Anyone who knows me or has been around me at any point while intoxicated probably knows I play the space MMO EVE Online. I’ve played the game on and off for going on four years. By on and off I mean for the vast majority of it I was actively subscribed, but for brief periods I would only log in to change skill training.
About eight months ago, I joined up with Reddit’s EVE corporation, Dreddit. Since then, I’ve become decently involved in the happenings of the universe. And there have been a lot of happenings lately.
While avoiding the political in-game aspects, such as the recent fall of the seemingly indestructible Northern Coalition, which are in my opinion much more interesting, there is a lot of talk about CCP, the makers of EVE, and the future of the game itself.
With the release of the Incarna expansion, there has been a huge communal lashing-out against CCP for some of the actions they’ve been taking. An internal CCP newsletter was leaked that discussed, with little regard to the known opinion of the playerbase, so-called Pay2Win mechanics. With the release of Incarna, the Noble eXchange came along, allowing players to transfer real cash-money near directly for in-game items. With this, the entire EVE community exploded into a nasty rage-fest.
Currently, NeX only allows you to purchase vanity items. Perhaps a $70 monocle for your character tickles your interest? The newsletter, however, discussed the ability to purchase “gold ammo” and other exclusive items that would give a player an actual advantage over others. This is a similar model used in many other MMOs, but one of the strongest ‘features’ is the extremely “fair” and level field. As others have said, a 10-hour hero can grief a four year old player. Skillpoints are a measure of ‘How many different things can I do?’ and not at all representative of a player’s skill or ability to inflict damage on others.
Now, I can see both sides of this argument. You can already purchase things indirectly with real money by purchasing a GTC, changing it into a PLEX and selling it for ISK. The problem with using Aurum (the new currency) and NeX is that you would likely be bypassing traditional means of attaining items.
Nearly all of the items on the market are player created. This means that players mined or reprocessed the minerals, researched the blueprints, ran the manufacturing jobs, and moved the goods. There is a huge amount of work that goes into this, and simply bypassing it with AUR is absolutely terrible. It devalues one of the most intriguing parts of EVE- the literally player-driven economy.
Arguably, the real issue lies in the fact the CCP have not been communicating with their player-base. There is mass amounts of speculation and “trust issues” by the community towards CCP. EVE is set apart not only by the unique nature of the game, but also in how much people care about EVE and its future. It is not like WoW, where a bunch of angry 30-year-old kids rage in their mom’s basement (though there are plenty of raging 30-year-old kids in their mom’s basement in EVE) because of a raid gone bad. EVE is a true incarnation of an alternate universe that we use to escape reality for a while. It may not be healthy, but it’s our EVE, damnit. If anything were to happen, I’d have to go outside and … do things. The thought alone makes me sick. 
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