EVE General Discussion

I read that article, I think a gated newbie zone is a **** idea and the mittani should feel bad...

You've got to be kidding..

+1 for evangelion.

evangelion is a really excellent piece of work, which makes it really weird that it has so many awful fans. i'm not sure how the people that want to sleep with asuka managed to miss everything in the series that decries them as being repulsive and terrible, or how the dude that made the rei raising simulator managed to derive "yeah, rei totally needs to be both infantilized AND eroticized more" from the source material.

Fanfest 2013. I was chatting to a couple of random nerds, telling them what I was doing in EVE at the time. It's something I still do to a degree. I visit rookie systems each month & gank the miners who mine out all of the ore & leave rookies with nothing, & I chat with new players & tell them things, give them advice & so forth. These nerds became really angry & deduced that I was a part of the reason there was less newbies to pick on in rookie systems.

Goons are terrible people.

I actually agree, to a certain degree. It would depend on the nature of the zone. Thing is, you don't wanna pad newbies up in cotton wool to the point where getting into the game proper is a shocking kick up the backside. You don't want them getting used to the cotton wool, or the idea that they can have any at all. In addition, you have to remember that EVE has a certain audience. This gated newbie zone might well appeal to a completely different audience than the actual game itself. People who WANT the challenge that EVE presents might not feel they're getting it, and unsub before they get out of the newbie zone. On the other hand, the newbie zone will end up filtering the wrong kind of audience into the game proper, and then they all go ahead and unsub too when it becomes too much to handle.

If you want instant gratification, go stimulate your genitals. EvE is Hard, deal with it.

EVE is a fascinating case for gaming in general, you have a game that is practically a simulation of what might have happened had we started civilization over again. Just as with real civilization, conflicts arise and wars are fought over everything from space and resources down to simple spite and since the stated goal is to have these conflicts be meaningful in the creation of the game as we see fit, ships that respawn would make the fighting continue forever. While that may sound nice to some people, those of us who have made it in this game realize that this would deprive us of all the drama and the intrigue of watching a rapid version of an uncertain history unfold right before your eyes. As much as EVE may not always supply content with the push of a button, knowing that the outcome of any given fight is going to mean something for someone gives you an excellent reason to undock, especially when your space friends may live or die based on your actions. You're not going to let them die right in front of you, are you? EVE's harsh nature is simply a necessary part of making the game what it is and if it were otherwise it probably would have ended up in a bin beside all the other generic MMOs that failed to dethrone WoW.

There is something I have noticed during my now 10+ years of online gaming. Everyone wants a challenge but a challenge that they are capable of overcoming. If you get some title or cosmetic piece or some other such nonsense to mark out exactly who is worse than you then so much the better. Everyone wants to feel like they are the line where the "good" players start. (I've written at length before on how people in general aren't too interested in being the best, most are satisfied to just not be the worst ever). When someone fails to meet that line they will either demand the bar be lowered to allow them to fit into the "good" group or they will get frustrated and quit. WoW is notorious for this, introducing challenge modes then making them easier after a couple months so the "bad" players can get their title to lord over no one because now everyone has it but at least they don't feel so bad about it anymore. EVE players are different, we are more comfortable with the idea that the challenge doesn't end and wouldn't have it any other way. Regardless there will always be players for whom the adjustment to lawlessness will forever be out of their reach.

EVE does not have a clear bar or goal for players to get over and no clear way to identify yourself as superior to anyone, not surprising since we are placed into this game as a cog in the machine rather than one of the millions of chosen ones. Those of us who stay are those who truly embrace the ideal that the journey matters more than the destination. The players who know this best have provided the rest of us with countless stories over the years.

Humility is almost a prerequisite for playing EVE as people have the ability to make your life very hard if you are intent on behaving like a typical online community. (The reason I don't play LoL any more is because I would have to play it with typical LoL players). For all the flak we EVE players take from outsiders for being "sociopaths", EVE players form exactly the type of bonds you expect to find in a tribal organization. Many rules, spoken or otherwise apply but most only extend to those you who have mutually agreed to extend them to. In other words, business as usual for the human species. However we are all bound by common experience and know full well that the beat down we visit upon another player today may well be returned to us 100 fold the next jump we take and today's enemy may be tomorrow's friend. This is what leads to mutual respect and "gf" instead of trash talk, (most criticism of bad fitting etc. is not done in local). In short this community is about the best you could expect out of human beings who are honest about who and what they are, which is far better than most would give it credit for.

This game and this community by and large may be misunderstood by outsiders but they will never know what it's like to participate in a game that provides an experience that can be enjoyed on so many levels, even simply sitting in high sec and watching the rest of us as we play out the spectacle has more value than the narrative in any MMO I've ever played. Anyone who lets the horror stories of those who didn't make it scare them off will never understand what they have denied themselves.

Can't wait to see the results of another 10 years.

-Val.

I would rather have fewer people in a fun EVE than a shitton of people in a ****** EVE.

Eve is a really tough game and it was designed so we could all ruin each others day. No amount of in game aggression or griefing could ever drive me away.

The forums however are another thing, and too many bitter vets post aggressively against noobs who are simply putting over their point of view.

The forums need more policing than the game.