Kevall Longstride
DUST University
Ivy League
820
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Posted - 2014.01.12 08:35:00 -
[1] - Quote
I don't think you'll find any corp CEO wanting PvE in Dust more than me.
As a training tool it would be invaluable for new starters and a great way to help them earn some nice goodies to help them on the start of their career.
However....
As IWS stated earlier, PvE content takes a massive amount of development resources to do ok and a bigger amount to do it well. And while it's important that new players are guided well, it's more important to have a solid game once that period of guidence ends.
The truth of the matter is that while we have a fairly static hard core group of players in Dust, the influx of new players actually joining and sticking around is gone. It's not there. We're one of the largest corps in the game with a reputation for having raw recruits sent to us learn the basics before moving on to other corps. The heady days of 6 months ago where we'd have upwards of 50 to 60 applicants a day has long gone. It's now roughly 10-15.
I've no problem giving out these figures as I think it illustrates the problems the game has. We still have an active playerbase in the UNI with approximately 75% monthly retention rate. Part of the reason I do my monthly inactivity cull (this months I'll be doing later today) is so I can better judge the health of the player retention myself instead of waiting for figures from CCP which are never likely to come out anyway.
So, how to reverse this situation?
Anyone thinking that a simple one shot fix will sort the problem overnight is deluding themselves. The problems that the game faces are systemic, going back at least 18 months and the result of poor decisions made then and impacting ones having to be made now. This is the reason that CCP Rouge was brought in. His job as EP will be to make the big decisions as to the future development path of Dust. Not if such and such a feature will make it in..
This is what Jenza was hinting about when she said that CPM1 would have a much harder time than CPM0. Rouge and the CCP team behind Dust will have to make some really radical choices over the next 18 months or so to put the ship on an even keel once again. Some of those choices are frankly going to **** off a lot of the playerbase at some point and the first point of lashing out by the players will be the CPM. This reason alone should be dissuading a lot of potential CPM candidates. You're going to be hated while all this is going on.
I make no claims as to what is being discussed by Rouge and the team. I only know what I'd be doing in his shoes and frankly it ain't going to pretty or popular. I'm not ruling anything out as to what may come over the next 18 months. Format changes, game re-launch, game re-coding, a return to closed beta, anything could happen.
But I still have faith in the original concept of Dust 514. It is a solid idea that can be realised. And I still have faith that CCP can deliver. But to do it they're going to have to break some eggs.
You all need to get round to that school of thought.
Mercenary Clone of Dennie Fleetfoot
CEO of DUST University
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