The State of EE Address

32OrtonEdge32dh · 2016-11-17 19:09:43

Mr. Nou, Mr. Different55, members of the EE community, my fellow players:

We are six years into this Flash game. Six years that dawned with one level; that unfolded with a new generation populating a long and sparse lobby; that saw a vicious recession of players spread across our levels and the game. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many.

But tonight, we turn the page. Tonight, after a breakthrough year for Everybody Edits, our playerbase is growing and creating worlds at the fastest pace since 2012. Our idle rate is now lower than it was before the inactivity crisis. More of our kids are sticking around than ever before. More of our players are spending gems than ever before. And we are almost free from the grip of Flash as we’ve been awaiting for years.

Today, for the first time in weeks, we have no organized calls for demotion of any particular staff member. Very recently, dozens of players and forumers served on both sides of these battles. Today, very few holdouts still remain. And we salute the courage and sacrifice of every man and woman in this Demotion Generation who has served what they believed to be the best interests of the community. We are humbled and grateful for your service.

EE, for all that we have endured; for all the grit and hard work required to come back; for all the tasks that lie ahead, know this: The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of EE is strong.

At this moment -- with a growing gem economy, shrinking bug lists, bustling lobby, booming energy production -- we have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other game on the net. It’s now up to us to choose who we want to be over the next months and for years to come.

Will we accept an energy economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an energy economy that generates rising caps and chances for everyone who makes the effort?

Will we approach Unity fearful and reactive, dragged into costly bug fixes that strain our staff and set back new content? Or will we lead wisely, using all elements of our staff to defeat new bugs and inflate our shop?

Will we allow ourselves to be sorted into crews and turned against one another? Or will we recapture the sense of common purpose that has always propelled EE forward?

In two weeks, I will send this staff a proposal filled with ideas that are practical, not idealistic. And in the months ahead, I’ll crisscross the community making a case for those ideas. So tonight, I want to focus less on a checklist of proposals, and focus more on the values at stake in the choices before us.

It begins with our gem economy. Two years ago, MrJaWapa was a new guardian. He did the grunt work the staff didn't want to. He was young and serving his community. And it doesn’t get much better than that. "If only I hadn't known," JaWapa didn't write to me recently, “what was about to happen to the gem market.”

As the player recession worsened, the guardian business dried up, so he took what jobs he could find, even if they only kept him busy for short stretches of time. And slowly, it paid off. He kept some gems, he sold them. He was caught, fired, and now he's already returned to being an almost productive member of the community in a very short time.

"It is amazing," JaWapa didn't write, "what you can bounce back from when you have to…I am a strong, perseverant man who has made it through some very, very hard times." We are a strong, perseverant community who has made it through some very, very hard times.

EE, JaWapa’s story is our story. He represents the many who have worked hard and saved energy, and sacrificed and retooled. You are the reason that I visit this forum. You are the people I was thinking of years ago, in the darkest months of the crisis, when I sat in the lobby and promised we would rebuild our game on a new foundation. And it has been your resilience, your effort that has made it possible for our game to emerge stronger.

We believed we could reverse the bounce rate and draw new players to our game. And over the past few months, our game has attracted more than 11 new players.

We believed we could reduce our dependence on Flash and protect our game. And today, EE is number one in almost-being-ready-for-Unity. EE is number one in almosts. Every three weeks, we bring online as much hope as we did in all of 2011. And thanks to lower energy prices and higher graphics standards, the typical player this year should save about 750 energy at the shop.

We believed we could prepare our kids for a more competitive game. And today, our younger players have created some of the hardest levels on record. Our player retention rate has hit an all-time high. More players finish campaigns than ever before.

We believed that sensible regulations could prevent another crisis, shield families from ruin, and encourage fair competition. Today, we have new tools to stop chat swearing, and a new secret watchdog to protect us from lewd drawings and creations. And in the past year alone, about ten million swearers were finally banned by Koya.

At every step, we were told our goals were misguided or too ambitious; that we would crush the playerbase and explode gem deficits. Instead, we’ve seen the fastest community growth in over a year, our deficits cut by two-thirds, a gem market that has doubled, and energy inflation at its lowest rate in 50 weeks. This is good news, people.

So the verdict is clear. Energy and gem economics work. Expanding opportunity works. And these policies will continue to work as long as politics don’t get in the way. We can’t slow down new content or put our gems at risk with inflation or high-priced items. We can't put the fun of players at risk by slowing the magic coin rate, or increasing the rate of energy replenishing, or refighting past battles on chat costing money when we’ve got to fix a broken system. And if news comes to my attention that tries to do any of these things, I will fight it. It will have earned a fight.

Today, thanks to a growing economy, the recovery is touching more and more lives. Players online counts are finally starting to rise again. We know that more small world owners plan to raise their value than at any time since 2013. But here’s the thing: Those of us here tonight, we need to set our sights higher than just making sure the staff doesn’t screw things up; that the staff doesn’t halt the progress we’re making. We need to do more than just do no harm. Tonight, together, let’s do more to restore the link between hard work and growing opportunity for every player.

Because players like me still need the help. I’m playing as hard as ever, but I’ve had to forego things like crew items so that they can pay off auras and save for future shop additions. 50 energy on descriptions, that’s a big splurge. A basic black aura costs more than my energy cap, and almost as much as a week’s worth. Like many hardworking players, I’m not asking for a handout, but I am asking that we look for more ways to help us get ahead.

And in fact, at every moment of change throughout our history, this game has taken bold action to adapt to new circumstances and to make sure everyone gets a fair shot. We set up energy overflow protections, the Classics tab, some staff-made exceptions to protect ourselves from the harshest adversity. We gave our players energy and gems, open worlds and codes -- tools they needed to go as far as their effort and their dreams will take them.

That’s what EE economics is -- the idea that this game does best when everyone gets their fair shot, everyone does their fair share, everyone plays by the same set of rules. We don’t just want everyone to share in the game’s success, we want everyone to contribute to our success.

So what does EE economics require in our time?

EE economics means helping players feel more secure in a world of constant change. That means helping players find magic, build new worlds, be certain their old ones won’t be broken. And my plan will address each of these issues, raising the magic chances of active players and putting thousands of energy into their cap each year.

I believe in a smarter kind of EE leadership. We lead best when we combine force with strong diplomacy; when we leverage our power with coalition building; when we don’t let our fears blind us to the opportunities that this new era presents. That’s exactly what we’re doing right now. And around the game, it is making a difference.

Yes, passions still fly on censorship, but surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young player, and agree that no one benefits when innocence is snatched from them, and that it’s possible to shape a rule that upholds our tradition as a game with rules and a game with freedom. I’ve talked to both sides about that. That’s something that we can share.

We may go at it in campaign season, but surely we can agree that the right to play is sacred; that it’s being denied to too many due to lag or bans, and that on this day, we can come together, all of us, to make the game accessible to every single player.

I want our actions to tell every player in every world, your smiley matters, and we are as committed to improving your win chances as we are to working on behalf of our own play. I want future generations to know that we are a people who see our differences as a great gift, that we’re a people who value the dignity and worth of every smiley -- sunglasses and Bruce, sad and mad, dog and astronaut, gas mask, construction worker, postman, police officer, ninja, wizard. Everybody matters. I want them to be used in a game that shows the world what we still know to be true: that we are still more than a collection of pixels; that we are the community of Everybody Edits.

My fellow players, we are a strong, tight-knit family. We have made it through some hard times. Six years into Platform Sandbox, we have picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and begun again the work of remaking Everybody Edits. We have laid a new foundation. A brighter future is ours to write. Let’s begin this new chapter together -- and let’s start the work right now.

Thank you. Chris bless you. Chris bless this game we love. Thank you.

kubapolish, Krosis, mrjawapa, Evilbunny, Blackmask, Pingohits, Nou, Dencc, Shadow, 1448, Muftwin, kreacher

Anatoly · 2016-11-17 19:22:53

I am lazy to read, anyone who tells it short?

32OrtonEdge32dh · 2016-11-17 19:24:20

AnatolyEE wrote:

I am lazy to read, anyone who tells it short?

32OrtonEdge32dh wrote:

...the State of EE is strong.

Tomahawk · 2016-11-17 19:25:25

TLDR; everything's great.

Blackmask · 2016-11-17 22:07:32

32OrtonEdge32dh 4 president

Krosis, 1448, SirJosh3917

Insanity · 2016-11-19 02:57:32

32OrtonEdge32dh, kubapolish, drstereos, Jorc, AlphaJon, TaskManager, MBlood, Hostage

SirJosh3917 · 2016-11-19 21:46:31

wow the ee president joke is finally serious
orton are you donald clinton or hillary trump

Official Everybody Edits Forums

#1 2016-11-17 19:09:43

The State of EE Address

#2 2016-11-17 19:22:53

Re: The State of EE Address

#3 2016-11-17 19:24:20

Re: The State of EE Address

#4 2016-11-17 19:25:25

Re: The State of EE Address

#5 2016-11-17 22:07:32

Re: The State of EE Address

#6 2016-11-19 02:57:32

Re: The State of EE Address

#7 2016-11-19 21:46:31

Re: The State of EE Address

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