I consider this to be representative of a design flaw both here and in Eve. What you describe -- when opponents begin blueballing, barricading the doors and barring the windows -- in these games, that's what victory feels like. In these games we don't have, to borrow an expression from sports, "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat." We have "the disappointment of victory and the agony of defeat." In this regard, Eve is no better than Perpetuum, but they get away with it because the larger player base means the defeat of one contender results in the rise of a new, different challenger fairly quickly so the "disappointment" of victory is short-lived.

I think giving players the game they want starts with not giving them what they ask for. If you look back at the results of Eve's CSM meetings over the years, you'll find the nullsec community reps always advocate ways to bring greater wealth to the winners of conflicts while delivering ever-greater pain to the losers. I believe games of this nature need to find ways to help winners feel like winners without having actually won too much, and losers to walk away not feeling so much like losers. The devs need to view themselves as arms dealers. Business is good as long as one side or the other doesn't actually win.

Another thing players ask for that they should never be given is the opportunity to invest so much in something, or acquire something of such value, that they can't fathom ever losing it. To protect these assets, players turn to blobbing and non-aggression pacts. I quit playing before Gamma was introduced, but I think I recall reading a dev blog where they stated the biggest complaint by players was they felt they had to spend all their online time fortifying their defenses to protect their investment.

The scarcest moon mining minerals in Eve were introduced by the devs with the stated intent that they be drivers of conflict. In reality, players responded by creating mega-alliances to defend them and they consequently remained in the same hands for years. Another result being, by holding these huge revenue-generating assets, even if a contender can achieve some tactical victories against a mega-alliance, they will never win the war of attrition.

I think most will agree that the occupants of nullsec in Eve fit nicely into a caste system. The reward/loss mechanics CCP built into nullsec pretty much dictate that the only way to move up a caste is to be absorbed by an entity already there. I think this is a chief reason so many Eve players are hoping for a better game to come along. Perpetuum needs to figure out how to be that better game.

I'd love to see the current power blocs divide to make the PVP aspect of the game spice up. I know it's only natural for people to want to band together with like minded goals ect. But man would it be fun to have a variety of targets and constant warring between. I mean you could always set rules like what's currently going on in Eve down by Curse, rules are no sov warfare, just plain PVP and to be honest it seems to be working out great cause there's always fun fights to be had with no nasty POS grinding to do.

Remember those 2 times this game had 3 main player alliances. When the game first launched & when SQUID alliance was formed.
Was just a shame Wambulance (Hook alliance) wasn't as strong as it once was. But even so so many good times for PVP

I can happen again! But it might take time as any new player need to get the EP 7 Skills to know how to fight effectively in this game.

In the past a reason why we have had so few power blocks in this game has been simply down to the number of PVP islands.

When we had Beta islands only you had 6 islands in 3 groups. If  a group of players got powerful enough they would always influence at least 2 Beta (normally one of the 3 sets of beta islands).

If Gammas are re balanced there SHOULD now be sufficient room for new groups to emerge on the PVP seen.

True Pros make a Podcast to influence the Devs minds, 
The rest of you guys are Hacks

PS. I got my Highways & stopped playing b4 they came in & have never used them! ...... Irony much ?

I will bottle this delicacy for a special occasion.

There's no need for our powerbloc to disband since we discovered the joy of blowing each other up for great lulz.

You are now irrelevant to us since we have no further use for you. You have our permission to disband.

There is no reason for your power block to disband, you have clearly shown that you have trouble fighting the 5 or 6 of us in 1 corp.  Seriously dont kid yourselfs, you need that alliance to make up for the lack of skill.  Im glad to see you guys playing again instead of crying about perp while playing another game. Welcome back

Can't help it that your allies are equally useless or not playing the game

http://www.perp-kill.net/?m=related&id=256376

Its a shame when the recruitment corp is beating you down.

Really good post Taco. Talking about loss: In Eve Null sec you can loose your Station but not your assets and that gives you a chance to get all your stuff back, but here on Gamma you loose everything and there is no way on getting you assets back, no wonder players turtled up. Its ok loosing bots, but when you loose a gamma here, you loosing 1000s of hours of work, and after that I can't blame a corp for leaving the game.

Therefore something needs to change in that respect, because if you risk everything on gamma and it's going to be even higher risk to loose everything then there is no point in puting them back after the wipe.

this forums really missing the "like" button for posts.

why you start so late. the total loss already begins with losing your bot in PvE and all the npc-kill bounty with it. Ever wondered why noone really goes in a single combat bot on beta islands to kill a few npcs, and happily engages in PvP when someone surprises him? *

Not only does PvP require completely different gear then PvE, it also means that in case of defeat you lose everything you did since you have undocked your robot. Eventually you get a meager insurance payout.
Even in EVE you keep your npc kill bounty when you ship explodes.

That you cannot even activate a weapon that you theoretically could equip on your mining bot, without losing the ability to dock the station that you could eventually reach when your attacker had to fear any incomming damage, surely had helped with the "casual PvP" situation too.

edit:
*= single exceptions prove the rule!

With regards to gamma bases dying and full loot I kind of agree. Perhaps gamma bases should be NPC based like beta and allow you to capture and then improve them. This would fix that while maintaining gameplay.

That would mean the first 12 bases on an island are permanent.