For those who think this sounds absurd, I've been playing Eve on and off since 2005. I've been playing mostly straight for the last 4-5yrs. A shockingly large amount of "playtime" is in...
Exemplary
For those who think this sounds absurd, I've been playing Eve on and off since 2005. I've been playing mostly straight for the last 4-5yrs. A shockingly large amount of "playtime" is in spreadsheets. I've made various spreadsheets over the years for tracking mining of ore, production of various in-game items, COGS, the cost and volume of things that I have others to ship/freight around for me (there are literally equivalents of FedEx/UPS in Eve that are entirely player run; check out PushX), etc. A lot of these are just for my own personal purposes, but my friends and I have worked on some spreadsheets together. And none of these are particularly advanced.
Some of the most advanced spreadsheets I've seen and used (though I didn't build) actually hooked into the game's API to get current market pricing automatically. And then it uses logic to tell me, the user, what might be the best item to build or trade, and how much ISK (in-game currency) and even time I need to invest.
A good spreadsheet can make a person a lot of ISK. A great spreadsheet can make them filthy, filthy rich. And being space rich in Eve, much like in real life, means you can do a lot more things than when you're space poor. Not without consequences, but it certainly cushions the blow(ing up of your ship) when you have a lot of ISK.
I played EVE 2007-2011 or so, but haven't checked in since. (Not that I have time for that, lol). How has going free-to-play affected the game? I have heard mixed things about the monetization...
I played EVE 2007-2011 or so, but haven't checked in since. (Not that I have time for that, lol). How has going free-to-play affected the game? I have heard mixed things about the monetization since then.
And yea, I had some great spreadsheets while playing EVE. I used to make most of my money from T2 invention and speculating on nerfs/changes.
F2P these days is actually pretty restrictive. It's much more like an infinite trial. The types of ships an "Alpha" account can use is quite limited. Many of the better tiers of various ship...
F2P these days is actually pretty restrictive. It's much more like an infinite trial. The types of ships an "Alpha" account can use is quite limited. Many of the better tiers of various ship modules are only available to the paying "Omega" accounts. There's a character skill limit of only 5million SP, which is pretty quick to hit.
And of course the big one is that only Omega accounts can be used for multiboxing. For those unaware, in Eve, using multiple accounts at the same time, from the same computer is called multiboxing and is a standard way to play the game. I often multibox 2-4 accounts at a time, depending on my needs. Alpha accounts cannot multibox.
An Alpha account can absolutely go out there with a decent ship and have some fun either solo or with others, whether they're mining, doing industrial stuff, engaging in PVE content, or even PVP content. But quickly that person will want better, larger ships, along with the higher amounts of SP needed to fly and fit those ships. And only becoming a paid Omega account will open those gates.
I've never had a huge issue with the monetization scheme in Eve. CCP, did however raise their base subscription price about a year ago. Gametime went from $14.99/mo to $19.99/mo; basically the most expensive MMO out there. Like most MMOs, prepaying for more months nets a player a discount, but it's still more expensive than it used to be. I think even paying with PLEX is more expensive than before, to accommodate the higher real-world-dollars price.
That's good to hear. I had heard they also made skillpoints purchasable, (which I guess isn't a big deal because previously you could buy characters) and was wondering if they had done anything...
That's good to hear. I had heard they also made skillpoints purchasable, (which I guess isn't a big deal because previously you could buy characters) and was wondering if they had done anything else like that to change how the game worked.
There was a lot of uproar with purchasable Skill Points, like directly from CCP, but players "farmed" and still farm SP and use "Skill Extractors" to remove it from the character and then sell...
There was a lot of uproar with purchasable Skill Points, like directly from CCP, but players "farmed" and still farm SP and use "Skill Extractors" to remove it from the character and then sell that SP on the market, like at Jita. So it's not like SP wasn't purchasable before. And like you said, characters sales are still a thing.
However, I think what tempers the purchasing of SP is that Eve is such a complex game. Even if someone bought enough SP to fly a Titan on Day 1 -- I think it normally takes like 3yrs (realtime) to train into a Titan -- that doesn't mean they know how to fly and fit it properly so they won't lose it as soon as they undock it. SP is no substitute for actually learning and knowing to play the game; it's not actual skill and knowledge.
Case in point: Some of my IRL friends jumped in to Eve. They spent like a month in in high-sec, learning the ropes. Since I had played for a few years by that point, I helped them out. But then they wanted bigger ships, which is natural. So they bought ISK and SP from the black market RMT sites. While I didn't necessarily condone it, not like I could stop them. Plus they understood the risks and really wanted to learn the game. And a few of us have kept on playing and we have a good handle on the game.
Another friend of ours decided to jump in as well. But he was late to the party. He didn't get or want to learn the basics. He was impatient. He, too, went out to the black market RMT sites and bought a bunch of skill injectors, ISK, and even a Jump Freighter. Keep in mind, only like one of us had ever messed with capital jumping by then. At the time, all of us were already in a nullsec bloc. He bought the JF in Jita and wanted to bring it to nullsec. Because he didn't understand tether mechanics on a player station and access control lists, and how that affects alt characters, "blue status," and stuff, he jumped the sucker into nullsec via an alt and all of a sudden realized he couldn't dock at the player station. He didn't have permission. He was promptly blown up by the residents. Residents who are technically his own allies, just another character. But in that moment, since he was on an alt, he just looked like another neutral who shouldn't have been there.
He spent like $300 total and lost the ship the first time he brought it out. Because SP is not a replacement for actual knowledge of mechanics. And then he bought another one with IRL cash. That one I think he still has, not that he plays anymore. But he's lost other ships that he paid for with IRL cash because he never took the time to learn how to play the game.
I played EVE when I was in college, and deeply loved it. If I made stupid-money and retired, I'd probably play it again. Until then, I'll just have fun watching.
I played EVE when I was in college, and deeply loved it. If I made stupid-money and retired, I'd probably play it again. Until then, I'll just have fun watching.
Same. There are a bunch of aspects of it that I really like, but it will easily suck all my free time if I were to play it now, and I have other hobbies that I'd really regret abandoning. I do...
Same. There are a bunch of aspects of it that I really like, but it will easily suck all my free time if I were to play it now, and I have other hobbies that I'd really regret abandoning. I do really enjoy the occasional story that penetrates outside the fan base about political treachery or huge battles.
For those who think this sounds absurd, I've been playing Eve on and off since 2005. I've been playing mostly straight for the last 4-5yrs. A shockingly large amount of "playtime" is in spreadsheets. I've made various spreadsheets over the years for tracking mining of ore, production of various in-game items, COGS, the cost and volume of things that I have others to ship/freight around for me (there are literally equivalents of FedEx/UPS in Eve that are entirely player run; check out PushX), etc. A lot of these are just for my own personal purposes, but my friends and I have worked on some spreadsheets together. And none of these are particularly advanced.
Some of the most advanced spreadsheets I've seen and used (though I didn't build) actually hooked into the game's API to get current market pricing automatically. And then it uses logic to tell me, the user, what might be the best item to build or trade, and how much ISK (in-game currency) and even time I need to invest.
A good spreadsheet can make a person a lot of ISK. A great spreadsheet can make them filthy, filthy rich. And being space rich in Eve, much like in real life, means you can do a lot more things than when you're space poor. Not without consequences, but it certainly cushions the blow(ing up of your ship) when you have a lot of ISK.
I played EVE 2007-2011 or so, but haven't checked in since. (Not that I have time for that, lol). How has going free-to-play affected the game? I have heard mixed things about the monetization since then.
And yea, I had some great spreadsheets while playing EVE. I used to make most of my money from T2 invention and speculating on nerfs/changes.
F2P these days is actually pretty restrictive. It's much more like an infinite trial. The types of ships an "Alpha" account can use is quite limited. Many of the better tiers of various ship modules are only available to the paying "Omega" accounts. There's a character skill limit of only 5million SP, which is pretty quick to hit.
And of course the big one is that only Omega accounts can be used for multiboxing. For those unaware, in Eve, using multiple accounts at the same time, from the same computer is called multiboxing and is a standard way to play the game. I often multibox 2-4 accounts at a time, depending on my needs. Alpha accounts cannot multibox.
An Alpha account can absolutely go out there with a decent ship and have some fun either solo or with others, whether they're mining, doing industrial stuff, engaging in PVE content, or even PVP content. But quickly that person will want better, larger ships, along with the higher amounts of SP needed to fly and fit those ships. And only becoming a paid Omega account will open those gates.
I've never had a huge issue with the monetization scheme in Eve. CCP, did however raise their base subscription price about a year ago. Gametime went from $14.99/mo to $19.99/mo; basically the most expensive MMO out there. Like most MMOs, prepaying for more months nets a player a discount, but it's still more expensive than it used to be. I think even paying with PLEX is more expensive than before, to accommodate the higher real-world-dollars price.
That's good to hear. I had heard they also made skillpoints purchasable, (which I guess isn't a big deal because previously you could buy characters) and was wondering if they had done anything else like that to change how the game worked.
There was a lot of uproar with purchasable Skill Points, like directly from CCP, but players "farmed" and still farm SP and use "Skill Extractors" to remove it from the character and then sell that SP on the market, like at Jita. So it's not like SP wasn't purchasable before. And like you said, characters sales are still a thing.
However, I think what tempers the purchasing of SP is that Eve is such a complex game. Even if someone bought enough SP to fly a Titan on Day 1 -- I think it normally takes like 3yrs (realtime) to train into a Titan -- that doesn't mean they know how to fly and fit it properly so they won't lose it as soon as they undock it. SP is no substitute for actually learning and knowing to play the game; it's not actual skill and knowledge.
Case in point: Some of my IRL friends jumped in to Eve. They spent like a month in in high-sec, learning the ropes. Since I had played for a few years by that point, I helped them out. But then they wanted bigger ships, which is natural. So they bought ISK and SP from the black market RMT sites. While I didn't necessarily condone it, not like I could stop them. Plus they understood the risks and really wanted to learn the game. And a few of us have kept on playing and we have a good handle on the game.
Another friend of ours decided to jump in as well. But he was late to the party. He didn't get or want to learn the basics. He was impatient. He, too, went out to the black market RMT sites and bought a bunch of skill injectors, ISK, and even a Jump Freighter. Keep in mind, only like one of us had ever messed with capital jumping by then. At the time, all of us were already in a nullsec bloc. He bought the JF in Jita and wanted to bring it to nullsec. Because he didn't understand tether mechanics on a player station and access control lists, and how that affects alt characters, "blue status," and stuff, he jumped the sucker into nullsec via an alt and all of a sudden realized he couldn't dock at the player station. He didn't have permission. He was promptly blown up by the residents. Residents who are technically his own allies, just another character. But in that moment, since he was on an alt, he just looked like another neutral who shouldn't have been there.
He spent like $300 total and lost the ship the first time he brought it out. Because SP is not a replacement for actual knowledge of mechanics. And then he bought another one with IRL cash. That one I think he still has, not that he plays anymore. But he's lost other ships that he paid for with IRL cash because he never took the time to learn how to play the game.
I played EVE when I was in college, and deeply loved it. If I made stupid-money and retired, I'd probably play it again. Until then, I'll just have fun watching.
Same. There are a bunch of aspects of it that I really like, but it will easily suck all my free time if I were to play it now, and I have other hobbies that I'd really regret abandoning. I do really enjoy the occasional story that penetrates outside the fan base about political treachery or huge battles.
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