Of Hope & Faith

 EVE  No Responses »
Oct 262011
 

Over the years that I played EVE I have seen CCP achieve some brilliant things with this game, making it really enjoyable to play.  However some 18 months ago, if not earlier than that, they seemed to start down a road that took them away from their core product, and what it is really about for the majority of EVE’s subscribers, towards a vision they had of an EVE that encompassed so much more than “mere spaceships”.  In doing so they began alienating the “spaceship” fans, all – in my opinion – to grab a share of the generic MMO market by offering such things as full body avatars, and things related to these as found in those generic MMOs. I lost a large amount of the faith I had in CCP, so much so that i sold off characters from my stable and let other accounts go inactive, bringing myself down to 1 active account.

A result of this, over the 18months or so that they were obviously focusing away from EVE, was a substantial drop in subscriptions, a major drop in PCU numbers and even more anger on various forums than normal, quite a feat considering how vitriolic eve related forums usually are.  Player dissatisfaction really came to a head with the Incarna expansion in the summer of this year, which saw the first iteration of full body avatars added to the EVE experience, along side a VERY controversial micro (I know!) transaction store. There was much rage, and the largest sub and PCU drops to date.

This seemed to wake CCP up, and slowly, very slowly over the summer they began to make noises about refocusing on their core product, their golden goose, EVE.  This culminated in a number of things:

  • An “apology” from Hilmar;
  • CCP making some staff redundant, and moving focus away from 3 products to 2;
  • A winter expansion, that promises a large amount of changes and fixes to the core product;
  • New ships, specifically chosen from some contests last year.  The info on these is to be released weekly over the coming weeks. The first is the Tornado.

All in all, this turnabout is very welcome to me personally, as a 5+ year veteran of EVE, and as someone who has followed the game much longer than that, it saddened me to see the product go ignored/have half done content thrown at it, like it did. I cannot say CCP has restored all the faith I had in them, but they are doing a good job of it.  I am sure that with enough time, and the items listed above are a good beginning, that they will reclaim the faith of many more people, and I hope that this is only the earliest days of a glorious resurgence of EVE.

To FC or not to FC

 Fcing, RVB  3 Responses »
Oct 102011
 

… that is the question.

And it is one I have been asking myself for a couple of weeks now, especially since the Unista war and leading several large, very serious business fleets against their blob. The fleets we in RVB put together for large scraps against E-Uni, were very very impressive especially when you consider the “rep” we have as a pvp training group. However, the sheer amount of organisation required in getting nearly 100 people together, getting a fleet set up just so relevant boosts take across it, then getting all of that from point A to point B, and ensuring that everyone understands the plan, and is willing to win by potentially dieing in a fire, eventually just gets to you.  

I know it did with me.  

Since the end of that war, and with the exception of 2 events, I have not really done much FCing as it just feels so much harder now and so much more stressful, even in the smaller fleets that happen daily in RVB. With the varying levels of experience found across the members in both Red Fed & Blue Republic, it often feels like herding cats with ADHD, mainly due to one or all of the following:

  • Poorly set-up overviews (if set-up at all);
  • In-ability to follow call lists “durr, wut iz primaree”;
  • Not following any plans that may be in place;
  • Jumping, when not being told to jump;
  • Bringing the wrong ship type, when the fleet description says otherwise;
  • Back seat FCing in chat, but not stepping up themselves;
  • Not getting on comms;
  • Joining fleet and then never actually joining the fleet at their location;
  • Not knowing how to give correct intel;
  • Bitching about one or two losses;
  • When the FC goes down, no one steps to the calling plate, and the fleet dies as a result;
  • Joining the fleet, then immediately claiming that you are under attack or there is x or y on the un-dock of HQ, when the fleet is no where nearby.

Eventually you can start to feel really angry about doing it – no matter how much you enjoy it – or even worse, just end up hating it.  And in RVB when you start to feel like this, then everyone suffers, as we have a dearth of FC’s and people willing to call on a regular basis, or FC gangs that leave the respective HQ systems. I know that as I got close to my snapping point I was letting go at my fleets much more often on the slightest of things, eventually it came to a head in a gang that TGL3 had been running, he went down, I took over and then just went off on a tirade against a fleet member who I felt was trying to back-seat FC, on top of a fleet that was not addressing the targets as I called them.  Since then I have just not really tried. Although I am still enjoying my time in RVB, especially since my latest RVB event “Anywhere But” got going.

Now, the question is how does someone who likes to FC, get over the burnout, and get back to it?

Truthfully, I do not know.  

Right now, I am soloing around, in the hope that my event, will get more people out and about as well, giving me some rest from the recent nonsense that I feel contributed to me snapping and getting myself back to the fun of pvp, which once I rediscover that, may kick start my will to pass it on to others. Although people being people, not many folks will wander and roam without an FC – big catch 22 right there.  

Other FC’s within RVB spend their time missioning when it gets too much, others just do not undock or log that character on.  It really is a difficult problem to solve when simply upping and leaving is not an option as you love where you are.

So to recap, I am burned out, other FC’s are burned out, and yet there is no obvious solution, but RVB is still fun for the majority who do not see these problems. And as long as RVB is fun, then I’ll be around.

 

 

Happy Birthday RVB

 Fcing, RVB  1 Response »
Oct 022011
 

So, a couple of weeks ago my beloved RVB was two.

We celebrated this with two Ganked nights during September, the first of which was a Thrasher hull night, and which went very very well from start to finish. Seeing what 100 thrasher hulls can do – especially when armed with artillery – is just an amazing thing, like really amazing.

Take a look at the Ganked killboard for a quick overview (Right now this campaign is not displaying correctly, but you can at least see the numbers, until I figure out what is wrong) of the kills we got during Ganked 3: Time On Target.

The second September Ganked was one that took the majority of the attendee’s back to their pvp roots: Rifter hulls!!  And as with Ganked 3 (and indeed any Ganked) it was a great success!!  Fleet was a sight to behold with – again – nearly 100 rifter hulls rolling out to mess up the evening of anyone they came across – and we did it with style, despite 1 smart bombing abaddon, and a group of very determined Scythe Fleet Issue pilots (We love you too Hydra) trying their best to under cut our fun!

However, the main event – and an internal RVB one at that – was one I termed “Sink the Bismarck“. This final birthday event would see a Red Fleet try and guard it’s flagship, the RVBFS Bismarck from Veisto to Oimmo, at opposite ends of the RVB combat area, while the Blue Fleet tried to prevent that.  Battleships, Battlecruisers, and relaxed rules on logistics and electronic counter measures made this a much more interesting prospect than every day RVB and both sides pulled in 70+ members for their respective fleets.

Both fleets surprisingly had formed up on time and the hunt was on, Reds rolling with an excellent scout team, and Blues with Fintarue – who is a scout team all on his own!! (They did have other scouts, however AFKing on a gate does not a scout make). Eventually, Red Fleet got near to Oimmo, and a stand off ensued.  However, it did not last too long as the Red FC made the decision to leeroy into the Blue Fleet who had setup in Vourrassi on the Hageken gate.

The rest is glorious.  Ships burned, logis repped, ECM jammed and carnage happened.

RVB did what it does best.

Happy Birthday RVB.

 

Note: I personally lost 2 battleships, and 2 loaned guardians.  And it was so worth it.