Nightmorn

Actually he didn't state that it was 330k active players, just that there were that many accounts on one server (not to far of a stretch since eve is one server after all, they cant log in to an alternate place. Think of this in terms of wow boasting they have millions of players when that's actually not the case, they are just counting accounts that have been created, active or non active), but yes..he is correct, if not low balling the number of accounts that have been created in Eve so far. As of thier wiki, there was a reported 345k accounts as of May 09 so by now i wouldn't be surprised if it was over 370k. I suggest you read a little before tearing apart some minuscule thing that your not even right about. Even though 64k is the largest amount ever logged on at once, the median amount of people on daily is still around 20k which is larger then any other game server and enough to show a healthy example of a economy that is mostly in the players hands.

Even colleges are teaching economic classes using eve's economy as their simulation model.

As for the scams, yes there are scams in Eve, but the amount that actual occurs is pretty scale to those that happen in real life and your argument is mostly directed at the contract market which is only a fraction of the economy in that game. Ever hear of pyramid scams or credit card fraud? We don't live in a perfect world where people don't attempt to scam millions from investors if given the chance or set up dummy corporations hoping to cheat someone out of a few bucks. The economy that you are describing as the example of a real economy dosen't even exist in this world since human nature gets in the way. Even in a communist country where the government controls the supply of everything it will have those that compete with set prices and attempt to get the upper hand. There is always going to be someone out to get a few more bucks at the expense of others or will compete with the lowest price to get people to buy their items first (hi walmart -.-). I don't know what rock you have lived under but go in to any game and if you look hard enough you will find people that jack up prices, try and form a monopoly on items, attempt to run people out of what their trading, or will attempt to scam. That's not a bidding house, that's an example of real life trading, go watch wall street. How do you think they made their money, by playing fair and keeping everything the same price with competitors both for buying and selling?

Eve is truly the closest you will find to a real life economy in a digital setting. Its just dosen't have a Bureau of Investigation and police to go after the backstabbers. In Eve if you fall for a contract scam, that's your fault, just like its your fault if you fall for one in real life. Other then that, the economy runs on the simple principle of supply and demand, if you don't want to jump 5 gates over for the cheapest price on an item and decide to buy it for twice as much in the system your in currently that's paying for convince, not scamming.

I agree, the game is dead. It officially died the minute they started merging multiple servers together, which had even more people QQ and quit because their side lost its advantage, it shook up the current "community", blah blah blah. I remember when the original amount of servers created ques and they even added a few shortly after release. NcSoft went from having the largest pre-order sales to date for a mmo to cutting their servers by 2/3rds in less then a year.

Having played the western and eastern versions though, west did do a lot to try and make it better for us over here game play wise, but the lack of content at the end for this past year and the failure to change the "grind" more early on has really turned alot of people off along with bugs and no support. All fixes since release along with the new 2.0 patch is what the game should have been when it was originally released. They may not have lost so many people then.

I am honestly very disappointed by this article. Brenden it is obvious you don't do much production in eve, otherwise you would realize the lvl of "immersion" PI has is exactly the same as every other production thing in Eve. You log on, you set a job, you forget about it.

CCP stated from the start that PI was suppose to be able to be done by newer people as a stepping stone to other production aspects of the game. Its not like exploration, which is what you are comparing it to in your reply pretty much, CCP stated multiple times that you will be able to create a character and do it..not wait for exploration type skills and ships to make it happen. I don't know what you were exactly expecting PI to be like, but CCP designed it to be easy, which is exactly what it is. And no, you couldn't make this in a few months like your boasting, you forget that this patch came with a large amount of other things, a complete rework of the market place pretty much. Sure you can make the programing in a few months, but i quarantine you they have been running potential market numbers for months as well trying to figure out a way to balance the change in minerals, new PI items, insurance and so forth. Dont underestimate what CCP has done here when it comes to production/marketing.

As for whats the point in making these things, think about this, A new player can make pos fuels, which up in till this point was a NPC good. At current prices a single large pos consumes about 700 mil worth of former npc pos fuels a year. One character can easily make 4 P2 production items with 2 or so weeks of training, a majority of pos fuels are P2 items. If someone set PI up with say..10 characters, they would be in the position to make and produce P4 items (pos's, advanced labs, model labs, outposts) from start to finish.

Maybe you should relook at this from a producer/manufacture standpoint next time, with the idea that CCP made this as a entry lvl thing. Ive read enough PI reviews from people who cared more about blowing things then producing items and understood how production was in this game before the patch. very disappointed indeed.

i forgot to mention that even if CCP dose keep the NPC sales in to create a "isk cap" on items for poses and so forth after June 8th, that is still going to benefit those that bought and repossessed items. If people bought the right things, a advanced mobile lab for example could be sold for three times the amount it cost to produce easily. It also goes against what CCP was trying to do with the whole PI thing, making more items in the game player made, and not NPC supplied.

They took to long to take the items out that were causing the problem. Although the GM did warn that those that invested would regret it, over 400 bil was dumped in to this loophole by players. Any smart manufacture that have the means to produce is safeguarding against CCP possibly doing something to the required materials of the bpos already as well.

The only way CCP is going to really be able to make all those people who bought repossessing stuff regret their actions is by changing the yield that PI will give, essentially screwing over and destroying pos towers/structures, starbase,various random consumer items, and pos fuel markets, along with any reason to do PI (well...maybe not for those that like a death star for 10 mil). I for one do not see this happening though, its to large of a chunk of the market, so i feel those words were just a scare tactic by the GM to try and keep people from dumping more in. Another thing that has been mentioned is that they could roll back the servers, but to much time has passed now and any attempt by CCP to do that/remove the already created repossessed materials would alienate thousands of players and probably make many leave.

Their best possible solution atm is to just let the slip up run its coarse. The short term market is already screwed over for PI, but that will stop many from getting in to it. Within a few months things will balance out once the loophole stockpiles are mostly depleted. I would take a screwed up short term market any day over a loss of player base or another long term bombshell because of a mistake i made, i would think CCP would to.

A Planets Declaration:

You may find me inviting out here on my shores
Or majestic in ice topped mountains ores
You may find molten seas are not to your taste
And barron landscapes can put zen in its place
You may find a dust storm or three in a day
But deadly gasses wont chase you away
You may find interest still when broken i am
Just watch out for a smart plasma scam
However my traveler, warn you i do
Do not be mistaken of what lies for you
So bring your drills n pods n even you ships
Wage war that will be on every ones lips
For when its all over i will be standing
Waiting for the next wave to be landing.





Character: Midir Fulton

I met my fiancee shortly after wow came out. I don't play games to be social and prefer to play alone/do my own thing but he always seemed to be where i was. After 4 years and running in to him in 3 different games he confessed that he had been waiting for me to take a liking to him since the day we met when i saved him from a gank in badlands and then helped him with a quest... Imagine my surprise since he was definitely not the type that usually payed attention to me.. (bodybuilder, very good looking, cop, so on). Now 1 1/2 years later were engaged and living together.

Hmm this sounds like a wonderful idea, so i'll suggest a few things as well :) :

Another look at the insurance change in eve would be nice. I know you already sorta did one, and ccp has released various reasons why they have decided to do it but there has been no really in depth articles on the subject. If you could somehow get another interview with CCP's economist and have his take on how the changes will be effecting the economy of eve from his standpoint i think it would be an interesting angle on the whole insurance thing.

Taking a good look at the impact the expansion will be having on the industries in game would be another idea.Like how the manufacturing of items will change with T0 being removed from missions, forceing more people to start producing low lvl items to still make T2, the "death" of a lifestyle as a item for mineral reprocesser since a majority of the market they rely on is being taken out (people do do this quite a bit in eve), the impact the changes to minerals will have on drone space which currently is one of the least wanted areas and the growing need for macro miners to keep up with industry demands.

Finally A impression on how fleets and ships used for pvp will change because of the insurance in the expansion. As it stands the insurance changes will be making alot of ships that are currently looked upon as being to expensive to use more economically viable for pvp and possibly losing. What ships do you think after the patch will become more common in group and solo pvp?

hmmm whatever this beta is, i bet its gona be kick ass!

I would welcome this back to the Western side. For being so unfinished when i tried it out, the western version of the game really left a lasting impression on me . It was just downright fun to play, running through zones destroying everything, original story lines and art direction. After it shut down i actually went to Koren servers to play for a while and the idea of a more polished version coming back to western makes me very happy indeed, they have kept it every bit as fun as it was before. The only thing that worries me is that there isn't a good track record with games being translated over and im afraid it will be the games downfall again

There are few games that have ever made me go "oh shit" while playing, and this game was one of them.