An open letter to CCP

After thinking long and hard, I have decided that the best way to communicate the below, was to do an open letter to CCP… so here goes.

Dear CCP,

Firstly, before I say anything else, I’d like to say thank you for the time and energy you’ve spent in creating Eve Online and Dust 514.  Eve is a game that has captured my imagination and commitment for longer than any other game I have ever experienced, and Dust 514 has been something I’ve spent many hours sniping and firing grenades at other people.

In many ways I can understand why numerous other commentators have compared playing Eve to being in a relationship, as you can experience joy one moment and anguish the next; your time and money disappear and you’re never entirely sure how and why.  The problem with relationships is that sometimes one of the parties loses focus, or perhaps the communication between those involved is poor, or maybe one of the people involved has an idea they want to peruse.  Relationships also sometimes sour because those involved can simply slowly drift apart.

Where am I amongst all of this?  Sadly I think I’m at the point where I think: the lines of communication have broken down; some focus has been lost; and I think perhaps CCP have been slowly drifting in one direction while I have been reluctantly trying to follow and adapt.

I’ve reached the stage where I am going to leave Eve Online, and I’ve realistically already left Dust 514.  My accounts have all been unsubbed and will all expire within the next 30 days.  Why?  What’s happened?

To be honest, I think that in Eve Online and Dust 514, CCP actually have two excellent products.  The problem is, that both games have lots of problems and don’t really work together.  So many opportunities have been missed, and that can be seen by the concurrent user statistics for Dust 514 especially that can be viewed at Chribba’s excellent Eve-Offline.Net website.  With the average for the past year being somewhere around 3,000 users, and the maximum recorded being just under 10,000 on 19 May 2013, it’s clear that there’s something wrong with Dust 514.  The figures for Eve don’t make pretty reading either.

Still, I’ve been a citizen of New Eden since 14 March 2010 when I was drawn in by an online advert on some website I can’t remember. After a bit of research and reading some stories, I downloaded the client and loaded it up.  The game was difficult to get to grips with to say the least.  I followed the tutorials and managed to work out what I was doing – sort of.  I was soon in a Badger Mk I with a Mining Laser on in an asteroid belt, coming back maybe 45 minutes later when my hold was filled.  Yes – I was sort of half way up the infamous Eve learning cliff.

 

Not a problem, soon I was into manufacturing and had discovered that Eve came with two clients: one from CCP to interact with the game’s database, and one from Microsoft to run the spreadsheets needed to actually play the game.  Again, not a problem as I love spreadsheets.

Through all of this, however, Eve hadn’t just captured my attention, it had drawn me in so deep I didn’t really know which way was down and which way was up any more.  Also, I’d met some really great people, and also several really not so great people.  I’d also once again been blown away, this time by the passion, dedication, creativity and innovation of the Eve Online community.  Great bloggers like Rixx Javix who made me want to write my own blog, essential sites such as Eve-Central who inspired me to rent my own VPS and learn how to plug-in to the Eve Market Data Relay to help me with my own industrial activities.  There simply is not a game that I had come across where the creators were open enough to allow access to a good API, and where so many talented people had done something with it.

A huge moment for me was Incarna.  I actually thought Incarna should have been the start of something great, however unfortunately what was released should never have been released.  For me, it would actually have been better if CCP had just said that they were holding it back until this new and cool FPS was released where the communities would be able to interact.

Instead of playing Dust, I’ve been playing Warframe, which was introduced to me by one of the people I have met through Eve, and am now fortunate to call a friend.  Why am I playing Warframe?  Well, firstly it has PvE, which is something Dust 514 sorely needed at release date.  Secondly, it hasn’t been ruined by cloaking devices.  Yes – I think the most recent injury to Dust has been the introduction of the cloaking device, which has taken away a good deal of the frontline combat feeling of the game.  The other big problem with Dust is the fact that the lack of PvE, and the massive incomes possible from Planetary Conquest, means that the average player who is not in the select group of players successfully undertaking PC battles, is left scratching around for ISK facing up against Proto equipped squads.  Scottie also has much to blame for this, although with a shrinking pool of already low numbers, matchmaking must be a difficult task.

Warframe recently deployed a massive update, introducing the ability to fly through space, literally through the wreckage of space ships and structures, as well as asteroids. Once again, it’s easy to spot places where Eve and Dust should have been leading the market.  We had the trailer showing us how the new implants for the Dust soldiers were found… and here’s a game showing us how CCP could have taken that vision and made it a reality through their game.

I am hugely saddened by all of this.  I’m not sure how this has happened.  Maybe it’s simply down to CCP overstretching and finding out that the ground underneath them wasn’t as strong as they thought.  It isn’t bad luck, as they haven’t launched a ground-breaking format which hasn’t been adopted.  Dust 514 is/was, after all, a multi-player console FPS.  Bad advice? Bad timing? Bad management? Maybe. Probably not. Possibly.

I’m not “on the inside”, so it’s impossible for me to judge the finer points.  However, what I do know is that the latest changes are the tipping point for me, and from what I can see, many others.

I have given away all of my assets, used the Eve Character Bazaar to sell my main characters, have distributed the proceeds from the character sales to in-game friends, and have unsubbed my accounts.  From the small group of people I know in-game, four people have definitely decided to stop playing Eve, and I can state with confidence that combined with me this means that a minimum of 25 accounts have unsubbed.  Looking through the forums when I was selling my characters, the number of Capital Ship pilots who were being sold suggests that this is a bit of a trend.

So the question is, what do I expect (if anything) from this letter?  A response? Acknowledgement? Rebuttal? Change? No. I don’t expect any of these. After the years of playing the game and most of the time enjoying it and blogging about it, I just wanted to say something before I left.

If anybody ends up playing Warframe or Elite: Dangerous, then feel free to look me up.  In Warframe I’m CarolynSicling, and our clan is new and looking for recruits.  In Elite: Dangerous, I’m Commander Allum, and as it’s still in Beta, things will no doubt grow and develop, but I’ll eventually be looking for a Corporation, or whatever it ends up being called, to join.

My best wishes to everybody who has read this blog, met me in game, or works for CCP.  Hopefully I will meet (or cross) some of you in other games in the future.

Eve Scientist

aka Lorna Sicling (sold)

Please note that my Eve Online accounts have been unsubbed, and will therefore all cease to be active within the next few days.  The majority of my characters have been sold through the CCP forums in accordance with CCP’s Terms & Conditions, and therefore should you see “me” in game, it will actually be somebody else.  Comments to this blog post will continue to function and be received by me at an external email address.

An open letter to CCP