Did you enjoy playing EVE today? Yes you did!
That’s the sentiment that CCP Games is promoting in their latest update to EVE Online, set to release in the Spring of 2022. This update aims to promote more positivity between CCP and the EVE player community, something that has been missing from the game for quite some time. Taking note of a recent initiative by Youtube to remove “dislikes” from videos, CCP is experimenting with a similar change by removing the “thumbs down” button from the EVE options menu.
“At CCP, we strive to be a place where capsuleers of all playstyles and opinions can share their feedback.” said CCP Burger, Creative Director for EVE Online. “A couple of years ago we implemented a feedback system into EVE’s options menu, in which players could indicate with a simple ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ whether they were enjoying the game. And EVE players, being EVE players, surprised us in a way that we couldn’t have possibly predicted: By coming together and clicking the ‘thumbs down’ button en masse. Incredible!”
The history of EVE is filled with moments where large groups of players have joined forces to achieve a common goal. Whether it’s competing in years-long conflicts for sovereignty, working together to construct massive starbases, or protesting CCP’s development philosophy.
We asked Burger what effect, if any, this negative feedback had on morale at CCP.
“It was certainly a shock,” he said. “Truthfully, we added the ‘thumbs down’ button as a joke. It never occurred to us that anyone would actually use it. So when we saw that data coming in, it forced us to rethink our strategy.”
As EVE approaches its third decade, CCP has had ample opportunity to learn what makes the players happy. And this isn’t the first time they’ve been compelled to adjust their approach based on player feedback.
“We value the opinions of our players very much, but we also want to encourage positive discourse. That’s why with our Spring update, which we are referring to internally as ‘Stockholm’, we will be removing the ‘thumbs down’ button from the feedback system. We feel this will allow for more constructive comments from our players. Our hope is that this will make the GMs and developers who are reading the feedback feel better about the work they are doing.”
We asked Burger if he could give us any hints about what else we can expect in the update.
“We have complete confidence that you will want to smash that like button!”, he said with a nervous chuckle.
