we're told we can become a big dawg like our masters!" This shit is pathetic.

 Just like in RL, if you want to play with the big boys you have to earn respect. And you do that through experience, skill, cunning, and diplomacy -not through being someone's lap dog. I'd take 100 competent pilots over 1000 scrubs who just want to mine any day and don't know shit about how to fight or survive in 0.0. Why? Because at the first sign of trouble the latter is going break down like a crack whore who can't hit the pipe.

 One final note. I have in the past been part of leadership which offered other alliances the ability to be "our bitch". Our offerings were of a small scale -pay us a few hundred million to move your freighters through space safely, be set blue for 1 week, etc. But make no mistake, as the deal was made and we collected I was laughing to myself and thinking "You sorry assed little bitches."


 RANT END! */

Risk Bad!!! Boring Good???

So good old Jester wrote his post on Dumbing Up. It always surprises me how him and I think about similar things. In any case, my response was long enough I posted it here:

 In his previous post he brought up the general reduction of stupidity in Low Sec/0.0 . While he has a point, I also think he is missing a factor which has been building up for a while and threatens to pose a serious problem to Eve. That is the PLEX.

 Players are highly risk averse because losing a ship, and now implants can easily cost 4 to 5 hundred million that not only hurts your wallet, but is posted for all to see. This is the equivalent of losing $20.

 Worse yet, looking at the amount of PLEX passing through Jita alone it is obvious the "have nots" of Eve are using this system for cash injections. Who wants to spend 20$ just to lose it in PvP? My guess is PLEX prices will continue to rise, item prices will follow, aversion to risk will become dangerously low. Why should I risk anything when I can just buy a PLEX to fit my CNR and grind out free isk all day?

 I didn't understand this until it struck me how many players take pride in simply accumulating virtual crap in a virtual world. They don't play the game to challenge themselves against others, or react to situations differently then social rules dictate you can in modern society. They play Eve to accumulate shit and feel good about themselves. Spending $20 just to lose it doesn't make you feel good about yourself. Especially if you're god awful at PvP and aren't really interested in getting better. To me this style of play is terribly boring, but to each their own pitiful existence.
 
 Also, on another note, Eve being a niche game is part of what has kept it alive so long. If CCP ever thinks they can or should compete with the likes of WoW, AoC,  or the other content based theme park MMOs it spells the beginning of the end. This is course has nothing to do with simplifying item names, which is a good thing. (Read the linked posts to see what this pertains to.)

 MJ