I don't often comment on the goings on in Null Sec these days. I tend to stick to my area of expertise in Low Security space and leave the rest of the game to others. A few years back I made the decision to stop following the "meta" and just focus on being the Pirate Lord. My life has been much happier since then. But that doesn't mean I don't care about other areas of the game, or that I even actually stopped following along. It is Eve after all and I care a great deal about this game of ours.
Equinox was supposed to address long-running issues in Null Space and I know a lot of players were hopeful it would do so. From everything I'm hearing it has potentially done the opposite. As many of you probably already know, Asher released an open letter on behalf of the Imperium regarding recent changes. I suggest reading it for yourself. I'm not going to spend this post re-capping what he said, his concerns, or what it means for NS. For that I recommend an excellent post over on The Ancient Gaming Noob.
Wide and Tall is just the latest expression of a long-held belief from two sides of a coin, philosophical side taking over how Eve Online resources (ISK generation for the most part) should be dealt with. Starvation or Plenty. Rare or Available. Hard or Easy. No matter how you want to label it - there are camps within Eve Online on either side of this fundamental issue. For a very long time now CCP has actively pushed the brakes down hard on the economic side of things. And many players were hoping that Equinox would turn at least some of those faucets back on again. It hasn't happened like that. And while much of the potential of Equinox hasn't had time to completely filter down, it is pretty obvious this is not the candy apple of anyone's eye.
As for me I have always been down of this side of things - Eve should be hard, but making a living should be easy. No one plays a game to suffer. Loss should always matter and it should always have consequences, but those consequences should be through game mechanics. If the loss is too hard we risk the player simply not replacing it, or giving up on the idea. I know that I personally risk assets much easier knowing I can replace them. I'm sure we'd all agree with that. Don't risk what you can't afford is an Eve maxim for a reason after all.
I've always wondered what Eve would be like if the real challenges were built around game-play and not economics. If Eve, even just slightly, leaned a bit more into the "playing a game" side of things. I do not, in any way, recommend abandoning the powerful and important world of economics, industry, mining, and building - these are critical. But just a little less work and more fun, maybe? Let off on the brakes a bit?
Of course I believe this. This is the entire reason I moved to Low Sec and became a Pirate in the first place. But these things impact us as well. My game is much better when the server numbers are higher than when they are lower. And, when it comes down to it, that is really the only metric that truly matters.
Eve isn't dying. But people who can run, skip, and jump are much more fun to play with.