In Part 2 of this mini series I wrote about the concerns I have around EvE online’s player population dwindling. Which I am sure is a concern for other players of the game as well and I think it should be important to people that don’t play the game to understand that there is value in having games that are very different than then ones they play. If EvE goes, a lot of ideas for sandbox type of MMOs go with it. Things like deep crafting, risk reward, timed skill learning. There are games out there that have some of these parts but not all. EvE is unique, it should remain for as long as MMOs are around. Just think back to what happened to people that lost Star Wars Galaxies… it was a tough loss for the MMO landscape, people are still hurting.
So with that being what it is, I wanted to spend a couple paragraphs talking about things that work for me as far as keeping me attracted to the game and what I would like to see that might improve the player numbers. The ideas I am going to throw out are crazy, will never ever happen type of stuff. But I am thinking, so what, let’s imagine and have fun with it!
What Works:
First off, I think it’s important to consider what is working currently, and perhaps build on it in the future.
Log in rewards… the greatest invention ever. EvE online is not the first to use that system, but its a system that works. For example there is a game by the name of Warthunder, and it uses that system constantly. And it kept me interested in the game for much longer than I expected due to it.
EvE has their own version of it, but the problem is that it so random when it happens that sometimes I miss it all together. But I can’t stress enough how good it feels when I log in and there is something waiting for me, like skill points for example. I jump in and I know that the thing I have been waiting for is that much closer just because I logged in.
What Could Work:
This one is crazy… Planetary Exploration. I know people are rolling their eyes as they are reading this. I never said my ideas are possible, I just want to throw things out there for fun. But think about. How crazy would it be to have a 3d world to explore as a human being and not a ship? I think that’s probably the biggest turn off for someone like me when it comes to EvE is the fact that I am a collection of ships and not really a person in the game. Which is a weird feeling, and some days I am fine with it and others it is incredibly immersion breaking. But that is besides the point. Having the ability to go down to a planet and build bases, have orbit defenses, fighting for planet resources on the planet. It might work, but it might not, I don’t know. I think if the spin off that was Dust 514 or whatever it was called was actually part of the main game… It would have been amazing.
This one is less crazy and I think CCP is working on it, but the font and text size… I mean… come on. Most of us that play the game are on longer 16… some of us are getting into the age where we have to squint to look at stuff. Can we get the UI to finally be legible? Please?!?!?
Another crazy one, walking around your spaceship and space stations. We used to have captain quarters that you could walk around and that was something we thought was an indicator of what’s to come. But instead CCP did nothing with it, and eventually took it out all together. To me that was incredibly disappointing. The captain quarters was literally the only way I connected with my character. Infact its so bad for me ingame, that I just pretend to be an AI system controlling ships. Because I can tell you right now I do not feel like a capsuleer in that game at all.
Like I said in previous articles about EvE, there is so much to like about the game. I mean there is a reason I keep coming back to it. There is depth to it, just feels like its missing fun things to engage in other than being suspended in space shooting lasers(missiles in my case). I get that that’s literally the point of the game, but the sub number is dropping, maybe it’s time to reimagine? Or atleast look in the suggestion box and think about the things that were a definite no as a solid maybe?
I know CCP is not giving up on EvE and are working on things to keep the players engaged, with new invasions and now a mobile version of the game. My opinion on the mobile move is that it is interesting, but not something I will try. I have no reason to, I have the full game why play the light version of it?
What do you think would be awesome to add into the game? Let’s say money is no object and the development time is nonexistent, what would you add?
P.S. Images are from evepics.wordpress.com/ a site ran by Wilhelm Arcturus.
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