The bitter sweet road to Incarna

The recent dev blog, Captains quarters and the road to Incarna, has certainly got everyone pondering the Incarna topic. Some are excited, many seem wary. I confess I am one of the latter.

When the talk of walking in stations first started I was very excited at the prospect and possibilities. But now I find these feelings are waning and instead I worry about where this is all going to go.

I was one of the people who longed for greater attachment to my avatar and it was certainly something I missed when I first came to Eve. But now that I have been here for a few years I realise that it is not necessary and I would much rather see current content given the love it deserves. I find myself wondering, will Incarna actually add to the game or take something away?

As a corpy of mine recently said on our forums, we want people flying in space for pewpew, not running around a station. Which I certainly agree with. Yes, I would love to embrace "Eve like" spaces with my avatar and discover a whole new level of the game. But not at the expense of the rest of it.

Another friend recently described her disappointment with CCP. She talked of how the dream of what Eve was going to be had changed over the years, how the company had grown and in doing so had diluted its original creativity and how nothing is ever finished properly before the next item of broken content is added. This was a private conversation so I hope she doesn't mind me quoting this sentance, which really struck a cord with me:

CCP used to be creative artists and EVE was their (love) child. Now they are businessmen and EVE is simply their product.

CCP want to create the first complete sci-fi mmo experience. But will this be to the detriment of the Eve that we currently know and love? Yup we’ve just heard of Team BFF’s efforts to tidy up lots of niggles and annoyances. This is great of course and no doubt to the credit of CSM5’s efforts. But why are the players having to nag CCP to death before they fix and tidy up their game? Surely this is wrong?

The recent character creator revamp really drummed home to me CCP’s sloppy attitude to its new content. Why did it take 2/3 fixes for us to get such simple user interface options as a back button and an “are you sure” box?

Eve to me was always "above" other online games. It stood out because it didn’t comply with the normal rules or pander to the masses. It was dark, evil, complex and endless. It was a niche game, not a mass market cash cow. Eve WILL be a success in the future, it would be naive to think otherwise. But unless CCP can find a way back to it’s original values I fear the player base is going to undergo some serious displacement in the years to come.

Of course, I sincerely hope that CCP pull off Incarna and I hope it is bloody amazing when it gets here. But I hope they listen to their current players and don't forget about the rest of their game.

Be all that you can be Aura once said to me. Well I am trying Aura, if only CCP would let me.


Some other reactions to this dev blog that I enjoyed reading:
http://scramweb.blogspot.com
http://teadaze.net/GalNet/?p=349
http://seleene4csm.blogspot.com/2011/02/incarna-will-history-repeat-itself.html
http://www.sobaseki.com/wordpress/2011/02/19/sims-in-space/


o/