Can I have your stuff?

Show me on this graph where EVE is dying: http://eve-offline.net/?server=tranquility

Can I still have you stuff?

I heard Gravemind was buttraped in EVE and couldn't afford a monocle. Hence he's so angry.

It is hilarious that people think the impact of the monocle can be seen in a login graph just weeks after the events. One thing about EvE that is even more true than in other MMORPGs is the comeback ratio. A huge number of players give up and then come back a year or two later. Many just play a few months then go back to a hiatus.

I think recent events will barely show up on the graphs in the next month or two. But any "loss" will be covered in less than one year. From now to the end of 2013 several more rage-inducing expansions will happen. But, especially beginning mid 2012, there'll be a huge influx of new players to compensate.

EvE will not die. It will change. And in terms of size of the playerbase it will grow.

Here I am wishing the same for Perpetuum and even wishing that one or two new single shard sanbox MMORPGs appear and actually eat some playerbase numbers from both Perpetuum and EvE (and WoT and DUST and ...).
Why? Because competition is good. DvD as in devs versus devs in the gaming (real) world is as good as players versus players within a game (virtual) world.

well, a new devblog by CCP seems to have cleared the air a bit, which is both good and yet disappointing. I don't plan on un-subbing from PO for a while, and even after CCP's about-face (and the fact that I will resume playing Eve again because of it), it looks like most if not all of our SHDWC guys are still interested in sticking with PO.

Mostly I think this is because almost all of our guys have played Eve for so long (beta 2003 for me, lots of us are 2004-05 as well) and we remember the early days when things didn't work so well, there wasn't much content (compared to now), etc. For some, this is painful, but for us, it is kind of exciting to be part of something new, to be able to get in on the ground floor and help influence the direction of the game.

I've no doubt we might see a dip here in PO as players migrate back to Eve, but I'm hoping that a lot stick around for a long time and see where this game goes, how it evolves. For me, it is just a matter of splitting time between the two MMO's (not to mention the few other games I play).

Anyway, today is a good day on all fronts so far, and I'm going to enjoy it by having a beer and a smoke (and it isn't even noon yet here where I live!)

Even with the EvE Dev blog, I am sticking it out over here.  I think that it can not be overstated how much confidence in CCP has been eroded over the years.

Will EvE die?  Unlikely.  However, there probably quite a few other than me who do not want to keep feeding them cash. 

I am pretty excited to be putting my bucks into this game with the hope that the Devs at Perpetuum will make constructive use of it and grow the game.

Yes, we are paying for entertainment time.  However, in paying a subscription for a game, you are supporting its continued existence and development.  From my own perspective, I am not so much interested in the morality of CCP (they are a business).  I am more concerned with lack of responsiveness in addressing ongoing problems with their product and whether I feel like that product continues to be entertaining or a good match for me. 

That said, I do feel that choosing to play and subscribe to a game is a statement of support for the work that goes into it.  If I have a finite amount of cash to spend on gaming, I choose to put it into a product/group that I like.

It's actually pretty rare statistically for an mmo to die. They do get old and stale though, especially if the ones run by a big software company get devs pulled to work on another project.

It's actually more than 360k for a while now, CCP don't release up to date stats. We can only judge from log in rate, in which a 10% drop over a bit more than a week is very significant, especially since when people cancel sub, they don't just go poof, many have one or several months of game time left. It's safe to say the drop rate would be more like a bell curve, one that probably haven't reached peak yet.

If Dust is even released within three to five years (look how long Failcarna took, compared to the, "Walking in stations d00dz!" crap coming out of CCP for the better part of EVE's lifespan), it's going to be released on a platform that's already on its way out, in an overpopulated, hyper-competitive FPS market, by a company who has zero FPS experience whatsoever.

Good luck with that.

No, Dust is going to be another brilliant idea that, if released, will be released half-arsed and never again looked at, relegated to a shallow unmarked grave along with mining and FW, among others.

Now on to the topic:

Indeed - at first, it reminded me of the old days of EQ, when you'd have to walk five miles uphill in the snow both ways just to find a rat to kill.    Haven't had much of a problem for me lately since I have moved out further - but then, I'm not sitting around trying to grind standings.

From what I could tell, mission targets were fairly static.   Would be awesome to have them randomized a bit - multiple locations and such, so everyone's not going after the same loldrones all the time.

Eve and other mmos are fundamentally services. There is an understanding that if you subscribe to Eve or Perpetuum, you pay the devs, you pay for the infrastructure, and you pay for continued development which is crucial to the continued appeal of the game.
When I'm paying for services in other parts of real life, and the guy I hired is an impolite ***, chances are I'm not going to hire him a second time for his service.

This is something many mmo devs are completely unaware of. They're not selling a can of soup, they're selling something that has a much more personal connection to people. That's why the public image of an mmo company is such a huge deal.

The recent server problems are a great example of this. The devs thought they'd get burned at the stake, but because they could establish a personal connection to their community and therefore customers, they came out of this with a positive image despite having a nonexistent service for days. Imagine how this would play out in Eve where the community actively distrusts them.

Which is, by the way, the reason why I put up with Perpetuum's broken mechanics. I have faith that this game is going to improve. Slowly perhaps, but definitely.
I definitely agree with the OP that the npcs need some changes in behaviour and spawns. I'd rather see small roaming groups actively trying to kill people outside of a specific radius of outposts, and scout groups within that radius for new players to kill. Mining operations would need to be protected if they were farther out. Stuff like this, more dynamic than the static spawns.

One great thing about Perpetuum is that the game isn't locked in place with a huge pile of game design debt and technical debt. The devs can still go wild without breaking everything, so I'm rather optimistic for the future.

Btw., regarding more highways..I disagree. Player built outposts or camps or whichever would be much better.