CCP has announced that the record for Peak Concurrent Users in EVE Online has been broken. The new record stands at 45,186 players.

What a great way to start out 2009--a new PCU (Peak Concurrent User) record of 45,186! While we've made tremendous serverside changes in the EVE Online infrastructure with the EVE64 and StacklessIO initiatives, it is truly a testament to our loyal fans that 5 years into EVE's existence we are still breaking records and more people are flying in New Eden than ever before.

We know we'll be trying to find leftover champagne from New Year's EVE to celebrate. When we do, we'll toast to you!

Read more here.

Hum, apart from the increased number of adverts around the net, anyone know why the number have shot up?

After several huge PR disasters I'd have expected figures to have decreased significantly, not rise

I've seen a lot more chatter around here about EVE simply because of it's niche sandbox gaming style, something I am personally a huge fan of.  People are tired of the status quo, and they are tired of waiting for a new sandbox game to hit, so they are giving EVE a try.

Let's face it, even with the occasional bad PR due to exploits or whatnot, the game is doing quite well and has a hardcore community. It's a game that does not try to cater to the WoW masses, and it makes no excuses for being a deep, difficult game.  If it wasn't for the fact that you have to be a ship in this game (ambulation won't serve much purpose), you couldn't peel me away from it.  I can't wait for a standard ground based MMORPG to come out that is similar to EVE.  Niche market and all.

The first new sandbox game to successfully duplicate EVE's recipe will have my attention for years.

Where have you been, what PR disasters?  Despite the critics, CCP continues to improve and balance the game.  Seems that that is exactly what they playerbase wants.  Certainly better than what most MMO's seem to offer these days.

The PR disasters have occured pretty much every other month since around august if memory serves me correctly

1) "Standardisation of timecodes" was what CCP called hiking the price of the game up, higher than any other mmorpg at that time, but no, they couldnt call it that. Most players over looked this however.

2)Removal of Ghost Training. One of the most appauling cases of customer service I have ever seen. Too much to go into detail here but the jist of it is: Removal of a known feature of the game, claiming it was a bug (Undenaible eveidence shows this to be a lie), leading to the game essentially costing more and becoming more unbalanced. Unfortunaly this out right lie to the customers upset the majority, who threated to quit over it, or at the least close accounts (would be intrested to see sub numbers after that date)

3)Quantaum rise being the most "empty" expansion to date, even after 2 cash hikes.

4)The starbase exploit. A massive exploit which has been in the game for years, yet was never detected and so has messed up the sandbox market, the effects will be felt for months and the market won't ever be the same again (literally)

5)CCP's back history of providing dire customer care, supplying ingame corps with ships etc

Due to the price of eve and after these demonstrations of their total lack of thought towards the customers other than seeing them as cash cows, I would have expected people to have stayed away from the game at all costs. However, I would like to see the actual amount of activated subscriptions on tranquility, especially after the price hikes.

Wow, even after drama CCP continues to increase the performance, balance and subscription numbers of EVE Online!?!

Is EVE Online the only game that has it's subscription base increase from year to year besides WoW?

Ien't there some equation that explains how the longer an MMO is on the market it inevitably loses a percentage of it's subscription base per year?

Gratz to CCP and Happy New Year!!

Also, I would love a ground based game themed around what CCP has done with EVE Online.  Even if it were stations only or if I had to wait for the World of Darkeness...

Sweet! Five thousand more macro-operated ISK-farming bots and Rookie chat spammers!

Really, tell me when entering Jita (or any system with more than 200 players) is no longer a game-breaking lag-fest, and THEN I'll be impressed.

How are they hiking the price up when it's still $14.95? And a boxed copy is $19.95. Been that way for years.

Can't really complain about the content in an expansion when it's FREE!

Originally posted by Mazty

Hum, apart from the increased number of adverts around the net, anyone know why the number have shot up?

After several huge PR disasters I'd have expected figures to have decreased significantly, not rise

EVE have grown larger because the game have become better, more balanced and more lagless.

When it comes to the "PR disaster", I would hardly call this true. Let me sum up some claims:

1. EVE TIME CODES:

Yes CCP changed the available timecodes to 60 days, and removed the 30 days and 90 days timecodes. Its sad but hardly a disaster. Also remember that you still can pay by subscription, and here you can sign up for 1 month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months still. Anyway, sad, but hardly a PR Disaster!

2. GHOST TRAINING

The removal of Ghost training was applauded by many really. This because many people - me included - found it unfair that people who used this "feature" to gain ingame reward without a valid subscription! So in general it was unfair against paying subscribers as it was unfair against CCP who provides a product! I dont really care if it was a bug or a feature. It was unfair towards paying subscribers and it had to go! And so it does! Also, mainly those who used this feature where people who did character farming for sale plus others who just set longtime skill training and left the game. There are a few skills that take from 1 month to 3 months to train, when it comes to the most powerful skills! And by setting these skill to train, then leaving the game for a while saved them money while still gaining skillpoints. And I find that unfair! So yes, I am happy it got removed! And many others with me!

3. STARBASE EXPLOIT

Yes this is sad. 70 PLAYERS are confirmed cheating! 70 accounts have been banned! This is very sad! But a PR Disaster? CCP corrected the bug as soon they learned about it! And CCP banned the cheaters! What more can you ask for? CCP is not allmighty! When they find a bug or an exploit that have time after time proved they take it extreamly seriously! I dare say not many other game companies have been so free providing information as CCP have! And I personally think CCP earns on it over long time. They prove to be authentic and not false! They provide facts even if its what have happend is sad for the game! But again! You cant expect more from a gamecompany than to act as soon they learn about the exploit! And if there are anyone who should feel ashamed it should be the 70 players who cheated! Not CCP!!

4. DEV MISCONDUCT

The most tragic for CCP was when one of their devs cheated and gave his corp some ships and blueprints. It was one dev out of 300-400. As soon CCP learned about this they acted and reprimanded the dev in question. This happend about 6 months before the playerbase learned about it. So CCP acted before it got into public knowledge. This is something I can agree on a disaster for CCP. However! You cant put the blame on the whole company for this! CCP also reprimanded the dev, fixed his misdeeds and banned his character. And from this spun the now well known "CSM" or the "Counucil of Stellar Management" which is democratically elected players who attend meetings on Iceland at the CCP HQ pllus through internet meetings! We know that other devs or Mods have done misdeeds too at other onlinegames. its very sad, but in general: if the company is honest, they provide a game people love, is well balanced and are regularily updated, this is not a large case at all! Sad it is: it never affected your gameplay at all! And CCP solved it all! You cant really ask for more! Also remember: CCP is bound by the law when it comes to employee handling!

 ADDED:

5: Expansion "Quntum rise"
The last expansion was not empty! It holded the very much appreciated "StacklessIO" networking layer, which made it possible to play the game at extreamly reduced lag! Now you could stack 1400 people in Jita without affecting the gameplay! 1400 people in one room or star system! THAT is an imrovement!!! Also, this made fleetwars MUCH more lagless too! And when EVE online broke the PCU this sunday, there where not one post on the forums complaining about lag! Not even in Jita!!! I cant hardly call this an empty imrovement... And what about the earlier graphich update for EVE? The whol graphich engine being completely rewritten! And the ships completely remade??? CCP provides great stuff still I would say!!!

Again: the game is a very good game. A sandbox game set in a open universe. it holds hundreds of starships and thousands of modules to play it. The game is very well balanced and CCP always provides great updates for it! CCP also have a knack of involving players into the evolvution of the game, not just in what they want but also on how the game should evolve. This through direct player contacts on forums but also through CSMs. CCP have made it more stable and with less lag! and updated the graphic layer and the networking layer!

To sum it up: CCP have brought a lot of great things to the game, which the players seems to very much enjoy!

On a personal note I will add there are no other gamecompany that is as playerfriendly as CCP. There are no other game which is so great as EVE! And while other new games are given birth, grows, wither and dies CCPs EVE online are steadily growing; a star on the sky always glowing bright!

Originally posted by hanshotfirst

Sweet! Five thousand more macro-operated ISK-farming bots and Rookie chat spammers!

Really, tell me when entering Jita (or any system with more than 200 players) is no longer a game-breaking lag-fest, and THEN I'll be impressed.

From what i've read that was fixed long ago. I think they managed to push over 800 people in Jita with no lag.

http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=588

Originally posted by MindTrigger

I can't wait for a standard ground based MMORPG to come out that is similar to EVE.  Niche market and all.

The first new sandbox game to successfully duplicate EVE's recipe will have my attention for years.

Checkout Darkfall. you will faint with delight.

It was the GTC that were hiked up in price to $35 a month, the most expensive MMORPG, whereas the yearly sub bit people hard when GT was removed.

I guess I don't understand why people would use the game time codes. If you have money to pay that then just get a monthly subscription. Quick and easy.

Originally posted by archer75

Originally posted by hanshotfirst

Sweet! Five thousand more macro-operated ISK-farming bots and Rookie chat spammers!

Really, tell me when entering Jita (or any system with more than 200 players) is no longer a game-breaking lag-fest, and THEN I'll be impressed.

 

From what i've read that was fixed long ago. I think they managed to push over 800 people in Jita with no lag.

http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=588

They say it's "fixed" in virtually every patch note. The last time I logged in (just prior to the recent holidays) suggests otherwise.

Originally posted by archer75

I guess I don't understand why people would use the game time codes. If you have money to pay that then just get a monthly subscription. Quick and easy.

Because CCP allows players to exchange GTCs for in-game currency (ISK). Think of it as a form of pseudo-sanctioned RMT (real-money-trade).

In short, if you've got enough in-game currency, you can "play to pay" for your account.

Well then I'm calling you becase they have massively increased loadbalancing and streamlined the servers so I have been in Jita with well over 300 with 0 Lag.

As for the PR Nightmares... most are a non issue to most players. The Ghost training sucked but the longer they left it the more people abused it. The Starbase thing was them finally getting on the ball and fixing things so nobody was exploiting a bug they allegedly said was ok, but now is gone. They raised the price of GTCs because it was loosing money in its prior form because the price to do the cards they way they did was not feasable. Besides, it is used far more often to legally buy ISK than not. Finally the last expansion may be hollow to you but the long ignored industrialists and miners got some very usefull tweaks, thanks to the representaion in the CSM. The problem with 2 employees helping their friends in game by abusing powers or privleged knowledge has LOOOONG since been dealt with. Even the Boot.ini problem, which only affected a few people with an uncommon system setup.

In all cases CCP has, in the long run, dealt with, although not always in the most poplular way, the problems that come up. Also in allot of the cases the majority of players have found it no big deal because it does not drammatically affect them.

CCP customer support has screwed me over a couple of times in ways that I don't want to get into, but even when they did it, I was given hearings all the way up the chain of command to the guys in charge. Even when they thought I was full of shit, they allowed me to submit a bug report and actually went through analyzing it twice before telling me that they found nothing and to drop it. No other game has gone that far when they didn't belevie me right off the bat.

1:Eve time codes
Putting the price up to $35 was rediculous, but I and others were not to bothered, after all the expansions were free.

2:Ghost training
Some people applauded it, many more (check the forums) thought it was outrageous to remove a feature under the pretense of a bug after admins had mentioned it as a feature, and it was deliberatly kept in. Not to mention the timing (Just as Iceland felt the credit crunch) and the main story changing from the original to a totally different and rediculous idea. Apparently its to balance the game, yet you can buy characters with X amount of skill points, and the older players have had GT on their side for years. All it has done is put a set price on becoming good. Whereas in WoW, more you play, more you level, in Eve as you clearly know,  its time based. Effectively this means you have to pay in execess of $300 to become good. For a game that is unbalanced (recon swarm anyone?), dated (WoW style attacking, with no location damage) and expensive, removing GT under false reasons was absurb and telling the customer that he is a fool that knows no better than what he is told. Plus it was unfair to no one, as everyone could do it ( don't understand how its unfair at all). As for the character faming claims, thats ludicrous, just bull by CCP as the outcry was from people developing alts, which are essential for every single player in Eve, not to sell, but to operate in the universe. Also, it was perfect for people with careers/ an active life (nothing implied), as I knew a lot of people in the military who found eve a great game to play. I found that with my degree i would need a few weeks out to work, so again, GT was great.
End of the day, it was removed because it wasn't making CCP instant cash, not that it wasnt an incentive for people to join, that would have been the smart conclusion.

3.Starbase Exploit
Not wanting to get personal but you fail to understand the extent of this exploit. It allowed certain corperations to gain Billions of ISK, which would have been used to mess up the politics, not to mention the bug was active since POS' have been active. Personally, I find it worrying that CCP failed to notice this bug for YEARS, even with their Prof of Economics looking at it. Plus CCP had to be told via petition about it, meaning the bug would have been around for probably years longer if it hadnt been for the heads up. As for providing facts, they sure got that wrong with the GT story....still havn't admitted why they did it.

4.Dev Misconduct
It's simply unexcusable. The worker wasn't fired and he was messing around with the product he was selling. SImply absurd. The only reason they got away with it is because you dont meet them and vice versa. The CSM is also a joke, they have no power as they wanted the corps involved in the exploit mentioned, and CCP simply said no. Thats no council, thats a dictatorship.

As for Eve in general, coming from a player who was in a BoB allaince, happily set up in 0.0, it's a bad game. As a mate puts it, its math in space. The firefights come down to who has the most ships will almost always win (Blob warfare....fun.....), the missions are useless, the levelling system is just a cash grab and the concept it broken. With no race restrictions, you see the same generic fleets flying around, hence why numbers matter, not skill. This also means that the entire storyline goes to hell as you can fly with whoever you want. Imagine in WoW if you could treat hoarde like alliance and vice versa. Pretty broken.
CCP employees ignore you or treat everyone as a fool (See the GT comments). All they want is your cash for a medicore, dated game which has little depth in teh combat (Point, click, F1-F5, wash, rinse, repeat). The game isn't expanding: don't be fooled, the real info is in the active subscriptions which CCP never release, as online players include trial accounts. If you want nothing but mindlessly flying around in a blind attempt to find fun, eve is for you. Or if you like scientific calculators. Then it's also for you

 

Not wanting to go on, but I sincerly believe CCP is ripping everyone off for a substandard game.

How were the cards not feasble? CCP were getting more money than monthly subs by using them

Non-issue? My entire corp has quit eve (20+) after all the rubbish chucked at them by CCP.

Boot.ini - unusual set up?
Actually anyone running xp who updated in the first few hour, I know mates who got screwed over by this and their set ups were as generic as pcs come.

Granted though the lag was sorted out, but that has taken far too long considering the revenue they were pulling in.

The funny thing is how the Wow lamers keep calling "free expansions" to something that is basically bugfixes + a couple of new ships.

Sigh....

Maybe its just me since I live in NYC but when I go to a store to buy a 2 month MMO game time card they charge me 34.95 for every game even Wow. Basically 30 bucks plus tax.

Stop bitching about 35 bucks and get a job maybe?

Originally posted by mindspat

Is EVE Online the only game that has it's subscription base increase from year to year besides WoW?

Not the only one but it's rare enough. It's the continual development and changing game world that does it I think. Check out MMOGcharts: http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart2.html

Runescape, Dofus and until recently Tibia have all shared the same trend. Even WoW's release didn't slow EVE's subscriber growth, it's like the markets for the two games don't overlap at all. And I can well believe they don't overlap, I've happily played both games at the same time before and neither ever provided the same gameplay experience.

And what if you can't get a job because your still in education??

Plus you missed the point completely with EvE. $35 won't do squat, you need 2 years to become any good in eve, so $420 please for a totally bland game if you don't want to supremly suck at it. Not to mention that cash goes to a company that doesn't care in the slighest about it's players, other than wanting to grab as much cash out of them as possible.

Without quoting him, I agree with Niccolado's post. CCP is a model company for other developers.

As for Jita lag, I was on Sunday and a corpmate in Jita said there were over 900 people there at the time, without lag.
 

So, out of curiosity, your totally willing to ignore the fact they lied to all their players, not once, but twice, amongst showing a complete incompetence when it comes to actually finding the real bugs, while charging a extortionate amount of money to allow players to become good due to a broken level system?

This is what I was getting at in my first post. Why is EvE increasing with the above points so relevant

Originally posted by Mazty

And what if you can't get a job because your still in education??

Plus you missed the point completely with EvE. $35 won't do squat, you need 2 years to become any good in eve, so $420 please for a totally bland game if you don't want to supremly suck at it. Not to mention that cash goes to a company that doesn't care in the slighest about it's players, other than wanting to grab as much cash out of them as possible.

 

No you dont Ive been playing Eve for a while and I have friends that started less then three months ago and already have tech II fit cruisers/BCs and are awesome in our 0.0 battles.

Saying it takes two years to become good in eve is just trolling.

Eves sub numbers and activity rise because people like the game, we dont care about ghost training or passed exploits or a cheating Dev that was taken care of along time ago.

your telling me Eve costs more now? we dont give a rats ass cause the 60 day GTC costs just as much as any other MMOs two month game card WoW included.

And im sorry that this 35$ mmo payment bothers you so much..... man you college kids act like having a job while going to school to fund hobbies is against the law or something suck it up and go work at mcdonalds for two days a week partime.