There is a very interesting article over at massively.com that sums up the current CSM situation very well. You can also read about it on Mynxee’s blog and Keith Nelson’s amongst others.
Basically what it boils down to, is that CCP is allocating it’s resources to Dust and Incarna and Eve itself is on the backburner. This comes as no surprise as the last few expansions have been rather thin and fundamental fixes are rare these days. They are focusing on getting in new players with Incarna (walking in stations in case you didn’t know) instead of holding on to the current ones.
I don’t care too much for walking in stations, especially not when it will be released in a half hearted manner, like most of these new features. And I doubt it will really enhance our gameplay in any way. Sure it’ll be fun for ten minutes and corp meetings might be enjoyable, but it will appear to the average eve player as fluff I am afraid.
And they have been working on it for quite some time and dedicated a lot of graphic artists and coders to the project. Think of all the other stuff they could have done ! Maybe a more balanced approach would have been better. Dust and Incarna better be a success. Or perhaps once they’re out CCP can focus on spaceships again, which has so far been their strong suite !
Well said. Over the same period they could and should have conquered 90% of the current issues the player base have raised.
CCP – please learn from other MMO mistakes. It’s not too late to get back on track.
Excellent post. Sadly, I think Eve is well past its prime. The last few expansions have broken more than they’ve fixed or added. 0.0 has gone thoroughly stagnant due to lag and poor sov mechanics. While much of the player base does not live in 0.0, the 0.0 warfare and politics serves two key functions: (1) in many respects, its the ‘end game’ content for a lot of players and (2) it’s a key link in the economy, consuming large amounts of (expensive) ships and ammo – which all those carebears and industrialists produce. When you take the fighting in 0.0 away, the demand in the marketplace collapses, causing deflation, and ultimately economic stagnation. I can’t see how WiS will be a game changer, and both it and Dust feel like CCP has jumped the shark. Oh well – Starcraft II will be here shortly.
good sum up…I think like you do Morph.
Thanks, I guess that’s a compliment :).