Eve is a Game

...and CCP is a company that makes money.  At the end of the day, there it is.

I've been really enjoying my popcorn out here in WH space where I don't have to deal with Incarna at all.  Its actually been very amusing watching EVE burn.  I could link the several blogs, forum posts, and other stuff I found insightful and amusing but by now you've probably read them all, and like me you are all anxiously awaiting an official response.

Before I set everyone straight, I did find this really amusing:

If you don't think CCP is in full spin mode right now I have a few jump bridges to sell you.  With 10% off discount.

CCP, the players are outraged at you for one reason.  You have been lying to our faces since this entire fiasco started.  We could give a shit about $60 monocles or walking in stations.  Overpriced virtual goods won't sell, and they just make you guys look like idiots.  We don't care about walking in stations.

But Shadai, it will bring in new players.

Bullshit.

Oh it might.  Pretty graphics always bring in the most shallowest of Hals.  But  they won't stay.  You know why?  Because the game isn't about pretty graphics or your avatar or even your captain's quarters.   Its about internet spaceships and PVP.  And the same shallow players who didn't like EVE before for that reason aren't suddenly going to like it now because they can jerk off to their avatar.

CCP where is the development of internet spaceships?  Where are the new ships?  Where are the T3 improvements?  T3 frigs?  Where?  Why is it in the last few things done in eve been superficial graphics shit?  Why is this shit in my game about internet spaceships?  Truly, the only thing you have added to internet spaceships was incursions.  That is really it.

At the end of the day, it's internet spaceships that determine if the new players stay or go.  Being impressed with graphics is not enough reason to stay and play a game you hate or don't like or don't understand.

And then there is the multiple client/cpu thing.  If you have an ATI card (I do) you're pretty much fucked.  CCP, you have marketed this game to players to have multiple clients.  Power of Two remember?  You encouraged the players to have more then one account so doing things was so much easier.  Don't pretend to be outraged when we can no longer take advantage that we paid for in another subscription.

CCP the lying to our faces has to stop, or you might as well drop all subscriptions and just go full micro transaction.  That should completely and utterly destroy everything you've so carefully created in EVE.  You know, the market, the players, and your free subscription ride to World of Darkness bliss.

To the players I say everyone needs to calm down.  Seriously.  Stop with the "Free Helicity" bullshit, that guy got what was coming to him.  If someone threatened to kill me in real life I'd boot his ass out too.  He's not a martyr.  He's an asshole.  He had the opportunity to say and do the right things and yet he chose to go the opposite way.  That is not the guy I want leading the charge.  So do us all a favor and knock that shit off right now.

Don't be just another mob member.  Be smart.  Be a person.  THINK before speaking.  The second coming of Summer of Rage is coming to all, and this time once we have a hold of CCP's ear we need not let go.  But we need to be smart about it.  Don't be an unthinking mob member, caught up in the rage, looting and burning so much that you forget why the fuck you are doing it in the first place.

On the other side of the coin, to the players defending CCP and Incarna, first, Welcome to EVE; and second, I'm sure there will be a job opening at CCP soon.  You need to relax too.  You only serve to whip the mob into a frenzy and really that's the last thing we need right now.

CCP the ball is in your court.  Only you can prevent player rage, and so far you have been utterly incompetent at it.  We don't want the moon.  We just want spaceships to take us there.  And instead of that you guys are giving us a doll.  We don't want a doll.  We want our internet spaceships back.

Because at the end of the day, this is a game about internet spaceships, not WoD beta testing.

Incarna: Priceless

T3 Ship...

Thirty-four dollars on Debit Mastercard.

Faction Fittings...

Thirty-four dollars on Debit Mastercard.

Pirate Implants...

Thirty-four dollars on Debit Mastercard.

Monocle...

Fifty Dollars on Debit Mastercard.

The look on CCP's face when Summer of Rage II: The Sequel kicks off...

Priceless.

There are some things money can't buy.  For everything else your EVE character needs, there's Debit Mastercard.





The look on my face during the entire thing:

CCP Banking the "ISK"

So if you haven't seen it yet, CCP just released a new dev blog.  Usually these are oh so informative and helpful things that CCP is bringing to the game for the benefit of us players.  Sadly, they seemed to miss the latter part and someone, some dumbfuck intern (ie Hero to us on the outside) managed to post an internal memo:

CCP's new money making scheme!

I'll let you read that a couple of times so it really, really sinks in.

Eve's Art of War

Around the 6^th century BC an influential manuscript was written on bamboo slips about warfare in China. As part of the Seven Military Classics, Sun Tzu's Military Strategy, known more widely as the Art of War is the most popular book on strategy of the Seven. Translated roughly over two hundred years ago by a French missionary, the Art of War has made the rounds throughout the West as an influential source of knowledge on military strategy. Since its discovery and subsequent translation, the teachings held within have been sought out and studied by all manner of people, from Napoleon to Nazi High Command to Japanese businessmen during the 80's who engage in “corporate warfare”.

Regarded as China's oldest and most profound volume on military strategy, nothing comes into question more then the man who credited with writing the Art of War, Sun Tzu. Some credit Sun Tzu as actually Sun Wu and the writings the preservation of his stratagem and tactics during the violent Five Dynasties period. Others doubt the existence of the man himself, believing the Art of War to rather be a collection of thoughts from various generals at the time in one comprehensive volume. Regardless of the who, it is the content of the Art of War that continues to make it one of the most important manuscripts studied by scholars and military commanders to date.

So what can a manuscript about warfare in China during the 6^th century with swords, horses and chariots teach us about excelling in combat spaceships?

The answer may surprise you.