The Cost of Bot-Aspirancy, Part 1

What are CCP's plans for EVE? Perhaps more importantly, what are Pearl Abyss's plans for EVE? Well, these days, when CCP talks about EVE, they like to talk about things like this:

And things like this:

And, recently, this:

And, of course, most especially this:

CCP seems eager to get people to spend more of their real money on EVE. "Of course they are," you say. "CCP is a business. It's their job to make money. Selling skillpoints and isk is good for their bottom line."

For years, carebears have spoken of the importance of player retention rates and subscription revenue. "We need to do everything we can to retain more players--to bring in more newbros--so that CCP can make more money and keep EVE alive."

This is folly; it is not the player's job to keep a video game company in business. But let us explore this line of logic in the current environment, where CCP's financial strategy has evolved beyond a reliance on player subscriptions. Today, CCP is all about milking whales and maximizing microtransactions. So where does that leave the Revenue Master--the traditional subscription revenue-obsessed carebear?

Well, the carebears always told us that CCP's bottom line was of paramount importance. The very essence of the game could and should be sacrificed in favor of juicing CCP's cash flow. If that is true when it comes to subscription revenue, then it must also be true when it comes to all of the microtransaction money upon which CCP increasingly relies.

From the standpoint of CCP's finances, it makes no difference whether they get American dollars from a bunch of subscribers' monthly fees or from a single whale who spent a bunch of money on microtransactions. In fact, most observers seem to agree that CCP prefers the whales. Thus, the carebear who is so deeply concerned about CCP's revenues must become an ardent supporter of skill injectors, skins, PLEX, and gambling. Indeed, he must support the milking of whales even at the expense of player numbers, provided that the whale money outpaces the loss of subscription fees.

The carebear must find himself an advocate of HyperNet spam--the spammier and scammier, the better. The more money that people spend setting up HyperNet raffles, and the more isk that whales lose through gambling, the better it is for CCP's revenues. A few weeks ago, the failed raffle of a Raven State Issue resulted in the loss of some $2,000+ USD of HyperCores. That's a lot of months of subscription fees, and it was paid upfront. That single raffle was more valuable than any number of newbros. You do want CCP to stay in business and keep EVE Online running indefinitely, don't you?

Forget gambling, though. We know where the whales are truly to be found: They feast upon PLEX and Skill Injectors. A newbie, especially one with an Alpha account, does not contribute much to CCP's bottom line. But a whale who PLEXes and injects himself into a bunch of blingy ships? He's the guy who keeps the lights on in Reykjavík.

The carebear who frets about CCP's finances cannot escape the logical conclusion. It is inevitable. He must support the ganking of whales.

For the good of CCP.

This truth has been in front of us all along. From the CSM9 Summer Summit, all the way back in 2014:

Mike Azariah: "You said the guy in the blinged out Golem is ganked. But those are often noobs who have purchased a character and ship with PLEX. I have met these people who are only three weeks old. They can still be new players."

CCP Bettik: "I don't think it is the length of time that matters, but the experience. I don't see a difference between losing a Venture or a Golem. It is a person who walks into a situation he did not understand and he loses."

Yes, we often hear the carebears say that ganking should be banned to protect new players. They even say this in the context of freighter ganking, as if newbies are puttering around in Charons with 20 billion isk of cargo. Thanks to PLEX and Skill Injectors, they could be new players. But that's no longer the point. From the perspective of CCP's finances, new players don't matter; whales do.

Consider the case of X-FEANOR, a notorious Russian whale who repeatedly lost freighters and pods worth ludicrous amounts of isk. He once lost a pod with more than 10 billion isk worth of implants--for a character that did nothing but autopilot freighters! Before he finally disappeared in 2016, X-FEANOR lost roughly 195 billion isk in ganked ships and pods. And that was only on his main character. Using one of his many alts, X-FEANOR explained his philosophy as follows:

This is the attitude of the whales who infest our highsec. If they get ganked, they don't leave the game--they buy more stuff from CCP. X-FEANOR was ganked over a period of years, and it's possible that he continued playing beyond 2016 on less-famous characters. Even if he did quit, consider his 195+ billion worth of losses. If all we care about is CCP's bottom line, the ganks were far more valuable than X-FEANOR's subscription fees.

Now imagine that ganking didn't exist. What a missed opportunity for CCP! Why, the Anti-Gankers would be responsible for driving CCP to bankruptcy. They should be banned for opposing ganking! That's the way it works, right?

Of course, I am merely demonstrating the absurdity of the carebears' faux pro-CCP arguments. When our discussion continues, we shall see what the Code has to say about all of these microtransactions.

To be continued...