Mushrooms

I should feel pretty good right now. I had to renew my passport and I got my new one two weeks faster than expected. I've booked my flight & hotel room and have my ticket to Fanfest in April. On the computer class front, I finished up for the semester and I can start the next class on the 28th. Final Fantasy is also going well, apart from guild drama that saw everyone but 4 characters kicked from the free company, myself included.

The one nagging issue is EVE Online. When I checked the markets just now, I saw the volume of PLEX sold yesterday dipped back under 1 million, with only 993,993 sold on 2007 orders. We'll need to see if the down numbers from the last few days are due to DDoS attacks or if the trend will continue.

What really has me bugged, though, is the messaging to the players. In the aftermath of Hurricane Hilmar, players complained about the uncertainty of what CCP planned for the future. Or other words, they wanted a glimpse of CCP's vision for the game. Or, in other words, a road map. Don't all companies have them?

What CCP unveiled at EVE Vegas was probably the minimum needed to quell talk that EVE is either in, or about to enter, maintenance mode. During the keynote, CCP Burger got up on stage and laid out the advance information CCP would give players. At the beginning of the fiscal quarter, the developers would give the theme of the quarter along with information on the releases planned over the next three months. CCP would also announce the name of the theme for the following quarter. Attendees of the convention also were told the name of the theme of the first quarter of 2020: Fight or Flight.

January is here, and so far the only updates we've received is that the theme for Q1 2020 is based around PvP. That's it. No further details. To make matters worse, CCP shut off player access to the Singluarity test shard. No advanced warning for players!

Here is the problem I see. On the run-up to Hurricane Hilmar, CCP's CEO publicly stated he thought the developers had given players too much information. A flashback ensued, with CCP having to announce at EVE Vegas a framework for keeping players informed of future changes. If CCP goes back on the framework and decides to treat players like mushrooms, I'm not sure the reception the players will have. After all, if one is promised better, being kept in the dark and eating shit is not that appealing.