A few years ago Eve was hitting peak 30+ concurrent users, 21k just before downtime, and then would hover again around 21k after downtime till peak.
A year ago it was 30+ concurrent in peak, 16 before downtime, and then go back around 21k till peak time hit again.
Now its 12k after downtime........
Anecdotal is anecdotal. In before the next expansion and people go look at all the numbers. FYI, they pretty much seem to have lost all they players they gained when they went F2P-ish. CCP seems to be back to the trickle of new players and the same bitter vets as before. Who aren't even playing that much themselves.
As per the last war, Eve needs RMT to generate excitement and conflict. Bring back gambling and RMT.
Perhaps more people would start logging in again if CCP provided reasons for them to do so?
If the game was compelling to more people, they'd be logging in on their own and you'd still see those numbers you talk about.
As a personal account of why I won't log in anymore... as a newer player who was still getting used to the ropes, in high sec.
To start with, the term "High Sec" is completely meaningless. There's no real security there.
I was gate-camped in a 0.8 area, by someone who was already red. I was destroyed and podded - for no actual gain for the ganker. I was in full, low Tech 1, with only 5 Tech 1 drones onboard. Whole encounter was maybe 15 seconds. Concord was nowhere to be found.
Confused, I asked about it in chat. I was told that Concord shows up *after* you've been destroyed. I don't know if that's true or not, but it may as well be, because they were no-show for the entire encounter.
Showing up and going into action *after* the victim has been killed isn't what I'd call "High Security".
Could be this is CCP's small-minded idea of "making high sec dangerous"? Maybe they have no grasp on how gankers/griefers think? Or they just don't really care?
It was the same in TERA, and a few other PvP MMOs I've played. There's no meaningful disincentives for ganking/griefing; it's effectively encouraged and so goes on unchecked.
Now, to be clear, not opposed to being ganked/griefed. It's part of open PvP MMOs. I've experienced it plenty in the MMOs I've played. You suck it up and move on, or you seek to return the favor.
But I digress...
If you're going to meaningfully penalize that kind of behavior in areas where such behavior is *supposed* to be restricted.. you have to deal with the aggressors "in their own language".
In Eve's current set up, there's no meaningful repercussion or penalty for attacking a neutral player in high sec space. Getting their ship destroyed? So what? They've likely got more than enough isk to replace their ship and be back at it. Might even have a fleet of them docked up and ready to go.
The payoff to them is getting the cheap kills and adding those notches to their belt. So that's where you have to hit them. To disincentivize it, you have to rob them of that payoff, or make them work so hard for it, that it's no longer worth the hassle.
They can go to lower/null sec space where such interference isn't a problem. Of course then they're dealing with likely more skilled/experienced players, possibly with friends nearby, and that's not what your typical ganker/griefer wants.
Instead of showing up after the victim has been destroyed, Concord should show up immediately, shut down the ganker, render them a sitting duck, and then destroy their ship... and podkill them, right in front of their would-be target, who gets to sit and enjoy the show. And then, as icing on top... let the would-be target go over and loot the remains.
You want higher security space to be meaningful, with gankers/griefers not finding it a "safe and easy ride to pick off newbies"? That's how you do it. Turn the tables, make them choke on their own medicine.
As an example of a game that did it better.. in L2, if you were chaotic/criminal - guards attacked you on sight. None of this "waiting around for you to gank someone" nonsense. And even if you could get past guards and somehow get into town, NPC vendors wouldn't sell to you. And if you had more than 5 PKs on you (and hadn't 'washed' them yet), you could drop potentially valuable items. That's a meaningful penalty for ganking/pk'ing.
Beyond the direct game rules, though... You had a big, bright red bull's eye on your back everywhere you went, and other players could choose to take you down, without getting penalized themselves. Vet players mostly hated and discouraged that kind of behavior, especially against lower/newer players, as it hurt the game's community and population - so they'd even go out of their way to deal with them. Gankers/Griefers became pariahs in the community. Also, woe to anyone who ganked a member, or an ally of a powerful clan on the server.
As a result... by and large... Such behavior was far less common than you might imagine in L2. At least for the 4.5 years I played it, I was ganked... maybe three times. Because the penalties were actually meaningful.
So, again.. I'm fine with ganking/griefing - so long as the game makes it very difficult to do so, with meaningful penalties/repercussions. Eve doesn't have this.
If those were it's concurrent user base at a time it was the only viable pvp space game,that is not very good and says how few really want something like this. It baffles me as to how much SC is pulling in if the genre is not that popular,i feel some must be spending enormous amounts buying every ship there is.
By that logic, I guess you could then say that an old-school fantasy MMO isn't what people wanted since it started losing players after many years of being active and healthy.
Except, you and I both know that isn't the case, especially where FFXI is concerned.
FFXI started losing players when SE decided they wanted to screw with the formula that had served them, and their players well for near a decade. People stuck around for years while SE maintained the experience players enjoyed it for. They started to leave when it was no longer that experience.
I suspect Eve is in a similar boat.
Eve's problems have little to do with "the genre not being popular". Simply being in a given genre and ticking some "most wanted" checkboxes doesn't guarantee success. Being a *good game* that continues to keep people wanting to log in does. Eve seems to have been slipping in that regard.
I'm sure situations like I described in my previous post above haven't helped.
Comments
If the game was compelling to more people, they'd be logging in on their own and you'd still see those numbers you talk about.
As a personal account of why I won't log in anymore... as a newer player who was still getting used to the ropes, in high sec.
To start with, the term "High Sec" is completely meaningless. There's no real security there.
I was gate-camped in a 0.8 area, by someone who was already red. I was destroyed and podded - for no actual gain for the ganker. I was in full, low Tech 1, with only 5 Tech 1 drones onboard. Whole encounter was maybe 15 seconds. Concord was nowhere to be found.
Confused, I asked about it in chat. I was told that Concord shows up *after* you've been destroyed. I don't know if that's true or not, but it may as well be, because they were no-show for the entire encounter.
Showing up and going into action *after* the victim has been killed isn't what I'd call "High Security".
Could be this is CCP's small-minded idea of "making high sec dangerous"? Maybe they have no grasp on how gankers/griefers think? Or they just don't really care?
It was the same in TERA, and a few other PvP MMOs I've played. There's no meaningful disincentives for ganking/griefing; it's effectively encouraged and so goes on unchecked.
Now, to be clear, not opposed to being ganked/griefed. It's part of open PvP MMOs. I've experienced it plenty in the MMOs I've played. You suck it up and move on, or you seek to return the favor.
But I digress...
If you're going to meaningfully penalize that kind of behavior in areas where such behavior is *supposed* to be restricted.. you have to deal with the aggressors "in their own language".
In Eve's current set up, there's no meaningful repercussion or penalty for attacking a neutral player in high sec space. Getting their ship destroyed? So what? They've likely got more than enough isk to replace their ship and be back at it. Might even have a fleet of them docked up and ready to go.
The payoff to them is getting the cheap kills and adding those notches to their belt. So that's where you have to hit them. To disincentivize it, you have to rob them of that payoff, or make them work so hard for it, that it's no longer worth the hassle.
They can go to lower/null sec space where such interference isn't a problem. Of course then they're dealing with likely more skilled/experienced players, possibly with friends nearby, and that's not what your typical ganker/griefer wants.
Instead of showing up after the victim has been destroyed, Concord should show up immediately, shut down the ganker, render them a sitting duck, and then destroy their ship... and podkill them, right in front of their would-be target, who gets to sit and enjoy the show. And then, as icing on top... let the would-be target go over and loot the remains.
You want higher security space to be meaningful, with gankers/griefers not finding it a "safe and easy ride to pick off newbies"? That's how you do it. Turn the tables, make them choke on their own medicine.
As an example of a game that did it better.. in L2, if you were chaotic/criminal - guards attacked you on sight. None of this "waiting around for you to gank someone" nonsense. And even if you could get past guards and somehow get into town, NPC vendors wouldn't sell to you. And if you had more than 5 PKs on you (and hadn't 'washed' them yet), you could drop potentially valuable items. That's a meaningful penalty for ganking/pk'ing.
Beyond the direct game rules, though... You had a big, bright red bull's eye on your back everywhere you went, and other players could choose to take you down, without getting penalized themselves. Vet players mostly hated and discouraged that kind of behavior, especially against lower/newer players, as it hurt the game's community and population - so they'd even go out of their way to deal with them. Gankers/Griefers became pariahs in the community. Also, woe to anyone who ganked a member, or an ally of a powerful clan on the server.
As a result... by and large... Such behavior was far less common than you might imagine in L2. At least for the 4.5 years I played it, I was ganked... maybe three times. Because the penalties were actually meaningful.
So, again.. I'm fine with ganking/griefing - so long as the game makes it very difficult to do so, with meaningful penalties/repercussions. Eve doesn't have this.
Except, you and I both know that isn't the case, especially where FFXI is concerned.
FFXI started losing players when SE decided they wanted to screw with the formula that had served them, and their players well for near a decade. People stuck around for years while SE maintained the experience players enjoyed it for. They started to leave when it was no longer that experience.
I suspect Eve is in a similar boat.
Eve's problems have little to do with "the genre not being popular". Simply being in a given genre and ticking some "most wanted" checkboxes doesn't guarantee success. Being a *good game* that continues to keep people wanting to log in does. Eve seems to have been slipping in that regard.
I'm sure situations like I described in my previous post above haven't helped.