Eve Online....

The massive difference between Star Trek Online and Eve Online is that STO has PvE story-lines. Missions via characterization, cut-scenes in spades. Even the most basic mission will at least give you a talking head popup. Eve doesn't even have Aura talking to you these day's(old or new). Still so much chopping and changing in the tutorial. Eve is all walls of text and no personal interactions with NPC's. I roll my eye's and shake my head at all the things Eve could be to more players in regard to PvE. But to see them introduce arena based PvP in their sandbox game is super strange even to me, let alone PvP players. The beating heart of Eve is based on solo roaming for combat in a sandbox.

CCP Games

They are introducing something that players could already do. More dangerously but still do. Why now protect PvPer's when CCP go out of their way to allow playering PvE players to be f**ked with. In the name of that sandbox.

ALL....
THE....
F**KING....
TIME....!!!!!!!!!!

If PvPer's can get an arena to battle in with friends or enemies and not be hassled by anyone else; Why not miners to mine, OR MISSIONERS TO MISSION!

I've waffled before many, many times that I don't get CCP and how they think about the game. Whatever secret sauce recipe they think they have, isn't as good in reality as they think it is in their heads. All about the PvP and explosions may be their thing but it makes the game all about the things that make a player risk averse as well. Eve Online isn't the start and finish of Space based MMO's. One day they will fupp up their 'special' game(again) and wont' be able to recover. So many CCP decisions, so much eye rolling.

I feel CCP get blinkered hard in their views. Blinded by stats. Before they know it they really're down a rabbit hole and start making life altering decisions. Then they fix those decisions and do rounds of understanding fireside chats with the community for forgiveness only to make more decisions and f**k things again again but in a slightly different way... So it's not really the same error. Or so they tell themselves. Round the cycle goes.

Ah Jita. How many years and game systems did they put in place to drive players away from a centralised player chosen trade hub. At least not CCP are making it what it should have been, a bigger NPC station and 'officially' recognised as a player trade hub.

Daily login 'rewards' are all trash imho. the single run blueprint copies, the 7 day ship skins, the drugs all worthless for their immediate application instead of being a tradeable item. The BPC's.... they really are just trash.

None of them are an incentive to login.

Even the claiming of the rewards counts towards a cache of skillpoints maybe once a month but the rewarded skill points are not that much... So even logging in to the character select screen to do that isn't worth it.

As anyone who reads this blog can attest I tend to not let things go (something, something, mysterycode). Yes I am bitter and twisted due to it.

Enjoying my time in game with friends, good as it was, didn't last long. The last few weeks have been really quiet. A lot of them have returned to jobs instead of home based work.

That's not to say I've not had fun. I have.

I've lost ships.

AB pulse, ranged Hookbill - looter shooter with friends in abyssals.

I've gained knowledge. I've fitted new ships.

Looter shooter upgrade when getting cocky with abyssal content.

I've solo'd and grouped up for content.

I've made isk. I've played Omega characters. I've played Alpha characters. I've seen new content and gone back to old content.

The longer an Eve  player is away from the game the more they get nostalgic, reminiscing about old times. They want to get back to it. They start chatting with friends. Mix that with easy home access and you get returning players. Next thing they are all back at it. Then the reality of being back in game bites. In game losses, sales and marketing, isk making, wants and needs that can and can't be met.  Content in Eve never ages like wine. Some people can't take that. Say it's stale. For me and a certain ilk of 'old skool' PvE mission runners there is no monotony in it. There's certainty that makes us return. It's not for all.
So all in all some friends then drop out. Real world is getting back to normal or a new normal. They have seen and done it all and the new content is now more of the old. Eve is nothing and everything  (directors edition of that film is best).

I've seen my hardcore day's in the game. Times when I've been super serious about things. I have done to others and have been myself, f**ked over by combat, wars, political intrigue, theft and 'life' in this sandbox. All of it meant something to someone, one way or the other. A lot of that won't happen if players can choose who to have limited interactions with. I'm not asking for preferential treatment. PvP players are and that irony is amazing considering all the carebear tears they mock PvE'ers about. It's not like they are asking for a matchmaing system or a random Solaris 7 arena open to all to apply. They are looking for a private room to do their thing..... And if they get it!!!

My paid time in Eve is coming to an end. I thought I had one more week but an e-mail said less than a day. I had planned that last week to be all about reworking my 6 'main' characters activity hubs.
It's nice to have activity hubs, but the more you use and stay in it, live in it, the less you have to alter later. Going back to a hub that you've not been back to in ages(maybe even a year) is like returning to an old deserted, dusty office. Takes minor tinkering to clean and check ships are fitted correctly. Or fitted better due to new knowledge gained, or game changes. Retesting and refitting ships for said chosen activity etc. Making sure supplies and modules/spares are were where they need to be..... A lot of work in a week. Impossible in a day. I'll do what I can but it'll be quick and dirty.

Life as an Omega is vastly different from an Alpha. The limits are real. Time to mothball and shift attention to my 'permanent' Alpha's.