Yesterday, I spoke with CCP’s leadership about their upcoming survival MMO, EVE Frontier—a new entry in the EVE universe that incorporates blockchain technology. CCP’s pitch is that this new title will extend EVE Online‘s player-driven philosophy in novel, unpredictable ways, giving players the chance to become co-developers alongside CCP. Though I approached the conversation with my usual skepticism about anything Web3-related, the team’s ideas left me cautiously intrigued.
However, the broader EVE Online community doesn’t share this curiosity. Players have been suspicious of EVE Frontier—known until yesterday as Project Awakening—for a while, and the recent reveal has only deepened their discontent.
“I am saying this because I love EVE. Because I have been playing it almost every day of my life for 5 years now. Don’t do this,” pleads Wolfwolf68, a user on the EVE subreddit in a thread titled “Dear CCP: Don’t.”
“There is still time. You can still roll it back and pretend it never happened. Please. None of us want this crypto slop, this desperate cash grab, this attempt at ‘creating something great,’ this game where buzzwords seem more important than gameplay.”
It’s a sentiment shared by many. Wolfwolf68’s post has garnered nearly a thousand upvotes and hundreds of comments, with most expressing a similar disdain. The EVE subreddit is awash with threads either mocking Frontier or begging CCP to reconsider.
One player, reflecting on past struggles with addiction to the game, noted, “Not only are you releasing shit updates as per usual, now crypto bullshit is coming too.” Another sarcastically suggested plugging the game’s server directly into the mains to avoid having to deal with it at all.
Even an optimistic post about Frontier has failed to find support, attracting zero upvotes, with responses ranging from “No,” to “Stop,” to “I disagree.”
And the skepticism isn’t limited to Reddit. On Twitter, the announcement of EVE Frontier sparked immediate backlash. “Releasing a blockchain game a year after the weird hype about that technology died,” one user remarked. Another quipped, “I initially liked this cos I like EVE, but I just wanted to say I retract my Like because of the blockchain nonsense, thanks.”
Similar negativity has permeated the official EVE Online forums and Discord, where Frontier discussions have been overwhelmingly negative. Some players dismiss the game outright as “blockchain bullshit.” The tone is grim, and CCP has a long way to go if it hopes to convert its existing player base.
Still, CCP’s team remains hopeful, and the discussion on the official Frontier Discord has been somewhat more open-minded. CCP community dev Jötunn urges players to try the game before forming opinions: “If people want to play the game specifically to blow up crypto speculators, then hell yeah to that as well.”
However, convincing EVE Online‘s dedicated player base to embrace EVE Frontier will be a steep uphill battle. Given blockchain games’ notorious reputation, it’s no surprise players are wary. If CCP does manage to win them over, it would be a historic turnaround.
I hope they can pull it off. The concepts they outlined to me sounded genuinely interesting, but there are still many lingering concerns—particularly about monetization and regulation—that need addressing. For now, curiosity is the furthest I’m willing to go, while EVE Online‘s current players are proving to be even more resistant.
Should it all go south, though, user Ralli-FW has a backup plan: “The best possible outcome here is that a bunch of crypto bros try this game, it sucks, and they come to EVE instead where we can slowly degrade their indoctrination and/or scam them into buying Enyocoin.”
