CCP senior producer, John Lander, might be one of the newest additions to the EVE Online development team, but he's already got real insight into why the space MMO is still so popular. Remember, EVE Online has been alive for over nine years, and subscriber numbers have never dropped. Jon says that CCP's motivations might be different than those of other MMO developers who might target new subscribers more aggressively.
By contrast, CCP differentiate themselves before you've even signed up , warning new players that: "The learning curve is steep. The bar to excel is high."
"We're trying to build this virtual world," says Jon. "And the virtual world has meaning for the people who are in it... we're not trying to achieve super subscriber numbers or whatever. Don't get me wrong, that obviously translates into money, which enables us to do this: this grand vision, this grand design that we're playing at."
