Please, tell me I am wrong. I am literally begging you to tell me that I am wrong, because I have been playing this game for 13 years; and I completely understand that my experiences as a video game developer are both a decade old at this point, and I understand you cannot always generalize even in the insular video game industry.
What I will say, and will argue with you about until my dying breath is these two things:
- Your (not you, per se, rather CCP's) deference to r/eve as an EVE community above all others is palpable. Don't take my word for it, go to the official EVE-O forums and actually read what people are saying;
- You know, or should know, I am 100% correct about the connection between social networks and retention--this is the very reason CCP changed the war mechanics recently, and whether or not you, or CCP generally, is aware of it, I can see my in-game social network get smaller and weaker almost week by week. That is absolutely not a place I think anyone who cares about this IP wants the game to be in. The stagnation Hilmar keeps talking to the press about was infinitely preferable. Believe it or not, we would have waited for you guys to really think out changes design wise, and test them;
- I once worked for SOE, and I saw how damaging the affects of thrusting massive game changes without proper testing and focus grouping can be to a game, and here is the thing... at least SOE had an excuse, because the SWG NGE was forced on them by Lucas Arts under threat of license revocation. I am really struggling with seeing any justification for the way CCP has gone about the last 3 months as an MMO publisher outside of the causes I listed earlier. So please, community manager... pretty please with sugar on top, actually communicate with us and tell us what is going on in your guys' heads instead of, as the OP has pointed out, killing us with silence. Prove me wrong. I really, really, really want you to.
Edit:
PS. I think all of the complaints about EVE Vegas moving are pretty stupid, considering... well everything. Though, I might be biased as I spend a good deal of my time in San Diego (and I think Las Vegas is a hot postmodern dystopian hell hole--its a lot like r/eve).
