What if Eve Online went Free To Play?

Update Oct. 2016
Free to play is happening check out the devblog on alpha and omega clones.

The idea of a free to play (F2P) Eve Online has been in the back of my mind ever since I read this comment on a EN24 article (http://evenews24.com/2013/09/12/yet-another-dev-leaves-for-riot-games/). Sadly the article isn't live but I couldn't confirm the comment even if it was.

Anonymous:

Zulu and Soundwave were both in a camp in the company that believes that F2P is inevitable and that the next few xpacs should pave the wave for a 2015 F2P release. They had collaborated on a proposal that was shot down by the rest of the design team who believe that the game will continue to grow in sub numbers and that there aren't any other viable contenders in the genre to warrant the redesign.

There's some talk that is Sony buys us out, then we'll be going F2P anyway, but these two didn't want to see CCP go F2P under SOE.

Despite the twelve other rumors in the comment that deserve articles in and of themselves, the comment does make me think what would a F2P model look like in Eve Online? With the shift to unlimited skill ques and changes to the trial account is it viable in Eve Online to have a free to play model? And lastly you might argue is the game already free to play? Lets work through the questions and see what conclusions we can find.

My idea of an Eve Online F2P model would be allowing everyone to log on for free without the ability to train skills. If you want to train skills you have to pay $15 dollars for 30 days and or use a PLEX(These are not unique ideas.) This does several things it keeps the economy of PLEX for isk intact and probably increases it. It allows players that are currently subscribed to stay paying if they choose and continue to skill train. It keeps the character trading market intact. F2P model would also allow any old players to return free of charge if they choose. It allows every ones alt accounts to be playable as well.

It allows new players to try the game out with out any commitments. Give them the 30 day trial with training. They can choose to spend a little money and train up to fly other ships they can fly around with their venture and grind enough isk to get a PLEX. It allows casuals to stay casual it doesn’t punish veterans as you can’t just automatically fly a titan or have a titan.

Is it a viable option in Eve Online to have a free to play model?

A little google searching will conjure up some scary scenarios. We find posts like these on the forums:

I also think, we will have 4~7 cloaky neutrals in every null sec system, that afk all day.

Jita will stil be limited to roughly 2000 players, but instead. The entire constellation will be nearly full. Reaching Jita would be impossible.

Suicide freighter ganks are more easily attained. As 1 guy could get 150 free to play accounts and use rifters to suicide on 1 Freighter.

The bittervets and other old carebear people will quit the game. But instead for every one of them, eve online gets 30 free to play players (who would probably never pay or barely go for microtransactions).

Time Dilation is a natural thing, as it will affect everyone, for the whole time. Fleet op Fights will probably resulting in a lot of server crashes.

These are important discussion items that would need to take place. Developers would be faced with a mountain of balance and server issues out of the gate. Do we want just any random internet Joe access to the client? With these concerns alone I don't think we would see a F2P model in Eve Onlines future.

Is the game already free to play?

This is anther important question to consider. The current model of using PLEX to pay for an account subscription may seem free to some. PLEX strikes the perfect balance between causal and hardcore allowing those with time or concentration to make in-game currency to pay their subscription dues. While others that want a boost in assets in-game can choose to purchase those through PLEX. Eve Online can be free to play depending on your valuation of time.

While I don't expect Eve to be F2P any time soon or even ever. The model of F2P will probably keep being considered as more and more F2P titles dominate player numbers.

Just my two cents.

When is a good time to get back into Eve Online?

With the SOV revamp(devblog1, devblog2)  dropping in mid July you will see a lot of commenters questions and forum posters asking if now is a good time to get back into Eve Online?

The development of Eve Online is a lot like maintaining a large website content changes and updates come from a small group of developers slowly over time in a constant effort of refinement. So consequently there isn’t going to be a sweet spot to get started back in game. If you want to play the game as it stands today get back in. If you don’t enjoy playing the game as it stands don’t. An important point to note it's who you play with that matters not what you play.

Development Cycle

The current release cycle of pushing out updates every six weeks allows for continued development of large features over time. As of July the second tier of the null sec revamp will get started. The total release cycle of null sec revamps will take over a year. The revamp of player owned stations will like wise take a year. So the “sweet spot” of when to get back in game is hard to define.

The Sweet Spot

A game like “World of Warcraft” tends to lend itself more to a sweet spot mentality it's really just a marketing term called an “expansion.” Eve Online has shied away from that model in favor of the constant release cycle. The “expansion” sweet spot days are over, for now, for Eve Online. I’m glad I’m not in CCP's marketing team. The sandbox nature of Eve lends itself more to a constant development life cycle allowing players time to react and absorb changes as they occur over patch cycles.

The Game as it Stands

The entertainment value you gain from playing a video game will be much the same today as it will be tomorrow. Despite any feature release or redesign. If you enjoyed playing Eve Online in the past chances are you will enjoy it today. If you stopped playing for a particular reason chances are that reason is still intact and may not change anytime soon. For example I have observed many people take breaks from Eve because life gets busy. It has nothing to do with any sort of feature released in-game.

Alright this post is starting to get way to meta for me. In conclusion:

Its who you play with not what you play that matters.

Gameplay aside I think the psychological impact of social encounters in the game is what gives MMO's their most lasting impression. If you're asking yourself if you should get back into Eve Online based on some feature change maybe a better question is are your friends, buddies, comrades still in game or planning on getting back in-game?

Eve Online Trial Accounts Extended to 30 Days

Eve Online announced today that its trial account offers will be extended from 14 days to 30. The referral trial account offer will also be extended from 21 days to 30. These extensions come on the heels of the trial account restrictions being reduced significantly in Oct. 2014. For a full list of trial account restrictions and other details check out this article.

Industry Teams Removal: The New Precedent?

Rhea has a host of changes that could be examined closer but this latest statement regarding the phase out of Industry Teams I find most interesting. I for one thought of industry teams as a needless complication from the beginning and adapted the wait and see approach. It seems CCP has waited long enough and have decided to take the steps to phase out the industry teams feature.

First a quick background is in order. Industry Teams was first mentioned in this devblog spring of 2014 as part of the Industry Revamp. It was supposed to be the extra icing on the cake to change up industry game play I'm guessing? Either way the changes to POSes and blueprint changes have had a much more significant change on the industry landscape coming out of the Crius patch which landed in July 2014.

Fast forward to today and according to CCP's numbers manufacturing teams use is in the single digits and it isn't even used for research jobs. The feature in its current iteration is clunky at best and in my opinion adds a slight amount of add value at a cost of tedious time consumption. CCP had this to say about their plans for the Industry Teams feature going forward:

Our rollout plan for this would be to disable the seeding of new teams by the end of 2014, and to disable the UI features in one of the first releases of 2015. That being said, we want your input and feedback on what is ultimately a fairly unprecedented course of action for us. While we feel we have done our due diligence additional context from you is always appreciated.

-CCP RubberBAND

"A fairly unprecedented course" is right. Time will tell if other unpopular features released now and into the future are rolled back like the industry teams. I am of the opinion that if its not hurting anyone leave it be. I mean it only took ten years for a major industry revamp and if we have to wait another ten years why not leave teams be. If you want to take the time and isk to invest in them so be it.

Anyway lots of other eye candy and new space coming out in Rhea check out the development video for a quick recap of everything.

This is Eve [Video]

Eve Online just posted this yummy trailer on the Eve Online youtube channel check it out.

Quick Thoughts on Phoebe Patch

Proving to be one of the biggest changes in recent years Phoebe brings substantial changes to jump mechanics. Adding a jump fatigue mechanic that creates a compounding cooldown on your character after each jump. The patch is also packed with lots of other changes. I will link the patch notes here as well as the devblogs explaining the long list of features and changes.

I'm not going to comment and speculate on the jump changes I don't use or fly these ships at the moment. I will point you to the jump changes devblogs and specific forums if you want to read more into the jump changes for now I want to comment on a few of the other changes coming in Phoebe on Nov. 4.

Unlimited Skill Que
At close second for biggest change in phoebe release is the unlimited skill que. Currently you manually enter skills into your skill que once a skill train time goes beyond the current 24 hour que you have to wait until that skill finishes training to add a another or manually change the skills in the que. After release on Nov. 4 you will be able to que up any number of skills for constant training out as long as you want 30 days 60 days a year as long as you have an active account your character will train skills. I have an interesting theory post about a future of Eve Free 2 Play model that ties in with these changes coming soon and ties into the next topic on my list.

Trial Account Changes
While the unlimited skill que doesn't apply to the trial accounts which still have the 24 hour que a host of changes is coming to trial account restrictions. Most notably the removal of the isk transferring restriction. Eve devs will be diligently watching to see if isk transfer abuse occurs. Good change so you can help new bros get skills they may not have isk for etc. Which leads into the next change a complete revamp of skill restrictions on trial accounts. Much to my satisfaction industrial ship skills will now be allowed. As a new trial account I found it frustrating that I couldn't fly a hauler it ultimately lead me to buy the game because I wanted try out trading and hauling. All the trial account revamps are a welcome and long overdue shift.

Multi Sell and Other Small Things
Again welcome additions to the game and mind boggling why they wasn't put in sometime in the first ten years.

For all the changes check the latest patch notes as well as the devblogs and forums.

New Development Video out for Phoebe Patch

Check out the latest features in-development video out for the Phoebe patch.  Phoebe drops next week Nov. 4, 2014, you can find the patch notes here when CCP posts them.

Eve Vegas 2014: Keynote [Full Video]

"We take quality of life seriously." - CCP Seagull

Lots of yummy stuff in the Eve Vegas Keynote. Plenty of coverage of Phoebe patch release and beyond. Also a link to the above video on youtube.

TMC has a good summary write up of the keynote as well.

Out Sourcing Marketing: Clarion Call 4 is Must See

Once again the player base delivers with a video that sells the video game better than the company does. Check out Rooks and King's latest installment of Clarion Call 4, if you haven't already, it is worth every second.

New Development Video out for Oceanus Patch

Oceanus Patch releases tomorrow, Sept. 30, 2014, make sure and stay up to date by checking out the latest patch notes here. Also I will post the new In-Development: Features of EVE Online's Oceanus Release below.

And below a cloaking montage video for a better look at the new cloak visuals. Enjoy.

Your Console Destiny

Destiny launch day what are you up to today? Do you care? I don't. Why? I don't even own a console and am not looking for one in the future. Is there a PC upgrade in my future I sure hope so. Bungie is looking at bringing  Destiny to PC, and in that moment I might just set aside what I am doing and take a long serious look at this game for now I am just watching from afar as I have done with so many other console only based games. I guess the adage we win some PC only titles they win some console only titles works well. If you don't know what Destiny even is or haven't seen much about the game take a look at this beta review which I think does a good job of capturing whats up with this game and what you might expect from it. I'll post the video below as well.

How the Destiny Beta Made Me a Believer:

New Player Video Guides

After several weeks of work I have finally finished a passable new player video guide. These are a day zero guides the first video in the series is considering you have never even heard of Eve so they hold a tight niche. The first video also covers character creation. After that we make a quick stop at the interface just to get people oriented as they get started. The next four videos cover the first four Aura starting tutorials missions in complete. I am hoping of expanding them to the career agent tutorials sometime in the future. So without further adieu I give you my new player video guides:

Intro and Character Creation(15:09)      
The Interface(5:38)       

Covering the Basics(11:50)

Combat Basics(12:01)
The Academy(7:46)
Moving Onwards(9:07)

Be sure to share these with your friends and new pilots as they get started in New Eden. Here is a link to the playlist which moves through each video in succesion.

Eve Online: New Player Walk Through

In Elite: Smuggling is Dangerous

I know TMC already posted about this but I thought it was worth passing on here. I, up to this point, haven't read or really looked into Elite: Dangerous at all. I watched a quick clip of the docking sequence and my smug Star Citizen attitude of yeah when this sees the light of day I'll check it out kicked in. I pushed it under my proverbial internet radar and didn't think twice about it.

That was then this is now, after watching through the video of this kid smuggling goods into a station in Elite Dangerous all my euphoric feelings of Freelancer goodness started to bubble up again and I did some lite reading on the subject(funny how gamers do a better job of marketing company's game better then they do). When Elite: Dangerous comes out I am definitely going to be taking a very serious look at this game. So the point of this whole post is check out the video and see what you think. Let me know if your looking into this game or if its just another side fancy that you're not going to spend your time or money with.

Viewing of the video may take place below this sentence.

Also if I have some how peaked your interest for this little gem take a look at some of the other trailers for this game on their website.

Catch you later.

Shout Out to Evebloggers.com

I have never really spent very much time marketing this blog. I have let it grow organically over time letting the Google search bots find what people like and getting a lot of my traffic through search engines. Word of mouth being the next big role in gaining viewership. The blog has slowly grown since its humble beginnings and though I still keep it pretty low key I decided to start being a little more proactive in getting the word out.

With that being said I would like to thank Fuzzysteve for running and up keeping evebloggers.com. I finally submitted my blog feed over there and thought I would give a shout out to anyone that might be interested in reading other Eve blogs to head over there and take a look around. I have always kept a link to evebloggers.com in my links section at the top of the page under news. Also I would like to welcome any new readers happening upon the site from evebloggers, welcome and know I am currently in an Eve slump so don't be surprised as I splash this feed with various other games that are peaking my interest at the moment. Also don't be surprised at the amount of video content I post and pass off as blog posts my little youtube channel project is quite all consuming at the moment and I am having a lot of fun with it.

Until next, we'll catch you later.

You've got to hand it to CCP

You got to hand it to CCP. This new release schedule is really shaping up. Even if you don't like the industry changes or have anything to do with wormhole space you can't help but be impressed at the rate they are rolling out patches. Again it will be interesting to see if they can keep up the cycle and see how they market these patches.

Again even if your particular favorite piece of the Eve pie hasn't been looked at chances are good that every six weeks it might get a kick in the old nerf pants or buffed to be bananas. Either way CCP has got my attention I hope they keep it up, I hope new players get in-game and start finding corners of new Eden to call their own.

Let me know what you think of the new release cycle and if your still playing this game or if it's still playing you?

Alliance Tournament Live Stream

Alliance Tournament Live Stream. Check the alliance tournament forum topic for discussion, schedules and rules and such. Enjoy your weekend.

Watch live video from CCP on www.twitch.tv

First Look Video of the Industry UI Changes

Check out this video covering a first look at the industry UI changes on the test server.

Or just link straight to the video on youtube here.

PLEX: Intervention 2

During fanfest this year Dr. Eyjo, CCP's in-house economist, confirmed another plex intervention during his Eve economic presentation . Several notable differences can be drown between the first plex intervention and the second. Dr. Eyjo was very forthcoming the first time as to the problem, the reason, the fix, the how and the result. He was far more vague this time around giving away almost nothing other than confirming there was a problem and we fixed it. What do we know?

The Problem:
We all saw the problem, plex prices took a huge spike much bigger than the last time around. Dr. Eyjo decide to take action because volume dropped not because of the price increase, very important to note this distinction.

The Reason:
Dr. Eyjo does mention plex has increased in usage over time.  He says sells have increased over the lifetime of plex. Other than that he doesn't really pin the reason on this intervention on any one aspect of the game, be it ship skins or an other feature, other than the volume of trade dropped below his liking so he decided to intervene. A little bit different explanation than last time.

The Fix:

EVE Central Bank may, or may not, take actions to intervene with the PLEX market if its stability is severely threatened.
- Important to note that it does not mean that there is a specific target for PLEX prices or money supply in the future

CCP by Dr. Eyjo's request decided to take action.
 
The How:
Dr. Eyjo said, he will not tell you how or why or how much. "We didn't affect the trade, we did do a little bit of ingame trickry that helped the price." What do we know? CCP had a little plex give away in the middle of April to the tune of 700 plex (Source:TMC Story, Evenews24 Story). I think he seeded the market with plex as well as the give away.


The Result:
The plex market stabilized and he didn't say much more about it.

Conclusion:
Dr. Eyjo repeats over and over that in-game markets are not inflated. Plex interventions have only taken place when the volume begins to drop and not when the price goes up any particular amount. Both ideas I agree with, if you look at his graphs about facets and sinks you begin to understand that the game has controls on the amount of in-game currency and can only scale up as more people play the game. Maybe that's why he started his presentation this year covering inflation.

Freighter Pilots Fret

As a game develops and gets older there is those little quality of life things that are added. Better menus, removal of needless clicking, and of course faster travel around the game.  We have seen it with the addition of more jump clones and less time to use those jump clones. The other thing that usually develops over time is the removal of barriers to entry into certain types of game play. For example the devs hope that the industry changes will simplify the process and make it easier for more people to build stuff, as one recent example.

So I don't understand why the devs slowed freighters down in Rubicon, they were painfully slow already. I didn't understand why people weren't more upset then. But they are upset now. And why not? A freighter is going to have less cargo space, less ehp, and still be slow. You can get one or the other back with different rigs but then comes the added barrier to entry card.

If you want more people to become players in your mmo making the game more time consuming instead of less doesn't make sense. Making people pay, half again what the ship cost, to bring that ship up to speed for how it use to fly for all those years doesn't make sense.

So the solution is, as I have heard commented before, just use a shipping service or courier contracts. Which is what we will have to do even when the eventual shipping prices goes up. I still feel for you new industrialists out there I thought I had a hard time working up the ladder. You guys will have a mountain to climb once the industry changes hit in July.

Updated Re-balance for Freighters May 21, 2014

Keeping Up With Kronos and now Crius

If your like me you are all really busy and don't have a lot of time to keep up on all the changes coming up with the Kronos release. I wanted to create a summary of changes and touch on the impact this would have on the market. Several other people have already put together some really good articles that cover pretty much everything I wanted to touch on so I am going to point you their way.

The first thing is a summary of the changes you can find a good list over at K162space. With so many changes it can be hard to keep up with everything, it is nice to see a complete list for referencing and review.

The second is an article over at evenews24.com called Predicted Winners and Losers from the Kronos Changes. Danny Centauri did a great job covering a lot of the market speculation surrounding Kronos. Go over give it a read, take some notes, and keep running those calculations. Also check out his blog posts Unofficial Kronos Patch Notes and now Unofficial Crius Patch Notes

I have been going over the devblogs again this week doing some calculations. I had somethings I was going to cover but with the industry changes being pushed back until July 22, likely things will change.

Update: Also a new devblog is out explaining exactly what is going to be in Kronos.