Player's perspective

With EVE Online: Tyrannis, we will be able to build some structures on planets. It seems to be big news for some, and even for people who stay in high sec space it might be a new opportunity. Is it an interesting change? Who knows. From a short term perspective, it seems to be some new options, new goals for all players, even for the people who prefer high sec space. It is nice, and we should be happy with it. Some structures that are owned by individual players, and not by corporations... It seems to be a significant change. At least if we speak about short term effects.

But from another perspective PINS are just pins on a map, and another simple interface of getting something valuable. You don't customize anything, it seems to be a simple interface with very simple looks. Some will find it is still haard to customize anything, hard to consider your character as your own, and things are still repetitive, if you don't focus on battles in 0.0. And I am not sure if mining, etc. would be strong in high-sec space. While developers say, mining should be the most important source of minerals, In high sec space, only loot and drone compounds are source of some materials, which means as an industrial character some progress is hard without combat (and preferably PVP) support.


We still don't have "equal chances", if we compare a new industrial character to a T2 BPO owner, and the differences in skill points are permanent, while reasonable goals can be reached in about 7 months, being equal seems to be out of reach. Will Planetary Intraction make an average player stay with the game for more than 7 months? Will the overall landscape change much? I doubt it. And without changing to this 7 months boundary, the landscape will stay similar.

The "same old eve" we would say, if Tyrannis expansion wouldn't be a step toward something unique: Integration with another MMO, and integration with an MMO for some other platforms. And that can change many things.

With a few more skills to pick up, with a few more things to try, we might stay for a 8th or a 9th month. And that is where the change begins.

With our industrial character, our combat alts will stay. Maybe we will invite som friends, and if friends stay, we might stay for few more months again. And with more "older" characters in high sec, higher population elsewhere, etc. the economical landscape of Eve Online will change, and supply and demand will influence the life of industrial charactrs. This change isn't as interesting as the short term fun from new features, but at least as important.

Important, since so far getting 1 million players would seem to be a distant goal for Eve Online, something that is hard to reach, even if their platform could be adapted to handle a subscriber base of that size. An MMORPG is best if you can play with friends. Fans of PVE and fans of PVP, hardcore and casual players, traders, industrialists, fighters, and people who love providing support should feel at home. If casual players leave, they might take a few hardcore players with them. If fans of PVE leave and cannot play with their friends, even PVP fanatics can leave.

Supporting casual and carebears and other dwellers of high sec space more is one option to keep more players, but integration with other games, and making sure people who play different games on different platforms can still play together even if they prefer very different values seems to be a very interesting option. I think it can make eve online grow, and be succesful.

But what would happen to the single shard nature of Eve Online, if it would have to serve 250000 users at same time? How would it influence economy? How quickly would belts vanish? It is something we should see later. Tyrannis and Planetary Interaction is the first step towards this change. And I think we should look forward to see it first hand.