The 2011 Summer of Rage

2017-06-16

This was a team effort. Thanks to Dirk MacGirk, NoizyGamer, Mynxee and others.

Recent developments within EVE Online have caused a stir on the EVE Online forums and EVE’s sub-reddit page. Moderators there have even created a “Summer of Rage” tag for threads regarding the current turmoil that pits players against devs. However, the “Summer of Rage” refers to a different time in EVE and a series of events that unfolded six years ago.

In June 2011, players began to rage on the EVE Forums after the release of the Incarna expansion, which included CCP’s first steps into character “ambulation,” and the introduction of the Noble Exchange (NeX) store, EVE’s first in-game outlet for microtransaction-based vanity items. Incarna was broadly considered a flop due to the underwhelming reception of both of the expansion’s primary focus, ambulation, as well as the limited and high-priced nature of the NeX store. The Incarna fiasco was within days followed by a series of other issues related to leaked internal CCP documents, and communications directed at the players that were seen as hostile, tone-deaf and dismissive. The net result was a player-led uprising against CCP that resulted in losses of subscriptions, bad press, and ultimately contributed to sweeping changes across the company. But that was then, this is now. Are we actually witnessing another Summer of Rage or is it something else that we don’t understand?

What we do understand, with the advantage of time, is what happened in 2011.   

History: The Summer of Rage

In hindsight, the Summer of Rage seemed to last all summer long. In reality, the time of maximum player outrage only comprised an 11-day period that began on June 21 with the release of the Incarna expansion, and ended on July 1 following an emergency summit between CCP and CSM 6. Those 11 days echoed throughout the remainder of the summer, and culminated with major changes at CCP, including a change in development strategy that lasted nearly three years.

The issues that led to the Summer of Rage developed long before 2011. As far back as 2007, CCP T0rfifrans had talked about ambulation, or what became known as “walking in stations.” The vision was that a first-person avatar perspective would lead to new and exciting content, allowing existing players to interact outside the confines of their spaceships. Two examples often mentioned were corporate war rooms where avatars could gather to consult 3D graphical maps and other tools, as well as locations like shops and bars along station promenades where other forms of player-to-player interaction could occur. The idea was to provide a more immersive sci-fi experience than was currently provided by the existing game.  

From 2007 to 2009, players were playing the hell out of EVE, even though many aspects of it were in need of developer attention or outright broken. Every new expansion seemed to offer new gameplay and expanding opportunities:

  • 2008 Empyrean Age – Faction Warfare (new gameplay)
  • 2008 Quantum Rise – Orca mining command ship (race to build them)
  • 2009 Apocrypha – Wormholes (expanded the map and new gameplay)
  • 2009 Dominion – Sov Mechanics & System Upgrades (new gameplay)
  • 2010 Tyrannis – Planetary Interaction (new gameplay)
  • 2010 Incursion – Group PVE (new gameplay)

Eve was growing, as evidenced by both PCU (peak concurrent users) as well as subscriptions. Each winter and summer offered big new features, and players old and new showed up to check out the new features of the latest expansion. From Empyrean Age to Incursion, subscriptions grew 26.7 percent (86,258 new subscriptions). Following years of hype and rising player expectations, the mother of all expansions, Incarna, was slated for the summer of 2011.

Although EVE Online was CCP’s flagship product, the company was also in development of an avatar-based vampire MMO known as World of Darkness, as well as a ground-based first-person shooter known as DUST 514. Rather than use an existing game engine, CCP began to develop its own proprietary graphics engine known as Carbon to power these avatar-based games. Carbon would also be the engine used to develop EVE’s planned expansion into avatar-based game play.

Development of Carbon and ambulation in EVE were no small feats, and the development process diverted resources away from EVE’s core game. Player reaction was somewhat mixed. Some players believed EVE was a game about spaceships and didn’t want to see development resources diverted from the core game, especially not when there were issues that required developer attention. On the other hand, many players understood the potential for expanding EVE beyond spaceships, and were willing to accept that the trade-off was worth the wait.

During CSM 5’s June 2010 Summit, CSM chairperson Mynxee [currently CEO of Signal Cartel], suspected that there was very little progress on Incarna gameplay. At an emergency October 2010 summit,  It became clear that CCP was not prepared to deliver on the full vision for Incarna and that the planned expansion would simply deliver a downpayment on their vision for avatar gameplay. The expansion would roll out in stages, with the first including the new character creator, Captain’s Quarters, and the Noble Exchange (NeX) store. Players became anxious after CSM 5 warned them that Incarna was not going to deliver, and when it appeared on the test server players grew angry.

In the lead up to Incarna’s release on June 21, 2011, and amid a growing frustration with EVE’s core gameplay, two events occurred that further soured the mood of EVE players. On June 8, CCP Games attended E3 to unveil the company’s first-person shooter, DUST 514. During the presentation CCP announced that DUST 514 would be delivered exclusively on Playstation 3 consoles, which alienated many of EVE’s existing PC-based customers. Then on June 12, EVE Online’s login server was hit by a LulzSec DDOS attack that frustrated players who were unable to login.

Incarna Released

On June 21 the Incarna expansion was released to an underwhelming reception due to the fact that not only was there very little to show for years of development effort, but there were also issues right out of the gate. For starters, the hangar view was removed, and along with it the ability to spin ships in station. The new Captain’s Quarters feature, of which there was only one racial variation (Minmatar), was forced on all players, and was responsible for excessive lag when docking/undocking as well as causing equipment failures with some video cards. Finally, the Noble Exchange (NeX) store offered only a limited selection of vanity items for player avatars, and those few items were extremely overpriced in the new currency known as Aurum. Given the fact that player avatars could ambulate no farther than the Captain’s Quarters, these overpriced items looked like a cash grab by the company. Overall, Incarna was a colossal disappointment after years of hype and mismanaged player expectations. The mood of the playerbase shifted rapidly from frustration to outright disgust.

“Fearless”

If the mood wasn’t bad enough on the day Incarna was released, the following day only served to gin up the rage machine. On June 22 an internal CCP publication known as Fearless was leaked to the public. The Fearless publication was used by CCP to foster ideas, debate and commentary on various issues. This particular edition of Fearless titled “Greed is Good?” focused on the subject of microtransactions. Some of the ideas it presented played directly into the worst fears of the playerbase. It should be noted that the purpose of this leaked document was unknown to the players. What players saw was an “internal” discussion by key CCP personnel about gold ammo, special ships and countless other ideas that went past vanity and into the realm of pay to win. Word spread like wildfire within the community and the community’s mood went from disgust over the failure of Incarna to anger that the NeX store might be the first step in moving EVE onto free-to-play and pay-to-win path.

$1,000 Jeans, Monoclegate, Riots

Two days later on June 24, Senior Producer CCP Zulu issued a devblog titled “Fearless, Virtual Goods, and Rage” which attempted to answer player outrage over the leak of CCP’s nefarious contemplations. It began by describing the timing being so close to the deployment of Incarna, which in his words was, “one of our more smooth and successful expansions, not to mention absolutely gorgeous.” It went on to explain the purpose behind Fearless, which was designed to foster internal discussion about controversial topics, and is “often exaggerated purposefully to draw contrasts and make points.”

Following this explanation, CCP Zulu moved to defending CCP’s staff by saying,

“we think it’s not cool how individuals that work here have been called out and dragged through the mud due to something they wrote in the internal company newsletter. Seriously, these people were doing their jobs and do not deserve the hate and shitstorm being pointed at them.”

Following Zulu’s remarks related to Fearless, he moved on to the issue of pricing in the NeX store. Considering the NeX was limited to clothing for the new full-bodied avatars roaming the Captain’s Quarters, Zulu referenced clothing in real life. Namely, the difference between $1,000 jeans from a Japanese boutique compared to similar jeans for under $50. The point was that tastes and willingness to pay to express yourself differed from person to person. However, the selection of items was very limited and players were outraged over some “deluxe” items such as a monocle valued at upwards of $70 worth of Aurum. That high-priced monocle is also why the outcry over the NeX store was known as “Monoclegate.” However, what many players heard was a CCP Dev saying that some consumers’ willingness to purchase $1,000 jeans was the justification for overpriced merchandise in a virtual store.

Overall, the explanation was received as dismissive and combative, and player attitudes took a turn towards rage. That rage spilled over in game into what became known as the Jita Riots where thousands of pilots converged on Jita to shoot the monument outside of the Jita 4-4 station.

Apologies, CSM Emergency Summit

By June 26, the wider gaming press had latched onto the player revolt story; PCGamer, Slashdot, Gamasutra, RPS, Engadget, and others published articles on the issues and player response. Later that day, CCP Zulu took the unprecedented step of issuing an apology in which he referenced the “tone and demeanor” of his previous devblog, and noted that he had let his frustration take charge. He commented, “I know that sounds ironic considering those are the exact same feelings you have been having towards CCP.” This devblog also included a notice that CSM 6 members were invited to Iceland for an “extraordinary meeting” June 30 and July 1 (a week after the release of Incarna) to discuss the events of the past week and address the underlying concerns.

At this “emergency summit”, CSM 6 met with CCP over the course of two days to discuss the issues and player grievances. CSM 6 was chaired by the Mittani, but also included notable players such Seleene, UAxDEATH, Trebor Daehdoow, and Vile Rat, among others. CSM 6 was active from earlier in the events before this meeting, taking a lead role in promoting the interest of the players. There are some who believe that CSM 6 took advantage of CCP being under fire, perhaps even stoking some of the flames, to enhance and strengthen their position. Regardless of whether CSM 6 helped to orchestrate some of the revolt, or merely saw an opportunity to advance the council’s position by jumping to the head of the mob, is unclear. What is clear is that the CSM went to Iceland and came away in a stronger position than perhaps it had ever enjoyed prior to the events of June 2011.

At the conclusion of the summit, a joint statement was issued by EVE’s Senior Producer CCP Zulu and CSM 6 Chairman The Mittani on behalf of the CSM which outlined the findings of the previous two days. CCP Zulu acknowledged many of the grievances and mistakes that were made with regard to issues such as communications, the NeX store and pricing, microtransactions and the Fearless leak, and the performance issues related to Incarna’s station environment. The Mittani concluded by stating,

“We believe that the situation that has unfolded in the past week has been a perfect storm of CCP communication failures, poor planning and sheer bad luck.  Most of these issues, when dealt with in isolation, were reasonably simple to discuss and resolve, but combined they transformed a series of errors into the most significant crisis the EVE community has yet experienced.”

This was followed by a video, released on July 2, where The Mittani declared “we were not nice” to CCP, presumably in an effort to show players that the CSM was not co-opted by CCP and was in fact representing player’s interests. The key outcomes of all this were:

  1. Hangar mode would be the default, with Captain’s Quarters an option, and ship spinning was restored.
  2. CCP agreed to include no game-affecting virtual goods in the NeX, only vanity items.
  3. CCP committed to improving their communication with players.

Things began to settle down following the summit. However, it wasn’t until late September when CCP Zulu provided the first indication of where things were headed. The devblog was short, but indicated that CCP had been, “doing extensive and intense introspection and revitalization. The result of this is a refocusing and reprioritization on a scale unheard of within our company.”

October 5 marked the official end of the Summer of Rage with two devblogs. The first was from CCP Zulu who communicated an “immediate refocusing of all the EVE development teams on EVE’s core gameplay: spaceships.” EVE Online’s Winter 2011 expansion, which would come to be known as Crucible, would include a laundry list of improvements and fixes. The second was from CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson who issued his own apology letter admitting, “I was wrong, and I admit it.” It was a humble end to a period that witnessed a player revolt that cost CCP roughly 8% of its subscriber base. However, it was also the beginning of a new era when CCP would become better communicators, more engaged with the players, and more focused on fixing the issues that had piled up for so long.  

CCP was in financial straights in 2011. WoD/Incarna R&D was a black hole. Incarna didn’t deliver and players were in revolt. Incarna was supposed to bring in a whole new type of player, but instead lost (by some informed estimates) 27,000 subscriptions, net. The company needed a big win, but it was not to be. On October 19, CCP announced a layoff of 20% of their staff.

The aftermath of the Summer of Rage was a dramatic shift for EVE. The “flying in space” game got  much needed attention, although the expense of new features that might attract different types of players drawn to new types of gameplay. We cannot predict what EVE might have grown into after six years of iterations on walking in stations – nor the kinds of new players who might have joined our shared universe. Some looked to games like Elite: Dangerous or Star Citizen and wondered if those would realize the dreams so many of us had for EVE. Meanwhile, we continued to fly our spaceships and engage in all the kinds of PvP and PvE that EVE offered us, while CCP began to release an ever-increasing flow of fixes, quality of life improvements, and eventually new features to the game… but none as ambitious as their original vision for Walking in Stations.

Then vs. Now

This article was inspired by the question of whether the “original” Summer of Rage and what incited it is comparable to current unrest among EVE players, which is also being touted as a summer of rage. After this brief walk through the events behind 2011’s Summer of Rage, it seems clear that the current “summer of rage” is in no way comparable. The 2011 Summer of Rage terrified CCP into action and changed the company’s approach to the community and the product. EVE has been their main focus ever since. 

The intent here is not to detract from the issues that are generating a backlash from the players today. Players have legitimate complaints. However, for all it’s faults, CCP is a better company today than it was in 2011. Communication with players is vastly improved and the company is substantially more responsive to feedback; CSM representatives have much better contact with the developers and insight into CCP’s development process, and the company is on better ground financially and organizationally. Today’s CCP is in good financial health and is making money according to their public financial statements – including substantial revenue from their virtual products (which constituted 30% of their income in 2016). Skill Injectors brought in $5 million alone in 2016. Ironically, these profitable products were exactly the kind of things players were protesting in 2011.

Today, it appears players are in revolt for a few reasons. First CCP is taking things away that are pacifying players, while they wait for fun-creating features. Fanfest did little to hype this year’s development, and the last major feature stumbled out of the block. Another reason players are upset is the feeling that CCP is mishandling Ghost Training. The distribution of pricey Concord ships seemed to benefit players with hundreds of accounts, perhaps skill farming ghost trainers? On the other hand, players say it is not the nerfs, but the communication. CCP Quant addressed players on Reddit when he tried to protect fellow devs, like CCP Zulu did years ago, with predictable results. The difference is Quant and CCP meeting the players where they are instead of releasing devblogs from on high. CCP is listening in a way they were not in 2011. That is the legacy of the Summer of Rage.

Perhaps we’ll look back at this summer in six months or six years to evaluate what actually happened before we call this a second Summer of Rage.

 

 

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Comments

  • Lekly

    The “Summer of Mild Unrest”

    June 16, 2017 at 10:11 PM
    • Dirk MacGirk Lekly

      Not even summer yet lol. Spring of Mild Discontent

      Oddly enough, and I forgot to include it in the article, but during the actual Summer of Rage, Incarna was released on the summer solstice that year. So it was legit summer.

      June 16, 2017 at 10:54 PM
      • Glornak Ironspawn Dirk MacGirk

        Don’t forget the “Winter of Slight Annoyance” just a few months ago.

        June 17, 2017 at 1:26 AM
  • Pew Pew

    This is a nice nice writeup.

    “We cannot predict what EVE might have grown into after six years of iterations on walking in stations”

    I think this is really key. CCP listens more now however things have been pretty stuck for a while. New structures aren’t really changing things. I’d love to see some new content.

    June 16, 2017 at 10:35 PM
    • I think what you just said IS the reason people are upset. “Where’s the Fun stuff? Without the pacifier of dreaming of massive income, there’s no addictive direction to progress.

      June 16, 2017 at 10:37 PM
      • Axhind Matterall

        It’s again the communication. They are again being arrogant arseholes as they used to be. Look at the audio changes, then the carrier/super ner, rorqual nerf and along all that they are being told that they are basing their decision on shit data due to their data guys being utterly incompetent. Quant knows as much statistics as a piece of dirt based on his handling of it.

        When you have a customer based like EVE where there are tons of very smart people you can’t pull this kind of crap constantly and expect to get away with it.

        June 17, 2017 at 10:52 AM
        • Arrendis Axhind

          The problem on the ‘data guy’ angle is… that’s not what he does. The MER is a hobby project of his. IIRC, he does business analytics. He’s not a statistician, he’s not an economist. And this is not me bagging on Quant, either. It’s a recurring theme we come up against in everything from the live events and lore team to customer relations to systems being introduced partially complete and then never iterating…

          CCP needs to hire more freakin’ people. They need to get an on-staff economist again. They need to get a large enough devgroup to actually follow-up on their iterative design methods, instead of pushing rough ideas and never coming back to polish them. And they need to listen to people who actually have a clue, instead of knee-jerking around when the mob starts bitching.

          As Carlin said: Think about how stupid the ‘average person’ is. 50% of people are dumber than that. CCP needs to make damned sure the people they’re listening to are the ones who have more to offer than ‘I know how to set up a reddit account and yell a lot’.

          June 18, 2017 at 11:41 PM
      • Bill Bones Matterall

        But dudes… the structures ARE the new content and the direction to progress! It’s space colonization as was prortayed at the Rubicon letter:
        http://archive.evenews24.com/2013/09/26/announcement-rubicon-towards-the-future-of-eve-online/

        CCP has devoted the last 3 years and will keep working on it probaly until 2019. What you mean now, this is not what you wanted?

        Certainly is not what I wanted (more highsec solo PvE), but *someone* wanted to fleet pew pew over space thingies to own and control space. It’s the whole underlying concept behind the Rubicon plan, and the Rubicon plan is everything CCP has done since Q3 2013 and will keep doing, at the current pace, at least until 2019.

        Sweet lord. Structures are not new content? Certainly not for me, but… neither for you? So, who in heavens is CCP working for?

        June 18, 2017 at 9:44 AM
  • Lordshazbot

    Ah! The ole “I walked to school in 10 miles of snow uphill” article.

    June 17, 2017 at 3:35 AM
    • Merry Christmas Mr Cricket Lordshazbot

      Oh you sweet summer child.

      June 17, 2017 at 4:34 AM
    • Dirk MacGirk Lordshazbot

      nah, just something intended to provide some perspective.

      June 17, 2017 at 5:20 PM
    • Caleb Ayrania Lordshazbot

      BOTH ways, you forgot BOTH ways!

      June 18, 2017 at 11:00 AM
  • Markonius Porkbutte

    I think the decline in real eve numbers really began a few years ago with the introduction of Phoebe and the start of phasing out dominion Sov. We’ve never seen the same player count since those changes were introduced. While we had a spike last summer with the introduction of Alpha clones, we’re now back to around the same population that we were before when Alphas were introduced. All of this is happening, of course, as CCP has become more clever at reporting its numbers and creating the image that EVE is profitable, which is is – sorta – if you were to factor in the numbers needed to truly develop EVE at the same pace it was being worked on around 2009, then I think the numbers become less impressive.

    The real issue at hand here is that for years, a growing resentment has built up among the player base that CCP is not listening to them, or when they do, they are misinterpreting the issues as hand. While yes, this probably is not as bad as a fuck-up as Incarna or the T-20 scandal, but it does line up with a narrative that EVE is dying by a thousand paper cuts that are being carried out by the developers themselves as they make poor decision after poor decision. While I don’t think this will be any sort of dramatic death blow or monetary blow, I do think when people make their Youtube videos on why EVE failed, this might be one of the bullet points used to show a wider cultural issue with CCP at large.

    June 17, 2017 at 7:06 AM
    • Bill Bones Markonius Porkbutte

      The failure to deliver Incarna was the point where EVE lost its future, and Rubicon was the point where its fate was sealed. The focus on PvP and “space control” has costed more players to CCP than any other cause combined, and as usual in cases like this,whatever CCP can do this coming Winter to reinvigorate highsec PvE will be too little, too late, and very probably out of touch.

      June 17, 2017 at 1:50 PM
  • Arrendis

    “The difference is Quant and CCP meeting the players where they are instead of releasing devblogs from on high. CCP is listening in a way they were not in 2011.”

    Dear god, no. CCP needs to get the hell off of reddit until they can learn how to (to paraphrase some guy in a book) be on reddit, but not of reddit. That’s one of the areas that stand out as a difference between the clusterfuck CCP regularly makes itself into, and the way other game companies handle reddit. CCP devs and community reps go onto reddit and act like just another /r/eve shitposter. They get into flinging feces and insults around as if they’re just another person trolling on the internet.

    They’re not.

    When they’re posting from their CCP id, they need to be professionals. They can joke around, they can be funny, but they need to treat their customers with the respect that financial dependence deserves. That doesn’t mean being obsequious, it doesn’t mean sucking up, and it doesn’t mean trying to be edgy to get upvotes. It means you don’t go singling out a specific player for mockery, you don’t take sides in an in-game conflict between factions of players, and you don’t go cherry-picking data to exaggerate your position. Those things all speak of contempt for your players.

    If a CCP dev can single out a player to attack them, by name, publicly, then they know they can do it to any player. If they can take sides in a fight, they learn that they can be heavy-handed to kick anyone they like in the teeth, as long as they pander to enough of the loudest trolls. When they cherry-pick data, they’re openly telling their customers ‘we don’t think you’re smart enough to know I’m lying to you’.

    And that has been the pattern for years. That lack of professionalism is a display of contempt for their customers. They’re openly saying they don’t think they have to give a shit when they’re talking to us. And they keep doing it. So no, it is not a good thing that CCP sends its devs and representatives to go where the players are. If they could do it without catering to the lowest common denominator, without throwing away their professionalism, and without getting all pissy about it when they get called on their shit, then maybe it would be. But right now, CCP letting its people go on reddit just puts the ‘suck’ in ‘sucking chest wound’.

    June 17, 2017 at 1:38 PM
    • Dirk MacGirk Arrendis

      I don’t disagree that mistakes are made with communications from time to time, and perhaps some comments in places like reddit are unnecessary. On the other hand, overall communication is much better now. Back then mistakes were also made, but almost all other communication was entirely top-down and a one way street. We’re in a better place today. That isn’t to say it’s perfect or can’t be improved, but it is far better on the whole.

      June 17, 2017 at 5:45 PM
      • Arrendis Dirk MacGirk

        It’s definitely better, but they should be using reddit to highlight information on their own site and forums, instead of replacing the official outlets with unprofessional bullshit on reddit, which is largely what’s happened now.

        June 17, 2017 at 8:19 PM
        • Dirk MacGirk Arrendis

          agreed. I shouldn’t need to get the clarification on Ghost Training from GM Lelouch by way of reddit

          June 17, 2017 at 11:54 PM
        • … and now they can – New Forums for EVE!

          June 21, 2017 at 5:21 PM
    • MakeEveGreatAgain Arrendis

      Well that is not going to happen while Falcon/Verone remains community manager, a personality more *of reddit* I don’t you think you could possibly find.

      June 17, 2017 at 9:09 PM
  • Bill Bones

    The Rubicon plan is the worst thing that ever happened to EVE. When a company interacts with its customers, there’s something worse that not listening to them, and that is to listen to the wrong customers.

    CCP as a company and CCP Seagull as Executive Producer listened to the wrong people and now they’re facing a double loss: they’re losing the bulk of the game, which used to be made by the highsec PvE club of lonely hearts, and are losing the PvP players by giving them what they thought that they wanted until it’s been delivered and turned to be meh.

    People say they like their coffee dark and tasty and very strong. But they drink it milky, sweetened and very soft.

    Guess what, it turns that CCP’s players weren’t subscribing for all that nullsec fleet PvP after all…

    June 17, 2017 at 1:43 PM
    • OpInfo Bill Bones

      Turns out I do like my coffee very soft. Left EVE as a PvE player getting ganked too often in high sec. I’m still skilling my pilot every now and then…

      December 15, 2017 at 7:49 AM
  • Arrendis

    Not until June 21 it’s not.

    June 18, 2017 at 12:31 AM
  • Caleb Ayrania

    A really nice recap of some of the most important points of the events, sadly it leaves out a lot of the “under the hood” emotions and detailed opinions regarding all the events at the time. It stands as a lofty view of something that would have been an article in the outside games media at the time, it miss the dissections of the why.

    In similarity with what is happening just now, that I tend to call the “summer of Dejavu” or Groundhog Day Rage, is that its a problem of shotgun discontent. If you make a change to a game that makes 2% a little annoyed, that hardly registers, if you then disappoint another 4% with a deployment of a feature, that is still within reason, if you keep going with small details that all hit a small group, you start having a compiled “patch” or group of changes that inadvertently makes EVERYONE a little frustrated, then if you have communications problems, arrogance, and disregard for these peoples frustrations, they start talking to each other and agree they are angry and that they should “go burn the house down”.

    The people unhappy about the rather unimpressive PI roll out are not the same that got totally disheartened by the delivery of the “Pacing Prison Cell” that was the Captains Quarter (Incarna) feature. It none of these that were mostly enraged by the prices in the NeX store. In short ofc all players had opinions on almost all features, but it was the total disappointment of they personal favorite hopes and dreams, that caused the perfect storm.

    “But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
    I have spread my dreams under your feet;
    Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

    June 18, 2017 at 11:10 AM
    • Dirk MacGirk Caleb Ayrania

      Whose “under the hood” emotions make it in? And is there ever enough pixel space to truly represent player emotions? To what degree was the average player actually offended by a $1,000 jean analogy or being told that devs didn’t deserve having a shitstorm pointed at them for discussing an industry change? Versus of course those looking for a reason to raise the temperature in the room by claiming they were victimized in some way? The Summer of Rage then, as whatever this is now, it based on a wide range of underlying factors, tangential factors, near-term triggers, and a healthy dose of mob mentality spurred by limited information and disinformation. This article served only as a background piece for the many players who have only heard bits and pieces, or nothing at all, about something from a distant past.

      June 18, 2017 at 11:02 PM
  • salvaribeiro .

    Pants killed EvE. I wonder why you ppl are still here. That’s real sad.

    June 20, 2017 at 1:55 AM
  • Jon Camp

    I’d been getting a little bored with Eve through the summer of 2011, so was kinda planning to unsub anyway. I actually didn’t really care about the CQ or anything, but CCP Zulu’s 1st response to the outcry pissed me off, and since I’d been planning to unsub anyway, that was my “last straw.” His later actual apology was better, and I ended up re-upping for 1 more month to finish training a carrier skill, but then I didn’t actually log in at all for that month, and just went “Eh, I’m over it.” And so in early August of 2011 my sub ended and … I still can’t stop reading about the game, following many Eve bloggers, etc, though I’ve also never re-subbed since then either. Such is Eve, isn’t it?

    June 20, 2017 at 8:10 PM
  • Alot

    I’ve always found the difference in governance expectations that people have in virtual worlds to the real one to be interesting.

    Players getting upset about the existence of virtual 70$ monocles is in my opinion understandable from the emotional aspect yet extremely silly from a logical stand point.

    Talking about a completely non-functional piece of art which can only be viewed in a single solo-player room and on the forums. Who cares? Unless you upset that other players would fall for such an obvious scam and you don’t feel CCP should be subjecting vulnerable players to such things -.-

    The other way to view the threat of the monocles would be that there is nothing wrong with the 70$ monocles but if the Devs were willing to sell such a ludicrously overpriced commodity, they would be likely to engage in other overpriced services which would be far more dubious in nature. I see nothing wrong with this line of logic, its just that it seems to be more prevalent in online sandboxes then it is in the open market or in peoples expectations of political parties :/

    June 23, 2017 at 1:58 PM