CCP Misses the 'Micro' in Microtransactions

        The inital round of Incarna's Noble Exchange does not look promising. Remember last post when I said I buy virtual clothing in Second Life? Well let's take a look at that for a moment.

        Players create SL content and sell it for game currency - Linden Dollars. The basic exchange rate is 250 Lindens per US Dollar, though it varies based on demand, as RMT is sanctioned and there is a semi-open-market currency exchange managed by Linden Labs. Players define their own prices for their content. Going rates for typical items of clothing range from free (for benevolent sellers) to L$500 for very nice items of clothing. Ornately detailed items of clothing can possibly go up to a thousand, and good avatar skins go for a couple thousand apiece, as they are complicated to design and look lifelike. Convert to USD and we have $2 for great items of clothing, $4 for superb pieces of clothing, and $8 for a really good skin. Cheap enough for people to afford easily, right?

Now we look at CCP's initial prices. This is taken from EVENews24:

Exchange Rate: 3500 AUR = 1 PLEX = $17.50 = 400 mil isk at Jita (New Eden main trade hub).

- Looking Glass Ocular implant – 12k AUR -> 3.5 PLEX -> $61.25 ->1.4 Bil ISK

- Men’s ‘Sterling’ Dress Shirt – 3.6k AUR -> 0.97 PLEX -> $16.97 -> 388 Mil ISK

- Women’s ‘Sterling’ Dress Blouse – 3.2K AUR -> .91 PLEX -> $16.00 -> 364 Mil ISK

- Men’s ‘Comando’ Pants – 3k AUR -> .85 PLEX -> $15 -> 340 Mil ISK

- Women “Impress” Skirt – 3.6k AUR -> 0.97 PLEX -> $16.97 -> 388 Mil ISK

- Women’s ‘Sterling’ Dress Blouse P – 4.4k AUR -> 1.25 PLEX -> $22.00 -> 504 Mil ISK

- Men’s ‘Precision’ Boots – 1k AUR -> 0.28 PLEX -> $5.00 -> 112 Mil ISK

- Women’s ‘Greave’ Knee-Boots – 2.4K AUR -> 0.68 PLEX -> $12.00 -> 272 Mil ISK

        About the only thing close to being competitively priced in Aurum is the Men's Boots at $5, and even that is very pricey by SL standards - L$1250 can more intelligently buy several full outfits.

        Now considering many people are very spacepoor, this seems like a big slap in their faces. Many new pilots I talk to in my corporation struggle to afford a battlecruiser, let alone items that are the price of one or two fully-fit battleships. Don't get me started about how ridiculous that monocle is...

        Now there is a rumor on EVENews24 that CCP is looking for more ways to incorporate microtransactions. A supposedly leaked memo details the areas CCP is considering, such as items, ammunition, ships, faction standings, and lots of aspects of DUST, since the console folks pay a one-time fee instead of a subscription. This memo also voices the desire for recurring microtransactions, as once a piece of clothing is bought, you don't need to buy it again. Temporary advantages or perks, therefore, are preferred. To that end, they want to make cyclical offerings of limited-edition items that introduce a sense of rarity. Also on the plan is consumable items, especially weaponry, as it is a fundamental part of the game, highly desired, and highly advantageous.

        Money for power is damning to any game. CCP counteracts it with the skill training system. You can buy as much currency as you want, but beyond implants it's useless to make you a better pilot if you lack the needed skills.

        Money for faction standings gives you instant Level 5 missions, instant jumpclones, instant research agents, instant ability to launch a POS in empire space, and instant elimination of transaction taxes. That's an uncomfortable amount of power IMO. Selling advanced weaponry for cash is equally destabilizing and dangerous, and the memo acknowledges this, but proclaims the desire to do it anyway because it will be a surefire seller. I don't doubt that for a second. I don't think it's fair either.

        The reason for all of this attention to microtransactions is revealed as well - everyone else is doing it, so we have to do it too in order to stay "competitive." This sounds like the typical short-sighted idea conceived by upper management, who fails to consider the consequences of their decisions.

        I don't like the direction this is going. And seeing that this is just the tip of the iceberg, I feel like I'm piloting a freighter named The Titanic. Or perhaps The Hindenburg.

Goodbye, Station Spinning

        Like it or not, Incarna is here. What will be the first thing you check out?

        I think, for me, it will be the following in order:

1. Captain's Quarters. I hadn't seen them on SiSi yet.
2. Aurum clothing. I buy virtual clothes in Second Life. I don't imagine EVE being very different.
3. New turrets! My Dramiel already looks badass. I can't wait for the new turret models to make my ships look more badass.

        As for what's new with me, I've got Medium Energy Turret V in the queue for patch day. Because patch day inevitably turns into patch week with something new and large such as this.

        I've been debating over whether to train Minmatar Cruiser V first, or Amarr Cruiser V. So I decided to train both. They will hit the queue after I get Medium Pulse Laser Specialization trained. After that I'll be training the Tech II cruisers to IV, followed by AWU V. That takes me to the middle of September and brings with it a lot of versatility: Logistics, Recons, HACs, and Hictors for both Shield and Armor fleets.

        My grand plan is to put a Zealot to use running Incursions, since they seem to be very lucrative. I also have another money-making plan in the works, but that's another month or two away before the plan can be revealed.

CCP Gets Greedy

        I will be brief in response to CCP's plan to charge $99 a year for any commercial application that uses their Intellectual Property: ISK isn't money. If I earn ISK for my site's services, I am not earning money because I cannot (legally) convert it to money, hence it is not a commercial venture. Ad-supported sites, sadly, I must agree are making money and must pay the fee.

        It's also ironic that this plan was created with respect to Capsuleer, but now Capsuleer is discontinued and will not return. I fear how this will impact the community as a whole. And right before Incarna's release, too.

Incursion 1.5 Thoughts

        I always find it amusing that CCP brags about their sandbox environment where one can do anything they like, yet they are constantly releasing patches that push forth an effort to influence what people should be doing.

        Today's offering makes Highsec missioning more available and lucrative than ever before. My corpmates are saying that it's ridiculously easy to get to the reputation level needed for level 4 missions. I'll be testing out that theory in Serpentis space, flying a dirt-cheap Rifter and flying in the face of the resident hooligans who are claiming Serpentis space for themselves in the wake of TEST's failed effort to drive them out.

The Best-Laid Plans...

        It feels like things have stagnated a bit. There was a large call about a month ago to move our base of operations right next to Serpentis NPC space so we can take over the area and run Archangels missions, turning in the loyalty points for shiny faction ships. So far that plan hasn't gone well. After we moved our staging system I was expecting to see lots of planned fleet ops to roam around the area and catch any enemy stragglers who happen to be hanging around. That hasn't happened very much. In fact the inhabitants seem to be holding on to the neutral space quite well, which does not bode well for our potential mission runners, myself included. There are the likes of Interceptors, Instacanes, and even a Carrier camping the stations. And like the 0rphanage, they hide in their hole anytime a fleet shows up.

        The problem is that we are not displaying our show of force like we did in the siege of 6VDT. An ideal alliance would have ships in each of the seven NPC systems, even some with cynos fitted so that they can hotdrop on a carrier who tries to take a potshot at our fleet and think they can hold on to their tank for a minute while waiting to de-agress.

        Instead what does it feel like we've been doing? Shooting a tower here, saving a tower there. Not much else. On the forums there's a general feeling of a lack of direction. I tend to agree with that sentiment. I have my own plans for improving things but I can't do it alone. In the meantime I'm focusing on a little bit of liquidation. Not because I'm wanting to move anywhere else, but to be ready to do so in case the situation with the alliance changes.

Tech II Guns Take Forever

        Medium Artillery Specialization is finished. Sharpshooter V is required for Large Artillery Specialization, as is Large Projectile V. In total about 24 days of training for those two skills alone. So much for April.

        The good news is that the guns will see plenty of use.

What's New?

        Skill Training: I've completed Minmatar Frigate V and can now fly Assault Ships, Interceptors, Cov Ops, and EWar vessels ... though who would want to fly a Hyena anyway? The WoW Rogue player in me loves Cov Ops. I have a lot of missile skills to train before I can fly a Stealth Bomber effectively, so right now I'm just having fun scouting around in a Cheetah.

        The next step is the long, arduous, but necessary path to Tech II guns. Projectiles are the flavor of the month and my Gunnery has been neglected for far too long.

        Please support the relief efforts in Japan. So far I have donated 12 PLEX to CCP's campaign for good. I encourage everyone else to participate if they can.

        I should have an interesting Op to talk about tomorrow.

EVE Blog Banter #25: Subtracting Sovereignty

Welcome to the twenty-fifth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic comes to us from @Tetraetc - "Tetra's EVE Blog" - who asks: "Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? Imagine a Null Sec where anyone could build outposts wherever. Would the reduction of the alliance game mechanic, and the removal of the sovereignty game mechanics (or the modifcation of it from Alliance level to Corp level for that matter) force more PVP into Null sec, or would giant power blocs like the NC still form themselves?"

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        I believe there is a large hurdle for alliances to leap over in order to get into capturing sovereignty. Namely, playing the reinforcement game. Getting a fleet together is simple. Getting a fleet together that has the firepower and patience to reinforce a tower? Quite a significant commitment. Getting that fleet together three times in a row at different times on different days? A heroic effort.

        For those who are ignorant of the current mechanics, here's a quick explanation. Unclaimed space is claimed with a Territorial Claim Unit (TCU). When that goes online, the system is yours and you can start placing buildings - Infrastructure Hubs (IHUBs) and Stations. All three of these building types are invulnerable as long as you hold uncontested sovereignty.

        To take someone else's sovereignty, you have to plant Sovereignty Blockade Units (SBUs) at over 50% of the system's gates. At that point the IHUB and Station become vulnerable. Taking them down requires shooting them and waiting out the reinforcement timers. When those buildings are down, the enemy TCU is vulnerable. Destroy it and the system returns to a neutral state, ready to be claimed by its conquerors.

        So what happens when you start tearing that system apart, piece by piece? First of all, the reinforcement timers. If reinforcement did not exist, an enemy fleet could storm a system and capture it within half a day. SBU's take 3 hours to come online, and TCU's take 8. In the middle of that is the timeframe for the IHUB to be destroyed and the Station to be conquered. A blob of supercaps would make it easy. This change alone can make a huge upset in sovereignty holdings, as a large alliance that is slow to react can lose systems literally overnight. For working types like myself, I'm away from EVE for 16 hours in a row every day when considering work and sleep. A successful alliance defense would require round-the-clock guard shifts across all timezones.

        If taking down the IHUB and Station was not required, then the attack can be reduced to a single player in an Industrial carrying the necessary SBU's and TCU, plus a small gang to destroy the enemy TCU.

        These changes would force such delicate instability that maintaining any amount of territorial claim would require eyes everywhere at all times and a reactionary force of minutemen available to repel any attack within a matter of hours. The week-long round-the-clock siege of 6VDT-H performed by my own alliance just a few weeks ago would be reduced to a lazy Saturday's activity. That hard work could be undermined the very next day. Establishing a flourishing market and profitable IHUBs would be next to impossible.

        Breaking down sovereignty from alliance level to corp level would surely make things more granular, but it could also splinter the effectiveness of an alliance. Each corp would have its own staging systems and the coordination between corps could easily fall apart.

        So the way I see it, removing some of the sovereignty barriers would definitely cause more PvP simply by making it easier for one group to force another group's hand. But make it too easy and the ability to change sovereignty becomes trivial with a blob force, and impossible to maintain when the opposing blob force shows up, all the while draining all the fun away from building a productive home.

        So what happens when sovereignty disappears or it becomes utterly pointless? Then nullsec simply becomes lowsec without the GCC. Anarchy. A pirate's dream. All PVP all the time. Alliances degenerate into nomadic blobs or bubbly gatecamps. Lowsec becomes the carebears risking a shot at making more money versus the solo PvPers hellbent on stopping them. Meanwhile supercapital ships have nowhere to hide, and the prices of any kind of nullsec equipment skyrocket. Well, at least it wouldn't be safer than highsec.

Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #25:

1. CrazyKinux's Musing: EVE Blog Banter #25: And by Alliance you mean.....?
2. BB25 What sov changes will come? | A Mule In EvE
3. Confessions of a Closet Carebear: Alliances and Sovereignty
4. Blog Banter 25: Nerfing Nulsec « OMG! You're a Chick?!
5. Have Alliances and the sovereignty system limited the amount of PVP and RP potential in Null sec? | Nitpickin's
6. Blog Banter #25: Alliance and Sovereignty Limiting PvP in 0.0? | Sarnel Binora's Blog
7. Blog Banter #25 - Mad Haberdashers
8. Alliances and sovereignty | Eve Online Focus
9. ...Shall we not Revenge?: BB 25: What if the Alliance vanished?
10. Blog Banter: Alliances and Sov
11. EVEOGANDA: BB25: Sov 'n Go!
12. » TBG:EBB#25 – Alliances and Sovereignty To Boldly Go
13. Freebooted: BB25: Leviathans of the Deep
14. Wrong Game Tetra ~ Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah
15. EVE Blog Banter #25 – Human nature what art thou? | Way of the Gun
16. Who cares about Sov? - Hands Off, My Loots!
17. The 25th EVE Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty - The Phoenix Diaries
18. Achernar: The space commute
19. Wandering the Void…my EvE musings. – Blog Banter: Alliances and sovereignty
20. (OOC) CK’s Blog Banter #25: How To Break EvE. « Prano's Journey
21. Captain Serenity: Blog Banter #25 - Crappy mechanics
22. Helicity Boson » Blog Banter #25 Nullsec and sov.
23. BB #25 – “With whom lie the advantages derived from Heaven and Earth?”
24. Boom! Hull-Shot?: It's the End of the Eve as We Know It
25. sered's lives: EVE Blog Banter #25 - Size does matter
26. 25th EVE BB – Medieval Solutions to Spaceship Problems | Inventions of a New Eden Industrialist
27. Eve Blog Banter #25: “Have Alliances and Sov Limited PvP and RP in 0.0?” « Align Outbound
28. Banter 25: Sovereignty, Alliances and Power Blocs | TheElitist
29. Blog Banter 25 – But I just left all that! « A Scientist's Life in Eve
30. Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
31. >>>Vigil Ant: Alliances and SOV by Munny's eyes.
32. Latro's Bunker: Blog Banter 25 -Nullsec and Sov
33. A "CareBears" Journey » Blog Banner #25: Alliances and Sovereignty, and their affect on PVP and RP
34. Blog Banter #25 – Unstoppable « Roc's Ramblings
35. Nobody likes losing « One capsuleer against all
36. EVE Blog Banter on PVP in Null Sec « Evehermit's Blog

One Week Till Remap

        EWar is finished. I saw the power of ECM during Alliance Tournament VIII and I had to buy in to it. Should I choose to fly a Caldari ECM ship, I will be evil in it. The alliance loves EWar people too.

        So what's left?

• Nanite Operation IV and Nanite Interfacing IV for heat repairs.
• Anchoring IV for drag bubbles.
• Salvaging IV for looting.

        That's it. Less than a week away. I'm excited!

The First Anniversary

        Today marks my first anniversary of playing EVE - Knee's birthday.

        Coincidentally enough, it also marks a nice skill-training milestone. Cynosural Field Theory IV finished today, putting me at just over 20 million skillpoints. An average of 2280 sp/hour.

        So, the year in review?

        After going through the tutorials, I pack up my free ships (Thrashers and Slashers and Wreathes, oh my!) and haul them 22 jumps from Matari space to my coworkers' home just outside Jita. From there I go up the missioning chain - Level 1's in a Thrasher, Level 2's in a Rupture, Level 3's in a Hurricane, and Level 4's in a Dominix. I get over 8.0 standings with the Caldari Navy, allowing me to keep some jumpclones in highsec for times when I need to go skillbook shopping.

        That's where the blog begins. The general malaise of solo missioning causes me to head to nullsec for some fun. Meanwhile I'm training exclusively Int/Mem skills in anticipation of a Per/Will remap which should last me for a good year or two. Having looked at some character skill profiles who have skillpoint totals over twice what I have, I'm pretty confident in my support backbone, and when I add Tech II ships and guns to that, I should be pretty solid.

Happy Birthday Dreddit

        One year ago, a small corporation with its meager frigates sought out a small portion of 0.0 space.

        Today, that corporation has succeeded in toppling one of the largest power centers in the EVE universe. IT Alliance has officially disbanded. Fountain is ours. Quite a nice birthday present, don't you agree?

One Month Till Remap

        The agonizingly-long Int/Mem skill plan is nearing completion. Today marks the end of training all Astrometrics skills to IV. Next on the agenda is about 9 days' worth of Rigging.

        I mixed up the plan a bit - added some things and took some other things out. I decided to put off all the Subsystems skills until later when I finish training Cruiser V. It may be less efficient but I'm getting impatient. In place of Subsystems I substituted Anchoring IV so I can use Large Warp Bubbles. Should be a handy skill to have in 0.0.

Incursion = Raiding 101

        EVE is beginning to catch up to World of Warcraft.

        What? Heresy you say! How dare I suggest EVE is inferior to World of Warcraft!

        Well, in terms of PvE content, it is.

        Before Incursion, the toughest PvE content in the game was Class 6 Wormholes, requiring 9 to 12 pilots faction fit for spider tanking. Incursion raises the bar up to 50 ships for the largest encounters. Capsuleers are finding it hard to handle these larger encounters. Welcome to World of Warcraft about 6 years ago. I was there.

        Molten Core was the first Raid instance in World of Warcraft back in 2005 - the first of several 40-man dungeons. The encounter immediately preceding it was Upper Blackrock Spire, a 10-man dungeon. Noticing a trend here?

        Such a transition was a huge wakeup call. The first encounter of Molten Core was two humongous lava giants. It took literally months to figure out how to defeat them. They weren't even a boss. They were the first of many groups of normal enemies in the Core!

        Learning how to raid took a huge amount of coordination, planning, and threat management, and this is a discipline that the EVE community is just beginning to learn on a large scale. The wormholers may have had a head start on it, but now it's something at the forefront of every Capsuleer's mind, and much more easily within their grasp.

        The days of soloing the toughest PvE content are over. People are going to have to get used to cooperating with each other instead of looking for the easy gank. Making progress within these encounters may seem slow and fruitless and first, but as soon as a group starts making headway, the morale boost causes them to steamroll over everything they meet. It happened to me. It can happen to you.

EVE Blog Banter #24: Whooooo Are You? Who, Who? Who, Who?

Welcome to the twenty-fourth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's Banter topic comes to us from the ever helpful Eelis Kiy, capsuleer behind the "Where the frack is my ship" blog. She asks: How does your real life personality compare to who you are as a character in EVE? Does a good leader of people in the real world make a good leader of pilots in game? Or vice-versa? Do your real-life skills help you with the roles you fulfill in your corporation or alliance? Or do you behave completely differently? Does the anonymity of the Internet allow you to thrive on the tears of others in New Eden whilst you work as a good Samaritan away from your keyboard? Or are you as mean outside of your pod as you are inside it? Have experiences in EVE Online affected your behavior, skills or attitudes outside of the game?

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       Ah, a wonderful topic. How does my roleplay mesh with my gameplay?

        Long story short, I play the game for myself, not for Knee. I don't play in-character and I don't think about Knee's role in things until later when I start writing. This causes some roleplay conflicts at times. I have portrayed Knee as terribly racist, with a loathing for the Amarr and a strong dislike for the Caldari by association. How could Knee tolerate working for the Caldari, to the point of killing his own brethren sometimes in missions? Such an act must be abhorrent to his character, so the answer is simple - he doesn't tolerate it at all. I make him regret his actions and attempt to atone by quitting his service to the empire. The real story was that I was bored of solo missioning and I wanted to give nullsec a try. But that makes a dull story.

        Knee's character is half newbie, half badass. A flawed hero. He grew up proficient in physical combat, but translating that knowledge into piloting a ship as a Capsuleer is a very foreign concept to him, a huge learning experience. It's fun to write about the triumphs and humble to write about the failures. In this way I can express my own little successes and failures as I play.

        Knee is a follower, not a leader. This is because of my own style. I don't want to be the FC. I want to be the loyal soldier who brings the pain. As a heroic type, Knee tries to be a good guy despite his shortcomings. But to contradict this, I've contemplated exploring the darker side of EVE. I want to participate in Hulkageddon. I want to ninja loot someone's mission and smash their carebear Marauder with a Machariel. I pod people without question in 0.0 if I am able. How can I justify such actions in-character? This forces even more creativity into the creative writing, and creates a better product. Life doesn't always turn out the way you planned. That's what keeps it interesting.

        Now, how has EVE augmented my own story? For starters, being a member of Dreddit has unsurprisingly gotten me hooked on Reddit and awestruck by all the things they have done for the common good. Just like in EVE, it makes me want to be a part of something grand done entirely by the community, without any kind of external prompting.

        I guess EVE has also made me more wary, since EVE is scam and gank central. Creating months-long skillplans is also a lesson in discipline - creating a plan and sticking to it. Now if only I could train a skill to cut my taxes by 10%. Sigh.


Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #24:


CrazyKinux's Musing - Be, All That You Can Be, And So Much More!
Where the Frack is my Ship? - Behind The Keyboard
EVEOGANDA - Real Life & EVE
A Mule in EVE - RL + EVE =
Confessions of a Closet Carebear - EVE and Real Life
The Hydrostatic Capsule - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Alt
Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah - Reflections
A Scientist's Life in EVE - The Other Side of the Screen
The Durzo Chronicles - Who is More Real??
A Lush in Space - Worlds Collide
Captain Serenity - Personalities
Diary of a Space Jockey - I Am Me
Freebooted - You Talking To Me?
Drifting Through The Stars - EVE and Real Life
EVE A to Z - EVE and Real Life
Fiddler's Edge - Game Face
Yarrbear Tales - In Real Life
Victoria Aut Mors - Where EVE Meets Real Life
Prano's Journey - I Am Prano
Mike Azariah, A Missioner in EVE - Who Are You, Who Hoo Woo Hoo [Great Minds Think Alike]
Roc's Ramblings - Me
EVE Blasphemy - EVE and Real Life
Phoenix Diaries - EVE and Real Life
Play the Game - Personalities In Game And Out Of Game
Progression's Horizon - Synonymous or Anonymous
Aggressive Logistics - Do Unto Others...
The Lathspell of Mithrandir - To Play Or To Live...
Wanderlust - I Am Not Who I Am In EVE
Latro's Bunker - EVE and RL
Shall We Not Revenge? - Multiple Personality Disorder

New Year's Resolution - The Master Skillplan

        For quite a while now, I've been working on my master skillplan. My ultimate goal is to be able to fly any sub-capital warship and be awesome at piloting it. This will increase my versatility and hopefully my overall experience. Thanks to EVEMon, that ultimate goal is about 2 and a half years away.

        Such planning takes discipline. Support skills in EVE are more important than the ship skills themselves, as the ship is useless if the pilot can't use it to its full potential. To that end I have been training exclusively Int/Mem skills for the past few months. Today marks the day when the Navigation branch of the plan is completed.

        Without further ado, commence pretty graphs! Here's my current skillpoint distribution:

        As I promised in School's Out, I dumped my reimbursed Learning skillpoints into Leadership fleet boosting, an excellent investment that will be useful in a Battlecruiser, a Command Ship, or even a Strategic Cruiser.

        I'm still debating at what point I cut the umbilical cord and get into the sweet, sweet combat skills, but it's looking to be sometime between Mid-February and the beginning of March. At that time, the distribution will look like this:

        During that time, I'm planning to train some more levels in Rigging, Astrometrics, EWar, Tech III Subsystems (Defensive, Electronic, and Engineering), and a couple of other vital skills.

        After that it's remap to Per/Will for a long long time, hence why I want to get everything else out of the way beforehand. First priority will be to skill for a Tech I Maelstrom since that's the current fleet flavor of the month. That's just a few days away. After that will be a fairly logical progression:

Tech II Minmatar Frigates and Tech II Small Projectiles

Tech II Minmatar Cruisers and Tech II Medium Projectiles

Battlecruisers V and Command Ships

Advanced Weapon Upgrades V and Tech II Large Projectiles

Minmatar Subsystems (Offensive, Propulsion) and Strategic Cruiser

All other Gunnery Support skills to V (Rapid Firing, Surgical Strike, Trajectory Analysis)

        The remainder of the year will then go to cross-training Amarr, starting the process anew - Frigates and Small Lasers, Cruisers and Medium Lasers, Battleships and Large Lasers. This will allow me to be useful in Armor fleets. By the end of Perception / Willpower Year 1, the skillpoint distribution will look like this:

        2012 is devoted to boosting up my Drones skills: getting Tech II Sentries and Heavies, as well as Drone Interfacing V. I also sneak in Gallente Frigate V and Cruiser V so I can play around in an Ishtar and use Dramiels and Cynabals to their full potential. The remainder of the year is devoted to the Caldari, training all the Missile skills as well as Caldari ships. After 2012, it will look like this:

        2013 wraps things up by skilling up Gallente and Hybrids in the same manner. After that, who knows? Capitals, perhaps?

EVE Blog Banter #23: I'm Walking in Stations, Now What?

Welcome to the twenty-third installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

With Incursion giving us glimpses of what Incarna will have to offer (the the Character Creator), this month's topic, by @Minerpewpew, comes just at the right time. He asks "What are your thoughts on how Incarna will effect the current EVE Online social dynamic?" I'd like to see this questioning go a bit further. How will this affect EVE's player base? Who will Incarna attract? New players to the genre? Seduce old players back into the game? Will we see new players come in that will never leave their station? Please explore to the best of your abilities!

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        Commercialization does funny things to online games. When Team Fortress 2 began receiving class content updates, the focus of the player base was to cooperate and acquire all the achievements necessary to unlock the new weapons. Occasionally a few hats were introduced to give players some flair to wear as they were fragging each other. Then the "Mann-conomy" update appeared. All the content which was previously found through achievements or luck of the draw was suddenly purchaseable and tradeable. Suddenly the weapons which gave players tactical advantages in combat took a back seat in players' eyes. The thing most coveted in Team Fortress 2 is hats. Lots and lots of hats, traded as bargaining chips for bigger, better, more rare hats. Tens of thousands of dollars being spent on virtual items that simply look pretty. It put a standard FPS in a whole new light.

        I can hear the jealous wail all the way from Iceland.

        Despite the claims from diehard capsuleers that The People are not interested in Incarna, I will argue that EVE players ARE interested in vanity, and CCP can harness that vanity in Incarna. Simply look at those who feel the need to stockpile every ship in their hangars with Test Dummies, Spiced Wine, Tobacco, Pax Amarria, and Exotic Dancers. Those same players will be scrambling to get together a proper winter ensemble for their avatar when the weather outside gets chilly.

        Another guaranteed way CCP can generate interest in Incarna by capitalizing on players' vanity is through rarity. There is a common thread between MMO's and Trading Card Games. They both thrive due to items that not everybody can have. EVE is not a stranger to rare items. Three Frekis were lost by Circle of Two during Alliance Tournament VIII - mere frigates with street values of over 30 billion ISK apiece due to their limited-edition rarity. Imagine the adornments CCP can conceive which will cause people to part with their ISK and even PLEXes due to being limited-edition items. In a year we could see an Alliance Tournament award medals of valor for the winners which can be affixed to their avatars.

        So we've established that Eternal Pursuit of the Shiny will cause some people to enjoy Incarna. What about the people who don't care about that? How will Incarna change the social game? That part is a bit trickier because the story essentially hasn't been written yet. Harken back to Mynxee's recap of the October CSM Summit and you will see that they point-blank asked CCP if there will be gameplay in Incarna, and what is planned, and CCP basically responded, "Hmm, good question. Why don't you tell us what you want?"

        This reaction is a very dangerous tell. CCP has stated before that they are making Incarna in order to fulfill a self-imposed desire to diversify. Through what medium? They don't know, just as long as it sells stuff via microtransactions. The problem with that is that you cannot force a game into existence without knowing what its content is going to be, and still expect it to be fun. Look at Spore - a game that had the most potential of any concept imaginable, but ended up completely lacking in depth and substance. A game has to be compelling on its own without a need for the concept around it. This is why Incarna is going to be extremely difficult to create. CCP's purpose for building Incarna is to generate a social following. To that end it has to attract people into a social context. Think Facebook. What draws people to it? Making new friends, keeping in touch with existing friends, social networking, blogging. And then there's Farmville, Bejeweled, and Texas Hold-Em Poker.

        EVE Hold-Em is already a player attraction, and an Incarna version that cuts out the middleman would surely gain a following. That has a side benefit at least - the ability to play for ISK. The other games are just gimmicks. Remember that you're in EVE. You're already playing a game. Why play a game within a game? There has to be incentive. In fact the most important requirement for Incarna to succeed is if it's fun to play WITHOUT leaving the station. It has to compete with EVE itself. There has to be a compelling reason for Incarna's existence to create social interaction beyond what already exists in chat channels. Looking at avatar bling is not enough. Creating and selling avatar bling, now that's something that has potential. In order to compete as a chatroom-with-benefits, Incarna has to rival the likes of Second Life as a social gaming platform, which already has the advantage by sanctioning RMT through an in-game currency exchange. Imagine selling ISK for cash through EVE's website. That'd elevate the scamming incentive by quite a bit, I'd bet.

        How will Incarna affect the rest of EVE? Let's say CCP does everything right and Incarna develops its own entire player base. There is still outer space to contend with. Just like item logistics, you gotta get to the station in order to attend the party going on inside it. With this in mind, I don't think the core player base will change much. EVE outside of stations is still the cold, harsh universe it's always been, and new players will not appreciate the callous admonishments when their sparkly new ship goes poof because they thought 0.4 security space was safe. Despite the potential for social enrichment, I think most station-dwellers will be primarily worrying about their chances of winning an all-in with pocket Kings so they can buy their next PLEX. Or hats. Hats are purty.

Other responses to EVE Blog Banter #23:

I am Keith Neilson - Incarnal Desires

Bob From Marketing - Incarna

Confessions of a Closet Carebear - Who Enters The New Incarna(tion) of EVE

OMG! You're a Chick?! - Nobody Will Use Incarna - The Remix
An Amarrian Capsuleer - Incarna
Interstellar Privateer - Depth of Vision
Latro's Bunker - Incarna and EVE's Social Dynamic
EVE A to Z - Incarna
New Eden History Student - On Incarna
Blastrad Tales - Incarnate
Tai One On - Incarna
Serenity One - Force Fed
Roc's Ramblings - Shiny
Aeroxe's Assault - Stretching Your Legs
A Mule in EVE - What Comes With Incarna
Ardwulf's Lair - These Aren't The Legs You're Looking For
Progression's Horizon - These Legs Are Made For Walkin'
CrazyKinux's Musing - Rome Wasn't Built In A Day, Neither Was New Eden
Drifting Through The Stars - Topic: Incarna
Diary of a Pod Pilot - The Incarna Effect
The Hydrostatic Capsule - Generations
Aggressive Logistics - 'Tis The Season To Be Shiny

School's Out!

        Read the latest CCP Dev Blog and rejoice!

        It's been a hotly-debated topic for what seems like forever - the Learning skills. Like most beginning pilots, I mocked the fact that I had to spend an entire month to learn how to learn before I could learn the things I wanted to learn, lest I give up time due to the lack of efficiency.

        Now CCP has announced their intent to implement what seemed to be the most agreeable compromise, unsurprisingly devised by the CSM. Learning skills are going away and we're receiving +12 to all attributes instead, plus a reimbursement of all skillpoints invested into Learning.

        "Great," I thought, "I can accelerate my skillplan and be a month ahead of schedule." Then the comment feedback got my wheels turning.

        First was Trebor Daehdoow's suggestion that if your neural mapping allowed for Learning skills to train at a rate higher than what you were currently working on, then train Learning skills now before the reimbursement and get a return investment of skillpoints that's greater than what you would have gotten if you had just continued with your skillplan.

        Then came a comment from Ishina Fel who said, "Time to make a list of all those CHA-based skills I want maxed..." With CCP Zulu's announcement just a few days ago that the PLEX-for-remaps idea was getting scrapped, I was annoyed that I would have to train Charisma skills at a low rate because I don't see a Charisma remap plan as worth a year of training time. I would run out of skills that I would want.

        Wow, what a double whammy to solve both of those problems. I have switched to training Eidetic Memory V which is bringing me more skillpoints per hour than my current skillplan. Then I can drop those reimbursed skillpoints into Leadership at an equivalent rate of 2200-2300 an hour instead of 1350 without the need for a remap!

        What will this buy me? With currently 2 million in Learning which will turn into about 3 or 4 million by the time we get reimbursed, I can go from zero in Leadership to having Leadership V, Wing Command III, Warfare Link Specialist III, and a couple of levels each in Skirmish, Armored, and Seige Warfare Specialist. Not bad. It may be a little bit of a sidestep, but it's a perfect opportunity to take advantage of Learning skills one last time.

Rifter Swarm FTW!

        The honorable and multi-talented Rixx Javix of EVEOGANDA has been well-known in the EVE Universe as an accomplished artist who does commissioned pieces for people's blogs, corp websites, and anything else they like. As of late he has added some EVE merchandise to his repertoire in the form of Cafepress designs for sale on T-Shirts, Mugs, and Tote Bags. A couple of weeks ago he added this design to the collection: Rifter Swarm FTW!

        As a proud Minmatar player and a member of Dreddit, a corporation famous for encouraging days-old newbies to join combat in null-sec in anything they can fly - especially Rifters, I had to have this shirt. Rixx said in his blog post that he would hope to see someone walking around in this shirt. Well Rixx, this is for you!

        So to recap: Read EVEOGANDA. Check out his Cafepress Store. Buy his stuff - all proceeds are donated to the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Fly Minmatar.

RL Distractions = Level 5 Skills

Being on call this week at work, I don't have the privilege of blowing up spaceships at my leisure. It's a perfect time to train an 11-day skill.

Meanwhile, I have a couple of purchases to talk about. Stay tuned.

On Downtime and Exploits

        So it seems my alliance managed to create a nice bit of controversy. EVE was taken down for half a day to apply the Tyrannis 1.2 patch. Before the server went down, TEST planted Territorial Claim Units in areas of unclaimed 0.0 space. They normally take 6 hours to complete the claim, during which the unit can be destroyed. Due to the downtime, however, nobody could contest the claim and TEST returned to EVE several systems richer. Apparently the former owners (or non-owners to be more accurate) did not like this chain of events and petitioned the GM's who revoked the claims on the territory.

        So the first question is: was this an exploit? Probably. My personal thought as a programmer is that timed items like this should not elapse while the server is in downtime. As soon as the server came up and was accepting player connections, then the competing alliance should have had 6 hours from that point to contest the claim.

        So now extrapolate that. What if the downtime was arbitrary, like the two-day unforeseen outage caused by moving the database? The timer starts when the server is up, but how can a group organize when the server comes up at a random time with real-life constraints sometimes preventing you from acting?

        Also, consider what timers stop and which ones continue. Skills continue training because they don't affect other groups directly. What about reinforced towers? Other sovereignty timers? Planetary Interaction? Research and Industry? Capital Shipbuilding? My opinion is that any timer that can cause a loss to someone should stop. That means that towers and sovereignty freezes and everything else keeps going.

        It's not perfect, but it's better than provoking GM interference in the shadow of the whispers of favoritism of which CCP will probably never rid themselves.