~or “A Case Against
Trammelization…”
I have doubts this post will be taken
or understood the way I mean it… it’s a complex thing I want to try and say, but I am going to try anyway cause I think it needs to be said.
There has been a lot of talk-talk
of late about how EVE is Dying and how EVE PVE sucks midget donkey balls…
One, I disagree that EVE is
dying. It is aging and changing as all things do, but I personally do not
believe it is going to or will go dark in the foreseeable future and,
Two I also strongly disagree that
PVE is being neglected and that and the general “horrid state” of EVE’s PVE is
causative in this much vaunted mythical deathspiral EVE is supposed to be in.
If there is any chance for me to
be understood some background is in order.
For them as don’t know it the
core group of guys, many if not all, who created CCP in order to create EVE,
were Ultima Online players back in the day. EVE was created to be similar to Ultima
Online in some very important ways, while learning some lessons from some of
the mistakes made in UO.
For them as don’t know Ultima
Online was one of the early MMORPGs and
as a matter of fact Lord British (Richard Garriott) the creator of UO was the
guy who coined the term MMORPG. UO was an open world, unrestricted PVP,
persistent virtual world. You could go anywhere, you could take part in and do
anything in PVE that was available in the game mechanics… and you could attack
and kill, or be killed by, anyone… anytime, anywhere… unrestricted and
unforgiving Player versus Player interaction, both working together and in
aggression.
Now as these things go, the vast
majority of gamers then as today, prefer to play safer games. Games where they are
always the winner, where they can’t lose their stuff or be griefed and scammed
or basically, as they see it, bullied. Yet… there is a segment of the gaming
population, a particular demographic if you will, of players who run the gamut
from dyed in the wool carebears to complete asshole spawn camping griefers… all
of whom prefer an unsafe game. This is a group of Adrenaline Junky Gamers who
find safe PVE only themeparks too bland and boring to really enjoy… and we are
not the majority.
Now, here’s the thing. Games like
these, really unsafe dangerous risky games, can also be simply terribad or simply
amazing neither of which is dependent on their unsafe nature but on the Dev’s
and their vision and how the games is crafted and developed. In UO that vision
was very good for its day and it captured not just the above mentioned
Adrenaline Junkie Gamers but it also, of course, caught the attention of a lot
of other gamers who were simply attracted to the game and its new PVE and
gameplay mechanics.
Now a lot of these other gamers
are not Adrenaline Junkies… and many of these players hated the Open Unrestricted
PVP aspects of UO. Many, a LOT, left immediately or shortly after they ran into
it. Some of those who stayed were actively targeted by that segment of players who
are the Bully Griefers, who’s main enjoyment in the game
was seeking out noobs and PVE only players and attacking them mercilessly,
sometimes as if Mittens himself had given the drunken order.
Over time the hue and cry against
Unrestricted PVP in UO made all the :words: ever posted against unrestricted PVP
in EVE pale in comparison. So much so that Gordon Walton, former VP of Online
at Origin Systems and Executive Producer of UO, made the decision to split the
game space into PvP and PvE worlds. The original open world server it started
with, now called Felucca and another mirror server with highly restricted PVP
rules, basically a PVE only server called… Trammel.
Now… here’s the part where the
PVE Only crowd will howl with glee…
The unrestricted PVP that made UO
such an intense game was “…clearly
driving away approx. 70+% of all the new players that tried the game within 60
days.”
“The good: After the change which broke the
game space into PvP and PvE worlds, the player
base and income nearly doubled (we went from 125k to 245k subs). So from a
fiscal responsibility standpoint it was a totally winning move.
The bad: Without the "sheep to
shear" the hard core PvP'ers were disenfranchised. They didn't like
preying on each other (hard targets versus soft targets), and they became a
smaller minority in the overall game. The real bad though, was that the
intensity and "realness" of the game for all players was diminished.
This was the major unintended consequence.”
And…
“Inherent in the UO brand was the fact it was a gritty, hard core world
of danger. We were not successful in bringing back the (literally) 100's of
thousands of players who had quit due to the unbridled PvP in the world (~5% of
former customers came back to try the new UO, but very few of them stayed). We
discovered that people didn't just quit UO, they divorced it in a very
emotional way. But we did keep more of the new players that came in by a large
margin, significantly more than than the PvP players we lost.”
Now I am sure this will be an orgasmic "OH
MY GOD! SEE!! SEE!!! CCP IS DOING IT ALL WRONG!!!!" moment for Angry and all who
feel as he does. But I have read much over the years about the who and why of
CCP and EVE and I firmly believe the people who run CCP, IE Hilmar Pétursson, Reynir
Harðarson, Torfi Frans Ólafsson and company would all agree with this statement…
“…the push for bigger audiences leads directly to more
"accessible" experiences. (that's code for directed experiences, that
are more forgiving, less intense games which cater a broader group of players).
There are plenty of big companies out there making those types of games (and
plenty of players who want them).” WoW and every other themepark out
there are the games that fill this need. WoW has 8 million players alone, the themepark model is being served.
CCP wanted to do something different. I quote from an old pcgamer article, The Making of EVE Online from Jan
24, 2011: ”Reynir explains
how, at launch, mining – seen as overly passive – was designed that way:
“There's nothing to it, there's no minigame to play. But when you're in
dangerous sectors, you feel like you're trespassing, even if nothing happens.
Hilmar leans
in again with another take on it. “Because it's so passive, people have so much
time to socialize and communicate. They're naturally filling the vacuum.” The
mining mechanic is the perfect confluence of developer-led decision making and
community-led chaos.”
Obviously, a PVE themepark was
not the game CCP set out to make… and it is not the game they have made. I believe totally that the following from Mr.
Walton says it quite well here…
“We are specifically making our game for
players who will like the kind of experience we will create, not trying to cast
a wide net to get a mass market audience. We want the folks who will appreciate
an intense gaming experience with real risk, winning and losing. While we want
as many players who are engaged in our game as possible, we won't need millions
of players to make our game work.”
“So our game won't be for everyone, and we
certainly don't want people playing who aren't enjoying the experience. This is
supposed to be an activity we experience as fun after all!”
The guys who created CCP in order
to create EVE Online were and still are just such gamers. They wanted to create a SciFi version
of Ultima Online… UO had very simple security… In Felucca, you can be attacked, killed and looted by
anyone anywhere outside of a town. Inside a town you can be protected by guards…
if someone calls them... This is why EVE has multiple layers of security.
Highsec = High to Medium CONCORD
response, Security Status penalties = Sec Status loss, Faction Police and
Sentry gun response, restrictions on Bombs and Bubbles;
Lowsec = Medium to Low CONCORD
response, Security Status penalties = Sec Status loss, Faction Police and
Sentry gun response, restrictions on Bombs and Bubbles;
Nullsec = NO CONCORD response; NO Security Status
penalties = NO Sec Status loss, NO Faction Police or Sentry guns; NO
restrictions on Bombs and Bubbles;
Negsec (Anoikis)= NO CONCORD response, NO Security
Status penalties = NO Sec Status loss, NO Faction Police or Sentry guns, NO
restrictions on Bombs and Bubbles, NO local, NO gates, NO NPC Stations, NO
Player Outposts.
Other than that PVP in all its
forms… Simple roams, ganks, 1v1s, scams, market PVP, wars, War Decs, Fac War,
miner bumping, et al. … is not only allowed but encouraged… strongly encouraged.
It’s the point of the game.
Is PVE important to EVE? Damn
straight it is. It needs to be interesting, engaging, fun and lucrative. It is
how we all make money and how even Diehard PVP players (at least those who
can’t throw a credit card at the game every time they need ISK) and all the
rest of us make the ISK we need to pursue PVP or whatever it is we want to do
in EVE.
Is PVE important to EVE? Yes, it
needs to be interesting, engaging, fun and lucrative in order to hold the
attention of all those players who are not themselves interested in PVP but
also find they are bored and just not as engaged in “safe” themepark games…
players who want the kind of experience CCP
is working to create, not trying to cast
a wide net to get a mass market audience. CCP wants those players who will appreciate an intense gaming
experience with real risk, winning and losing.
Angry and all who feel as he does
are welcome to play EVE or not that is up to them, as for me… I will login and
play until one of 3 things happens… I die, CCP shuts down Tranquility or they
Trammel it.
If I die, well, I hope one of my
son’s will post something appropriate and keep my blog up until the counter
winds down to “0” hits. If CCP shuts Tranquility down… I will post
appropriately and probably log onto Elite Dangerous or Star Citizen (if it’s
out of beta by then…) If, however, CCP ever Trammels EVE…
Then on that day I’ll probably
sound a helluva lot like Angry Onions and Vince Snetterton do right now… for a
while at least.
Fly reckless and see you in
the Sky =/|)=
