Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 61st edition! For more details about what the blog banters are visit the Blog Banter page.
Blog banter 61 - Origin State
The new This is EVE trailer has combined with a lot of community enthusiasm to generate a massive uptick on new character creation. There has been a lot of buzz about how to help and funnel those new players into fun and satisfying careers in Eve.. For example:
Target Caller blog by Talvorian Dex: Target Caller: What Newbies Need to Know About Eve
EVEHERMIT by EVE Hermit: The wrong way
Lowsec Lifestyle by CSM Sugar Kyle: Rambling: Vestment
The Nosy Gamer: Learning Anti-Social Behavior
TurAmarth asks this question: "What would we encourage ALL new players to do in their first month to get them to subscribe long term, if we had to give out one set of advice for everyone (which we do if we're giving general advice)?"
Blog Banter 61 - Online Darwinism
Origin State? Origin? Origin of the Species? Darwin? Hey, I might be onto something here....
The question of the Blog Banter was what would I advise a new-bro to do in their first month to make them long term players.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I don't know. Is there anything? I ask this because after the Darwin reference I'm wondering if its not what a person does in that first month, its the type of person they are which dictates if they can get on with Eve. What did I do for my first month? I carebeared. I ran missions and fit ships terribly. I did this for the first month, the second month and my third month. I can remember finally having the money to buy the Caldari Cruiser skill book but not enough to buy one of those shiney Caracal cruisers. I was like the child in a Dickensian novel with my nose pushed up against the toy shop window/monitor looking at all the shiny things I cannot afford (yes that is taking some words from Ben Yahtzee Croshaw's review of Eve Online).
I had no interaction with anyone until my 4th month. Thats when I did something differently and that thing is what has kept me playing this game for over six years. I've already mentioned it. Interaction. The social side of the game has kept me here for so long, but it wasn't that which got me into Eve and past that magic 30-day mark that so many fall by the wayside.
Eve Online is a slow game where generally you are not the lead character. You are not the hero of the game. You are you, an insignificant in a massive sci-fi space opera. Eve takes time. No matter how hard you grind you are not going to be sat in that T2 ship any fast than someone who plays once a week. The is no end to Eve, no final boss, no credits rolling at the end. Eve can be very quiet with hours of downtime before battles or potential battles that never occur leaving you with big blue balls. Eve is complicated and above all, Eve is hard. These are all things that other games are not. I've tried to introduce friends to Eve. Some have stayed, most have dropped within that first month.
I say that this Blog Banter is a trick question. There is nothing you can encourage a new player to do in their first month that will serious effect their long term commitment to Eve. Either they are an Eve player, and they'll find that out in the first month, or they are not and they'll bugger off back to WoW, LoL, LOTRO or something else. The only thing that might make a difference is getting them engaged in the community.
Eve is a niche game that appeals to a minority of gamers. Yes I am sure there are some who would get on with Eve but never make it past the first month because of a rage quit or other problem. However I would guess these are the minority. There is no middle ground. You are either an Eve player or you are not. Nothing in the middle. Squish, just like grape!
Target Caller blog by Talvorian Dex: Target Caller: What Newbies Need to Know About Eve
EVEHERMIT by EVE Hermit: The wrong way
Lowsec Lifestyle by CSM Sugar Kyle: Rambling: Vestment
The Nosy Gamer: Learning Anti-Social Behavior
TurAmarth asks this question: "What would we encourage ALL new players to do in their first month to get them to subscribe long term, if we had to give out one set of advice for everyone (which we do if we're giving general advice)?"
Blog Banter 61 - Online Darwinism
Origin State? Origin? Origin of the Species? Darwin? Hey, I might be onto something here....
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm
I don't know. Is there anything? I ask this because after the Darwin reference I'm wondering if its not what a person does in that first month, its the type of person they are which dictates if they can get on with Eve. What did I do for my first month? I carebeared. I ran missions and fit ships terribly. I did this for the first month, the second month and my third month. I can remember finally having the money to buy the Caldari Cruiser skill book but not enough to buy one of those shiney Caracal cruisers. I was like the child in a Dickensian novel with my nose pushed up against the toy shop window/monitor looking at all the shiny things I cannot afford (yes that is taking some words from Ben Yahtzee Croshaw's review of Eve Online).
Eve Online is a slow game where generally you are not the lead character. You are not the hero of the game. You are you, an insignificant in a massive sci-fi space opera. Eve takes time. No matter how hard you grind you are not going to be sat in that T2 ship any fast than someone who plays once a week. The is no end to Eve, no final boss, no credits rolling at the end. Eve can be very quiet with hours of downtime before battles or potential battles that never occur leaving you with big blue balls. Eve is complicated and above all, Eve is hard. These are all things that other games are not. I've tried to introduce friends to Eve. Some have stayed, most have dropped within that first month.
Eve is a niche game that appeals to a minority of gamers. Yes I am sure there are some who would get on with Eve but never make it past the first month because of a rage quit or other problem. However I would guess these are the minority. There is no middle ground. You are either an Eve player or you are not. Nothing in the middle. Squish, just like grape!
2-3 basic advices for every newbie:
ReplyDelete1.) Join some kind of public community. I mean, public chatroom of EVEUni, or any similar corps/communities, or maybe one of the official nationality channels (it did help me when I started). The NPC corp and the official Newbie helper channels were in my time either too fast scrolling, or had too much noise.
1.1) If you want advice, always ask at least twice, on different channels or different occasions. Never "believe" anything you read/hear the first time. Different preferences and playstyles will see things in different lights and the first guy responding will not necessarily see them in the way you will.
2.) RTFM! Or in EVE's case, "read the f*** tutorials" and all the small popup bubbles. I know, most of the ppl believe they are the all-knowing-all-mighty beings, but THEY/YOU-ARE-NOT!