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EvE, How too retain a newbie from a newbie's perspective

First post
Author
Job Valador
Professional Amateurs
#1 - 2013-04-09 11:24:58 UTC
Recently read a very volatile post that sadly was locked before I could get my 2 bits in. It was on the subject of what drives new players away from the game. From what I could read, most of these characters accounts being rather old, fell into two camps. The anti carebears believing that newbies are driven away by the insane boredom that can come from being recruited into a high sec corp that only mines and missions (both I agree can be boring but i do them and understand their necessity) and then there is the Other camp which I really don't have a name for because really they were just trying to oppose the OP any way they could. (even though there were voices of reason on both sides of the issue they were kinda got drowned out by everyone else)

Being a newb id like to share my opinion on the matter. The reason I stayed in this wonderful albeit frightening game was support from other players, vets and other newbs alike. I was confused as hell the first week. In fact I still am on many things. But with the friends I made with in the first week of the game I still move onward wanting too learn more and do more. And yet you still have too take into account that every person is different and react differently to things. One of my closer friends in EvE (Teki Awong) Started out in eve and played eve for a long time completely Independent without much interaction with other players and was fine with that and moved on to the player corp scene in his own time, and on the flip side of that coin is another friend (Dark Aries JR) who played eve for three days and told me that the scope of it was just not his style and quit.

I guess what I am trying too say here is do not be on the extreme side (either side -.-) of this issue it helps no one and certainly does not help EvE. There are many reasons why us newbs could leave, boredom being one of them, but you have to remember most of us that sub too this game are grown adults (even if we don't act like it sometimes xD) and can make our own decisions. The best thing you vets can do is offer what guidance you can,either by advice or assets, making our first weeks as easy as you can. If the said player does not want help, always leave the offer on the table in case they reconsider, but never be forceful about it, either in game or in the forums.


Side Note: I hope this post gets locked allot sooner than the last one if this one gets just as out of hand Straight

"The stone exhibited a profound lack of movement."

Dave Stark
#2 - 2013-04-09 11:28:15 UTC
proof reading, it's important.
Job Valador
Professional Amateurs
#3 - 2013-04-09 11:30:34 UTC
It is 3 am, I am still at work and have little thought for such things Sad

However noted for future posts, I kinda like this forum thing Big smile

"The stone exhibited a profound lack of movement."

Polaris Sagan
Doomheim
#4 - 2013-04-09 12:41:20 UTC
Good OP.
I know exactly which post you're referring too because this is the exact point that I was making on that post.
Everyone will play the game their own way and have the brains to think and do things for themselves if they wish too. There's no point playing the blame game because people leave EVE for all different reasons. Most of the time because they're not used to the in depth gaming and thinking that EVE requires.
Abrazzar
Vardaugas Family
#5 - 2013-04-09 13:00:35 UTC
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#6 - 2013-04-09 13:00:59 UTC
What I found ironic in that 'other' thread was the anti-carebears insisting that the tutorial hand-hold new players through all aspects of the game including Low Sec (a part which would not work at all for obvious reasons).

Most of the fun early on for me was having to figure things out on my own and even find out about them by encountering them, then investigating.

They cry so loudly about not wanting EVE to be a theme-park, but that thread yesterday was about making EVE into anything but a Sandbox.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882

Haedonism Bot
People for the Ethical Treatment of Rogue Drones
#7 - 2013-04-09 13:20:12 UTC  |  Edited by: Haedonism Bot
There is definitely a lot of room for improvement in the tutorial, but at the same time there is only so much that you can do there. If it covered every aspect of the game then people would be doing the tutorial for a year.

The problem is a real one - the average new player is overexposed to dangerous carebears and their game-killing ideas, and underexposed to all the finer aspects of gameplay. As a result, we lose many potential new subscribers. Even the OP, who seems like a reasonable sort, says that he recognizes that mining and missioning are boring, yet feels they are necessary and does them anyway. That is the kind of foolish notion that I am talking about. There is absolutely no need for you to participate in gameplay that you find boring - thinking like that is what leads people to quit early.

There may be some actions that CCP can take to help with this, but mainly I think it is a question of the player community policing itself. These sorts of dangerous carebears need to be identified, publicly called out, and persecuted with every means available to us, be it wardecs, AWOXing, suicide ganking, or other, more innovative methods. Every responsible EVE player should consider it their duty to help purge these individuals from the game.Pirate

The other side of it is reaching out to newbies and guiding them towards more engaging aspects of gameplay. There are already a lot of us doing this, but our voices are often drowned out by the legions of carebears in highsec.

www.everevolutionaryfront.blogspot.com

Vote Sabriz Adoudel and Tora Bushido for CSMX. Keep the Evil in EVE!

YuuKnow
The Scope
#8 - 2013-04-09 13:21:41 UTC  |  Edited by: YuuKnow
The Eve General Discussion forums sometime behaves like a 'right wing' vs 'left wing' in some regards. Innate oppositional stances with issue distortion. Noob opinions are seen as irrelevant, not valued, and most are trolled mercilessly if their opinions don't fall in line with the established viewpoints here.

In someways the 10 year 'age' of Eve-Online has made it resistant to even constructive feedback or change. Player tendency is to maintain the status quo. Retribution was seen as the 'most successful' expansion', but really was not an expansion at all, rather a lump of fixes to several of the disfunctional gameplay mechanics that had been ignored for almost 10 years.

If it ain't broke don't fix it is one viewpoint, but newbies should continue to feel like they can express opinions here to freshen things up.

yk
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#9 - 2013-04-09 13:25:35 UTC
Haedonism Bot wrote:


There may be some actions that CCP can take to help with this, but mainly I think it is a question of the player community policing itself. These sorts of dangerous carebears need to be identified, publicly called out, and persecuted with every means available to us, be it wardecs, AWOXing, suicide ganking, or other, more innovative methods. Every responsible EVE player should consider it their duty to help purge these individuals from the game.Pirate



Why now ? If they are so dangerous, the game wouldn't be here after a decade.

Talk about manufacturing problems that do not exist............

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882

MatrixSkye Mk2
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#10 - 2013-04-09 13:25:39 UTC  |  Edited by: MatrixSkye Mk2
Haedonism Bot wrote:
The average new player is overexposed to dangerous carebears and their game-killing ideas... These sorts of dangerous carebears need to be identified, publicly called out, and persecuted with every means available to us.


Here we go again Roll. The hate-filled rhetoric never really ends with you lot.

Successfully doinitwrong™ since 2006.

Brooks Puuntai
Solar Nexus.
#11 - 2013-04-09 13:33:09 UTC
Krixtal Icefluxor wrote:
What I found ironic in that 'other' thread was the anti-carebears insisting that the tutorial hand-hold new players through all aspects of the game including Low Sec (a part which would not work at all for obvious reasons).


It can be done. To an extent ofc.

CCP's Motto: If it isn't broken, break it. If it is broken, ignore it. Improving NPE / Dynamic New Eden

Markatta
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#12 - 2013-04-09 13:37:46 UTC
I wonder, if new players started in low- or null-sec, would the post to which the OP refers have complained about newbie over-exposure to Goons...?
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#13 - 2013-04-09 13:48:43 UTC
The new players who leave.....I just say "good riddance".

They obviously did not like what they experienced, and were not adventurous enough to try things out for themselves. (I remember jumping into a WH when I was a month old, not knowing anything at all....that I would need probes, that there was no local, etc). I was intrigued by what I was discovering by being an 'explorer' of the game this way.

Most gamers are not that adventurous and do indeed want theme-park hand-holding as that is the expected norm. If they quit, they were not the kind of players we want here anyway.

So, why all the tears ???

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882

Indahmawar Fazmarai
#14 - 2013-04-09 13:49:51 UTC
Oh look, another thread by another new player who spends his time writing on the forums rather than playing. Roll
TheGunslinger42
All Web Investigations
#15 - 2013-04-09 13:55:55 UTC  |  Edited by: TheGunslinger42
Krixtal Icefluxor wrote:
What I found ironic in that 'other' thread was the anti-carebears insisting that the tutorial hand-hold new players through all aspects of the game including Low Sec (a part which would not work at all for obvious reasons).

Most of the fun early on for me was having to figure things out on my own and even find out about them by encountering them, then investigating.

They cry so loudly about not wanting EVE to be a theme-park, but that thread yesterday was about making EVE into anything but a Sandbox.


How on earth do you say the general feeling in that thread - i.e. that new players need to get a fuller impression of what is possible in EVE right from the start (even absolute newbies can have fun in low and null, and make isk there, after all) - is the opposite of the sandbox mantra? The attitude expressed in that thread supports the sandbox, it's a desire to emphasise the sandbox nature to new players from day one. That was the entire point of the thread for crying out loud. How could you miss the mark so very much?

Though the nature of the tutorials and game itself limit what can be done in those initial few hours, and simply saying "make the tutorial lead new players into a lowsec system" is far too simplistic, and may not accomplish the goal of properly introducing them to the other aspects of the game at all anyway
Job Valador
Professional Amateurs
#16 - 2013-04-09 13:57:01 UTC
Last bit from me before I unsub my own post. No I do NOT like mining, but I do love building my own ships and flying them to their inevitable destruction. THAT is what I like to do in this game. It is not a dangerous carebear Idea, just a game mechanic I like.

"The stone exhibited a profound lack of movement."

Job Valador
Professional Amateurs
#17 - 2013-04-09 13:57:57 UTC
and some sort of forum mod please lock my post I think i may have started something bad up again -_-

"The stone exhibited a profound lack of movement."

Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#18 - 2013-04-09 14:03:30 UTC
TheGunslinger42 wrote:
Krixtal Icefluxor wrote:
What I found ironic in that 'other' thread was the anti-carebears insisting that the tutorial hand-hold new players through all aspects of the game including Low Sec (a part which would not work at all for obvious reasons).

Most of the fun early on for me was having to figure things out on my own and even find out about them by encountering them, then investigating.

They cry so loudly about not wanting EVE to be a theme-park, but that thread yesterday was about making EVE into anything but a Sandbox.


How on earth do you say the general feeling in that thread - i.e. that new players need to get a fuller impression of what is possible in EVE right from the start (even absolute newbies can have fun in low and null, and make isk there, after all) - is the opposite of the sandbox mantra? The attitude expressed in that thread supports the sandbox, it's a desire to emphasise the sandbox nature to new players from day one. That was the entire point of the thread for crying out loud. How could you miss the mark so very much?

Though the nature of the tutorials and game itself limit what can be done in those initial few hours, and simply saying "make the tutorial lead new players into a lowsec system" is far too simplistic, and may not accomplish the goal of properly introducing them to the other aspects of the game at all anyway



I've played EVE long enough to know those folks who were posting just want to harass newbies even more than they already do....thus the stalking horse of the thread was to get them into Low Sec.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882

Murk Paradox
Ministry of War
Amarr Empire
#19 - 2013-04-09 14:04:43 UTC
The hardest part about people who have played this game long enough to get comfortable, forget that just because someone is new doesn't mean they won't be "better" or "smarter" somewhere down the road.

This post has been signed by Murk Paradox and no other accounts, alternate or otherwise. Any other post claiming to be this holder's is subject to being banned at the discretion of the GM Team as it would violate the TOS in regards to impersonation. Signed, Murk Paradox. In triplicate.

Merouk Baas
#20 - 2013-04-09 14:05:53 UTC
This MMO is different than other MMO's in one important aspect: PVP is allowed everywhere (with restrictions in some places), and the community is a lot more noir than in PVE MMO's.

Some people equate "helping newbies" with "teaching newbies to be soft PVP targets." I don't think that's the case; you guys are perfectly capable of understanding what type of game this is, and understanding other players and their motivations. I try to just answer questions, and if you post in the Newbie Questions forum you will see a much more helpful community there, with the goal of just answering questions.

Unfortunately, the "Newbie Help" channel in-game is treated as a free-for-all system-wide channel, and usually devolves into worse than Barrens Chat. And the General Discussion forum here is mostly full of trolls and attention-seekers.

In any case, retaining newbies and bringing new blood to the game is nice and a worthy pursuit, just keep in mind, not for everyone. Some people are just looking to play the game, and couldn't care less how many newbies join or leave, or what CCP does with them. They're just looking to make ISK, and everybody else is a valid target. Some people care; they write tutorials, create helpful fan-sites, etc. Others don't.
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