CCP's Ryan Dancey on keeping EVE Online compelling
by James Egan 
Nov 6th 2009 at 8:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Business models, Economy, Interviews, MMO industry
CCP Games Chief Marketing Officer Ryan S. Dancey recently spoke with Gamasutra's Christian Nutt about the state of EVE Online and what makes the sci-fi title unique. EVE has traits that many MMOs don't, such as player governance, a dynamic virtual economy, and slow but continual subscription growth. CCP does face problems in tandem with that growth however, namely from RMT operations. There is also the issue of balancing developer control over aspects of the game's economy (mission rewards, salvage and loot drops, ISK sinks) with the ideal of allowing EVE's economy to be as player-driven as possible, explains Dancey.
Among other things discussed in the interview, Gamasutra asks how White Wolf has changed following the merger with CCP Games nearly three years ago. Dancey tells Gamasutra: "It's just an imprint... White Wolf used to have a fairly large staff. It doesn't anymore. It's focusing primarily on the World of Darkness RPG products. It's not doing some of the things it used to do; board games and other card games and things. The focus of the company [CCP] is on making MMOs and our legacy table top business is a legacy business."
The interview also touches on CCP's aim to grow to 340,000 EVE subscribers by the end of 2009 and the importance of keeping the game interesting for those who've been playing for years while compelling enough to draw in new players. Have a look at Gamasutra's "Q&A: CCP On Keeping EVE Online Fresh and Growing" for CMO Ryan Dancey's perspective on the company and the game itself.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DrewIW said on 8:18PM 11-06-2009
"The focus of the company [CCP] is on making MMOs and our legacy table top business is a legacy business."
I like CCP, but this makes me sad and angry.
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HouseDecados said on 2:25AM 11-07-2009
totally agreed. That really did sound like he pretty much threw White Wolf under the bus.
Sadly, this is par for the course for Ryan Dancy. He's never really looked at tabletop gaming as nothing more than a way to make money off of it. Perhaps at one time he actually liked gaming, but that was quite a while ago, before he tried to turn Living City into a money making venture on it's own. Oh..yeah..that was a dismal failure.
Well...congratulations Ryan.. your reputation as a douche is intact.
Tyranor said on 5:02AM 11-07-2009
Oh cry me a river, build a bridge, and get over it.
Nollind Whachell said on 4:17PM 11-07-2009
This is why I always laugh at companies who think getting bought out is a good thing. They have no clue as to what they are giving up.
That said, Tyranor is absolutely correct. If you want to sell your soul for money, you have to accept the consequences. Stop crying about it and don't blame CCP. It was White Wolf's decision and they have to live with that decision.
Lateris said on 10:20PM 11-07-2009
I am a big fan of CCP and I think his statement is bull shit.
Dblade said on 11:12PM 11-06-2009
They may say they are working on rmt, but the rookie help channel is constantly filled with shout bots that you have to block. I really think they should spend less time on lolplayergovernance and more time on making a newbie experience that isn't painful.
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SgtBaker said on 1:51AM 11-07-2009
To be fair mate, they have been revamping the new player experience quite extensively in the last 2-3 patches and I don't think they're done yet.
And yes, there's still ISK sellers around (every MMO has them), there's still macro miners in empire - but it's better than it used to be.
Dblade said on 10:04PM 11-07-2009
I hate to see what the old system was. I never played an MMO where you had to petition to GM to reset a tutorial mission because you could permanently lose the item to complete it, fail, and be locked out of the future tutorial missions in that line.
They really need to give more guidance to early players tailored to specific roles. They try to do that with the certificate system, but its buried in the character sheet and never really mentioned, or used to help the player to find a career. Especially since you often need a lot of skills and prereqs to do something as simple as pilot a mining barge or cruiser.
SgtBaker said on 2:50AM 11-08-2009
The old new player tutorial was pretty much, "picked your char? ok, see that pirate ship over there? shoot it! ok, done? grreat.. bye!"
After that you were left floating in space with a bunch of SP and skills you had no idea you had picked and a rookie ship you couldn't do anything useful with.
Nowadays you at least get to decide what you want to train (though I agree it's still very hard to know what you should actually pick) and get pipelined in to Agent missions (and eventually your Epic mission line) where you can earn your first (useful) ships for free.
I agree, it's not the bestest of systems and they still have lots of work to do there, but I do think they're really trying to work it out, it's been getting incrementally better with every patch.
Archipelagos said on 8:19AM 11-07-2009
It's a shame to hear about WW being referred to like this. Ah well.
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barrysheppard said on 8:24AM 11-07-2009
"As a result of this change, look for White Wolf to become ultimately focused on its MMORPG offering, and by the end of 2007, to have reduced its paper-based publishing business to a shell entity, providing reprints of its games to a dwindling number of buyers."
- Ryan Dancey's 2007 Predictions for the year.
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