CSM8 August 2013 Summit Minutes (part 1)

Been a little while since I have had a post. Been a little while since I have been motivated enough to write a new one. I have a few that are in draft mode but never published them because other Eve bloggers out there have beat those topics to death. Still, I may still publish them at some point. Oh yea, happy 2014...

I just printed out the minutes this weekend as as time allows I will read them and formulate my own opinions to share with all of you. Ever since 2013's fanfest I have found Eve to a a largely divided player base. Interestingly enough the minutes seem to reflect that in great detail. So lets proceed into the fist session. Download them here:
http://cdn1.eveonline.com/community/csm/CSM8_August_Summit_Minutes.pdf

Session 1 Basic Introductions and Design Theory

FIRST PARAGRAPH I have issues with what CCP Pokethulhu says and I quote:

"Pokethulhu pointed out his role as an interim EP was needed to handle the basic day to
day tasks of the role. Pokethulhu stressed that he doesn't intend to take or hold the
position. He further stressed that his full-time job has nothing to do with his marketing
duties."

"It doesn't signal any intention on CCP's part that marketing is going to drive the development of the game."

"The CSM was satisfied with this explanation and understood the needs of day-to-day operation"

Did we forget something here? This is only a half truth. Let me refresh your memory and while I am SHAME on CSM for giving this a pass. Only a few of the things that I will discuss in this article were brought up before they were releases to the Eve player base and most of them were not. They were not happily accepted at fanfest either. There were times when they spoke about these new things and CCP was greeted with silence.

Here is a link to the video at Eve Vegas by CCP Pokethulhu (David Reid
EVE Vegas 2013: The EVE Universe - A possible future
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dRlgzE_7FI

Representin‘ for CCP will be Creative Director of EVE IP development Torfi Frans Olafsson and Art Director of EVE IP development and one of CCP‘s key concept artists Borkur Eiriksson. Both have been part of EVE‘s core team for a very long time and in various roles have contributed significantly to what the EVE Universe has become over the years.1

While I was at fanfest I took notes and pictures. While he was onstage he spoke about many things and his connections to marketing and making Eve succeed in larger things are rest assured a top priority for both CCP and himself.

He not only spoke about the present and the future, just like ALL of the CCP developers did at this fanfest. They spoke about:

1. True Stories is a comic book loosely based upon a story from True Stories from the First Decade, crowdsourced from the EVE community and adapted to comic book form. It is something that we plan to do more of in the future, since the stories of EVE players and their antics continue to amaze both us, the mainstream media and the EVE community itself. The comic book will be seperated into four chapters, each illustrated by a different artist, which will be released digitally free of charge and then available for purchase in pretty printed form.
   
   
2.  EVE Universe – SOURCE takes a different approach. In this thick, stylish lore-rich book, we are given an insight into the EVE Universe, the races, the back story and the setting in more detail than ever before. Loaded with both classic and original art from the Universe, not only will SOURCE look splendid on your yin-yang coffee table, but it will also provide you with a deep understanding and immersion of New Eden, home of the immortal capsuleer (you).
   
3. Eve Stories which might be made into a Television series like Game of Thrones
4. EVE: Valkyrie
5. Dust 514
6. World of Darkness

They also spoke about micro-transactions which we all know went over SO well this summer. Here if a video on that as well.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_M3xPZSK_c

...and with this chart they are DUPLICATION this for every division that they cover.

So this will dilute the funds even more, stretch staffing out that further and make it to where it will take forever to get anything done. Remember the this blog in in response to the minutes from the August Summit!

CCP is going to continue to promote Eve into bigger and better things and in turn they will dilute the one thing that got them here to begin with. Eve Online. The fact that the CSM gave them a pass on this is horrible and the CSM should be ashamed. I am not impressed with the minutes so far. The integrity of the sandbox has been compromised.

Sources:
1 http://evenews24.com/2013/10/02/dev-blog-eve-at-new-york-comic-con-this-october/
2 http://massively.joystiq.com/tag/torfi-frans-olafsson

Blog Banter #50 - Changes

Being the bitter vet that I am I decided to take the challenge and write my corps and coalitions viewpoint on the new expansion that is coming out in just a few more weeks, Rubicon. Why write about this? Here is what made me do today's post:

Blog Banter #50 - Changes
Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 50th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are visit the Blog Banter page.

* * * * *

With the Rubicon expansion being announced and the SOMER Blink scandals (or non-scandals depending on your point of view) that have erupted on the community at the same time, it truly feels like an age of EVE has passed and a new one is dawning.

But which direction is it going? This blog banter can be about several different topics:
 

OK, I'll take the second option. I am Eve's new EP!

1. Where do you think EVE is going? Is it a good or bad vision ahead?
2. If you were EVE's new Executive Producer, where would you take the game?
3. What comes (or should come) after Rubicon in terms of the mechanics and ship balancing we've seen? (CSM8 not allowed to answer this one!)
4. Is there anything in EVE's ten year past that should be resurrected? Or buried and forgotten?
5. What is the future of the community? What should or should not change?

To answer question #1 I have to say that Eve is going in a good direction but they are doing it the wrong way. They have wandered off the path and don't know how to get back on it. How can I say this? Let me explain it to you! Go get something to drink and or a snack. Yea, this is going to be a long post. For those with short attention spans your going to hate it.

I want there to be proper immersion. CCP has left that aspect to the players and the players SUCK at creating the vision that CCP wants for the game. You can't have it both ways. To have a properly immersive game it has to be created that way. CCP has to have a clear vision on this and they have to stick to that game plan. The moment they veer off of that path the immersion breaks. This means involving SOMERblink, this meand involving all the gambling sites and this even means them listening to the CSM.

I want lore and let me be more specific, I want my lore NOT to be changed. I purchased all of the Eve books, read all of the Eve stories and all of the Eve created stories when they were created. Over the years CCP has stopped producing them and they fired their book creator. CCP is not very good at keeping their lore are they?! How can you have a good deep Eve story and immersion when you keep breaking it?

I want exploration through PvE. I do NOT want exploration through the means of PvP. I do not care how many times the PvP folks will say that this is a PvP game. I have been playing it now for OVER A DECADE and PvP is NOT my reason for playing this game. Stop trying to cram it down my throat at every opportunity you can. This includes YOU Jester and the rest of CSM that this applies to also!

I do NOT want Dust. Dust is NOT the future of Eve. Get it the hell out of here and sell it to some other company that cares. It is and will never be Eve online and it is NOT what I pay for. When I went to Fanfest this year I was highly dissapointed that 50% of it was about Dust. I did not go to the top of the world for Dust, I went for Eve online. Give me what I pay for.

To answer question #2 if I were Eve Online's Executive Producer I would be doing things more with croudsourcing and customer feedback then just listening to the CSM and a few loud mouths on the forums. I think Rixx Javix covered this pretty good in his post so I +1 what he said.

To add what Rixx did not cover I think that every time you log on you can have the option to answer a poll or questionaire. This would give the feedback that people like CCP Seagull are looking for without having to get it off the forums. We all know that 80% or more of the people that play Eve online don't read the forums. So why would you go there to get what your paying customer base is asking for or playing for? Mine the data you have with the methods available. This is something that CCP fails miserably on.

Hell, I could spend all day answering question #3 since it will take a lot of room to give it justice. I will shorten that into 3 main things.

First you need to improve on the Jove story and how the Sleepers work into that story. Good lore here, lots of information. CCP has let the story fail.

Second you also have to work on the other technologies out there that have not been explained fully from the lore yet. Those being the Takmahl, Talocan Technology and Yan Jung Technologies.

I would move along on the Sansha's arc. CCP had a good thing going there and crippled it horribly killing off the new community that was forming at that time. They need to get that back to where it was going, in a good direction with lots of player involvement. Right now it is stalled and not gaining any new players.

To answer question #4 I can easily give you a list of features that are what made me want to sign up for Eve Online that have been removed. Here is a good list for you to work off of.

1) Ghost Training - major good feature that was senselessly removed.
2) Motherships - Spent a lot of time training to get into one only to have it nerfed.
3) etc
4) etc
5) etc you all can add more in the comments if you like. Those are my biggest 2 complaints.

Things I also want to see removed from Eve online are what it has become. What do I mean? Well here are some other names for what it has become lately:

1. Goonswarm Online
2. Killboards online
3. Make Tears online
4. Bullies Online
5. Politics Online

Eve is being turned into any one or all of those things listed above. Each one of those could and might turn into it's own blog at some point. Time will tell. Talk to any new player that eventually rage quits and this is one of the reasons why. Eve is becomming a very hateful game that does not encourage anything that is resembeling "good" lately.

Most of all I want to feel like I did when I was in this photo while at fanfest. Click on it to see the note I added. I am in the picture and thanks to Freebooted for having the photo! Eve has taken a turn for the worse. I THINK (and I hope) that Rubicon will take it in the right direction. Time will tell.

For more Blog Banter's on this subject, please visit this here link.

Rubicon: The Bitter Vet view...

Interesting name for an Eve expansion. Has absolutely nothing to do with the current Eve lore that I can figure out but one that they went with regardless. I wonder if the CSM gave the green light for that also :-P Anyways, I figures I would give you my corps view on the 20th free expansion of Eve online. These are the current top 6 things

1. Control Hi-Sec Customs Offices
   This is just going to be a HUGE ISK sink that Dr. EOG has been looking for. How do I know this? Well the good Dr and I spoke about 2 things while I was at fanfest. One was PLEX, which is a whole different story and PoCo's which I am covering now.
   
   Here is a quick spreadsheet for you and no I am not in favor of this. This is just making NULL sec mechanics on Sovereignty control through a new mechanic. MORE forced Pew Pew and needless griefing.
   
   Thanks CCP Soundwaffle.
   
   

   Empire Sovereignty Listing	# of planets
   Amarr Empire
   Aridia	80
   The Bleak Lands	35
   Devoid	52
   Domain	192
   Genesis	103
   Kador	85
   Kor-Azor	61
   Tash-Murkon	103
   Ammatar Mandate
   Derelik	118
   Caldari State
   The Citadel	86
   The Forge	93
   Lonetrek	98
   Black Rise	49
   Gallente Federation
   Essence	67
   Everyshore	54
   Placid	71
   Sinq Laison	109
   Solitude	43
   Verge Vendor	44
   Khanid Kingdom
   Khanid	84
   Minmatar Republic
   Heimatar	83
   Metropolis	159
   Molden Heath	38
   Total Empire Planets (includes high sec and low sec planets)	1907

   
   
   Estimated value is $190,700,000,000 which I based off the 100 million ISK figure I came up with for the Gantry and upgrades. Is is exact? No. Will it do for this illustration? Yes.
2. Deploy Mobile Structures
   To early to tell on these. To me this seems like the new version of player controlled modular POS's that were spoken of before with several of the mods. I think I am right on this and God only knows why they are putting this "spin" on them. Either way I think they are a good idea in theory but we will see how it shakes out in game.
   
   
3. Sisters of EVE Faction Ships
   All I can say about this is JOYGASM!
   
   
4. Ship Re-balancing
   More of the "Same old, same old" ship tierside. I am one of the few I believe that thinks that this was NEEDLESS work. Eve was fine for the first decade with everything the way it was. There was lore to support the ships they way they were and I was fine with that. Changing things for the sake of changing them is pointless.
   
   
5. Guerilla-style Warfare Support
   Some of the ship speed changes and additions are things that SHOULD of been in the game from day one. This should have been added to a POINT release much earlier then this and not in a major release.
   
   
6. Interbus Ship Identification System
   This is how the certificate system SHOULD of been introduced to us. This is a very good step in the right direction for new players. Who ever got this into the game finally is a DEV that CCP should thank over and over again. THESE are the kind of changes that give the new player experience the life that it needs.
   
   Now for us bitter vets I don't see it really doing a damn thing but then again it is not all about me now is it?