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CCP Games CEO issues letter of apology to EVE Online players
Just over three months ago, fans of EVE Online looked on in disbelief as the game they loved faced its biggest crisis of confidence since 2007's T20 developer scandal. The long-awaited Incarna expansion was pushed live with no multiplayer environments and only one race of captain's quarters. Players were forced to use the feature every time they docked, and it seemed that its only purpose was as a display case for overpriced cash-shop clothing. While players debated the controversial cash shop prices, a leaked company newsletter titled "Greed is Good" and a leaked memo from CCP Games CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson threw additional fuel on the flames. In a letter to the EVE Online community today, Hilmar delivered a humble apology for everything that happened. "The estrangement from CCP that many of you have been feeling of late is my fault, and for that I am truly sorry," he began. "In short, my zeal for pushing EVE to her true potential made me lose sight of doing the simple things right. I was impatient when I should have been cautious, defiant when I should have been conciliatory and arrogant when I should have been humble." The letter goes on to tackle everything from the removal of ship spinning and the release of the captain's quarters as a full expansion to CCP's plans for the future. In an accompanying devblog, CCP Zulu provided an impressive list of in-space features aimed for the winter development period. The list includes the long-awaited hybrid weapon balance changes, assault ship bonus reworks, capital ship rebalancing, and even iteration on faction warfare.
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.
EVE Online press conference answers vital questions, transcript inside
After what should have been the celebrated release of the long-awaited Incarna expansion last week, the EVE Online community erupted into flames. The controversy began when players realised that the vanity clothing items in the game's new cash shop were ridiculously overpriced. The $68 monocle became a centerpiece that the media latched onto, in the same way that World of Warcraft made the headlines when Blizzard had the audacity to sell a $25 mount. The story should have ended there as a piece about a crazy Icelandic game company selling virtual clothing for more than real clothing. Unfortunately, some conveniently timed leaks from inside CCP caused this simple issue to escalate to the point of panic, causing in-game riots and a significant number of subscription cancellations. The company's silence on the simple question of whether non-vanity microtransactions would be introduced was seen as an admission that gameplay-affecting items would end up in the cash shop. CCP flew the Council of Stellar Management, EVE's democratically-elected player representative body, out to Iceland for an emergency meeting last week. The result of the meeting was a joint statement between CCP and the CSM addressing all of the major concerns players had. Last night, CCP ran two press conferences over Skype to give EVE fansites and the gaming media a chance to ask additional questions that weren't covered in the official statement. Skip past the cut for our in-depth three-page transcript from the gaming media press conference, including answers to several pressing questions sent in by Massively readers and some great issues raised by other participating members of the press. Comments can be posted on page 3.
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.
EVE Evolved: The day that EVE Online died
I think it's safe to say that this week has been an unmitigated disaster for CCP Games. Following last week's $99 license fee fiasco for third-party developers, CCP Zulu managed to claw back some player support with a segment addressing the issue during the alliance tournament. This week CCP followed up with the release of Incarna 1.0 and its long-awaited captain's quarters. Players logged in to walk around their private rooms and check out the various cosmetic items available for purchase in the new microtransaction store. It didn't take long for people to realise that something was fundamentally wrong with the prices on the Noble Exchange. At around $40 for a basic shirt, $25 for boots, and $70 or more for the fabled monocle, items in the Noble Exchange were priced higher than their-real life counterparts. As players made some noise about the ridiculous prices, an internal CCP newsletter all about the company's microtransaction plans was purportedly leaked. In it, plans to sell ships, ammo, and faction standings for cash were revealed, plans that strictly contradict previous promises on gameplay-affecting microtransactions. Shortly afterward, all hell broke loose as a private internal memo from CCP CEO Hilmar was leaked to the press. In the past few days, I've been contacted by dozens (if not hundreds) of concerned EVE players who are afraid that the game they love is coming to an end. I've even been in contact with an insider who is scared of the risks CCP is taking with the jobs of over 600 employees in four countries, scared enough to leak internal documents and emails. In this week's colossal EVE Evolved, I delve into EVE's latest controversy and shed some light on the biggest community flashpoint since the T20 developer corruption scandal.
Controversy brewing over EVE Online microtransactions
When we first heard that EVE Online was planning to add microtransaction options, players were most concerned with the effect of microtransaction items on gameplay. CCP was quick to reassure players that microtransactions would focus on vanity items for Incarna and no gameplay-affecting items would be released. Fast-forward to today, when the first phase of Incarna finally went live along with the new Noble Exchange cash shop. As promised, the store contained only vanity items for Incarna, starting with a series of alternative clothing options. The one thing we didn't really think of while we worried about microtransactions affecting EVE's gameplay was price. The current prices on items in the Noble Exchange are far above typical microtransaction charges and an order of magnitude higher than expected. Items in the Noble Exchange are bought with a new currency called Aurum, 3500 of which can be created from one 30-day pilot's license (PLEX). With the price of PLEX set at around $19.95 US, players can expect to pay over $20 for a skirt, $25 for a blouse, and more than a whopping $68 for the much-desired ocular implant monocle. In a bizarre twist, many of the clothing options for sale at the Noble Exchange actually cost more than real clothes of the same type. As PLEX can be bought from other players for ISK, however, most players will not be spending their own cash on these items. PLEX prices have already spiked to over 400 million each, putting the price of the monocle at over 1.3 billion ISK. CCP could not provide any more information on the issue, but we expect an issue this hot will prompt an announcement.
Anti-Aliased: Shut up people, come buy my horse
So last week's little diversion into Net Neutrality (and me apparently being a right wing liberal jackhole) was fun, but this week brings me back on track with things happening in the gaming world. And, lucky for me, there's been a spot of news yesterday that's just caught my attention -- World of Warcraft's new Celestial Steed. Microtransaction discussions are nothing new in my column. From Cryptic to Free Realms, I've been all over the different payment structures that games implement. But, no matter the topic, one thing seems to stay the same: people really, really, really dislike microtransactions overall. The comments on these columns, and pretty much any other article we write on microtransactions, tend to end with angry commenters spewing their dissatisfaction. And you know what? Good for them. If that's their opinion, then totally go for it! But, what I really hate more than anything else is when people have double standards. It seems that people really hate microtransactions, yet Blizzard's newest buyable mount doesn't have people quitting the game left and right. In fact, it seems everyone is cramming in to buy one!
The Digital Continuum: Macrotransactions
The subject of microtransactions tends to bring out a lot of different opinions in people and sometimes harsh words are exchanged. I've never really taken a stance on the matter, as I've always been a bit unsure of which side of the argument I fell on. I recently had an epiphany on my stance. Everyone that is talking about microtranasctions seems to be missing something important. They're all a little bit wrong. Michael Zenke (one of our intrepid leads here at Massively) recently brought up the subject in a different light and in doing so made me come to this realization that we'd all been missing an important factor in this discussion.I think we need to stop looking at microtransactions with a black or white lens. Monthly subscriptions and single-dollar purchases aren't the only options available to us. For the sake of argument, let's call what I'm about to discuss something different.Let's call them Macrotransactions.
