As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm starting to research the candidates for CSM7. First and foremost, I will not be supporting anyone associated with the Goons. I never really cared for The Mittani's snarky posts, his gamesmanship, or his ego. I'm really not sure what he did on CSM6 or what his role was in resolving last summers standoff between CCP and its customers. His role on CSM6 is unimportant to me; I don't like the guy.
I read this forum post. The condensed version is that some poor noob got scammed while applying for membership with Goonwaffe. Apparently this guy thought it was reasonable to pay billions of isk for the opportunity to apply to Mittani's corporation. That was stupid. Goonwaffe is renowned for this kind of scamming and openly brags about it. In fact, this is the second post of this sort I've seen in the last few weeks. Goonwaffe has no integrity. Pay special attention to this post in that same thread by The Mittani. Notice The Mittani's CSM label under his name and above the name of his Corporation.
If you elect a scammer to CSM, you're asking to be misrepresented.
Welcome to the reincarnation of my blog. This will be a public forum (why else would I publish it to a blog?) but mostly I plan to use this space to organize my thoughts about EVE Online and maybe a few random thoughts that are only peripherally related to EVE. I'm familiar with the characters on EVE forums, so comments will be moderated. Trolls, griefers, and those with nothing constructive to add will be ignored. I may also delete anonymous postings; I'm putting myself out here and showing you my face - the least you can do is show yours.
Showing posts with label EVE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EVE. Show all posts
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
CSM7
The December meeting of CSM6 is over which means two things: a) CSM6's influence over CCP extends only as far the likelihood of the individual candidates' incumbency, and b) its time to start looking around at the field of potential candidates. Fortunately, CCP seems to be heading in the right direction and I doubt that CSM6 will be called upon between now and elections to stand between CCP and its customers. In the meantime, its time to start researching candidates for CSM7, explore my own feelings about the direction of the game, and figure out who will best represent my feelings during the following year.
This will be the first year that I vote for a CSM candidate and I'm excited about that. I joined EVE during CSM4 and wasn't even aware of the existence of CSM. As I recall, it wasn't until the pop-up on the log-in screen announcing the election of CSM5 that I became aware of it. I closed the pop-up without any further thought and didn't think about it further until I saw the posts in forums about "18 Months" and the development of Incarna. Still, I had no opinion and no reason to vote for CSM6 candidates.
Then the shit hit the fan last summer. Ordinarily, I don't let myself get worked up over a video game. A confluence of events that had nothing to do with Incarna, events which occurred both in game and in real life, made me realize how much I enjoy the game and that EVE was worth getting angry about. I was one of the players that shot at the statue in Jita. I was one of the players that posted in threadnaughts. I was one of the players that unsubscribed and biomassed my character. To be frank, CSM6 still wasn't on my radar when this was all happening.
However, in the few months that I played Perpetuum Online, it occurred to me that CSM would/should have been ideally suited to communicate the anger and frustration of players like myself to CCP. I started paying closer attention to posts from CSM members. I started reading blogs. Most important, I started forming an opinion about individual CSM6 delegates. Two delegates stood out: White Tree and Two-Step.
This year, I will actively participate in the CSM7 elections. In the coming months, I will research a few of the incumbents' positions, I will pay closer attention to players that I think would make good candidates, and I will discuss CSM7 with anyone who engage me in a discussion. By election time, I will have an informed opinion and I will try to rally as many players to support the candidates that deserve a free trip to Iceland.
Comments, opinions, debate and discussion are welcome and appreciated.
This will be the first year that I vote for a CSM candidate and I'm excited about that. I joined EVE during CSM4 and wasn't even aware of the existence of CSM. As I recall, it wasn't until the pop-up on the log-in screen announcing the election of CSM5 that I became aware of it. I closed the pop-up without any further thought and didn't think about it further until I saw the posts in forums about "18 Months" and the development of Incarna. Still, I had no opinion and no reason to vote for CSM6 candidates.
Then the shit hit the fan last summer. Ordinarily, I don't let myself get worked up over a video game. A confluence of events that had nothing to do with Incarna, events which occurred both in game and in real life, made me realize how much I enjoy the game and that EVE was worth getting angry about. I was one of the players that shot at the statue in Jita. I was one of the players that posted in threadnaughts. I was one of the players that unsubscribed and biomassed my character. To be frank, CSM6 still wasn't on my radar when this was all happening.
However, in the few months that I played Perpetuum Online, it occurred to me that CSM would/should have been ideally suited to communicate the anger and frustration of players like myself to CCP. I started paying closer attention to posts from CSM members. I started reading blogs. Most important, I started forming an opinion about individual CSM6 delegates. Two delegates stood out: White Tree and Two-Step.
This year, I will actively participate in the CSM7 elections. In the coming months, I will research a few of the incumbents' positions, I will pay closer attention to players that I think would make good candidates, and I will discuss CSM7 with anyone who engage me in a discussion. By election time, I will have an informed opinion and I will try to rally as many players to support the candidates that deserve a free trip to Iceland.
Comments, opinions, debate and discussion are welcome and appreciated.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
The Grind
MMORPG has a grind. The grind serves two purposes. The first and most obvious purpose of the grind is to sell game time. In order to acquire items that advance game play, a player has to participate in repetitive, predictable and boring activity and is rewarded with either the means to acquire the desired items, or the item itself. A fraction of the game time that the player purchases is spent on grind and the balance of the game time is spent achieving the objective. The grind is filler; it turns 10 hours of content into 40 hours. The second, less obvious and grander purpose of the grind is to add value to the desired items. The longer a player has to work to obtain the item, the more rare and the more valuable that item becomes. These two factors translate the desireabiltiy of the item into real currency for the game developer.
In EVE, the grind is very complicated. The 'sandbox' nature of EVE allows players to define their own grind. Early in the game, only two paths are available to new players: mining and missioning. The isk that the young player earns gradually increases as his skills (also a part of the grind) increase. Eventually a plateau is reached where the isk/hour rate does not increase with skill progression. That currently happens at about 15m to 25m skill points (approximately 1 year of game play) with a plateau at 30m to 40m isk/hour. The grind gets a little less well defined once the plateau is reached as players can, more or less, define their own grind (manufacturing, courier, mercenary services, thieving, trade) and the grind begins to look more like players' self determined end game objective.
I know that when I say this, I will be contradicted: a productive capsuleer makes about 40m isk/hour of game time while grinding, regardless of the grind. At that rate, a fully fitted battleship (as an example) takes between 3 and 6 hours to acquire (assuming 120m - 180m isk investment). For me, that's about half a week of game play which generates about $2 u.s. for CCP. By contrast, a 150m isk battleship costs about about 1/3 of a plex - about $6.70 u.s. (That's an interesting disparity)
Why am I mentioning this? Because at 40m isk/hour, some threshold is crossed at which point the sensibilities of some (presumably) null sec pilots is offended and the source of the isk is considered a 'faucet' that must be shut off. Of course no one seems to be complaining about the amount of isk that a pilot can earn through manufacturing or mining moons. To be fair, running null sec anomolies is somewhat riskier (though negligibly risky if the ratting is occuring in friendly territory) and should be rewarded at a somewhat higher rate than high sec missioning.
Does high sec need to be nerfed? I don't think so. Does Null sec need to be buffed? Maybe just a tad. (The changes that will happen in the Crucible Expansion should address this). I think the 'grind' is working as intended or needs to be tweaked slightly to the benefit null sec pilot. Is there any justification to the whining complaints about the high sec isk faucet? That was rhetorical. Is there some mechanic in place that is keeping 'carebears' in high sec? That is a topic for another post.
In EVE, the grind is very complicated. The 'sandbox' nature of EVE allows players to define their own grind. Early in the game, only two paths are available to new players: mining and missioning. The isk that the young player earns gradually increases as his skills (also a part of the grind) increase. Eventually a plateau is reached where the isk/hour rate does not increase with skill progression. That currently happens at about 15m to 25m skill points (approximately 1 year of game play) with a plateau at 30m to 40m isk/hour. The grind gets a little less well defined once the plateau is reached as players can, more or less, define their own grind (manufacturing, courier, mercenary services, thieving, trade) and the grind begins to look more like players' self determined end game objective.
I know that when I say this, I will be contradicted: a productive capsuleer makes about 40m isk/hour of game time while grinding, regardless of the grind. At that rate, a fully fitted battleship (as an example) takes between 3 and 6 hours to acquire (assuming 120m - 180m isk investment). For me, that's about half a week of game play which generates about $2 u.s. for CCP. By contrast, a 150m isk battleship costs about about 1/3 of a plex - about $6.70 u.s. (That's an interesting disparity)
Why am I mentioning this? Because at 40m isk/hour, some threshold is crossed at which point the sensibilities of some (presumably) null sec pilots is offended and the source of the isk is considered a 'faucet' that must be shut off. Of course no one seems to be complaining about the amount of isk that a pilot can earn through manufacturing or mining moons. To be fair, running null sec anomolies is somewhat riskier (though negligibly risky if the ratting is occuring in friendly territory) and should be rewarded at a somewhat higher rate than high sec missioning.
Does high sec need to be nerfed? I don't think so. Does Null sec need to be buffed? Maybe just a tad. (The changes that will happen in the Crucible Expansion should address this). I think the 'grind' is working as intended or needs to be tweaked slightly to the benefit null sec pilot. Is there any justification to the whining complaints about the high sec isk faucet? That was rhetorical. Is there some mechanic in place that is keeping 'carebears' in high sec? That is a topic for another post.
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