Of panem, circensis and hopes

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #24 

The current senior producer for EVE Online, CCP Zulu, has released a dev blog. This somewhat ordinary-looking event has caused quite a stir actually. The moments that define history, as he puts it, are now. The last Blog Banter had already put forward the question about what is going to happen to EVE? If it hasn't ended already I'd recommend Stan to add the devblog to the summary. What we see here is CCP going 'whoa! if :awesome: is no longer awesome then wtf is?' I wish I could tell. But there is a lot of room for a lot of words to explore just this.

So, we have a company that prides itself on listening to the players and delivering the 'awesomeness' they all crave. Yet in the past months they not only failed to do exactly that but suddenly realized it. So let's stop the Bullshit Hardener II's and start the Damage Control III. Arnar's blog is a sign of that. Many in the comments thread observed it had nothing of substance. To the more observant, however it said a whole lot of things. The main message of the blog is that they started massaging the brainpower at their disposal to resolve the situation.

Let's take a look at what CCP and the players want, and what they don't. First of all, Both want EVE to live as long as it has a point. Both parties want EVE to thrive and grow. Now, this is all good, but they imagine it in a different way.

Those players that rave and rant about EVE are the keepers. They are already sold, they will stay, pause and come back. They want more people to shoot at of course, but they mind the content much more. New things to do in their eyes is inavoidably equals or is better than new people to do it with.

CCP, however, as a company, logically sees it the other way around. To go on, they need money. To expand, they need lots of money. The only way they are going to get more money if they get more players.

Those of you observant enough to have spotted the snake biting its own tail, congratulations! Because this is exactly what happens. The existing players' demand for expansion can only be fueled by the extension of the playerbase. A company can develop both ways. Expansive development is when they build upon the existing concept and try to increase its scale. Extensive development occurs when a company takes on new concepts and tries to integrate them with both itself and the customer base. In EVE terms, 'FiS' (blech, ugly word) development is expansive, or vertical. The new things that are not related to you undocking in a spacehip (such as Incarna) are extensive, or horizontal.

This has caused several conflicts of interest in the past, Incarna being at the peak of it. I start to see 'what went wrong' is that CCP decided to move away from the demand for expansion to facilitate extension. Players see this as neglect, which in truth is a grave misunderstanding. But the problem was magnified by both parties with how they reacted to the deployment of Incarna. All the players got is a tech demo rather than true extension. And so the riots and media storm began. Now journalists in the gaming world like to pick on developers, especially one as anecdotic as CCP. Everyone knows they have a 'fucking hard game'. The misconceptions mixed with the drama hace caused damage even managers without any passion for EVE have to deal with. The moments that define history are those when it becomes apparent to even the most apathetic or diconnected that something must be done.

But if Incarna failed, then what won't? In truth, it isn't the idea of Incarna what's failed, but the rollout. It is still a valid concept and will still be, so those wanting to ditch it are lying to themselves. There are those that agrue that the forum posters and bloggers and media stir is the word of the vocal minority, but guess what do those people do that 'just play the game?'. They use the content. CCP can tell which content they use. CCP will judge player reception not only by those who do :words: but by metrics that are produced by the whole of the playerbase. This is why you have POS towers. Guess why you have Incarna? Because many people that you have invited to play EVE said on leaving 'I just can't see myself as a spaceship'. Actions, not words - there is a blur here. Some words are the action itself, some become the action (unsubs induced by the mass hysteria) and some stay hollow. And some echo chambers sound louder than others. So in all this chaos and flow of not accurate information, how would you expect CCP to save EVE?

Everyone has an answer for that, even if that answer really is 'do what The Mitanni suggests' (notice the use of word). Mine might not be the correct one, but I 'stay a while, and listen'. So the moment that defines history will be a positive one for EVE's future, if CCP can resolve the conflict of extension and expansion. There is a way to do this. It can be summarized in one word: balance. Balance efforts. Give something new, refresh something old.

The latter is more obvious. There are a lot of things that can do with improvement. Make them work. Make them complete. Revamp them so they become more challenging or engaging. Add on top of them so they have consequence.

The former? How can you extend without pissing off people? This became increasingly hard over time. The only way to push EVE beyond the niche that gives a hard cap on its player count is to add horizontal content to it. To add no-spaceship content. Actually, many people would welcome this. The thing is, with all those spaceships and warping around, you sometimes want to take a break. EVE also lacks instant gratification. It is a good player filter, but a costly one. Incarna has the perfect setting and potential to give EVE what some people struggle to find in it: a place in the sandbox.

The old saying 'panem et circenses' comes to mind. MMOG players are very much that simple from a business standpoint. Give them something they see useful, and give them things they can lose themselves in. In this context, 'panem' refers to the necessities of life - features that make playing the game enjoyable. 'Circenses' is the concepts that link them to the game, the entertainment, the reward they get for using a feature. If 'panem' is missing, the players will revolt and whine that the game is broken. If there are no 'circenses', players will be angry at the developer and say that the game is broken, full of grind, too hard, pointless, take your pick. It is difficult times we're facing. Difficult times indeed.

In summary, whatever the changes, there should be a few things that are kept in mind. I call these the seven souls of EVE.

1. Scale. You should feel the enormous thing that you are part of around you. YXou should be constantly made aware how many things your actions touch.
2. Consequence. Everything you do must have one. A permanent one. Nothing should be excluded. The cold harsh universe is not a place where you could do something and change nothing.
3. Choice. You must be able to make your own. Work for it or pay for it? Keep it or kill it? It must depend on you.
4. Risk. Everything you do must have a chance to go south. Excitement and entertainment cannot be truly experienced until you know you were risking something for it.
5. Competition. This is the point of playing with others. You must in each activity compare to another player and success should be granted to the better.
6. Interaction. Anything in game must do something meaningful. Meaningful in a sense that other players must be affected, both directly and indirectly.
7. Foresight. EVE rewards planning and organised effort with increased rewards. This should be always the case.

As I have seen it so far, anything that goes into development and misses the fine alchemy of these souls, will either have rotten 'panem' or be a boring 'circensis'. Let's hope CCP too knows this.

They have one more chance:

Sessym out.