CCP have released or updated several Dev Blogs over the last couple days.
Gridlock, monikers, and cpu-per-user
The first is a rather technical overview of a recent change they made to improve performance. I think I have remarked before that I like these types of articles. I’ve worked the last 17 odd years in IT Admin, with a focus of investigating performance issues. (I just added that up today, I’m getting old.) I assume CCP’s goal with such articles is to say “we are working on performance, but it is a difficult and complex process.” I am sure there are plenty of IT Geeks and wannabe’s who pour over such posts and truly understand the significance of finding such a (relatively) large improvement. I suspect however most people’s eyes just glaze over and they grumpily think of the last ship they lost due to lag. While I suspect the articles don’t have the overall desired effect, keep them coming anyway CCP.
Forums are back up and open for testing
The new EVE Forums are back in test mode. I was wondering when we would see them again. The announcement comes with a warning that if you find exploits please just log them, because their use, even in jest, will be dealt with severely. They have added a few extra features, like being able to ignore posts from individuals. I truly hope things go better this time around.
Dev track feedback: monetizing your apps and services
CCP is looking to offer a license for third party developers to create commercial applications and services around the EVE Intellectual Property. It is currently against the EVE Online Terms of Service (ToS) to charge or accept donations for tools that use the EVE Online IP. Now some time in the next few months for $99 a year (a price set to cover administration costs, not to profit from) you can get rights with (apparently) minimal restrictions to profit from your efforts. If you provide a non-commercial service or application, you can instead enter a free license agreement with CCP.
I suspect CCP might be a little surprised at the vitriolic response to this Dev blog. The reality is that there are many EVE related services that either charge directly (killboards) or accept donations (most of the tools I use) in breach of the ToS. Instead of taking the view that this legitimises their efforts, there is a lot of complaining about CCP profiting from the efforts of 3rd parties (I wonder if they can see the hypocrisy), or why should they pay $99 to provide a service CCP should have done themselves, or argue they get less donated a year than $99 would give them through PLEX purchases, etc and so on.
There are individual concerns I can sympathise with, and it is not entirely clear what is classified as EVE IP and what is not. There isn’t much of a debate on the issue at the moment however – anyone who is not vehemently against the proposals is tending to be neg-repped and shouted down in amongst a sea of anger and scaremongering.
The changes do not impact me or this blog – I am not offering a service, asking for donations or showing ads. (And if WordPress starts to automatically insert them for anyone not actually logged in, let me know and I will pay whatever I need to so that they are not shown.) What I hope – once the dust settles and adjustments and clarifications are made, is that this will formalise a relationship between CCP and some of the brilliant developers who have provided tools which – frankly, make EVE Online a much better place.
Evehermit 