Dear CCP...PLEASE Don’t Make Another Pay to Win Mobile Game.

A problem is disrupting the gaming community that I would argue minimizes the value of the industry itself. When I stumbled upon the mobile game, Nova Empire (which is described as an “epic strategy game of space domination…”), I rediscovered my passion for gaming and fell in love with its incredible community. Not only did I strengthen my communication with cultures around the world; gaming helped enhance my management skillsets and increased my overall self-confidence.

Games provide unique sandbox environments where the players can test their mental endurance, sharpen motor skills and develop strategic thinking either individually or as a team. But after spending 2 years faithfully logging on and dedicating countless hours to create strategies and build an international team, we are in outrage.

You see, there is no subscription fee to play Nova Empire although they do offer a lifetime and monthly pass which gives you in-game currency called GEC. You can also make in-app purchases which buy items in a marketplace to help boost your development. The game is technically considered F2P (free to play)...but it is common knowledge to veteran players than in order to gain a massive competitive advantage, players can (and do) simply buy their way to the top.

Pay-to-Win games are killing the gaming industry and destroying our communities!

The P2W aspect of the game has created a rift in the nova empire community. We spend months of strategic teamwork and preparation, only to be beaten by a wallet warrior who doesn’t need to learn any game mechanics other than spending more money. The problem with this is that it removes the joy of why we play a game like this.

In our elite server, we have a "pay to win" alliance that routinely boasts about how much money they have spent on the game. They reign over our server dictating to the rest of the players how and when we can play. Furthermore, the development team tends to favor spenders by overlooking clear signs of cheating and other forms of exploitation.

The problem is not just isolated to Nova Empire. This problem is spread across a vast array of mobile games that have left gaming communities angry and disappointed. EA's Starwars Battlefront II faced national backlash for their loot boxes. One popular gamer and Youtuber, XfactorGaming, even went so far as to stream the clear disadvantages that F2P players have by purchasing $90 worth of loot boxes and essentially dominating his competition.

Excessive microtransactions and loot boxes create unfair advantages and remove strategy from "strategy-based" games. Not to mention they can become highly addictive.

Logging in to the game feels more like you are logging into a casino, where the developers are the house, and we all know the house always wins.

The difference is that now the house favors some of the gamblers who spend more than the average player. It’s clear with the pay to win style, that the game is then designed and rigged for someone who does not invest time or effort, but money. All games require some form of payment, but the pay to win mentality eliminates strategy in a “strategic war game”. It has not only demoralized our community, but many have also quit and shopped around for new upcoming games.

One upcoming game our community has been eagerly awaiting is Eve Echos. We anticipate its release (and would love an alpha/beta test), but we do have some concerns as to what the direction its development team will take.

We are a group of faithful gamers who put our blood, sweat, and tears into our teams and stations. We build economies, fight battles and we spend our time nurturing these communities which is really what brings the game itself such value. We are hoping for Eve Echos to bring all the incredible strategy we love in a compact mobile version.

Some players are very excited and some are very skeptical, but really our hopes are at the end of the day that this is going to be a game for gamers by gamers.

We hope you consider long term player retention and quality of gameplay before monetary transaction and profit. And we hope you reward those who implement sought out strategy rather than spending money to advance. When updates are made, we wish that you consider our feedback and give us notice. And we hope you will take us seriously when we encounter bugs.

We believe that it’s our eclectic community that makes these games so special and we hope that all the time and effort we invest won’t go to waste to another individual who can swipe his credit card to undo all the progress we fervently put in. I think can speak on behalf of our entire community when I say:

Dear CCP... PLEASE don't make another "pay to win" mobile game!