NidenShareTweetHere we are, one week after Fanfest. The community has had time to sober up (both literally and metaphorically) and take stock of all that was said to form a more complete picture. The front loaded nature of Fanfest this year sets it apart from any before and it made for a different event.Now that all is said and done, what are your overarching feelings on how Fanfest was conducted, both in Reykjavik and on the EVE TV stream? Do you agree with the new format and why? There was less hype-factor this year, but more discussions and player feedback, is this a good trade-off? Again using player voices (CZ’s own Tarek, amongst others) the new trailer is clearly inspired by This is EVE but with a lore emphasis, would you like to see CCP continue promoting EVE this way?Dunk Dinkle: I had bought tickets to FanFest, but was unable to go, so I watched as much of the stream as I could. Overall, I think it was a good amount of information. Honestly, I was expecting much more about Legion, the PC FPS version, but heard basically nothing.
The streaming worked well, but I was more interested in watching the player presentations & roundtables at times than the main stage presentations. Some of us are far more interested in a discussion regarding the upcoming sovereignty mechanics than an hour on ship modeling and artwork. Ideally, the ability to stream various sessions of FanFest would be great, acknowledging that it increases the complexity of the event itself. I’d be willing to pay for access to those smaller sessions.
While we are in the middle of major changes in the way sovereignty and stations/outposts work, there are going to be gaps in balance that bright groups are going to drive a freight trains through as new systems/rules are deployed. There will be salty tears and the Eve Online forums will be radioactive. I would have liked to hear CCP acknowledge this and discuss how they intend to resolve broken mechanics & balance in a more rapid fashion. These kinds of gaps in balance have lasted for a long time in the past and continue to be a problem.
Cilvius: I agree with what Dunk says about the amount of information given being good, but I also think Fanfest could benefit from having more streams to allow people to watch different presentations that take place at the same time. Blizzard does this with Blizzcon and it works pretty well, though admittedly Blizzard is a much larger company than CCP. While it would definitely add a few layers of complexity to putting fanfest together I think it would overall be worthwhile.
I’m ok with more discussions and player feedback happening this year as opposed to previous years. I think the low amount of hype-factor we got is just due to where we are right now in the development of the game, and I think that is ok. I would much prefer CCP emphasize discussions over trying to hype up some minor stuff. I was upset that we got basically nothing on Legion though.
Lililiari: This was my first FanFest and it was an amazing event, both for me as a fangirl/player and social pet, but I have to say, after the dust settled, I feel some stuff missing.
The new approach is great – getting all the info on day one and being able to provide live feedback? Fantastic! No more hype about empty promises with no date on them? I love it! But is this really the case?
Some of the ideas presented did not even hit the designers’ boards yet. It’s almost April. Call me sceptical, but I seriously doubt that we will see the new structures this year. Was there a gap that required filling or does CCP have so much confidence in this idea? I don’t know. We will see soon enough. I just hope it was not there just to awe us without actual content.
The new approach is risky and it may bite them in their arses.
I agree with gentlemen above – there was insufficient coverage of content happening outside of Tranquility hall and EVE TV stand. I would very much like to rewatch some panels I took part in. Being all hyped about Valkyrie I took the least amount of information from the main panel and I am pretty sure the best discussions happened in roundtables rather than in lines to microphones in the main hall.
Speaking of which – the VR lab? Phenomenal! I felt like a kid in a candy store. But what’s next? It is probably not my business to check CCP’s budget outside of products I pay for, which is EVE, but there has been a discussion in the community how those projects may contribute to any of CCP games. Valkyrie has its own team. I do not see VR in EVE for at least 5 more years, because there are more burning topics to be taken care of. Legion is dead (I will come back to that in a minute). Players got the idea that instead of fixing EVE or developing projects CCP dumped (don’t be WoD), they’re spending resources, both human and financial, on toys. They even openly said that it has no practical use whatsoever. Setting up the VR lab was a good PR decision short-term, long-term it may again bite them in their arses.
And last thing – Project Legion. I honestly pity those who still believe it will come to life. Look, DUST 514 is a finished game which has some players and is probably, if not making profit, “paying for its own servers”, it requires minimal maintenance and a small team to deliver some updates. Nothing fancy. Legion would have to be written from scratch and it means investment which CCP probably cannot afford right now. What is more a good FPS shooter on PC would kill DUST. Those who own both PS3 and a PC would switch to newer game. My prediction is that as long as there are some paying players on PS3, CCP won’t develop an FPS shooter for PC. I will be more than happy to be proven wrong.
Xander: This was a Fanfest with less hype but it felt more honest and ‘real’ than the last one I attended in 2013. CCP had been fighting an ever increasing lack of trust between themselves and the playerbase in previous years. Past Fanfests were hyped with features at best, years away, at worst, never gonna hit TQ. This year it felt like CCP announced features that felt like they would plausibly hit TQ in a reasonable timeframe. We also had the opportunity to talk to devs about what was coming from the first day. That’s a big change and one that makes for a more productive Fanfest.
So yeah, overall a very different feeling Fanfest but one that I feel very optimistic about.
Tags: cz minutes, Fanfest 2015
12 year EVE veteran, Snuffed Out scumbag, writer, graphic artist, producer, Editor-in-Chief of Crossing Zebras and the second most influential player in EVE, according to EVE Onion.
Niden
Niden
