EVE Fighting Back In The Face Of Cataclysm
In space no can hear you insult your enemies from the safety of your armchair
I don’t know what proportion of EVE Online players also have an interest in World of Warcraft and, judging by what I know of the EVE player base, it’s probably not very large but, nonetheless, it seems like CCP are taking every precaution when it comes to ensuring that they keep their population numbers up. On Monday I received a nice little email from them telling me I could reactivate my account (I had deactivated it over the summer) for five free days of play any time before November 21st. They also topped off the deal by offering me a 33% discounted subscription for two months if I renewed after the five free days. Awesome – just in time for Incursion, an expansion I was planning to check out anyway.
One would have imagined that the imminent release of a free expansion would’ve been enough to entice a large section of inactive players back to the game but obviously CCP are taking no chances what with it’s release being so close to C-Day, the date in the calendar that marketh the launch of the almighty Cataclysm. I guess most developers try to avoid any sort of release coinciding with a major Blizzard event and most of them are probably quaking in their boots right now, dreading what havoc the WoW expansion is going to wreck on their games.
I’m sure the temptation for most MMOs is simply to baton down the hatches and wait it out, assuming that players will get fed up after a while and go back to playing their other MMOs or simply not cancel their subscriptions in the first place (I’m definitely in the latter category have frequently maintained three monthly subscriptions to different games at a time; I know I’m not alone when I say it’s hard for me to unsubscribe from a game but then it can be equally hard to get me to resubscribe).
I’ve got to take my hat off to CCP and give credit where it’s due for offering some of the best subscription deals I’ve had from any MMO. Every time I deactivate my account (I’ve done it twice now), I get an email later on offering me a nice deal to bring me back. And I don’t mean some mindless marketing email such as the ones Mythic and Funcom keep bombarding me with but rather actual useful and genuine offers. Five free days and a 33% discount for two months is nothing to sneeze at and CCP’s timing couldn’t be better.
Plus, I want to mention again how excellent their downloader and patching client is. It’s go to be the fastest and most pain free experience out of any MMO I’ve ever played and knowing how easy it is makes it even harder for me to find excuses not to play again, no matter how long I’ve been away for.
Of course now I need to get back into my character and figure out how the heck to play again. Even though I’ve not been away all that long, getting settled back into EVE is a daunting task and I’m looking forward to it as about as much as a middle-aged man is to their first prostate exam.
Oh well, no gain without pain or so they say.
-Gordon
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They also have their Power of Two campaign going on, encouraging people to create a second account at a discounted rate. Given how many EVE players run multiple accounts (including myself for a long stretch) you start to wonder what the ratio of players to subscriptions really is.
The number of paying players would be even smaller since a number of people buy plex for their subs. Essentially the Eve demographic is probably a relatively small number of elite players who pay a lot supporting the game.
Credit to the business model. They’ve had the F2P system’s scalability (spend a lot and be uber or cheapskate and have to grind) for several years without many of the obvious down sides (eg pop up ads).
That’s actually pretty funny. I wonder how many PLEX tycoons there really are, and how many players they support. For that matter, how many people would have stopped playing the game if they couldn’t pay their subscription fee with ISK?
Good question. I really have no idea what percentage of people pay through ISK only. I’d guess not a lot although I’d love to see the official stats.
Very true. I like EVE’s model, it’s very fair and up front.
Is that still running? I remember when they emailed me about it. Makes sense tbh as I can see the attraction of having two characters for different nefarious purposes and skilling them both up at the same time.
>> “It’s go to be the fastest and most pain free experience out of any MMO I’ve ever played”
the fact that you’re on a 50Mbps Internet connection must have helped.
I was still on the ol’ 10Mb line for this one.
lmao. It’s not nearly as bad as a prostate check…well sometimes it is.
Welcome back. Fly safe.
Thanks
So I might actually see the Mantooth online again when I’m in EVE? Kewl!
Yup!!
Ah. So THAT is who Mantooth Jones is. Been wondering why I added that contact and who it is.
I’ll be sure to wave next time.
[...] of EVE: Incursion delayed until January, Gordon at We Fly Spitfires thinks that CCP’s latest subscription discounts are an effort to stave off a Cataclysm of their [...]
Wow is fighting back too. I just got my first ever ‘come back to Azeroth’ email from them with 7 days free time if I felt so inclined. Bumping interest before release?
Yeah I saw that too. It’s funny cause after I just wrote about how great it was CCP doing it I’m now wondering why I can’t get my 7 days free play in WoW!
I got the same email, but on my alt account. My main account got no such email.
What gives you think?
i’ve only been active in eve online for 2 months. i’m kicking myself that i didn’t discover it sooner.
i was never a fan of conventional MMOs (kill enemy x 1000000 times to level) but eve online to me feels like a living, breathing world. it progresses while i am away doing RL stuff, and so does my toon
i’m never going to have to buy another video game again! bliss
[...] of EVE: Incursion delayed until January, Gordon at We Fly Spitfires thinks that CCP’s latest subscription discounts are an effort to stave off a Cataclysm of their [...]
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