What really chaffed our collective player asses for the past two years of expansions before finally blowing up in Incarna was the common thread of squandered potential that the past two years of expansions have had. Eve Gate, Incarna, Planetary Interaction, the revamped Sovereignty System, etc. all had good shots at being really, really cool features. What we ended up with was material that was not thought through with regards to game impact. All of these features, with their gaps in gameplay, serviceability and enjoyability left a distinct impression that someone at the top of the feature development food chain didn’t give a rat’s ass about the end user experience. The background of CCP's top management is no secret; a lot of them come from a technical background; the features with the most squandered potential were all developed on the grounds and basis of being a technical showcase, rather than genuinely improving the game for the consumer, before they were dropped completely after delivery.
The development teams are incredibly passionate about the game; I have no doubt about that. However, between the meetings with the CSMs, the feature deliveries, and the multitude of flaws known well in advance of PI and Incarna’s arrival on Tranquility, what makes itself clear is that the management wasn’t willing to fix things because they just didn’t give a fuck; the retention of long time players was taken as a given, regardless of the quality of features or what long time players had to say.
The last straw came in the form of FEARLESS and Incarna’s perceived purpose as a vehicle for psychotically overpriced virtual “goods.” The various communications missteps, on top of the previous years of neglect and a newly seen intent to fleece existing customers for more money drove players to leave Eve Online. Two years of misguided intent ultimately culminated in a terrific loss of players, a dramatic 180 turn in the direction of EVE Development and the layoff of 20% of CCP’s global work force; a very heavy price to pay.
This general summary skips a great many details about attitudes and cultures, but the features themselves, the front end of what we have to experience, are what cultivated the mass Incarna exodus from Eve Online. It's no surprise that delivering high quality features that satisfy long term gripes, even if they don't fix the botched jobs of the previous two years, have done wonders to stabilize the bleeding of subscribers. I just hope the right people recognize that many people consider the winter expansion's feature set to be a down payment on additional, long overdue repairs.
Very valid points there, but I think the tripping point was the release of an unfinished product (Incarna) and trying to charge for it (microtransactions). Players immediately understood that someone is trying to milk them there which caused -> RAGE. Then some gossip and rumours began roaming around the community, causing RAGE to become RAGEQUIT.
ReplyDeleteMany people said that it was easy to prevent and I agree. Unfortunately CEO had to see the falling subscription graph before making the right decision.
Only thing I am sorry about all this is that lots of good people lost their jobs as a result.
My hopes with the Winter Expansion are very high. If CCP does not dissapoint there, it will be very good for EVE, for the community and as a result - for the CCP itself.