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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Not The Target Audience

Today, Mosaic launched and with it came Super Kerr-Induced Nanocoatings. I know a lot of people are chomping at the bit to purchase SKINs for their ships, but I'm not one of them.  A surprising admission to make given that I normally fly with the camera zoomed in on my ship. But why wouldn't I want paint my ship something new?

Well, I looked at the list in the latest dev blog and nothing shouted out to me, "You must buy this NOW!" CCP is starting out by offering SKINs for tech 1 ships, with the exceptions of new SKINs for Skiffs and Hulks to go along with the existing skin for the Mackinaw. If I buy a SKIN, I want to buy one for a ship I fly a lot. Those, unfortunately, are the Cheetah, Prowler, Hound, Prospect, and Procurer. None of those currently have SKINs available in the cash shop.

Notice a trend among the ships I fly? They almost all fit covert ops cloaks. And when I'm uncloaked, I'm usually too busy doing other things, like playing the hacking mini-game, to pay attention to how nice my ship looks. I do admit, however, that if I ever do get around to getting a Stratios, the Stratios Sanctuary Issue SKIN would look amazing.

Just because I wouldn't purchase anything from the current selection doesn't mean I think that SKINs and the cash shop are horrible and need to die in a fire. I may not like the current selection, but that doesn't mean I won't like some of the tech 2 selections in the future. A Quafe Prowler would look pretty awesome.

Part of the reason for having a cash shop is to pull in money over time, not as a single one time influx of cash. Even without the prospect of player-designed corporation and alliance SKINs, the art department has a lot of material to play with. With the new release cadence, players can probably expect to see a few more SKINs added every five weeks or so. Even though I may only buy a few if I buy any at all, I'm still look forward to seeing all the new look ships as I travel around EVE.

13 comments:

  1. It is one of those things where I probably like the IDEA of skins and the new system more than I like the reality where I actually pay money for these things. We'll see if that changes when they get around to doing skins for ships I actually fly. I currently have very few options, so it isn't like I could spend money on much right.

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  2. The current lineup of skins in the NES is a little bit boring but there's some unique ones available on the market which look gorgeous and I'm keen to see the next batch of variations (including T2 skins).

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  3. I'm excited for the new "I've fit WCS so you can't shoot me!" skins that FW will be using. lol

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  4. To paraphrase meself...

    "The SKINS are personal meh for me…

    But... you just let ME chose the colors and where they go and put MY Corp (or PERSONAL!!) Logo on my ships and you will see me get embarrassingly mud-on-head excited… until then, ifn you get you one a them ‘fancy nano-painted’ ships, well yer just one of the crowd buying someone else’s idea of how your ship should look…

    You might as well just get all Quafe ships with Quafe logos and be a flying
    billboard… not me."


    Besides... ALL my ships would be done in basic black... flat black... radar absorbing black would be AMAZING... with a modest amount of dark grey pin-striping or dark grey dual toning... and with my Corp (or personal!!) logo in very slightly different shades of black & grey... =]

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  5. When Skins can color coordinate with the clothes my avatar wears, *then* my interest will peak. Style mustn't clash.

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  6. You mean like the Police Prowler?

    http://caldariprimeponyclub.com/demo/?dna=prowler:police:minmatar



    I've also seen some wicked looking black with red trim skins possible for SoE ships.

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  7. Unfortunately they look almost exactly like the "I'm a Goon and I'm gonna blob you!" skins.

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  8. Uh huh Uh huh UH HUH!!! Black or Black-n-Grey or Black-n-Red or Black-n-DARK Green or... Hell I'd even love a Black-n-Yellow!!! You know... EVERYTHING dies better in Black!!! =]

    It's either that or the standard All White Fleet... NCC-(ship name here) anyone? =]

    Oh and my mining barges would ALL be Yellow! Not just the Ventures!! LOL

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  9. Noizy - you clearly don't have the same kind of obsessive compulsive need to collect things that I do. I can't get enough SKINs, myself. Just because I. Must. Have. Them. All. Yes, it makes no sense, really. And I curse CCP every time they come out with new ones - curse you, CCP Games, for enabling my bad habits!

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  10. I have no interest what so ever in pimping my ride. Perhaps if it acted like actual camouflage instead of just being a cosmetic?

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  11. I don't know about yellow barges. The Sisters of EVE Procurer is pretty sharp.

    http://caldariprimeponyclub.com/demo/?dna=procurer:soebase:minmatar

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  12. I'm still mourning the loss of the black/green megathron skin...

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  13. I wonder how long CCP will leave the review of income generated vy this feature compared to the cost of implementing individual skins?

    "Good news! We sold one million SKINs directly from the cash shop, making about two million dollars in feature revenue! The bad news? It cost us three million dollars to build those SKINs :/"

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