CCP Zulu just posted this... a lot better than the last one but is it enough?

The tone and demeanor of my blog on Friday did not correctly portray my emotions towards the community and player base at large. I love and respect EVE and its community on a level that's hard to really do justice in words. However I let my frustration take charge of me, fueled by emotions that had built up due to a breach of trust we at CCP have been experiencing over the past few days. I know that sounds ironic considering those are the exact same feelings you have been having towards CCP.

For that I am sorry.

Having cooled off a bit and taken a solemn look at the situation, I see it's clear we need to strengthen the deep mutual trust and respect that's been so unique and descriptive of our relationship. There are certain questions you want answered and there isn't room for more error in our communication on those topics or our perception of the root causes.

Therefore we have asked the CSM to join us in Iceland for an extraordinary meeting June 30^th and July 1^st to discuss the events of past week, to help us define and address the real underlying concerns, and to assist us in defining and iterating on our virtual goods strategy.

The result of this meeting should be mutual agreement of how virtual goods and services will evolve in EVE. Other issues may be brought up and we urge you to contact the CSM with your comments and concerns so that they may be addressed at this session.

However, just to prove the point of the Fearless newsletter and give you a further understanding of what it is then there are no and never have been plans to sell "gold ammo" for Aurum. In Fearless people are arguing a point, which doesn't even have to be their view, they are debating an issue. This is another example of how information out of context is no information at all.

Due to the volatility of the topic we want to refrain from any further comments on this matter until after meeting with the CSM.

Thank you for your patience,

Arnar Hrafn Gylfason

Senior Producer of EVE Online

Bren

Yes i really do think it will be enough.... those who really do care about the game will be reassured (i was!) after the CSM  meeting i have no doubt that the whole matter will be laid to rest, while the pricing of Vanity items will probably remain a contested issue.. it will more than likely be because the ones complaining can't actually afford to buy them... though with promises of more items to come that may be cheaper..  and/or more expensive.. i can only see this becoming an issue of 'one up manship' where 'keeping up with the jones' ' is too expensive...  as a player who rarely has more than 500m isk in their wallet.... i am in the category of 'cannot afford' though in truth.. i wouldnt buy them if i could.. losing ships in pvp is expensive enough without losing your 'shirt' ...

I have more faith in CCP as a company than to let a leaked memo get under my skin enough to get me to cancel my account that i've had since 2007.

the new devblog made me feel better, regardless.

i'm still keeping a watchful eye for any cash shop shenanigans but tbqh i dont expect them to expand it to anywhere other than vanity.

I have no expectation of this doing anything. Sadly while the EVE community is great for helping people who are willing to learn it also has no ability to let go of anything. Regardless of what CCP says or does there will still be much screaming and yelling untill the parts of the community that are doing the screaming and yelling tire of screaming and yelling,

And Hilmer from CCP recently added this remark...

"Currently we are seeing _very predictable feedback_ on what we are doing. Having the perspective of having done this for a decade, I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what our players do and less of what they say. Innovation takes time to set in and the predictable reaction is always to resist change."

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1536495

Once again, I have cancelled my subscription and am speaking with my wallet, but not in the way CCP was hoping for with MT purchases.  As Hilmer states above, they listen to what players do more than what they say.  All the whining on the forums does no good, but hitting them where it hurts financially does. 

Hasta la vista EVE!

Originally posted by Duvious

And Hilmer from CCP recently added this remark...

"Currently we are seeing _very predictable feedback_ on what we are doing. Having the perspective of having done this for a decade, I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what our players do and less of what they say. Innovation takes time to set in and the predictable reaction is always to resist change."

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1536495

 

Once again, I have cancelled my subscription and am speaking with my wallet, but not in the way CCP was hoping for with MT purchases.  As Hilmer states above, they listen to what players do more than what they say.  All the whining on the forums does no good, but hitting them where it hurts financially does. 

Hasta la vista EVE!

Exactly... and CCP's behavior is very predictable as well.

They're pretending to back peddle, apologizing for their tone and begging players to believe that it's all just a misunderstand, all to placate the playerbase into a false sense of security.

In a few months once things are settled and people have forgotten, they'll push their MT agenda again, and the cycle will repeat itself.

Originally posted by Ceridith

Exactly... and CCP's behavior is very predictable as well.

They're pretending to back peddle, apologizing for their tone and begging players to believe that it's all just a misunderstand, all to placate the playerbase into a false sense of security.

In a few months once things are settled and people have forgotten, they'll push their MT agenda again, and the cycle will repeat itself.

Basically this, of course they're going to attempt to quiet the shitstorm it's bad publicity, that has no automatic meaning of they're giving in. As others have said they're not commiting to anything right now. They're only looking for ways to manipulate the situation in their favor.

Well for my personal view on the Blog and the current situation... I do think that CCP Zulu has had a little time to think this over and is sincere in his thoughts and feelings in this blog however... Given the current situation and the total revolt of a very large portion of the playerbase I don't think it will have a huge effect on placating the current uprising. These players are not just revolting against the NeX, no in fact this has been building for months, maybe even over the last year. This is something that CCP has lost sight of and we can only hope that the upcoming CSM summit will address all of these concerns and bring CCP's current understanding back into focus.

The NeX, Newsletter, Email, Condesending Friday Blog and everything else that has happened lately were just a triggering event for something that runs much deeper and has been causing an ever widening void between CCP and the playerbase for some time now. Until they can get to the root causes of these issues and correct them EVE Online will never be the same and may in fact never recover from the total breakdown of trust the players now have for CCP. This protest is about a loss of trust between CCP and the playerbase, A trust that was developed over years of working very closely through the CSMs and in fact directly with the players in a lot of cases. Somewhere over the last year CCP has lost sight of why that trust exists and have lost that trust as a result of their lack of sight.

Gaining back that trust is going to take more then one blog post at this point unfortunately. We can only hope that many good things come out of this CSM summit as this may be the most important meeting in the entire history of EVE Online. It will in fact make or break the game.

Bren

Let me see if I get this right: their giving people maybe 5 days at most to book a transatlantic flight so they can get input and work on solutions to these issues?  Say, you know what this makes me think of?  All those bills that the US congress passes in the middle of the night so the public doesn't hear about it or have time to protest.

Originally posted by Duvious

And Hilmer from CCP recently added this remark...

"Currently we are seeing _very predictable feedback_ on what we are doing. Having the perspective of having done this for a decade, I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what our players do and less of what they say. Innovation takes time to set in and the predictable reaction is always to resist change."

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1536495

 

Once again, I have cancelled my subscription and am speaking with my wallet, but not in the way CCP was hoping for with MT purchases.  As Hilmer states above, they listen to what players do more than what they say.  All the whining on the forums does no good, but hitting them where it hurts financially does. 

Hasta la vista EVE!

Aint that from an earlyer blog? as i have read those exact same words befor?

I found this article that baconja posted in "absolutely disgusting" topic on this site very interesting and is alot about what is happening to eve atm

http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win

If you dont want to watch it all skip to 22.00 and watch from there. Its about forum users.

Seems CCP have been watching this also.

Originally posted by Ceridith

Originally posted by Duvious

And Hilmer from CCP recently added this remark...

"Currently we are seeing _very predictable feedback_ on what we are doing. Having the perspective of having done this for a decade, I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what our players do and less of what they say. Innovation takes time to set in and the predictable reaction is always to resist change."

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1536495

 

Once again, I have cancelled my subscription and am speaking with my wallet, but not in the way CCP was hoping for with MT purchases.  As Hilmer states above, they listen to what players do more than what they say.  All the whining on the forums does no good, but hitting them where it hurts financially does. 

Hasta la vista EVE!

Exactly... and CCP's behavior is very predictable as well.

They're pretending to back peddle, apologizing for their tone and begging players to believe that it's all just a misunderstand, all to placate the playerbase into a false sense of security.

In a few months once things are settled and people have forgotten, they'll push their MT agenda again, and the cycle will repeat itself.

 Classic float an idea out there, see how people react. Then buy time while the situation runs it's course then proceed with whatever the planned changes are going to be.

Cancel now folks, this stuff is pretty standard CM psychology.

Originally posted by ravtec

Originally posted by Duvious

And Hilmer from CCP recently added this remark...

"Currently we are seeing _very predictable feedback_ on what we are doing. Having the perspective of having done this for a decade, I can tell you that this is one of the moments where we look at what our players do and less of what they say. Innovation takes time to set in and the predictable reaction is always to resist change."

http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=1536495

 

Once again, I have cancelled my subscription and am speaking with my wallet, but not in the way CCP was hoping for with MT purchases.  As Hilmer states above, they listen to what players do more than what they say.  All the whining on the forums does no good, but hitting them where it hurts financially does. 

Hasta la vista EVE!

Aint that from an earlyer blog? as i have read those exact same words befor?

I found this article that baconja posted in "absolutely disgusting" topic on this site very interesting and is alot about what is happening to eve atm

http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win

If you dont want to watch it all skip to 22.00 and watch from there. Its about forum users.

Seems CCP have been watching this also.

Possibly so, and I may lose some credibility here since I didn't double check, as I re-posted what someone else had said on the official forums today.  Still disturbing either way.

Originally posted by ravtec

Aint that from an earlyer blog? as i have read those exact same words befor?

I found this article that baconja posted in "absolutely disgusting" topic on this site very interesting and is alot about what is happening to eve atm

http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win

If you dont want to watch it all skip to 22.00 and watch from there. Its about forum users.

Seems CCP have been watching this also.

Wow that is scary, sounds just like what CCP is thinking right now based on what they are doing and AREN'T saying.  The numbers seem to favor them doing this, according to the video.  Business is business, so I can't blame them for their actions if it actually increases revenue but as a soon to be ex-player I will not support it.  I guess I'm one of those 2% of forum readers and posters who will have no impact, but I will not be one of those stating I will quit only to rejoin.  I have too many other things to take my interest. 

NOTE: Soon to be ex-player as in, I've already cancelled my sub, but my current gametime is valid through July 17th, 2011, upon which I will not re-sub.  It was a good run while it lasted.

Well, I feel it is a little unfair for me to comment on this issue since I don't play this game, but then again maybe the view of this situation from a disinterested thrid party may help. So here goes.

First off I am one of the gamers who hate cash shops in games. I especially loath them in games that already have a monthly subscription fee. Vainity or power items, I do not want to see them sold like toys in a vending machine. It is my feeling that these games are for playing, not for virtual nick nack collecting. So, if to make a spot of cash these companies allow you to side step actually playing the game to achieve ownership of these items, I feel it defeats the entire purpose of the games exisitance.

That said I feel that the recent fan outrage was both premature and excessive. Before the hysteria of mass rage quits ensued I think people should have waited a couple of days to get clarification as to just exactly what the leaked memo meant instead of just filling in the blanks inside their own heads and running off all scattershot.

THAT said, I think Arnar Gylfason's rather condecending blog response about the incident was just about the worst reaction possible. It not only seemed like he did not take the player bases fears seriously, it looked like he didn't take the players themselves seriously. Very bad move that. You bite the hand that feeds you at your own peril. And a move I'd be willing to bet actually cost him more subscribers than the aforementioned memo. Now that he has seen that many of these people (whether their reasons are justified or not) aren't just blowing smoke and really will quit the game over this kerfuffle, he has realized he has more important issues than his own bruised ego. I feel for many disgruntled subscribers this will not only be too late, but like me they will now feel inclined to doubt his sincerity.

So to sum up I feel most of this whole hullabaloo was much ado about nothing and could have easliy been averted had Mr. Gylfason made his first response to the issue in a much more mature and professional manner (and yes same could be said of the angry portion of the player base). Since he didn't it looks like he escalated it into a pain in the ass that will haunt the game for some time to come.

You sir have a very accurate take on the whole subject, 3rd party or not.  I was hesitant to make judgement until I read the response in the blog and the email sent out to CCP staff, which was also leaked.  Those were the two main reasons for me cancelling my sub, not the leaked internal "Fearless" newsletter.  Wow, this is so transparent it's not even funny if someone like you can read through all the muck and you aren't even part of the EVE community.  Well said good sir, well said.

http://www.evenews24.com/2011/06/25/ccp-hilmar-global-email-shows-the-reasoning-behind-ccp-zulu-devblog/