Would CCP be better off if they created a PvE-only server for EVE? Some carebears would argue yes, because since EVE only has a PvP server, they don’t play. On the surface that makes sense; PvP-only games are indeed locking anyone who sees PvP and runs in the opposite direction out. But lets play this out a little further shall we?
On that PvE-only EVE server, the economy would be a total joke. Ships would rarely be lost, everyone could fly around perfectly safe in all-officer fit ships, the most lucrative PvE (null, WH) could be farmed without risk, mining afk would never end negatively, and all those multi-billion-ISK-in-a-transport traders would never be ganked. So unless you also expect CCP to basically completely change the game on almost all levels, the economy part of EVE wouldn’t work on a PvE server.
Furthermore, the PvE challenge on such a server would also be a joke. Remember, everyone is flying around in all-officer fits, which makes them far more powerful than the standard PvE ship found in the game today. Beyond just that, outside of high-sec you can now use a Titan to farm all day without a single fear of a hot drop. Are the carebears expecting CCP to fix this as well? How, tune PvE to officer-fit Titans in terms of difficulty? Just accept that all PvE would quickly become faceroll in difficulty (more so than it already is in EVE)?
And now the biggest question, why the hell are you going to play EVE for years here? You are sitting in an officer-fit Titan, with a wallet full of ISK, a hanger with every ship and fitting you ever wanted, and having safely explored everything there is to see, with all content being trivial and with nothing else to do. What’s your motivation to keep playing/paying?
There is a reason EVE is the only MMO out to grow and maintain sub numbers for more than ten years, and that reason is directly tied to PvP. So while yes, certain carebears stay away, the game has proven that other carebears stay, year after (10) year, because of what PvP brings to the game (among other things, a sink that keeps the economy and basically the whole game going).
A lot of those currently playing WOULD switch to the PvE server, because most people are child-like and would eat candy until they died if you let them. They WOULD get bored and walk away from the game. That is why you don’t open a PvE-only server; because it would allow MMO children to spoil themselves into quitting, and in the long run that’s bad for business.
So help save the kids, and your MMO; don’t go PvE-only and kill yourself and everyone playing!
PS: The same applies to AA. Think about how many of that game’s core mechanics rely on PvP to balance or keep them interesting. How many seemingly PvE-only activities would lose long-term value or purpose in a completely safe world?
Hardcore Casual 
And then there is what happens to a PvE economy naturally over time. Look at the markets in EQ, EQ2, or WoW and compare what items were selling for a year after launch to today’s prices. We used to be happy selling stuff for silver. Now nobody sells much for less than a gold or a platinum, but new players still have to come into the game with quests that offer rewards in copper coins.
Not to mention that in basically all PvE games, the devs are forced into a soft-wipe every so often (lvl increase), which if you are an econ-focused player, kinda kills the game for you.
Inflation in the economy could easily be prevented by price-fixing. I’ve never understood why MMOs feel they have to use free market economics. Just set the prices like you set the stats.
Come to think of it I never understood why a heroic-fantasy RPG suddenly needs an economy just because it has 10,000 players. I played tabletop RPGs for five years and the number of hours spent trading items for money to other members of the group was no hours.
I may have gone off-topic…
Have fun with your black market then.
And the opposite, at least in EQ: you could buy what had been at one point top tier items for a handful of plat because they kept coming into the game and never left.
I completely agree with all of this.
PvP drives EVE Online, and people who say otherwise are just kidding themselves. Take away PvP and you destroy the heart of the game. The genius of EVE (and now AA) is that it allows for non-PvP play styles as well, because the producers are able to fill the demand created by the massive bloc wars in null sec without ever having to fight anyone. But the engine at the heart of the EVE economy is the demand created by the losses incurred in PvP.
I think the distinction between PvE and PvP servers is becoming obsolete insofar as savvy MMO developers are able to more consistently integrate the dynamic content created by meatship explosions into the fabric of the world while providing PvE-centric players with a haven (or at least respite) from the savagery of reds.
I also think the concept of separate servers is on the way out. Content created by player interaction is a key indicator of title longevity.
This is what most people don’t understand, including MMO developers.
If you just made a PVE only server for AA or EVE it would fail, because those games are not designed for PVE only play. This is clear.
However, this observation does actually not support your claim: “There is a reason EVE is the only MMO out to grow and maintain sub numbers for more than ten years, and that reason is directly tied to PvP. ”
I don’t agree with your statement, not because it is wrong, but because it is untested. No quality PVE MMO sandboxes have been made, so we don’t know how they would have done over 10 years. Perhaps it would have 120 million subs by now. Perhaps it would have failed so badly that the Earth would have imploded in sheer horror. We simply don’t know.
O.o good one.
I agree. It should be absolutely possible to create a PvE game that destroys player-created items via PvE mechanics at the same rate that PvP games do.
Of course, there is a tab on some blog that tells everyone how a PvE Sandbox would work, but other than SOE’s flailing attempt, we haven’t seen someone copy/paste it yet.
The real question is: Why do you worry what will happen in the pve server since you can play on pvp server? Are you so good person that you worry how other players will experience the game in their own server? Or is it something else…?
A pvp-only server may turn off some “carebears” as you say, but the option of pve server, that will result into no carebears to pvp servers, turn off the majority of “pvp” (as they call themeselfs anyway) players…
Isn’t enjoyable when a pvp server contain only pvp players? I guess not. At least, don’t pretend (not you specifically) that you care to save us from a “non function/destroyed economy” server type…
The company behind the game would worry for the reason given in the post;
“A lot of those currently playing WOULD switch to the PvE server, because most people are child-like and would eat candy until they died if you let them. They WOULD get bored and walk away from the game. That is why you don’t open a PvE-only server; because it would allow MMO children to spoil themselves into quitting, and in the long run that’s bad for business.”
So I as a player want the game as successful as possible, because (generally) more success equals more resources to make more of what I want, and less of what I don’t (F2P downgrade being just one).
But guess which sub game has by far the more players…the pve or the pvp one? And only to think that the pve game has so many clones to compete with…while the pvp one is unique to its theme.
And the second most successful (by sub numbers) FFXIV? this also is not unique and have lot of competition too…
Now lets talk about loud minorities and how they are responsible for games failure…
The PvE game with PvP servers and a whole arena setup that got to where it is thanks in large part to a perfect storm setup?
But bringing WoW into this missing the point, since WoW isn’t a PvP-based sandbox, which is the topic here. We aren’t talking about opening a PvE-only server for WoW and what effect that might have on its ever-revolving fanbase, right? We are talking the effects a PvE-only server might have on something that has maintained and grown over 10 years.
in a sandbox game pve server only, a casual player will have tons more to do than in wow. What do you think the casual player is doing in wow? Only a small percent raid…the rest just doing fluff(pets, achievements, alts, e.t.c.).
And as someone told you above, we never had a pve server on a sandbox game to really know what will happen. You underestimate what activities can keep casuals playing. I am sure that a pve Archeage server will keep casual player much much longer than wow. Not to mention about the RP players..