Riots in EVE against Microtransactions and forced Incarna expansion

Hey everyone,

For the first time in EVE there are massive protests in all the major trade hubs.

The reason is the introduction of microtransactions into the game, the crazy prices charged for them, a leaked document from CCP where several high profile employees support the introduction of gameplay impacting microtransactions ( on top of the newly added vanity items ) and the forcing of the Incarna expansion on the EVE players by removing the old station hangar and loading directly into the captains quarters.

CCP has broken the trust from the players, by first promissing gameplay altering microtransactions would not be introduced ( meanwhile making plans to do just this ) and secondly by telling that Incarna would be optional ( with a "leave ship" button when inside the station hangar ), and now breaking also that promise.

Not to mention it is a very bad idea to introduce microtransactions to an established mmorpg in the first place, especially when said mmorpg has 360k+ subs and growing!

CCP are changing the foundations of EVE for no good reason but wanting to get fucking filthy rich instead of just filthy rich. And furthermore it is higly unlikely that they will earn more money this way, because history has shown, that for EVE, the pure subscription model works very well. Expand and improve the game and get rewarded by custumers staying and more customers joining.

EVE is as much a creation by the players as it is by CCP, by destroying the trust, EVE will failcascade hard, just like Star Wars Galaxies did, that other well known Sci-Fi sandbox, which will close down this december. SWG closing down
Which of course is the result of the CU and the NGE, where the SWG foundation was completely changed by changing many sandbox aspects into themepark systems, as Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts aimed for replacing their current playerbase by more and better players. This completely backfired and the game dropped from 300k to less than 50k subscriptions over time.

The trade hubs Jita and Amarr are already capped and the statues burning, Rens and Dodixie are going next, altho at Rens and Dodixie the protest is more peacefull because there is no statue to shoot at those locations, and the protest is limited to shouting slogans as "Hell no, we won't micro" and "No forced Incarna!".

A condensed version of the issues, recommended reading.

Some background info

Jita live feed

Post on Jita protest

CCP bulletin on microtransactions confirmed

EVE NEWS 24 story coverage

Eve burns
Eve burns part II

Here a screenshot of Jita 4-4 burning :

And protest in Rens :

Update :
CCP clearly capped Jitta at 1500 players, normally Jita can support over 2000.
Amarr is at 1200+ and going up.
Rens is at 500+ and increasing.

Update :
Dodixie at 700 and rising.

Update Friday 22:00h GMT :
The protest still going strong.
Here another screenshot of Jita :

Update Saturday 10:00h GMT :
The protest and riots coninue on Saturday, Jita still burning.

Update Saturday 20:00h GMT :
Riots still going on, Jita is locked down, I can't enter, heavy protest continues in Amarr.

Stay tuned for updates.