The entire point here is the vast conspiracy on CCP's part to change the entire game from its original roots.
I am one of the original beta testers during the 2002 / 2003 period and one of the members of one of the largest Alliances when the game finally was released, (HC Dude / Hegmonic Core.)
Having researched and spoken to several of the original game designers I was so into the game concept ..... why ?? .... because frankly they said the game had been in Alpha stage for nearly 5 yrs prior to that point and that they would not even consider releasing it till the game was virtually bug free, unlike many of the half assed games that most American based companies would release upon a unsuspecting customer base with a half finished product and poor support.
We all were told back then this company would always place the needs of the customer base / subscribers FIRST and never place finances as the sole consideration.
For the last 9 years I and many like me stuck with CCP because of the game and that promise and even though the problems of training 2 char of the same acct at same time made purchasing a second necessary, then later the PLEX started to show us that money was beginning to take more importance ....... but we still went along ....... till now.
Now they wish to effectively and dramatically change the face of this game by introducing the (MT) MicroTransaction to this game. Subscriptions OR MT, but CCP seems to want to rape us by keeping both in place ... talk about greed.
The idea WILL be to allow players to BUY not just Vanity items, but eventually ships, weapons and ammo unique to the game thereby giving these players a advantage ...... you cannot just change the way to play a game like this without causing controversy, and it has.
CCP has lied or at least misrepresented themselves to us all for their own greedy purposes. As a businessman myself I undersatnd the premise, but they are way wrong in the way they are handling it.
Back in 2002 CCP was a few geeks with a great deal of talent and imagination added to the abilty to have, design and incorporate cutting edge technology into their dream, EVE Online.
Now this company these past 9+ years has grown to over 600 employees in 4 continents, multiple buildings crammed with server hardware to run this game and investors who want to collect some cash.
The problem is, is that CCP decided to go and start development on a console only game DUST 514 and also WoD - World of Darkness ..... where did the money come from to go in this new direction? Most likely from EVE revenus stream but also from its new investors.
These games were now so importent to CCP, that they decided to gut the people who work on patches and new builds for EVE and transferred them to WoD and Dust 514 ...... this is where the whole idea of MT came from as these games are going to have this type of system in place for its players ...... however money was starting to become a huge issue as loans need to be repaid and the priofitability of EVE has to be protected, (EVE has been profitable each and every year to date.)
The investors need to be able to see that this MT segment of these new games will actually work and needed some assurances that not only would it work, but would it be profitable? So CCP decided that it would force MT onto EVE and its subscribers as a test .... lol, we all know how these tests work out now don't we?
Tranquility Server was never the place for testing, especially a game changer like this.
After the last few days of riots and such from the angry player base, many of us have cancelled our subscriptions in protest, the attitude of CCP is appauling that they say it is we, the more senior players in EVE that are the problem. It is we that see what they are doing and dont like it, but CCP seems willing to lose a percentage of its players so that they can "replace" us with more younger players who dont know any better and can be fleeced of the additional revenue needed to not only run EVE, but fully fund Dust 514 AND WoD till they are able to stand on their own.
As a former beta tester and long loyal customer I will no longer be abused by the greedy charlatan's looking at other ways to pry more money out of me. The last 2 builds were a huge disappointment and now this ..... time to find another game till Battlefield3 comes out this fall ( this game title I have played since BF1942 was in beta and its still going strong and they only charge me one per release, vs the $1200+ I have spent on EVE.)
