Escape Velocity

21 July 2010

The New Player Experience in EvE

  So, one of my best friends just asked me to join him in WOW. This is unusual for many reasons, not the least of which is me starting a sentence with a conjunction. First I am not really what you would call a "gamer" in that the only games I really play are EvE, NCAA Football, and Halo. Second my friends are in the same category as me. And third (another conjunction) I hate WOW for innumerable reasons.

  In the end I broke down and did play some WOW, and am actually still playing for at least a little while. Really this is just a covert mission to get this friend into EvE but there are some problems with this task. The major problem to me is not the steep learning curve of EvE or any of the other insane complications of a game with so much freedom. The main problem with getting started in EvE is the complete lack of an entry level guide or guides that explain the nuances of getting your EvE career kicked off.

  While getting started in WOW there are guides on everything from basic character selection all the way up to top level (end game) raiding. Now, EvE's greatest virtue is the openness of the environment; or the "sandbox." The second greatest virtue is the incredible player base and the creativity that has stemmed from that. We have player created content such as the Blog Pack, Capsuleer, EvE Bloggers Portal, and the work of the great Chribba. Within this (and other) content there is an incredible amount of information and ingenuity to be gleaned. However there is not much in the way of "first time user" content welcoming new people to EvE.

  I sympathize with the pride many players feel in EvE but I am extremely disheartened by the lack of player driven outreach to increasing the player base and spreading the good word about how amazing New Eden is. To that end I had originally planned to create a website for the truly "noob" among us but given my current workload in RL i just don't think I can commit to it. However, I would really like to see this happen so to kick start it I plan to write a series of guides; starting with racial ships and expanding into gameplay styles. If anyone among you would like to assist (or take the lead) in creating a new player experience web portal I will offer my personal web space for hosting, ISK, writing, planning, or any other assistance I can so please hit me up @ evemeatay at yahoo.com

  I know we have an incredible amount of talent and desire, I think it's time to show that off.

15 July 2010

Summer Slump

I (like many others) have fallen into the "summer slump" and haven't even logged into EvE in over a week for anything more than skill changing. I had considered applying to M3Corp but I believe I am going to wait until I come back full time to make any moves.

I the mean time it looks like I will be able to get a ton of those pesky little skills trained which I am really happy about.

02 July 2010

CSM Issues

I was a little disheartened to read Mynxee's recap of the CSM summit while I was traveling this week. It seems like such a shame for CCP to ask for player input at such a high level and basically ignore the input that isn't a) something they want to do anyway or b) a fully game breaking issue (in the technical sense). I was also pretty upset to hear about the push back she received on the concept of holding CCP publicly accountable; especially when it was just by listing outstanding issues and their resolution timeline. I do hope she sticks to her guns here and provides all information that isn't forbidden by the NDA.

Mynxee's recap:

http://lifeinlowsec.blogspot.com/2010/06/csm-june-2010-summit-retrospective.html

In the end I do have a lot of faith in CCP though. They have worked to make so many things right by the player in my experience with them and I hope this is just a growing pain along that road. The server move issue is just one example of the efforts they have taken. I admit that I love those free skill points I received. I am also very interested in exactly what that system was developed for, since CCP admitted that it was already in the pipeline for another reason. I have my fingers crossed for a form of skill redistribution but I know that would be something that is terribly unfair to new players. CCP has always taken precautions to both award old players and protect new players, so I will be waiting anxiously to see what this system is meant to do.

On a completely unrelated note, I have really enjoyed Rixx's (over at Evoganda) tales of his "vacation" on Caldari Prime:
http://eveoganda.blogspot.com/search/label/story

and Kirith's breakdown of the amazing special ships of New Eden:
http://www.ninveah.com/search/label/Ships

23 June 2010

Work Sucks (ask Blink 182)

It's been a tough week for me and if you happen to be attempting to log in right now you can see it may not be the best week at CCP either. Rixx over at Evoganda has the rundown, I swear it's all true :) http://eveoganda.blogspot.com/2010/06/re-ccp-servers.html

16 June 2010

A Change of Pace

  Today the AU-F parted ways with our alliance Fatal Ascension. The major driving factor for this is a need to "catch our breath" among the corporation at a time when the alliance is stepping up efforts at colonizing and defending their own space. Of course other factors affected the decision but many of them stem from the differing paces between us. While I have been a member of Aurelius Federation (well over a year) we have struggled with the summer slump in EvE and the corporation embraces that. With the break from the alliance we will be able to focus on the more relaxed aspects of life in New Eden and return to 0.0 living with renewed energy when the time comes.

  I am looking forward to this as one of the projects we hope to take on this summer is an extended foray into wormhole living. It's been a long time since my last visit to a wormhole (where we lived for about a month) and am looking forward to returning. I have heard that we can expect more visitors these days than in the past which should provide some excitement. On the other hand there will be no 0.0 politics, proxy wars, or last second CTA's to detract from the fun of logging in when you are in a casual mindset.

  Stay tuned for updates on the WH project (still currently unnamed).

11 June 2010

Ships with Spinny Bits

As Rixx over at Evoganda pointed out Spinny Bits are Awesome. I finally got my long lusted after Rattlesnake thanks to a corp mate who was generous enough to let his go at a nice price after himself getting a Machariel. This ship is impressive. Even with my Caldari BS at only II until tomorrow this ship can put up a target specific tank well over 1,000 dps while those nasty little drones go out and do my killing. My previous mission ship was a shield tank Dominix which was almost overkill on L4's already, so the Rattlesnake seems laughably over tanked in some missions. It does draw more attention than my Dominix though as I was visited by a poor excuse for a ninja salvager last night, Lt Arsch. After failing to beat my salvage Orca to the punch on a series of wrecks he took to bumping me around for a while, until I warped off after pulling full stage aggro and leaving him to it. I guess he got bored of waiting for me to kill wrecks so he flew out and salvaged the furtherest one and left the system.

Some eye candy: