Power to the Masses... What could possibly go wrong?

Bold Pilot Log, Entry 26#

After Hilmar's apology to the player base, I couldn't stop thinking. I believe there are a few things we must  consider carefully about this situation. Some blogger already took the letter apart, but as much as I try to avoid being redundant, I will need to examine it for the post's purpose.

The first part is taking responsibility. With this, Hilmar openly states that the driving force beyond the last two years' stumbling was him. A vision that still lives, but the road to that vision was misinterpreted. This 'I've bitten off more than I can chew spans a few paragraphs, detailing how he presumably got carried away. This part closes with the big admission. I applaud him for this, just as many people do, but this is one thing that got me thinking. More on that later.

The next section explains that he understands the error in trying to sell the present Incarna content as a full-fledged expansion, especially in a game that revolves around entirely different things. The letter also shows that they are aware of the way they always overestimate their capacity in regards of development. It is also made clear that beyond the little result we saw there were much technology development that should have been built upon much more.

Then he moves on to the virtual goods fiasco. After a short recap of how they have erred on that, he restates and confirms their current standpoint towards virtual goods. It should be a relief for many people, but there are things that never change. Let's move further.

The next part of the letter speaks again about Incarna, and how it ties into the CCP vision of EVE. The general principles are outlined with a promise that Incarna will not be prioritized over the crucial space improvements. This seems a good thing, too.

The last section is where the letter becomes almost cerebral in tone. Hilmar personifies EVE, and boldly goes where few dared to go before: he promises to listen more to the community, to have their voice taken to heart, and the will to mine the full potential of the EVE universe.

Now, this is all good and nice, but let's be a bit realistic here. The company that we knew as CCP has grown rapidly from a garage inc. to a 600-people company. The growing pains we all felt. They had to build a corporate culture, and probably they are still trying to find their way around being able to operate as a large entity. Their CEO seems to have comitted himself to the new culture, he (or the one helping him) writes:

 The greatest lesson for me is the realization that EVE belongs to you, and we at CCP are just the hosts of your experience. When we channel our passion for EVE constructively, we can make this vision a reality together.

So his vision of a corporate culture is where the whole corp works together with its customers, the capsuleer community to achieve its goals. As much as this is heartwarming,  it has some prospects we need to be aware of. Going from the back of the letter to the front, there are a few concerns that my thinking revolved around.

The last part of the letter remains to be taken as truth, but if it is, it means we, the players will be given the power to change the game. Depending on how they plan to achieve this, it has an interesting aspect. Greater power means greater responsibility. My bet is on the philosophy 'look at the way you use something, and try to help', which has worked great in the past and probably is the easiest to make a policy of. That said, it will be interesting to see if the very vocal players would really get a word in the development of the game.

Incarna is considered a failed thing by many players. There's a good chance CCP is monitoring the rate of clients that have it turned on. I don't think that rate is very high. Regardless, we mustn't forget about Incarna. It's rightly a part of EVE, only, it should be a working part, not the tick we knew it to be. And for that, ladies, gentlemen and capsuleers, it requires no less than development resources! I know many of you would happily play around in your fragile bodies out of their pods. The ideas need to be transformed into actual work, and for that , CCP needs us desperately. Incarna won't be real until we make it real, just as with everything else from EVE.

Virtual goods are one thing people tend to be very sensitive about. Basically, if you're already paying for a service, you shouldn't be forced to pay for another service to make the first one enjoyable. That's what Hilmar promises. I, just like many others resent the idea of purchasing game advantage with real money. It just feels dumb. You could argue that you already RMT with PLEX, but the truth is, with plex, you buy other people's playtime that he or she used to make ISK, nothing else! In this regard, we too have responsibility. If the players buy it, they will continue to sell it. It's not that it cost much to create...

The second section of the letter is about expectations. The hype, the way they got everything riled up and screaming we want it is only possible because the people en masse act like they usually do. So the lesson here is that we too should step back and do some soul searching. What can we do to prevent scandals to break out? Shouldn't we try and be more constructive? Shouldn't we HTFU? Hysterical responses have their use but they are effective only so many times. Let's stop being the screaming mass of idiots and start carrying ourselves as real stakeholders, shall we?

And this leads me to the heaviest sentiment. The apology. In that letter, the CEO of a corporation apologizes to a bunch of players calling a box a box, balls to the wall.

Will we, can we, as a community, admit when we are wrong, with the same honesty, the same sincerity?

Sessym out.