Kris

Eve Online has long been accused of inflating its subscriber figures, and as someone who played the game, I know that three, four, even five accounts held by a single real life person are far from uncommon. Is that person counted as one subscriber, or as five?

In addition, Eve has been said to lump in the fourteen-day free trial account users in subscription numbers, which of course grossly exaggerates actual subscriber figures.

In addition Eve has frequently run a limited-time special pricing offer for a second account--not a new account, but a second account tied to an existing account--and from my reckoning they usually do it right around the end of the fiscal quarter; if I were pressed to assume a motive, I'd say it was to bolster subscription figures for whatever financial powers are behind the company.

Would you ever consider doing a piece on who seems to exaggerate figures, when, and why? It would be very interesting reading.