Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
EVE Online: CCP CEO Comments on Icelandic Economy
Szark
News ManagerMember Posts: 4,420
CCP CEO Hilmar Pétursson has written a blog entry commenting on Iceland's economic troubles, the current banking crisis, and how CCP stands to weather the economic storm.
On a sunny day in June 1997, CCP was founded in Reykjavik, Iceland. A lot has happened since then and today CCP is a global enterprise with offices in Atlanta, Shanghai, London and Reykjavik, with a diversified employee base and partner relationships that span the globe many times over.
CCP is fortunate enough to be well isolated from the current banking crisis we see around us on both sides of the Atlantic (and here in the middle of it, of course). Not only do we enjoy the privilege of a global customer base bringing a diverse array of cultural influences into our single shard world of EVE Online, but that same diverse nature inoculates us from short-term fluctuations in sentiment or economic turbulence. We have also made an effort to work with various financial institutions around the world, giving us the agility needed to manage our global operations around the effects of the credit crunch.
For all of us at CCP who are used to going about our work in a completely border-agnostic fashion, it is a bit unusual to watch how politicians around us tackle the global credit crisis that the world is going through in a very local way, even using the situation to score some points for the next rounds of elections. This local approach for political gain needs to abandoned for a more global approach as the world is dealing with a fundamentally global problem. The institutions are in place... Well, enough about that.
Read more here.
Comments
Hilmar may be CEO of CCP but he speaks more like one of those politicians that he is referring to. So lets get a few facts straight first.
1) CCP took away 30 and 90 day time codes out of eve when the Icelandic economy started to fall apart.
2) They just removed one of their founding features in the game, "ghost training" as they call it. This was a feature that they were very proud of during their first major release, Castor, and always told people that their player training and skilling system was very different from other people in the industry.
So when their version of the stock market drops 75%, England seizes a lot of Iceland's assets and their whole countries economy hits a brick wall, they take that away from us as well. Saying that it will balance the game AND, AND! get this, I love this part, it is now being called a bug! Yes a BUG! for the last 5 years it was a FEATURE but now it is a bug!
Don't get me wrong, I love Eve-Online, damn good game, but CCP is totally screwing it up this year. A HUGE thumbs down to Hilmar for lying about it to.
Amen! It would just be nice if they could be straight up with people. Everytime game companies lie or mislead then the shit hits the fan. It's not like it hasn't happened before. Human nature is a funny thing.
--------
"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
Yeah, because most services let you continue to use them after you cancel or stop paying. If they'd had their heads on straight, they'd have done that years ago.
Apply lemon juice and candle flame here to reveal secret message.
Sorry but the "ghost training" thing just didn't ever seem fair to me. People expecting to use the service that the rest of us are still paying monthly for....what is wrong with that picture. You can't get something for nothing and those of us that are paying don't want to subsidize you while you "take a break". In other words, pull your weight and I will pull mine.
Let's party like it is 1863!
Stop whining.
Ghosttraining is unfair, so are the speeds of the current Battleships, even then minnies.
Offline training has always been CCP's selling point and still is lets not confuse this with "Ghost training" Ghost training is where you set a long skill normaly above 30days and stop paying your subscription after the skill is train you re-sub for a month train skills then at the end of the month set another long skill and un-sub. This is something that CCP never surpported nor encouraged the Information on the site about this is in their player guide section a section of guide submitted by the players not CCP ok so they should of read through it better and edited it better but the fact still remains that CCP has never used Ghost training as a selling point as well what Bussiness would encourage people to not a have 100% subscription to their product?
This link is to the guide everyone is using as ammo to shoot CCP with please scroll to the bottom and see the links and please look at the credits page.
http://www.eve-online.com/guide/en/g615.asp
P.S CCP have since corrected the part about skill continueing to train on inactive accounts.
I am very glad that ghost training has been deleted, as people who pay a yearly fee don't have the benefits, that ghost trainers have. They pay or pay with time codes 1 month and train 3 months that is calculated they pay € 14,95 as the yearly payer's pays per 3 months € 32,85. And some training lvl5 will take longer in the futere.
So as a subcriber a think what the reason i pay already 5 years for while others get for free.
So I had my doubts for paying eve any longer. This is now taken away. And I get worth for my money where i pay for now
AK
I was a very good thing that CCP stopped "ghost training" as it was unfair against all regular players that did pay for the game and enjoy playing it instead of using ghost training to build up alts or main.
For me who has been steady subscriber to EVE for almost 3 years I feel it was the right thing for CCP to do and I totally agree with that decicion.
Keep up the good work
the problem with the quoted thinking is that it's not based upon a financial/fiscal train of thought, nor is the information factual.
you pay for ONE single account. if ccp is lucky, you pay 12 monthly installments. if they're not lucky, you take a cheaper route, up to paying for a year at a time.
that is ALL you pay.
with the 30/90 day GTCs AND this so-called 'ghost training', if you count all the accounts i own, i literally pay for 3+ year's worth of your paying for a single account month-by-month.
i pay a hell of a lot more than you to play this game in the style i choose to play this game. the style i chose based upon the various GTCs and the long-boasted-upon-feature (boasted BY ccp as a great reason to play or to keep playing).
so, ccp gets to keep the single account of the person quoted. who they would've kept anyways, because no one has EVER whined about "zomg they're ghost training nerf nerf ner"... all these trolls are coming out of the woodwork because people are (justifiably) pissed off.
so, ccp keeps the quoted person's el cheapo yearly-paid-for-at-a-time sub, and they lose all the extra money they made off of me, and the (literal) thousands of players like me.
so please... all the trolls whining about something they have no clue about, please go back to the troll-cave. please. and i believe i have FACTUALLY proven that the trolls do not know what they're talking about.
never once have i read a post ANYWHERE along the lines of, "i'm quitting eve cuz of that unfair ghost training crap".
anyone posting that would be laughed at until they cried and THEN pointed to the official eve page where "ghost training" was touted as a wonderfully unique feature of the game.
sometimes, the lack of having a clue about what actually occurs... just baffles me beyond all hope.
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
the problem with the quoted thinking is that it's not based upon a financial/fiscal train of thought, nor is the information factual.
you pay for ONE single account. if ccp is lucky, you pay 12 monthly installments. if they're not lucky, you take a cheaper route, up to paying for a year at a time.
that is ALL you pay.
with the 30/90 day GTCs AND this so-called 'ghost training', if you count all the accounts i own, i literally pay for 3+ year's worth of your paying for a single account month-by-month.
i pay a hell of a lot more than you to play this game in the style i choose to play this game. the style i chose based upon the various GTCs and the long-boasted-upon-feature (boasted BY ccp as a great reason to play or to keep playing).
so, ccp gets to keep the single account of the person quoted. who they would've kept anyways, because no one has EVER whined about "zomg they're ghost training nerf nerf ner"... all these trolls are coming out of the woodwork because people are (justifiably) pissed off.
so, ccp keeps the quoted person's el cheapo yearly-paid-for-at-a-time sub, and they lose all the extra money they made off of me, and the (literal) thousands of players like me.
so please... all the trolls whining about something they have no clue about, please go back to the troll-cave. please. and i believe i have FACTUALLY proven that the trolls do not know what they're talking about.
never once have i read a post ANYWHERE along the lines of, "i'm quitting eve cuz of that unfair ghost training crap".
anyone posting that would be laughed at until they cried and THEN pointed to the official eve page where "ghost training" was touted as a wonderfully unique feature of the game.
sometimes, the lack of having a clue about what actually occurs... just baffles me beyond all hope.
Your post makes little sense too me apart from what I think your trying to say is people like you pay for 1 main account and rotate alt accounts at the same time ghost training the alts which means CCP not only get your monthly sub for your main account but from time to time they get more from you ghost training? well thats arguement alot of people who ghost train are making anyway. Personaly i pay for 1 main account yearly like others and I have an alt which i was paying for on and of and ghost training as i cant afford to pay all year for two accounts, which means CCP will loose any extra income they was gettting from my alt.
But all i can see happening is people paying subscriptions for alts with GTC's increasing the demand for GTC's which should increase the sales of the GTC's so CCP will realy be making more money as people will have to buy a gtc every 2 months or buy it with in game cash which still means someone somewhere is paying real cash for the GTC lol... rant over.
Long story short its a gamble CCP may loose all the ghost training people or might gain people paying for more than 1 account every month now.
For the record I have 3 account and i pay yearly fee all 3 account of € 131,40 each
Ghosttraining for lvl 5 is bases on a 60 day of more skill with no implants mostly the capital skills.
So they could train lvl5 for only 6 times paying 14,95 = 89,70 and they skill just as much as the regular subcriber who pays € 41,70 more. If we go out with improved implants and advanced larning skills in on lvl 5. If not they pay only 4 times € 14,95 € 59,80(going out from 90 day skill base lvl4 too lvl 5) and that gives a difference of € 71,60
And if you do more lvl5 skills behind each other and they take more then 60 days with implants improved and advanced learning skills it takes about 60 days.
And I know because 1 of my accounts has over 90M SP.
AK
Here we go again. I commend Hilmar for his worldy views and wish CCP the best of luck.
On another note, Ghost training has long been a well known FEATURE of the game. Does not matter that CCP did or did not promote it at times in the past. The player base used it extensively. Just because some of you felt it beneath you to use it does not change that fact one bit.
To remove a major feature in a game without providing something else, hint like a skill queue, is a major braindead manuver. It just reeks of a money grab and I can guarentee you it will backfire on them. A lot of players who were training 2nd and 3rd accounts just won't bother to activate them now.
This will cause a drain on their pocketbooks, because Eve heavily depends on a lot of players maintaining multiple accounts.
So you can mock those of us complaining about the change, but you can't change the fact that they removed a major feature of the game and it is going to cost them.
Less lag for me. although it became better already.
And they more then 150000 subscribers so a few 1000 less why worry
AK
How about this one then. Regardless of the changes to the game CCP makes people are still going to be slimming down their budget. Do they really need to pay $15 a month for their kid to play a game (or them). Do they really need the high speed internet. There are ither ways which can cause them to lose customers, and when is the point where you say 'oh crap'. Just a 1000.. Just 5000.. how long is it "just" X thousand of people.
Alright, I've been reading over and over about this on the eve-forums and now here too. Half of what I've said is sure to be psoted elsewhere, probably right in this current forum. I just checked and it is still a free world (barely) so here goes my 2 cents.
I have one eve account. Sure call me cheap but I'm a student and I can BARELY afford it at that. So I pay my 6 month membership, knowing that at exams or when I'm working 2 jobs I'll have to take a couple of weeks off. So twice I have let my account lapse. Not bad really for a 2 year old character. In total I have trained 42 days off skills while attending to my real life. BOTH times I signed back up EARLY because a skill was finishing and frankly I can't stand knowing my character isn't training. So out came the credit card... thats to CCP Visa appreciates my game time.
I think the fact every one seems to assume that the ghost training is done in a scamming matter is poorly founded. Of course their are jerks... I mean between the belt farmers and isk spammers and macro users there are much larger threats than the guy that needs to take a 2 week break from the game.
If you are going to make an argument validating this change, please don't do it on the assumption the players are trying to rip someone off. I just want to play but sometimes I can't. If you can honestly sit there and tell me you won't be in front of a computer for 3 weeks because you're going overseas you wouldn't leave a skill training? It's not a scam.... it's LIFE
So please calm down.
As for the money grab, I'm not sold. I mean a money grab would increase profits. I still think this will hurt. If it doesn't it was a long shot worthy of Las Vegas betting fame.
Alright... ranting done... for now
I am glad to hear that CCP isn't going under anytime soon. It's best to promote competition as much as possible to avoid monopolies that remove choice for consumers. Supporting a smaller company like CCP is part of my ethos of keeping competition going and benefitting me as a computer game hobbyist with good options for games. EvE is definitely unique in the MMO world.
I really hope that CCP doesn't get hit by the global credit crisis, however they should rethink their decision to remove ghost training and the 30 day and 90 day GTCs. I've ghost trained twice on my alt account when I had to go on breaks due to my work. I would have been less enthusiastic about coming back if I had had to let my characters completely lapse. Because of my odd work schedule, it's all or nothing with EvE: either I get a 90 day GTC or I have to completely unsub because I can't log in sometimes for weeks at a time. As one of the most expensive MMO subs, it's not necessarily negligeable either to just leave your accounts running even if you're not actively playing. Though the removal of ghost training might not keep me from resubbing, since I've been on hiatus from the game and am not training anything on either one of my characters atm, but I find not having the 90 day GTC option to be a serious annoyance...
Back in EvE. Started with BatMUD. Main MMOs have been EvE and DAoC.