Eve Online Dev Responds To Incarna Anger
Eve Online community overseer and marketing manager Pann last night responded to the anger among Eve players regarding the recent microtransaction-heavy Incarna update (which our own Alec examines here) and a leaked CCP internal memo entitled "Greed Is Good" (which you can download here). In a post on the official forums Pan apologised for not making a statement sooner and says that as of today the developers will start "getting some info out" regarding players' questions. Read the post in full after the jump.
Another reason for many players' anger is the open secret that Incarna represents a heavy-duty roadtesting of both the microtransaction tech that'll be used in Dust 514 and the humanoid avatar technology that'll be used in CCP's upcoming World of Darkness MMORPG. At the Eve Fanfest this year the same grumbling could be heard everywhere from the smoking tent to the lecture halls- everybody there had signed up for a game about spaceships. It was one thing for CCP to be taking the game in a new direction with all of this "walking in stations" stuff. What was breeding ill-will was CCP taking Eve in a direction that benefited them.
(Eavesdropping on one such grumbling session I dd overhear by far the best quote of the weekend, though. After listening to his friends bitch about Incarna, one Russian guy piped up with "It's not so bad. Now when we're sieging player-owned stations we'll be able to have sex with one another.")
Anyway, here's Pann's statement to the community. There's very little to see here besides the evidence that CCP are, at least, aware of the anger.
Hi, everyone
Some of you who have been around for a while may remember me. I was the original community manager for EVE. These days, I oversee the PR and Community teams. While most of what I do happens behind the curtains, I am still aware of what’s going on front and center. I would be lying if I said that what’s happening now didn’t make me sad, but I’m not here to ask for your sympathy. To be perfectly honest, I’m here to buy time while we try to sort things out. No sense in lying about it so I'll call a spade a spade.
It’s clear that many of you are (understatement alert) angry. There’s a lot happening, things are changing quickly and we haven’t been as forthcoming as you were used to in the past. I’m willing to step out front and take a lot of heat for that since I was the one who made the decision to hold off on responding for a while to see if things cooled down once the new wore off.
I was wrong to do that and I apologize. We should have said something much sooner. We should have done more to address your concerns and be forthcoming, even if we weren’t going to be able to immediately give you all of the answers you were looking for or the answer your questions in ways that will instantly turn those frowns upside down. To be even more candid, I cannot answer all of your questions, either, but I am working with the people who can to start getting those answers for you. Again, I know we’re doing this past the expiration date of your patience but I hope you’ll bear with me.
I know that, with very few exceptions, most of you don’t know me from Adam. I haven’t earned your trust or respect; therefore I have no right to ask anything of you – but I am going to try, anyway. Can I please count on at least some of you to help bring the pitchforks and torches down a few notches?
Like I said, I won’t be able to answer all of your questions tonight, but I promise we’ll start getting some info out tomorrow. As I see it, the chief complaint is regarding the high cost of goods in the Noble Market. Second, many people are unhappy about the Captain’s Quarters. Third, there are some performance issues with Incarna. I would appreciate it if you would confirm my observations or tell me what I’m missing, but I do ask that you do it in a productive way. I will remove posts without prejudice if they are counterproductive to the conversation I hope to have with you.
If you’ve read this much, thanks for staying with me. If you have something to say, I’d like very much to hear it.
Humbly yours,
~P~