EVE online sets records for subscriptions in "the Age of Free-to-Play"

[Itse]

I thought this was interesting enough to warrant a thread, as EVE is definitely bucking the trend here.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...-sets-records/

It’s a commonplace sentiment this day and age to say that the paid subscription model of MMO gaming is dying. Longtime giants like Activision/Blizzard’s World of Warcraft are seeing their subscriber numbers drop by the millions, and new ventures attempting to use the monthly payment model like EA’s The Old Republic almost always are forced to switch over to free to play once they find they lack the required subscriptions to pay the bills.

But there’s one game that’s perplexing analysts as it not only is surviving using a paid subscription model, but thriving. That would be CCP Games‘ EVE Online, the space combat simulator which recently announced that it’s broken 450,000 subscriptions for the first time in the games ten year history.

My friends (some who are actually in the gaming business themselves) tend to be of the opinion that the actual trend EVE is going against is the trend of sucking

Comments? I only played EVE for a couple of months myself. It was fun enough, but then I remembered that I'm not actually much of a social player.

[GreenLantern]

Never tried it... but my experience with free to play games is bug after bug after bug, that doesn't get fixed. And when you want help, good luck as the staff just don't seem to care.

I will gladly pay my 15 bucks a month to have a smooth gaming experience.

[CaramonLS]

I played it briefly, for like a couple weeks. Just wasn't my thing though.

I'm not that big into space stuff - so it never really appealed to me.

Concepts were really good though and I did like those.

It was open world, high risk/high reward as there were battles over resources, open PvP and there is techinically perma death as well (if you don't clone yourself) if you die, and you lose your ship.

It is really one of the few true sandbox MMOs out there right now. It has a certain niche and appeals to it quite well.

[cDnStealth]

Makes sense especially with Dust about to release.

[PsYcNeT]

Big thanks go to Goonswarm, the decaying husk of BoB, TEST Alliance, and about 200,000 Russians.

[sclitheroe]

It's a testament to the enduring appeal of spreadsheets - the original PC application, now with more sprites

[Itse]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

It's a testament to the enduring appeal of spreadsheets - the original PC application, now with more sprites

Yeah, I actually played as a trader for a couple of months. Did pretty well too. But it's basicly just looking at spread sheets day after day After some point I would have needed other players to get something else out of my money than just more money.

But yeah, EVE had pretty good support in my experience. It took them about half an hour to respond to my rather non-essential request that had something to do with my character picture, which was pretty cool. (I don't remember what the point/need was exactly anymore.)

I've been kind of meaning to start again at some point. Right after I've played through a whole bunch of games already paid for and just sitting on my hard drive...

[MarchHare]

Doesn't EVE allow players to spend in-game fake money to buy subscription time? If so, that sort of distorts their subscriber numbers.

[Madrox]

Originally Posted by MarchHare

Doesn't EVE allow players to spend in-game fake money to buy subscription time? If so, that sort of distorts their subscriber numbers.

It essentially allows players to transfer subscription time, not buy it outright... every PLEX (the in-game tradable subscription item) has to be purchased with real money, so in effect some of the players are paying for others to play. Someone's still paid for every active subscription.

[Hades]

You could also get PLEX by signing up a friend, or creating a new account for yourself (likely why the subs are so high). I had 4 accounts going when I played. Very fun game and great depth. The economic aspect in particular was awesome.

[GreenLantern]

I was just going to say, the few people that I know who play Eve have I think 7 accounts between the two of them... I think those numbers are a bit inflated.

Similar to when IPY came up with their numbers, everyone was running multiple accounts.. not to say that WOW or EQ didn't have a similar problem. I just think it would be much less in a pay to play franchise vs. a free to play.

But good for them, the sandbox concept has never been the same since stat loss/Trammel, and it is good to see that some still enjoy it.

[Flash Walken]

They have great advertising.

[Bigtime]

I played EVE on and off for about a year with Goonfleet (which became Goonswarm), good times. I enjoyed the space pew pew very much.

The completely free economy of EVE is a very interesting thing, I think some economists have actually studied it to see how a truly free market can evolve and work (including HUGE scams that robbed players of thousands of dollars of real life currency).

[Slacker]

Is EVE a good game? I heard about it before but not sure if it's worth it...

[Bigtime]

Originally Posted by Slacker

Is EVE a good game? I heard about it before but not sure if it's worth it...

EVE is terrible, it's who you fly with that makes or breaks it.