The Dev blog is here:
http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&nbid=3377
...and quoted here (slightly edited title):
Quote:csm december summit – meeting minutes are out
reported by CCP Xhagen | 2012.01.17 16:06:41
The sixth CSM and CCP had their second scheduled summit from December 7th to December 9th, 2011.
A wide variety of topics was covered during the summit, as can be seen from the table of contents listed below:
Meeting with the Senior Producer of EVE Online
The CSM
EVE veterans/loyalty program
The economy
The PLEX
Security
Crucible wrapup
Incursions
Null sec –stations, sov, resources
Little things –Factional Warfare, Wormholes
Game balance
Future highlevel discussions –War
Future highlevel discussions –Fixing broken systems
Web cell
Microtransaction Microsummit
New Player Experience
A meeting with the Art department
UI discussions
The CSM and Hilmar CEO
This is quite the wall of text to read through, and there are bound to be many comments from players regarding many of the issues. Please feel free to place your comments in the related thread, it will be monitored both by CCP and the CSM.
The full minutes are here (44 pages):
http://www.eveonline.com/council/transcr...2_2011.pdf
On page 5, there is a discussion of ways to reward veteran players (non-consecutive total subscription time) and generally loyalty (a bit more tricky: maybe like a supermarket scheme, and probably hoped to discourage un-subbing).
To reward vets, I'd simply close the Character Bazaar and tighten up the security to make it hard to buy a character on E-Bay etc. The idea being that it would hopefully reward older players that are playing by making them a rarer thing. That should reduce power creep whilst at the same time, making older players with high skills have greater relative power.
I think the current system curtails a natural process of well-skilled pilots leaving Eve that could otherwise contribute positively.
(2012-01-18 11:49)Sparkus Volundar Wrote: [ -> ]On page 5, there is a discussion of ways to reward veteran players (non-consecutive total subscription time) and generally loyalty (a bit more tricky: maybe like a supermarket scheme, and probably hoped to discourage un-subbing).
To reward vets, I'd simply close the Character Bazaar and tighten up the security to make it hard to buy a character on E-Bay etc. The idea being that it would hopefully reward older players that are playing by making them a rarer thing. That should reduce power creep whilst at the same time, making older players with high skills have greater relative power.
I think the current system curtails a natural process of well-skilled pilots leaving Eve that could otherwise contribute positively.
Just playing devil's advocate here Sparkus...
The problem with this is that it would increase the gulf between newer and older players. There's already the perception on the part of newer players, and the subsequent frustration, of "never being able to catch up"; of not being able to compete with older players. Right now that's mostly a perception issue but, under a system as you propose it would become very much a reality.
The lifeblood of any MMO, particularly a mature one like Eve, is gaining new subscribers. As someone who's been playing for almost 4 years I certainly like the idea of getting rewarded for my longevity but, not at the expense of new subs.
Hi Anabella,
Thanks for the reply - It's good to discuss
If the Character Bazaar was closed, I think it would help to take older characters out of circulation. I think that would then reduce the average skill points of the player base and the SP gap between new players and the average player. The new player is unlikely to perceive that gap differently to now but the average player would be less likely to be maxed out on a ship and pop them quite as fast.
Does that make sense? I've only spoken about this idea briefly with one or two people so it could have problems I've not thought of.
(2012-01-18 19:02)Sparkus Volundar Wrote: [ -> ]If the Character Bazaar was closed, I think it would help to take older characters out of circulation. I think that would then reduce the average skill points of the player base and the SP gap between new players and the average player. The new player is unlikely to perceive that gap differently to now but the average player would be less likely to be maxed out on a ship and pop them quite as fast.
I agree that preventing the sale of characters would be good thing. Someone with money could no longer "catch up" older players or "get unfair advantage" compared the other new players. The problem however is how a accomplish it. Yes CCP could close Character Bazaar, but that would just move the market somewhere else. So rather than promote "black market" I would keep the Character Bazaar open so the market is transparent.
It is my personal opinion that the current skill system of EVE is actually guite well balanced. Yes the older players can fly a greater variety of ships and optimize their fits, but by specializing even relative new players can get their hands on some shiny ships (and fit them reasonably well) in a reasonable time. I would not change it.
NN
From what I understand, the character bazaar is mostly used by older players to try out something new with their 4th alt without having to skill up a new character. I don't think the idea that the character bazaar is used by newer players to "catch up" holds much scrutiny.
In addition, the character bazaar works in a similar way as PLEX. With an endorsed way for transferring characters, it prevents the underground trade. I, for one, will happily let a new player get a character with some more skill points (which doesn't really translate into a better player) to avoid the 'isk farmer' spam.
Something of interest to me in the notes was something that Arkady and I brainstormed earlier, which was the capital jump drive 'spin up' that would slow down capital deployment. Seems we were not the only ones to have this idea. I like the idea as it slows down the ability to hot drop on a whim.