The Trial of EVE Online

Note: CCP asked specifically that audio recordings of the press conference held yesterday would not be published. The text below is a summary of various points brought up during the hour-long session the press had with the company yesterday and is not written in the order the various issues were brought up to make it easier to read and get a better grasp of. We've also booked an interview with Alex "The Mittani" Gianturco, which we'll be bringing you during the next couple of days.

The last few weeks have been tumultuous for CCP and EVE Online. The release of the Incarna expansion, and the subsequent leaks from within the company regarding the future of micro-transactions in EVE, sparked one of the worst crises in the history of a game that has already seen its fair share of controversies. The idea that CCP were planning to introduce non-vanity micro-transaction items into the sandbox of New Eden, despite earlier promises that they wouldn't, had many players rioting - not only on the forums, but also inside EVE itself; practically squatting and shutting down the tradehub of Jita in the process.

Because of the rapidly expanding crisis, with news of what was going on even starting to hit the mainstream press, CCP decided to fly the Council of Stellar Management to Iceland for an emergency meeting. After two days of intense meetings the company and the CSM, which is a player-driven council voted in place by the playerbase itself, released a statement each detailing what the outcome had been and what their views of what now many people refer to as "Monoclegate" were. Around the same time, a press conference was called which Gamereactor attended yesterday evening. Present at the conference to answer the press' questions were Arnar Gylfason, Senior Producer for EVE Online (and mostly known as CCP Zulu amongst players), and Alex Gianturco, chairman for the current incarnation of the CSM (known in-game as The Mittani).

A lot of things were said during the almost one hour long Q&A session held after a brief summary of what had been going on from both Arnar and Alex. For players though, there are a couple of things that were not answered in the CSM and CCP statements. The most important one, for many, was the so called "big yellow question" that many want a simple "yes" or "no" to - while there are no plans to introduce "game-breaking" items into the Noble Exchange, EVE's item store, can CCP promise that there will never be any?

Arnar's reply was that the question itself puts him in an awkward position. "If we do things right, EVE Online will hopefully be able to run for the next 80 years. I don't want to promise something that will get the person doing my job in 80 years in trouble." Arnar then pointed out that the idea of game-breaking items is not a part of CCP's core philosophy and referenced the statements already made - "the investment of money in EVE should not give you an unfair advantage over the investment of time."

Following up on Arnar, Alex told us that the CSM had been allowed to see upcoming items that will be added to the Noble Exchange in the future and that there is nothing of the sort in the pipeline. He also stated that he would be shocked if anything game-breaking was introduced while Arnar (and CCP Soundwave) is working on the game.

The question of what "game-breaking" actually means has also been a big thing in the community, some players finding the wording of CCP's statement to be ambiguous at best. "What is game-breaking?" Arnar asked. Taken at face value, the current PLEX system (where game-time can be bought using ISK, the in-game currency) could be seen as game-breaking. But, he said, there is a big difference between PLEX and any game-breaking items in the Noble Exchange since the ISK used to buy PLEX aren't spawned from thin air. According to Arnar, CCP knows very well how spawning things out of nothing endangers the sandbox and the market economy in EVE Online.

But can CCP and EVE survive in a genre that is moving more and more towards item shops and micro-transactions? "EVE can survive a lot of things," Arnar said, saying that it was all about progress and change - something the game has seen before. Alex's theory, based on the items he had seen and statements from people he had asked to look into CCP's publicly available financial records, that the items in the Noble Exchange point to that the store isn't as much a new revenue stream for the company as much as a chance to learn the ropes. "The industry," he said, "is changing. That's just the way it is."

So what could have been done differently? Outspoken as usual, Alex said that CCP's communication with their players is generally terrible. Had it been better, the CSM would never have had to go to Iceland on such short notice. The CSM-members themselves arrived in Iceland "worried, angry and paranoid" but soon they realized that it was actually a "shadow of a controversy" since there was actually no real controversy in the first place.

According to the CSM, CCP should have explained the pricing of the items in the Noble Exchange from the start and what kind of strategy they had for it. If they had, Alex said, the whole thing would have disappeared in a "puff of logic." The CSM knew about the items in advance, but no idea about what price they would be available for and with the lack of cheaper items (the only low-tier priced item in the store right now is a pair of boots) they feel like the store was rushed out. Still, he pointed out, most of the members of the CSM don't really care about the prices as long as the items don't impact gameplay - "they could charge $20 000 for a monocle for a space-Barbie and most of us still wouldn't care."