I hate to say this, but in my opinion Fanfest has slowly morphed into something resembling a scam.
One of the primary purposes of a convention like this is to bring gamers and game developers face to face in order to have some direct interaction. In short, it's a great way for gamers to communicate ideas and feedback directly to CCP that don't come across well on a forum or in an email. It's also a great way for CCP to share with the community what is currently being worked on and what may lie ahead. And Fanfest has all of this. There are roundtable discussions, question and answer sessions, and big presentations on upcoming expansions and features. Sounds good so far.
The problem is that over time the presentations have gotten less and less informative and there's less and less interactivity at the "interactive" events. Take the big presentations for example. Instead of sharing specific details about upcoming game fixes and what gamers can expect to see in the next two expansions, the presentations have morphed into high-tech videos of CCP's "vision" of what EVE might eventually be. Unlike past events, these presentations are mostly focused on stuff that isn't close to being done, and in some cases they cover expansions and new features where work hasn't even been started yet! Even worse, a lot of the presentations come with the caveat that "this might not ever make it into the game." Just as disturbing, CCP reps have increasingly fallen into the habit of evading hard questions and giving evasive answers when asked about the core of EVE. And in at least one case the CCP reps failed to even show up at their own roundtable.
What? Let me get this straight. I just paid big bucks to fly halfway around the world to watch a presentation on stuff that isn't being working on and that may never be worked on? Just as disturbing, CCP freely admits almost all of it's resources are tied up developing Incarna (walking in stations) and DUST 514 (a console shooter for Xbox 360). EVE is a spaceship combat simulator/empire builder -- or at least it used to be -- so one might reasonably ask, where's the spaceship content?
The simple answer is that it isn't there. CCP is putting all of its resources into wooing console gamers, casual gamers with little interest in a hardcore space simulator, and people who want The Sims in space. Bottom line: CCP needs to be careful that in wooing the gamers they don't already have that they don't completely alienate the existing player base. And it seems they're well on their way to doing exactly that. And player after player has told them as much but CCP seems oblivious. They want walking in stations and shiny new avatars and to hell with the fact that half of EVE Online has been completely broken for years. The clear intent is to keep bolting on new stuff every six months so the marketing department has cool new material to work with, even if half the new content is broken on delivery or destroys existing features.
But hey, the CCP devs are available at Fanfest to get drunk with. And there's the problem. CCP is being run like a frat house instead of serious game development house.
