Being profitable in one's field of choice is one thing that is understandable. But CCP Games is one of those companies that will sacrifice anyone or anything in order to ride the latest wave just to make a buck.
Add that to CCP Game staff's amoral cacophony of customer service that actively encourages games to harass or threaten players OUTSIDE of the game and that leaves me choosing to not support a company like that with my money any longer.
Eve Online was not always as it is, the Retribution expansion changed that. That is coming from someone who was in EVE's beta and has played it for the past 10 years.
The writing is on the wall for CCP Games in that there are already gaming parent sites advising other parents against allowing their kids or anyone with a sense of ethics not to bother with EVE Online. That combined with specific Iceland groups such as SAFT, working to make people more aware of the growing problems surrounding Internet Harassment means CCP Games needs to wake up and get with the program.
The shiny veneer of a new IP only goes so deep before one can smell the stench of a rotten core that is the amoral staff of CCP Games.
EVE Online Winter Expansion: Rubicon
All the latest details about the newest expansion of EVE Online.
Earlier this afternoon, CCP Games revealed its newest EVE Online expansion: Rubicon. This winter expansion will be released on November 19th, marking 10 years of semi-annual expansions from CCP. There was a deluge of details on Rubicon, so grab a neural booster and soak it all in.
The announcement began with a stunning trailer, describing the immortality and rising power of the Capsuleers (EVE players). The message of the trailer was that Capsuleers "are not interested in settling with the origins they came from...they want to master the universe." This idea guides the current design direction for EVE Online; a universe where players have increasingly more control.
Once the trailer concluded, the conversation began between Sveinn J. "CCP Guard" Kjarval and Andie "CCP Seagull" Nordgren. The most poignant statement came from CCP Seagull, in regard to the future of EVE. "Starting now, over multiple expansions, we're going someplace together. I don't think players or Capsuleers will predict where this is going." The CCP team then continued by emphasizing that its vision would ultimately "start questioning the fundamentals" of EVE Online.
With that in mind, what sort of changes can we expect from Rubicon?
Players Can Control Hi-Sec Customs Offices
Players, instead of NPCs, will now control the flow of resources harvested from planets. By destroying a Customs Office and replacing it with their own, players can set the taxation rate for both friends and foes. It should be noted that this is separate from the sovereignty system.
Four New Deployable Structures
Owned by players, these temporary deployable structures are the first step in allowing players to disrupt the established order of EVE Online. The developers mentioned that they "want to introduce lots of ways to mess around with people, especially in 0.0 and Low-Sec." The devs noted that these structures "are separate from starbase code, should have no legacy issues, should be important in the future and will be built upon with time". You can drop any of these structures "basically whenever" and CONCORD will respond if these structures are attacked.
Although they're not necessarily final, the names and roles of the structures are below:
Siphon Unit – Allows players to steal from starbases. They anchor outside of a starbase, steal things over time, and will transfer the stolen goods to anyone that interacts with it.
Depot (Mobile Home Base) – Acts as an inexpensive storage area and fitting service. It doesn't require a lot of skill points, and is the most entry level of these structures.
Auto Tractor Beam Looting Device – Pulls all of your loot in the area to a central point.
Disposable Short-Range Cynojammer – One-time use with range somewhere between 70km and 100km (undecided). Inside that area, no new cynos can be created except covert cynos.
Warp Acceleration Finally Fixed
After many years of requests, CCP has finally decided to address the long-standing issue of warp acceleration. Your ship's warp speed now affects acceleration and deceleration. Tech 1 Cruisers will be unchanged, serving as a baseline to compare other ships to; smaller ships will accelerate faster, and larger ships will accelerate a bit slower. Additionally, freighters will have less warp acceleration and more warp top speed.
New Missile Launcher
Compared to everything else, this one seems like a fairly small bit of info. The new Battleship Rapid Heavy Missile Launcher will do more DPS vs small targets, but less DPS vs large targets.