Based on today’s response from CCP, I have put my plans to leave EVE on hold for now. But I’ve also put my plans for my corp on ice.
The rest of this post just has a brief analysis of the devblog and a bit of explanation about what I intend.
’100% more love’
Arnar (Zulu) didn’t have quite everything I’d like, and I’d like to see some sort of response from Hilmar as well. But I heard enough of what I wanted (“no golden ammo” and what sounds like a very sincere apology for his handling on Friday) that I decided to stick it out a little longer.
One bit generated some particular controversy:
However I let my frustration take charge of me, fueled by emotions that had built up due to a breach of trust we at CCP have been experiencing over the past few days. I know that sounds ironic considering those are the exact same feelings you have been having towards CCP.
I read this as CCP employees feeling betrayed by whomever leaked the newsletter and CEO email. As much as I appreciate what the leaker did (from the perspective of a player and customer), I can certainly understand why the folks out there would feel this way. And he recognizes the irony in his statement, something that matters a great deal to me.
Apparently, CCP will bring the CSM out for an emergency summit meeting during the next week. They don’t plan to say anything else in the meantime, which strikes me as the right choice. I don’t know whether CCP runs into cultural issues between Iceland and the rest of Europe plus the US, or whether they have even more financial pressure than we know about, or whether something else drives these issues, but they’ve got to get things together.
My plans
In addition to the health issues I already mentioned, it strikes me that centering so much of my social life around a single corporation can’t be good. CCP and our interests may align somewhat and to some degree, but the fact remains that they want to make money and we want to have fun. While they hope to accomplish their goal by providing ours to us, those two goals can diverge. Sometimes that happens because a player’s needs change, but that can happen when a corporation’s needs (or strategy) changes, too.
Make no mistake: a corporation and a human being cannot, in any true sense of the word, have friendship. Some of the employees may have friendships among themselves and even with us as players, but don’t confuse the individual employees with the corporation, which really has no personality and, in a human sense, does not even exist.
Therefore, I have decided not to launch and grow the Singularity Foundation. It will still exist, partly as an “alt corp” for the current membership (all two of us) and possibly a few friends, and partly as a platform for roleplay. But Iurnan will primarily just engage in RP and “casual” trade, as my goals in EVE changed dramatically over the last week. I don’t want to grow any sort of power base in-game, and I don’t want to focus my game activity on things I can do in real life. I hack and do research both at work and at home. Power out here in the real world doesn’t interest me in any sense that compares to what my characters seek.
I do have another character I’ve brought back, as I will pare down to only two active accounts. Iurnan’s casual trading will keep my accounts going through PLEXes, and I plan to apply to a casual PVP corporation with the other character. I’d like to try highsec piracy again. Rather than try to build anything in EVE – something that can tumble down at the whim of some Viking committee – I’d rather just have fun without taking things too seriously.
And the next time CCP pulls something foolish, I won’t feel quite the same disappointment.
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