Emergency CSM Minutes
Recently the Eve community was in protest. Already sensitised by the API licence ideas, the combination of the lack of content for Incarna and the MT leaks resulted in people taking to both Jita and the forums to register their discord.
CCP decided to call an emergency summit with the CSM to diminish our fears about the direction of Eve. The minutes have finally been released, and can be found in the devblog linked below.
http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=2386
Here are some of the highlights, from my perspective.
Regarding CQ
"CCP noted that, while they understood that this is a common thing for players to do, there has not been any official multi-client support for EVE thus far (CSM considered this to be a poor excuse)."
-- This for me is typical CCP defensiveness. They have to understand that the ability to run multiple clients increases their subscription base because you can only have one character per account logged in at any time. People who run 3 clients must have at least 3 accounts and therefore are increasing CCP's revenue. To defend an expansion by stating that they are not supporting multiple clients shows a short-sightedness that is baffling. If you cannot run multiple clients then accounts will be desubbed.
"CCP offered to implement an environment that would be similar in look and function tothe old hangar view, and would include ship spinning. It should be noted"
-- So ship spinning will be back. For those that are missing it there is a proxy in being able to spin the ship displayed in the fitting screen.
Regarding the Noble Exchange
CCP pointed out that there is no one-to-one comparison between EVE Online and any other game, either in a visual quality or depth of gameplay sense. Furthermore, due to the unique nature of the game, CCP’s stance is that continued innovation is needed and the forging of new paths when it comes to virtual goods and services is a necessary part of that innovation."
-- I have to wonder if this is really for CCP to say. It's surely the remit of the customer to judge? Whilst I agree that further innovation is needed, the feeling from CCP that it is beyond any other game is simultaneously arrogant and represents an idea that their customer base can be held to ransom.
"The CSM leveled harsh criticism at the decision to not release all the items CCP had available when the NeX was opened. CCP replied that the decision was fully in line with the strategy of taking small steps, observing the results and then taking the next steps. The alternative would have meant releasing too much at once, which would have severely hampered CCP’s ability to react to launch feedback and adjust strategy."
-- What I find amazing about this is that CCP cannot admit that they were wrong. It's clear that they are. You don't get in game protests, forum threadnaughts or thousands of subs cancelled if you got it right. But instead of being honest and admitting their mistakes they once again get extremely defensive, and tow the line of saying it was our strategy to do it. Yes we know it was your strategy. That's the problem. Your strategy was wrong.
"The CSM brought up the pricing of items in AUR, specifically in instances where a particular item costs 3600 AUR, 100 AUR shy of the standard 1-PLEX conversion rate (3500 AUR). They felt this was insulting and smelled like CCP was trying to rip people off. CCP pointed out that having items fall into pricing tiers meant sometimes they would cost just over or just under the 1-PLEX value, and that there were items that weren’t "on the edge" like the specific item the CSM referred to."
-- The excuse as to why some items are just over the 1-PLEX price is to state that some are not.
Regarding the future of Virtual Goods
"The conclusion of the meeting was that CCP and the CSM would release ajoint statement and a video-blog listing the outcome of the summit –found here:"
http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=935 -- This section was very much about any future in Eve regarding Golden Ammo. Although CCP did not categorically state that such things would never be present in the future (having learnt from past mistakes where they had to backtrack on things they had stated), they did say that there would never be an advantage for players who commit RL money over time. As far as I can see all this means is that any Golden Ammo brought into the game would be transferrable to the Eve market place. The ability to create Golden Ammo, purchasable for RL money has not been explicitly ruled out, but if such a thing were created then it would be created as an in game item that could then be sold for ISK. This is the same mechanism as for vanity items.
Although this is a relief it's not really saying much. Anything bought for use in game would have to be created as an in-game item, and thus could be traded as any other item. It still has the issues of potentially circumventing the industrial mechanism that keeps Eve's economy so much stronger than other games. It also means that any character enhancing purchases would also be transferrable.