Today will be the day people look back and say "that was the day Eve changed".
Incarna. Walking in stations. Avatars. You are no longer just a ship, you are a person. Actual immersion for roleplaying can begin. Like Clear Skies movies? How about with super detailed avatars instead of the Half Life stand ins? This is a game changer and while pretty limited right now, if CCP sticks to the plan for Incarna then this is only the first step.
Eve is changing. In the podcast community people are doing more parody songs, and they are starting to do more dramatizations and projects beyond the "what I did in Eve today" podcasts. Clear Skies shows conclusively that the community has an appetite for this kind of Eve, an Eve where Internet Spaceships are Not-So-Serious business.
Make no mistake, Eve has been changing for a long time already. Learning skills? Gone. Mission Agent Quality and hordes of social skills? Gone. Improving new player experience, certificates to guide skill training, Incursions for more advanced group PvE play, micro-transactions for vanity items... Eve is changing.
There are going to be many who hate the changes and rail against them. Many have already left, feeling the game that they loved is already gone and this new one is unrecognizable or at least unlikeable. They feel that the spaceships have been abandoned and the game is flawed in many areas that are not addressed in expansion after expansion. Sometimes they are wrong, many times they are right, but CCP faced a choice to support a relatively static player base for hardcore internet spaceships or work to court a larger audience that is not so hardcore for PvP spaceships and more into a "complete sci-fi experience". In the end money will win out and Eve is changing.
Will the gamble pay off? Can they deliver enough station walking experience in the next year or two to pass the gap between old bitter vets leaving and new bright eyed newbs arriving? Time will tell. Will the DUST 514 gamble pay off and add a layer of sophistication to null sec wars unheard of now? Time will tell. Regardless, Eve is changing.
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This should be interesting and I'm looking forward to it. I don't always see eye-to-eye with CCP, I don't think any of us do, but generally speaking they sure have taken us all on a fascinating journey. Even in the three years I've been playing the "game" has changed a lot and it continues to evolve and morph and change.
ReplyDeleteAs does life itself. Here's to not sitting on your ass and plunging head-first into the future.
gulp
Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion. . . . The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust. --Charles Dickens
ReplyDeleteSome of EVE is changing, but much will of course remain the same. I feel relatively confident that in 2 years people will still be mining asteroids, smacking in local and ganking newbs. It will all very much depend upon what type of new player EVE attracts as a result of MTs, DUST and Incarna. Will they demand a fluffier, softer EVE experience?
ReplyDeleteC.
I'm looking forward to it. Although there are fears of a 'dumbing down', I welcome the current push for accessibility and user-friendliness. I feel that has always been EVE's biggest failing.
ReplyDeleteAdapt or die BOVs.
Simply put, without change, without replacing their vet base, Eve will die. That's something that I've always found odd with Eve's vet community in particular. They don't want things to change (I'm speaking in generalities here) and they don't seem too welcoming to newcomers... But those newcomers are what will keep the game they love alive and the more accessible we make it to them the better.
ReplyDeleteMyself, I welcome the change, I think it represents more changes to come. I often remember the 'what if' days of my newbdom and now that they are here I really can't understand why other vets aren't excited about it too.