CCP Games kills 'ghost training' on inactive EVE accounts

by James Egan on Oct 13th 2008 2:30PM

Sci-fi, EVE Online, Business models, Exploits, Forums, Game mechanics, Patches, Professions, News items

EVE Online players who habitually 'ghost train' their alts on inactive accounts are about to be given a wake-up call. The myriad options that a player can take in the sandbox game means that training up specialized alts is a common practice. The time-based skill training system in EVE means that higher ranked skills can take well over a month to train to their maximum of level five. When creating a carrier or mothership alt, for example, it's typical to simply, well, not pay $15 for a month when you're not actually playing on that character while your skill training progresses.

This isn't limited to capital ship alts though. Many players unsubscribe after queuing up a long skill and resub once skill training is complete. This is how it's always been in the game (at least since this writer began playing), and by all indications is something CCP Games has been well aware of. Those days, as confirmed in today's announcement from CCP, are over.

CCP Fallout stated: "A long overdue and much needed change will be put in place with the Wednesday, 15 October 2008 patch. Ghost Training, the continuous skill gain on accounts in an inactive or expired state - will no longer function after Wednesday, 15 October 2008. This practice upsets the balance of the game, and capsuleers who actively put their time an energy into working on their characters will no longer be unfairly affected by those few who have not."

The EVE forums are, predictably, lighting up with commentary on this change. Where do you stand on this issue?

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Tags: alt, alts, breaking, business-models, ccp, ccp-fallout, ccp-games, dev, developer, eve, eve-online, exploits, forums, game-mechanics, ghost-training, patches, professions, sci-fi, skill-training, skills

Reader Comments (22)

I am concerned by this development simply because CCP seems to be punishing loyal customers. I say that because when was the last time any current customers got a bonus for re-upping? Sure they offer incentives to new accounts 2X etc, but what about the rest of us? So what if we've found a way to get a small perk...Arent we entitled to a little love too?

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Virtually every commentator seems to have eaten up CCP's PR on this issue. "Ghost training" was a term unknown in Eve until October, when the announcement of this change was made. A few observations:

"EVE Online players who habitually 'ghost train' their alts on inactive accounts are about to be given a wake-up call."

This is misleading. Almost everyone allowing an account to expire for any reason whatsoever has used this feature. There's no "habitually" about it.

"...it's typical to simply, well, not pay $15 for a month when you're not actually playing on that character while your skill training progresses."

Also misleading. Unsubscribed training only completed the one training step already in progress. To start another step or enjoy the benefits of the step completed it has always been necessary to reactivate the account and log in. It was never possible to gain multiple training completions without reactivating the account.

"This isn't limited to capital ship alts though."

No, but the opportunities to get much mileage out of this at earlier skill levels were extremely limited. The more common case was being able to complete a step of a few days or a week when not renewing to go on vacation, return to school, to go on military deployment, devote intensive time to work, etc.

"Many players unsubscribe after queuing up a long skill and resub once skill training is complete."

There has never been a skill queue in Eve. When an account expired, only the currently active skill step completed. The average benefit was probably on the order of a week or less of training.

"This is how it's always been in the game (at least since this writer began playing), and by all indications is something CCP Games has been well aware of."

It has been that way since release. It's not something "CCP... has been well aware of." It's somethihng that was WRITTEN TO WORK THAT WAY. It was also touted by CCP personnel as a feature, to help sell the game.

I view the unsubscribed training as having been fully bought and paid for at the time the training step was started. We couldn't be training a skill without having been online to acquire the skillbook and start the training step, and we couldn't get any benefit from the completion without being active and logged in. Meanwhile, since training is not an active process in Eve, there was zero effect on the servers or database. CCP was not providing any service or use of their servers for free. On the contrary, they have now taken away a feature that many players considered was part of the game they were paying for.

I am reducing my nine paid accounts, all of which were active when this offensive change was announced, to an average of 2-4 accounts. I didn't ever get more than incidental benefit from the feature but it made perfect sense in the context of real-time-based training (Eve is not like any other MMOG), was a user-friendly feature, put no one at any disadvantage, and was obviously working to CCP's benefit in attracting lapsed players back into the game. There is no record that anyone had ever complained of the feature. The nerf thus made no sense at all, and the lies and PR spin made it distasteful to be sending my money to CCP.

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