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EVE Evolved: Development on EVE in 2012
Following the summer drama that came to be known as monoclegate, the past six months have been challenging for EVE Online's players and developers alike. When players learned that cash-shop clothing was priced higher than its real-life equivalent, the quirky story of the $80 monocle swept across gaming blogs like wildfire. The story's tone soon turned a great deal more sinister with the leak of an internal company newsletter titled Greed is Good, and a second leaked memo from CCP's CEO added more fuel to the flames. Ultimately, players spoke with their wallets; subscriptions fell by at least 8%, and with no financial backup plan, CCP was forced to lay off 20% of its staff worldwide. The staff members who remained were faced with the task of turning things around, and with the feature-packed Crucible expansion, they did so spectacularly. In just a few short months, hundreds of high-profile features, graphical overhauls, and quality of life improvements breathed new life into a neglected universe. I think most players recognise that this has been a genuine turn-around from within CCP, but some are still skeptical that the company has really reformed. The question on everyone's mind is whether CCP can really keep up this quality of development in the coming year as it delivers two full expansions and integrates EVE with DUST 514. Perhaps nobody is better qualified to assess that than CSM delegate and former CCP game designer Mark "Seleene" Heard, who recently attended the December CSM summit and witnessed first-hand the aftermath of monoclegate and Crucible's development. In this week's EVE Evolved, I delve into Mark's CSM Summit report to find out how development at CCP has changed, what we can expect in 2012, and how monocle-gate has affected CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson.
The Daily Grind: Should devs listen to player councils?
EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management started as an idea with good intentions, as a way to bring the players' ideas and wishes to the development staff. But the scandals surrounding EVE's CSM seem to undermine its potential for constructive feedback. Few gamers seem to believe that the Council, dominated as it is by megacorps with their own agendas, truly acts in the best interests of the game or the playerbase. And in spite of CCP Games' declarations of cooperation, few players believe that the CSM is much more than CCP's way of paying lip service to the community. But perhaps that's as it should be. What say you, Massively readers? Should games bother with councils of players reps? Are players simply too narrow-minded or corrupt to be trusted with such power? And should devs be strong-armed into listening to the mandates of such players? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
EVE Evolved: Expansions, not excuses
Over the last few months, the phrase "Flying in Space" has been increasingly used by both EVE Online's developers and its players to describe features other than those of Incarna. It seems like a redundant phrase as all of EVE's gameplay currently takes place in space, but the distinction has become necessary when discussing the allocation of development resources. Members of EVE's player-elected Council of Stellar Management have recently spearheaded a wave of new complaints about the level of resources dedicated to EVE's in-space features, claiming that developers have been left without the resources necessary to do a good job. In the previous three EVE Evolved columns, I discussed the upcoming nullsec revamp scheduled to begin this winter and the incredible new gameplay players might get as part of it. Members of the CSM know exactly how many people will be working on that revamp, and although those numbers haven't been made public, several delegates have gone public with their disapproval. EVE's subscription fees are currently paying for the development of CCP's upcoming fantasy MMO World of Darkness and its ambitious console MMOFPS DUST 514, leaving few resources for new EVE gameplay and content. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look back at the success of EVE's first blockbuster expansion and ask why development on EVE Online has dramatically decreased over the past two and a half years.
CCP releases EVE's emergency CSM meeting minutes
There's no drama like internet spaceship drama, and the boohoos stemming from last summer's EVE Online Incarna expansion -- and the associated monoclegate controversy -- continue to make waves. CCP has finally gotten around to releasing the minutes from the "emergency" Council of Stellar Management meeting that took place in Iceland from June 30th through July 1st. According to CCP Xhagen, the lengthy delay was due to the fact that "it takes time to create a document that everyone can accept. It is important to keep in mind that CSM meeting minutes are not released unless both CCP and the CSM give their approval." The document summarizes the discussions and presents the brouhaha surrounding captain's quarters performance, the Noble Exchange, and CCP's future plans for virtual goods from the perspective of both devs and player representatives. The PDF ultimately serves as a useful summary of EVE's latest drama explosion, and you can read it in its entirety by following the link below.
Interview with CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson discusses recent events
The recent EVE Online controversy over the direction CCP is taking with the game's development took the game's developer CCP Games completely by surprise. What started as a quirky story about virtual clothing being sold for more than real clothing rapidly got out of hand with the leak of an internal company newsletter discussing previously rejected ideas for gameplay-affecting microtransaction options. The ensuing controversy quickly escalated with the convenient leak of global company email from CEO Hilmar Petursson and CCP's abject silence in response to player concerns. CCP eventually released joint statements on the contentious issues with EVE's democratically elected player advisory council, followed by a thorough press conference to address any concerns not handled in the statements. The only person we haven't heard from yet is Hilmar Petursson himself. In an interview with gamesindustry.biz today, Hilmar answered some frank questions on recent hot topics ranging from feelings inside CCP following the leaks to the company's reasons for implementing microtransactions now. At popular EVE fansite Failheap Challenge, players have posted a transcript of the interview and have begun discussing the issues it addresses. The discussion highlights that this interview was performed the day before the CSM met in Iceland for its emergency meeting and so represents Hilmar's views before that event. Among the important answers is confirmation that CCP has a commitment to discuss all future microtransaction options with the CSM before implementation, something players have been asking for since the initial statement came out.
CCP responds to monoclegate, reaches consensus with players
This has been a difficult week for EVE Online developer CCP Games, with massive controversy hitting the media surrounding what should have been a momentous expansion release. The first stage of the eagerly awaited Incarna expansion went live this month, bringing with it the new captain's quarters. Unfortunately, simple complaints over some very overpriced microtransactions soon escalated into outright panic and even in-game riots with the release of an internal company newsletter and subsequent internal email casting doubt on the game's vanity-only microtransaction policy and its development direction in general. A devblog released in response to the issue only served to make things worse, so CCP opted to fly the game's democratically elected Council of Stellar Management to Iceland for a series of emergency meetings to get a handle on the situation. Those meetings were concluded yesterday, and both the CCP and CSM made statements today to clarify the decisions reached. During the meeting, the CSM negotiated on behalf of the playerbase to hammer out an agreement on EVE's microtransaction policy, overheating issues with the captain's quarters, and other recent hot topics. Skip past the cut to watch the video accompanying the statement, and head over to the EVE devblog to read the official statements. If you have any further complaints or issues relating to the recent controversy, please mail them to brendan@massively.com or leave them in a comment and I'll do my best to ask the CSM delegates or pose your questions to CCP at Tuesday's upcoming press conference.
CCP issues brief mea culpa, EVE CSM to meet with devs
It seems as if an olive branch has been extended in the escalating conflict between CCP and hardcore fans of the company's EVE Online MMORPG. Arnar Hrafn Gylfason, otherwise known as CCP Zulu, has issued an apologetic blog post as a followup to the controversial piece he penned last Friday. Zulu chalks up the confrontational tone of the previous post to the stresses surrounding CCP's recent data leaks and also advises fans that the company is flying the Council of Stellar Management to Iceland for meetings on June 30th and July 1st. More importantly for players chaffed by CCP's assumed about-face regarding game-altering microtransactions, Zulu finally answers the burning question regarding whether or not EVE Online will eventually see pay-to-win cash shop items. "There are not and never have been plans to sell 'gold ammo' for Aurum," Zulu writes, alluding to fan reactions to the Fearless newsletter leak. While CCP certainly isn't out of the woods yet with regard to this public relations nightmare, the fact that the company is acknowledging a serious breach of customer trust, coupled with the "no gold ammo" quote, seems to be having a calming effect on the community as it waits for details to emerge from next week's emergency CSM summit.
EVE Evolved: Eight years of EVE Online
In last week's EVE Evolved column, I celebrated the third anniversary of the column with a competition to win one of three prizes worth over 500 million ISK. Congratulations go to Uniqdragon, mdubs28 and Thorium88, who will be contacted via email to arrange receipt of their prizes. In a bizarre twist that I can't believe I haven't noticed for three years, it turns out that the anniversary of my column occurs just over a week before EVE Online's own birthday on May 6th. With that in mind, this week's column is dedicated to the game's anniversary and to looking back at another successful year. The past eight years have been a wild ride for EVE Online and its developer CCP Games. EVE has grown from a fledgling niche game with under 40,000 launch subscriptions to a global melting pot of over 360,000 actively subscribed accounts. The company itself has seem similar expansion, starting from humble beginnings as a small independent studio in Iceland and growing into a multinational monster with offices in China, Iceland, North America and the United Kingdom. In this huge two-page anniversary edition of EVE Evolved, I look at how EVE Online has kept up with the industry over the years and then go on to examine this past year in detail, from the highs and lows to all the scams and awesome events.
Minmatar captain's quarters coming to EVE Online test server this week
Get ready, capsuleers. Captain's quarters are coming, and sooner than you might expect. CCP Tanis breaks the news that a rough version of the Minmatar captain's quarters will be making an appearance on the Duality test server this Thursday, April 21st. That's right: Two days hence, all you Brutors, Sebiestors, and Vherokiors will finally be able to walk around on your own two legs inside of the EVE Online client. CCP's newest dev blog cautions that the test environment is a true work-in-progress, and Tanis states that "we're still at the chisel-in-hand-in-front-of-a-marble-form stage." Why make the environment available to the public at this point? CCP is mainly looking to gather feedback and general impressions on usability, since the captain's quarters interface is eventually slated to replace the current in-game hangar view. The test run will also feature new in-station and crash course tutorials as well as interfaces for planetary interaction, corporation management, avatar re-customization, and ship fitting. In other EVE Online news, the new Council of Stellar Management held its first fireside chat a few days ago, and an audio recording of the broadcast is now available for download on the official EVE forums.
EVE Online CSM explains its power and the limits thereof
EVE Online boasts a wide variety of players, many of whom happily go their own way in the vastness of New Eden with nary a thought as to the power struggles, machinations, and celebrated conflicts that garner headlines for CCP's space-based MMORPG on a regular basis. So when hardcore EVE players debate the pros and cons of the newly elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM), newer or more casual denizens of EVE could be forgiven if they were to say, in effect, the pros and cons of whom? A new letter from the CSM aims to demystify its purpose (and the limits of its power). CCP Diagoras recently posted the letter on the official EVE website, and the piece shares the collective opinion of all nine council members on everything from time dilation and lag issues to developer communication and two "ugly truths" about the council. First up is the fact that "CCP is under no obligation to interact with the CSM outside of the strict confines of the CCP/CSM summits." Also noteworthy is the council's take on its power relative to actual game implementations. "There is no explicit power behind any player-initiated legislation approved by the CSM." Why assemble the group at all, then? Read the rest of the dev blog to find out.
EVE Online's sixth CSM election results are in
The elections for EVE Online's sixth Council of Stellar Management have come to a close, and earlier today the results were revealed to both excited Fanfest attendees in Iceland and players at home. In previous years, the CSM's role was to collect issues players had with the game and bring them to the attention of developers. This role has morphed over time into a more advisory form, with CCP running ideas by the council and using them to help prioritise the development backlog. This year's elections were heavily influenced by political voting from EVE's nullsec alliances. Organised voting secured spots on the council for several big players in territorial warfare, and a few old faces returned for a further term. Political voting isn't necessarily a bad thing for the CSM, as players who are heavily involved in EVE are still the types of people we want to see on the council. CCP employees can't also be power players in the game, so they miss out on the perspective that alliance leaders and other heavily involved players will have. Participation was huge this year, with a total of 49,069 votes being cast in a two-week period. This represents 14.25% of the total accounts eligible to vote, an increase over last year's 12.67%. Read on for a full rundown of the elected members of EVE's sixth Council of Stellar Management.
Massively's EVE Online CSM 6 candidate roundup
Starting life as a humble indie MMO development studio, CCP Games was always noted for its close relationship to the players of its flagship game EVE Online. That relationship diminished a lot over time as both the size of the playerbase and the scale of EVE's development grew to immense proportions. Today CCP relies on players to guide development more than ever, but it needs a lens through which to focus feedback from such a large community of players into a form that the team can use. The democratically elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM) is that lens. Fifty-seven players submitted their applications to join EVE's elected player council this year, and all this week, players have been voting to decide who will represent them in discussions with CCP. With so many candidates in the running and only four more days to make up your mind, it can be hard to pick one individual from the list. To help you decide, Massively has compiled a full list of every applicant in the running along with a short message about his or her campaign and handy links to available campaign resources. When you're ready to vote, follow this link to the voting page, log in, and click the vote button to the right of your chosen candidate. Remember to get your vote in before March 23rd when polls close! The results will be published on March 30th, and we'll find out who will be representing the EVE playerbase to CCP for the coming year.
EVE Evolved: Your vote counts -- EVE's sixth CSM
Of all the groups involved in EVE Online, the democratically elected Council of Stellar Management (CSM) may be the most significant influence in the game's development. The council was originally created as a way to reassure players that the developer corruption exposed in the T20 scandal would not be repeated. Players voted for a list of representatives from the community, who were then flown over to Iceland to review CCP's newly created internal affairs department. Since then, the CSM has taken on a more advisory role to CCP, presenting itself as a conduit through which players can focus their ideas and any issues they're having with EVE. With the fifth CSM term now coming to a close, voting has begun to choose the members of the sixth council. Players with active EVE accounts over 30 days old have until March 22nd to log in and register their votes. If last year's record 39,433 voter turnout is anything to go by, this year your votes will matter even more than ever. Competition is high for a spot on the council, and it's up to the players to determine who will best represent them in meetings with CCP. If you're having trouble deciding whom to vote for, stay tuned to Massively's EVE Online coverage this week for a breakdown of all the candidates in the running. This week's EVE Evolved is dedicated to convincing you that your vote counts. In this article, I address a few common reasons people are put off voting, explain why the CSM is a force for change in EVE, and hear a few words from ex-CSM Stephan Pirson.
Candidates announced for EVE's sixth CSM
Over the past few years, EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management has been making an increasingly large impact on the game. Every year, thousands of players vote in the CSM elections to select nine volunteers who can represent the interests of EVE's players. The council's job is to collect together details of issues players are having with the game, from bugs and balance issues to widely supported gameplay suggestions. Twice per year, the council members meet with CCP's developers in Iceland for the CSM Summit. It's here that the issues players have raised are discussed and prioritised. As CCP's advisory council on game design, the CSM has been placed in a position of significant influence over EVE Online's development. Early last month, CCP put out the call for players interested in running for election to sign up and declare their intent to join the council. The entry period is now over, and a list of the approved candidates we'll soon be voting on has been published. Of the 72 players who applied, only 57 met the role's criteria for eligibility. Among those accepted are four previous council members hoping to continue their stay in the group and two former alternates. Each candidate has prepared a short statement on his or her reasons for standing for election, and many will be running campaigns on the forum and in-game in the weeks running up to the vote.
Candidacy opens for EVE Online's sixth CSM term
While many MMOs have a community team whose job it is to bring issues affecting players to the attention of developers, EVE Online goes one step further by involving players directly. Once per year, players vote on whom they want to represent the playerbase in meetings with CCP Games as part of the democratically elected Council of Stellar Management. During its 12-month term, each edition of the CSM works hard to compile a list of issues players are having with the game or its development, including balance issues, bugs and ideas for changes the developers might not have considered. The most important of these are scheduled for discussion at one of the twice-yearly CSM council summits in Iceland, in which the council converses directly with developers. The fifth council session will soon be coming to a close, and as with the previous councils, it has had both high points and low points during the year. The council's poor treatment in the summer summit and the subsequent player uproar was followed up with some positive changes at CCP and a complete turnaround in the winter talks. With the fifth council session ending, CCP has issued an open call for candidates for the sixth council. To submit yourself for consideration and public voting, read the official conditions in the latest EVE devblog and then head over to the submission page on the EVE website. Among the terms and conditions this year is a new requirement that makes a campaign message mandatory. The last election saw several players enter the running without any campaign message, so this is a welcome change from last year's submission rules.
Massively's EVE CSM interview: Incarna and nullsec PvP
In part one of our interview with EVE Online's player-elected Council of Stellar Management, we asked council member Deirdra Vaal about EVE Gate, the upcoming forum revamp, CCP's microtransaction policy and other topics discussed at the December CSM summit. In three meeting sessions, CCP and the CSM tackled some hard-hitting issues, the biggest of which were Incarna and nullsec PvP. Most of the details on Incarna are currently locked under NDA, but that didn't stop us from asking the CSM about it. Nullsec PvP has also been a hot topic recently with the revelation that levels of PvP have actually been declining since the Dominion expansion. Dominion was intended to open up nullsec for smaller entities, but we still see EVE's political landscape dominated by massive coalitions of alliances spanning several regions. Massively: The CSM expressed significant concerns about the Incarna development plans it had access to. Does the CSM think that CCP is heading in the wrong direction with Incarna? Deirdra Vaal: We feel that the approach taken to Incarna is the wrong one, and we emphasised this to CCP. However, CCPs general idea to set Incarna as an "off the grid" environment where we go for shady deals is something the CSM is reasonably happy with. It's just that so far we haven't really been shown any compelling gameplay. So we think they might be heading in the wrong direction, if they are lazy about it. They might also be heading in the right direction, but so far we haven't seen compelling gameplay that would support this assumption. Skip past the cut for the rest of our interview with EVE's CSM on Incarna, nullsec PvP and the future of EVE.
Massively's EVE CSM interview: EVE Gate, microtransactions and more
Earlier this month, the official minutes of meetings between CCP Games and EVE Online's Council of Stellar Management were published to the general public. EVE's democratically elected council of volunteer players meets with CCP's developers twice per year at the company's headquarters in Iceland. At the meetings, the concerns of EVE's players and details of upcoming expansions are discussed. Response to the December summit's minutes has been largely positive so far, which is a huge turnaround from June's tirade of negativity. EVE blogs have been considering some of the problems raised in the meetings, and insider Keith Neilson delivered his assessment of how the meetings went right here on Massively. The only people we have yet to hear from are the council members themselves. To make sure the CSM has its say in the public arena, Massively interviewed council member Dierdra Vaal about the summit and asked some critical questions on CCP's plans for EVE's future. In this first of two interviews, we discussed EVE Gate, the growing botting problem, user interface upgrades, CCP's microtransaction policy, how the summit went in general, and how attitudes within CCP have changed toward the CSM. Skip past the cut to read the first of two illuminating interviews with EVE Online's CSM.
EVE blogs examine CSM discussions on nullsec warfare
The first round of minutes from EVE Online's CSM summit were released yesterday, with two further parts to be released in the coming week. EVE blogger Keith Neilson was privileged to be present at some of the meetings between the CSM and CCP, and has posted a summary on his blog. Since the official meeting minutes have yet to be released, concrete conclusions on any specific points in the meeting can't be made. Keith was able to confirm, however, that nullsec PvP was heavily discussed at the summit. In particular, the effect of last year's Dominion expansion on nullsec warfare was examined, some problems were highlighted and potential solutions were explored. The summaries on Keith's blog reveal some surprising facts about nullsec. CCP's lead economist Dr Eyjo is said to have voiced concerns over the fact that new players are moving into the more PvE-focused wormhole content instead of forming alliances and moving into nullsec territorial warfare. This is understandable, as wormhole systems are much more friendly to colonisation by small groups. They offer a similar level of rewards to nullsec but the size of a potential attacking fleet is naturally limited by the size of connecting wormholes. In anticipation of the official minutes being released later this week, Calais from EVE blog The Hydrostatic Capsule has delved into Keith's summaries and drawn some compelling conclusions about why nullsec is still the domain of massive alliances. While Dominion was meant to open nullsec for smaller groups, Calais suggests that super-capitals and jump bridges actually prevent smaller groups from competing in nullsec PvP. "Where small teams should have the advantage of stealth and agility – the ability to strike fast and hard before melting away," Calais explains, "we actually see the very opposite." Using supercapital jump drives and jump bridges, it's big alliance fleets are able to outmaneuver smaller invading forces who can't afford to set up and defend the same infrastructure. Full details of the discussion between CCP and the CSM about nullsec PvP will be released later this week on the EVE devblog page.
An inside look at EVE Online's CSM: From June to December
Keith Neilson is a Massively guest-writer who's here to recount his experiences at the recent Council of Stellar Management summit in Reykjavik. He writes regularly about EVE Online and has been playing the game since early 2004. Tweet It is undeniable that EVE Online is unique among MMORPGs in many ways. One of these is its Council of Stellar Management, an elected committee of nine players who play an active role in the development of the game, bringing player concerns and proposals for the future direction of the game directly to CCP at biannual summits in Iceland. Until this year, the perception of the CSM among players was that the Council is a marketing tool that does not fulfill its stated role of representing the playerbase. But in June, all of that changed. This term of the CSM brought in some major changes to the way the Council is organised, specifically with the removal of term limits (previously delegates could only serve two terms on the CSM) and the extension of terms from six months to a year. In addition to this, the CSM has been given "stakeholder" status within CCP. This means that the Council members have an equal say in the planning of future development along with the internal teams at CCP. This has allowed the fifth CSM to have a significant influence on the future development of EVE.
EVE's December CSM summit minutes released
Several years ago, EVE Online developer CCP Games instituted the Council of Stellar Management, a player-run advisory committee on game design. The members of the council are voted for by players, making the CSM a democratically elected group with direct access to developers. The council has had a significant impact on the game, having pushed through such important changes as the titan doomsday nerf and the introduction of a 24-hour skill queue. Players can raise issues or suggestions to the CSM through the official assembly hall forum. Every six months, the council meets with CCP's developers in Iceland to discuss all the important issues players have raised. In an effort to keep the dealings of the CSM transparent, the minutes of each council session and Icelandic CSM summit are published openly. The first round of minutes from EVE's latest bi-annual CSM summit have now been released, with a further two rounds of meetings to be released within the next week. Topics covered in the first set of minutes include a new EVE forum, the possibility of a permanent CCP-administered charity, talks on the CSM process, and potential CSM activities at Fanfest 2011. For those interested in exactly what went on in the CSM summit, the full minutes of these meetings are publicly available on the EVE website.
