Ishukone Joe
Osmon Surveillance
Caldari State
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Posted - 2016.02.28 21:03:00 -
[1] - Quote
While I'm no expert, it seems like there were a lot of other things driving the decision to terminate the Dust 514 product. Here's a slightly different retrospective.
For a lot of people, the one thing that this game resolved that has never been addressed effectively within Eve is that people want to play a Sci-fi / Action game, not deal with constant politics and drama. I didn't need voice comms to play, I didn't need to sit around all night waiting for an op, or in a station because it was being camped and was locked in. Dust resolved all of the logistical and political trappings found in Big Brother, while preserving the storylines, the legacy and ....a preference for action.
I played Eve for 10 years from 2003 to 2013, actively. I rejoined in 2014/2015, but found myself bored with drama and politics, stupid Alliance agendas that didn't amount to anything for us little folks, and lots of blob warfare that was expensive and pointless. I decided to retire indefinitely again when it was obvious that Dust 514 was going to be around for a while. Except now it's not.
One of the biggest blows to Eve was the demise of the solo PVP'er. This has now transitioned to include small squad, roaming PVP action, which is now greatly diminished. Get a 'dictor or a bubble and camp a gate. Woo hoo. The did try to fix this by adding new professions like Exploration and Deadspace, but the risk/reward isn't within reach of the small corp or the solo player. Very frustrating.
Hopefully CCP recognizes that one of the reasons that Dust was so popular was that it resolved these issues.
The thing that seems to be absent is the effect of this decision on your customer's loyalty.
One thing that is obvious to everyone, these games take extensive amounts of time investments to truly enjoy.
Having an online game close is essentially like robbing us of our investments. I spent thousands of hours playing Dust, and hundreds of dollars accumulating skills and equipment via the Store. I spent tens of thousands of hours playing Eve. At least that platform is still around.
While I am still a fan and a loyal supporter of CCP, Eve, and Dust 514, what's not OK is to expect those kinds of investments if you're going to kill the game as a product. People will be really reluctant to invest this kind of time in a game if they feel like it will be a throw-away effort. You've damaged your rep in this area, unfortunately, and this is the one area that you cannot afford to raise the spectre of doubt with your fanbase, consumers and subscribers. No one invests in a company or a product that it thinks is going out of business. Undoubtedly, the first question I will ask when a replacement product offering is available is 'will this, too, be cancelled'? If the answer to that question is unknown, I won't play. I don't have another few tousand hours to invest in something that disappears. Pretty simple.
At a minimum, Eve still prevails as the superior game by virtue of the fact that I can still go back and reactivate my account, play, and pick up from wherever I left off. For an MMOG, this persistence of presence is ultimately the #1 immovable requirement.
I'm looking forward to your next product offering.
-Joe
About me.
I played Dust 514 for 3.5 years.
I was an Alpha pilot tester, and Beta pilot user.
I ended the game with the same NPC corp I was originally assigned to.
I never used a mic, and had wild amounts of fun (and did that on purpose).
I had one character with ~70 SP's.
I played Eve for ~11 years (July 2003).
My primary character has over 100m SPs (and has participated in just about every major alliance conflict out there, at the time)
Secondary character has 70m SPs.
Tertiary character has 60m SPs.
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