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EVE Online: Ghost Training to be Disabled
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
CCP has announced that after Wednesday October 15th, Ghost Training, the skill gain on inactive or expired EVE accounts, will be disabled.
A long overdue and much needed change will be put in place with the Wednesday, 15 October 2008 patch. Ghost Training, the continuous skill gain on accounts in an inactive or expired state - will no longer function after Wednesday, 15 October 2008. This practice upsets the balance of the game, and capsuleers who actively put their time and energy into working on their characters will no longer be unfairly affected by those few who have not.
Read more here.
Comments
This definitely made the decision on weather or not I wanted to start playing again.
What happened to you CCP? (Aside from living in Iceland, can I buy you?)
FFXI: Gauhar - Odin
this is wrong... one or maybe even the biggest mistake of ccp... the community is like rabblerabble the forums... i just hope for ccp they will not do it otherwise they will lose a lot of subscriptions ... including they pissed off their customers
That's how community works. The "community" has stopped a lot of good things from happening. I hope ccp just ignores them.
nah they should listen do the community thats their job they do provide something to them theyre the customers and customers are the kings... so they should listen! *my opinion*
Not to whiners please. The eve community has changed into a horde of crybabies..
Or, like Sheriff Jones eloquently put it:
*ding ding!*
Wrangler: Hello there and welcome to the CCP! How can i help you?
Customer: I wish to complain!
Wrangler: Righto sir, and the issue is?
Customer: This nano nerf you're about to--
Wrangler: Hold up. Nano?
Customer: Yes, you're about to--
Wrangler: Right. Continue.
Customer: Well, as i was saying, the nano nerf you're about to--
Wrangler: ****ie head.
Customer: Excuse me?!
Wrangler: You heard me. ****ie head.
Customer: How da--
Wrangler: Stupid says what.
Customer: What?!
Wrangler: Haha! You're a stupid ****iehead!
Customer: Look, how is this--
Wrangler: Moooooom! ****iehead is making funny faces!!
Eris: Don't drag me into this...
Customer: Look here!
Wrangler: Pull my finger!
Customer: No!
Wrangler: Waaaaaaaah!!
Customer: What are you--
Wrangler throws a teddy at customer.
Customer: Hey!!
Wrangler: Can a have a wowwipop?
Customer: Wowwi...what?! Look i want to com--
Wrangler: ****iehead and a goonie, sitting in a tree, k i s s i n
Customer: You're acting like a baby!!
Wrangler: See how it feels?
Customer: ...
Wrangler grins.
Customer: Cheap.
*ding ding*
I don't not get why people think this is a bad idea. If your account is not active, you don't get to train. PERIOD.
This sucks. This really sucks.
See thread here: http://myeve.eve-online.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=896318 (CCP have hidden it from the thread listings)
I regularly take a break from EVE because RL takes priority.
Now I will not be re-subing for a looonngg time. Not even to try out ambulation.
I can not adequatly express my annoyance without breaking the forum rules.
There's a significant difference between "listening to the community" and "listening to the community's loudest, whiny little wretches." Certain other 500lb-gorilla game companies choose not to tell the difference between the two and the result is the game suffering greatly (for those of us that care about actual game balance). Contrary to the common phrase, customers aren't always right. In the case of PvP gamers, we're rarely fair, either. ;P
To get back on topic: personally, I like this change. Why should I have to pay for my character to advance while others get to ghost multiple characters to the same point, for nothing? That is unfair (in my opinion) and I wholly support CCP's choice on changing it.
So, I guess since I am a part of the community, CCP are listening to it! Perspective is a wonderful thing.
I think the point is, they already "lost" you as a paying subsciber on that account. Don't pay, don't play. Now, the reason EVE subscriptions are so high, is that many many people have multiple accounts. If you are saying this will make them cancel their OTHER accounts as well, that would be a more intelligent argument.
There's a significant difference between "listening to the community" and "listening to the community's loudest, whiny little wretches." Certain other 500lb-gorilla game companies choose not to tell the difference between the two and the result is the game suffering greatly (for those of us that care about actual game balance). Contrary to the common phrase, customers aren't always right. In the case of PvP gamers, we're rarely fair, either. ;P
To get back on topic: personally, I like this change. Why should I have to pay for my character to advance while others get to ghost multiple characters to the same point, for nothing? That is unfair (in my opinion) and I wholly support CCP's choice on changing it.
So, I guess since I am a part of the community, CCP are listening to it! Perspective is a wonderful thing.
You were paying to farm ISK and being able to change your skills. Now you will be paying for SP as well. Whereas I won't be paying. I'll revert back to Guild Wars. I barely have time to play but at least it's free. University on the other hand....
--------
"Chemistry: 'We do stuff in lab that would be a felony in your garage.'"
The most awesomest after school special T-shirt:
Front: UNO Chemistry Club
Back: /\OH --> Bad Decisions
I'd have to agree?!?!?
If people aren't paying then why should they receive benefits for leveling up their character. In no other game do you lvl up anything when you have ceased to subscribe.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I'd have to agree?!?!?
If people aren't paying then why should they receive benefits for leveling up their character. In no other game do you lvl up anything when you have ceased to subscribe.
Seriously, why do people think they should be able to continue to level their character when they are not playing the game?
Also why should they care if people complain about this change? It only affects the inactive accounts so its not like they are making money off of them anyway.
Actually, I'm paying to play a game with friends. I've stopped playing numerous games due to my friends "moving on" and such. ISK and skill-changes are little more than game mechanics in the larger scheme of things and, when it comes right down to it, I was paying for SP-gain, anyway; this change makes absolutely zero difference, to me or my account.
Your choice neither to pay nor to play is entirely that: your choice. You're as entitled to that as the next person and you won't hear any argument from me, on that particular topic.
Guild Wars is a game I've never really enjoyed beyond the graphics (more halfwits and whiny babies than I could shake someone else's stick at, in my experience) but to each their own. I can understand the university thing, though... g'luck with that.
That's how community works. The "community" has stopped a lot of good things from happening. I hope ccp just ignores them.
You sir are FAIL!
Every games community should be the ones that are listened to, not ignored. It has been proven again and again (and it looks like it is needed yet again) that when a gaming company does not listen to it's customers, it is doomed to FAIL!
Just like your post.
CCP has been making some huge mistakes lately, and you can see it in the number of people online at any give time. For easy numbers that you can see for yourself, look at Sundays, which is their peek day for people online, and any weeknight, for steady numbers. You will see that since CCP took away both 30 day and 90 day time codes, the number of people have continued to go down. This is a very bad trend.
For a lot of us veteran players, this will just make us shut down accounts. There is no reason to train and plan for the future when you can't do the things that CCP offers in any given time. The current training system is to long to begin with, that is why most of us have at least 2 accounts.
Also, by leaving this in the game, which it has been in since BETA, it keeps the new players in check with the old players by giving them the same system of game use that the veterans have had. That is a over 5 year advantage right now! So it seriously hurts new players.
Also, back in Beta, and in the Castor days of Eve Online, they touted this training system as "state of the art" and that "no other game allows their players to train while they are not online". When it we brought up in BETA and in Castor that "what if I leave Eve for whatever reason, when I come back will I have what I left with"? and CCP said yes. It was also asked, "what if I am training a skill and will it continue to train if my account runs out of time"? and CCP said yes.
For YEARS CCP has said that these are FEATURES of their game. Now that the Iceland economy is going bad they want to take it away from us. This is total BS. Here is a link to that news. Their markets have fell over 75%.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/oct/14/iceland-marketturmoil
So no matter what CCP says, the removal of the time codes AND this show that the company only cares about the end money and not it's customers.
But don't take my word for it, don't believe the news either. Just watch the numbers over the next 60 days, since that is all the time codes are good for and watch how many people do not resubscribe.
I'd have to agree?!?!?
If people aren't paying then why should they receive benefits for leveling up their character. In no other game do you lvl up anything when you have ceased to subscribe.
CCP said from the beginning that Eve was a unique game. They said that the training system was like no other in the industry. Over the last 5 years they have defended this position. NOW they are going against what they said.
Want more unrelated proof?
CCP has a new project called Ambulation, which will allow the people in eve to walk around and socialize with other people in the game. Sounds like a good idea right? WRONG. In the eve universe you are in a pod. A pod like Neo was in at the beginning of the Matrix before he was woken up and got to see the real world. Once you become a pod pilot in Eve you are always a pod pilot. The Eve storyline and the gameplay have evolved around this since day 1. They are changing another CORE item that makes Eve what Eve was.
CCP is just changing, and not for the better. For those of us that DO have multiple accounts and treat the game more like a hobby then a casuall game are furious over this. Just look at the official forums or go to any trade hub in game and listen to the people. They are SERIOUSLY pissed.
So please do not comment on why we can not train when this was a FEATURE in the game until now.
You, sir, fail at reading. Read again.
But to clarify for anyone, even for the ones reading selectively, what i said:
CCP should not listen to the vocal whiners. They should (and do) listen to those who actually care to make constructive posts.
Also, you sir, fail at providing proof.
I don't understand the controversy over this.
This ghost training thing should never have been in the game anyway, I've played a brave few mmo's in my time and I've never seen one that levels up my character while my account isn't active or even allow the character to advance without paying a dime, it's idiotic of a developer to have such an easy way for someone to advance in a game.
It was a feature that people could level when they weren't even subscribed?
I've made as much use of this as anyone, I only play occasionally and I always leave a skill training that's going to take a month or two to train when I leave, and when I come back it's done. Even I don't think this was a fair 'feature'. I always felt like I was cheating in some way.
What the hell is the problem with wanting people to pay to play the game? This is like terminating your cable television service for a couple months and then turning it back on later and bitching that your Tivo wasn't able to record cable shows that were broadcasting during the two months you didn't have the service.
If you want to play the game, pay for it like everyone else. It has never EVER occurred to me to just drop my account for awhile to freeload some skill training. Why would I? It's $10.95/mo for christ's sake.
I regularly come and go from EVE. I don't have the time to play constantly like I once did, so it was nice to be able to shut it off for a month when I didn't want to pay, and know that I could come back to it as if I'd never left. Sure that may not seem 'fair' when you compare it to the model for most games, but EVE isn't like most games. It was a selling point, they advertised it, now they decide it's costing them money so they take it away.
In my case (because that's all that ever matters to the consumer), I wont maintain a subscription if I'm not playing. And I'm not going to reactivate every other month if they shut off the training. I could previously set a ton of market orders, a long training, and turn off my account. Thirty days later I'd reactivate, restock, and do it again the next month. I wasn't a drag on performance and they were getting paid 6 months of the year for me to play a few times a month. Now they wont get anything from me for a while. When I do come back, I'll eventually leave again, but instead of maintaining intermittent training, they wont get anything.
Hopefully their bottom line will support a change back to the old way, but if not so be it. I just wont pay until I'm ready to really play again - whenever that may be.
edit - typos and grammar to make my HS teachers cry.
So let me get this straight. You were willing to pay every other month for a game you don't play for long stretches, in order to keep training skills. At a rate of $14.95, that's about $7.50/mo (if you're paying every other month).
OR, you could just pay for a year at a time at $10.95. Less than $4/mo more and you wouldn't have to subscribe/unsubscribe repeatedly.
I have two eve accounts. I haven't even played either character for about three months now. I've been busy logging in every few days or weeks to switch a skill. That's it. And that's fine with me. People whining about wanting free skill training for an inactive account are need to realize what they're asking for. If this were an MMO with a standard experience acquisition scheme, you wouldn't start bitching that you have to be logged in and playing and doing things to level up and that you want to be able to shut off your Warhammer account and still get free experience. So why would you expect that in EVE?
Personally, I'm fine with it. They should have been tapping that revenue stream in the first place to continue affording approvements in the game and the loudmouthed whiney brats (and I rarely call people whiney for having a problem with a company/developer) who want free stuff without paying or who throw tantrums because GTCs cost too much isk (and they're not willing to pull out a credit card and pay like eveyrone else) perhaps need to just go login to Runescape or some other free online game and quit trying to bully CCP into doing things for the shrieking minority.
Now, if they took an in-game vote and let every paying account voice their opinion on this and that vote came out overwhelmingly against CCP making this change, then fine. I would conceed.
I expect it from EVE because they've never been like Warhammer or any other MMO developer. I expect it from EVE because they marketed it as a selling point. This has been in effect for years and any rookie with a little SQL experience could have put an end to it, so calling it a 'bug' is lie. Someone told the CEO that if they take it away they'll make X million more dollars a year and he said do it. I'd expect that from Warhammer and WOW, but never from EVE.
I know it's only a mere $40 a year more to not have to deal with it, but that's the point. My play / pay style has been impacted. I was willing to pay $7.50 /mo because I knew it'd be more fun when I went back. I'm not going to pay for a year at once for a game I don't play, and I'm not going to pay $15/mo for a game I don't play.
I love EVE, and I will probably be back, but after a month or two, if I don't get sucked back in, they'll lose my business again. Before they simply got less, now they'll get none and I'll be that much less likely to come back again.
yay! Now people can't have a bazillion accounts they're not paying for just so they can sell the characters later. Seems entirely logical to have skill training deactivated once a subscription is canceled.
Cancel your account if you don't like it. :P
I'm quitting EvE over this. CCP have treated their customers terribly, claiming it was a bug, yet having in the past used it as a selling point for the game and reassuring it wouldn't be removed.
When a MMORPG becomes all about the money and not how the game is or how the players are treated I can't be bothered with it.
Mazty on PSN