GenCon EVE Report

[Pezzle]

More or less a copy of what I told my Alliance

I am back from GenCon and CCP was there again this year. As with last year the EVE presence continues to diminish in favor of such venues as E3, PAX and the GDC which focus more on electronic media. There was one EVE rep though, and I found him. We talked for 20-30 minutes or so at the White Wolf booth. Here is what I have for you.

On the CSM.  Their role as stakeholders has been terribly handled. Stakeholder groups all come up with ideas or lists of items that they want to be addressed more or less quarterly. The powers that be take those lists and prioritize based on where they want the game to go. This means that some or much of your list may not be addressed at all based on available resources/vision/etc. It seems clear that the more radical your departure the less likely your items are to be considered viable. This is true across all the EVE teams.

The state and future of EVE: The powers that be have already more or less set the course for the next 18 months which will make getting your items on the agenda or into the game more difficult going forward. They are far more likely to go for changes that are not resource intensive or are in line with current planned changes. Expect to see more Planetary stuff and more missions. They are also hoping for more RP events. Beyond that the rep got tight lipped. I would have pressed him further on the point of a CSM that has to function in the dark 1.5 years into the future but I honestly do not think he has the answers. EVE Gate will see improvements. For all intents they consider this more or less a beta. Dust will be launched and not be totally dependent on EVE and vice versa. They have no current plans for DUST on PC. When I asked about the wisdom of a console shooter in the face of fickle console crowds he pointed out the retention of games like TF2 and the like (which are pc of course and also not subscription based). That was pretty much it.

Nothing solid on future expansions or overhauls. I heard something about rockets a time or two but do not hold your breath. Ship changes (Falcon) was not commented on. Nothing solid on a change to the aging and terrible UI or the horrible industrialist interface. They hope to curb the clickfest of Planets but told a story about one guy who is running 11 of them, so who knows if they take that as a sign of encouragement? I got nowhere on Towers or Sov or even Faction Warfare.

I can tell you this much. September 23-26 White Wolf is throwing a big party in New Orleans to unveil their new surprise. Beyond the obvious White Wolf MMO a source told me the other big announcement is them going entirely digital.

At least they throw a nice party.  No denying that.

[Kageru]

I don't get the feeling anyone really cares about the CSM or how they are labelled. They've been doing their job as volunteers gathering player issues and presenting them. The real problem is that CCP then managed to suggest:

1. No current issues are being addressed for at least the next 18 months.
2. They can't announce anything that may be coming in that time-scale.
3. Eve the spaceship game has a minimal development team meaning there is probably not much coming.

Presenting those data points pretty much guaranteed player fury and was perhaps the most inept job of customer communication I have ever seen. If they had just handwaved the issues and written some sympathetic blogs about how "hard" it was but they're working on it the whole thing would be over already.

Dust being "Totally dependent" on Eve just sounds like a disaster in the making. I just cannot see how you can do that in a way which actually makes both sides happy with the relationship. I mean it is a really neat idea... it just doesn't sound like it will work. And if the Xbox experience is enhanced at the cost of the Eve population (destroy their facilities for LoLs!) the current players are going to go super-nova. The idea of CCP being able to write a console FPS that is competitive with TF2 (and supported to the same level!) is pretty funny too.

[Fordel]

Dust will be launched and not be totally dependent on EVE and vice versa.

[IainC]

On the CSM.  Their role as stakeholders has been terribly handled.

Is this what he said or is it your takeaway from the rest of his explanation?

[Pezzle]

The CSM bit is not a direct quote.  The point there is CCP recognizes the role of the CSM was unclear and possibly not handled as well as it could have been.    Let me add to the comment on DUST.  My impression is CCP would like to develop a multifaceted territory control system (perhaps different methods for different parts?)  What matters there is DUST plays a part and spaceships play a part.  There may or may not be other factors as time goes on.  The weight of each has yet to be determined.  The rep was very specific about DUST being a small part.  DUST players will not be required to interact with EVE players through contracts (if I got it right).  


EDIT

I do not think CCP wants the CSM to be bogged down with bug fixes and the like.  My impression is they want a more developmental team.  Suggestions for the future, general fixes etc but not 'the rocket falcon is broken in these ways, make these fixes'.  Mind you it is tough to gauge from a 20-30 minute conversation with a guy from the PR department.  The CSM may be getting more information going forward as well.

There was an NC industrialist who showed up and started asking lots of interface questions, you could tell he was frustrated with the lack of clear answers.  I would have pressed harder for some answers but why beat this guy up?  He either does not know or has been instructed not to tell us certain things.  Either way he is not in the position to make direct changes.  A few times I pointed out that this or that seemed like a bad idea.  I also pointed out that the community seemed much more volatile and hostile lately in direct relation to how CCP has been handling information.   *shrug*
 

[ajax34i]

I do not think CCP wants the CSM to be bogged down with bug fixes and the like.  My impression is they want a more developmental team.  Suggestions for the future, general fixes etc. [...]

Unfortunately, the lack of polish is and has been a major playerbase complaint for a long time now, and CCP can't ask us to come up with a vision for the game's future if our attention is grabbed by lag and bugs.

[Gets]

Eve bugs and "Eve bugs"

[Simond]

The Matrix has you.