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Why EvE subscription is low (A newbro perspective)

Author
Trixie Lawless
State War Academy
Caldari State
#121 - 2014-09-25 21:25:46 UTC  |  Edited by: Trixie Lawless
Priscilla Project wrote:
Moth Eisig wrote:
Hmm, that looks exactly like something I never said.
True.
Mallak ... you're really not helping.

He might be clueless ...
... probably wants to stay clueless ...
... but your comments aren't actually better than his either.


Neither are yours actually. I didn't read anywhere that he wanted to stay clueless.

I'm still a new player and the best advice I can give is do lots of research on your own. Read about minimizing risk and safe flying techniques for low and null sec. Bookmark bookmark bookmark with a good naming convention. Unscrew up your overview. Don't ever fly with implants if you are doing pvp with a young character. Never get pissed at getting podded. Try to fly in fleets as much as possible and soak in everything your FC says. Ignore the bittervets who only troll forums... And blow up anyone and everyone you think you can (outside of hi sec of course...unless you want to be a ganker).

Stand your ground. A lot of these older players feel that the game is only meant to be played one way, their way. So give them the big middle finger if they decide to be asshats and ride your ass. Do what makes you happy as long as it isn't whining on the forums.

And most importantly (IMO) remember that it's a PvP game....but not necessarily a one on one PvP game. Outnumber your opponent and dust him when you can. Be like a rabid pack of poodles.
Mallak Azaria
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#122 - 2014-09-25 22:06:12 UTC
Moth Eisig wrote:
The point is that there is no downside to making new characters more capable on their own to take off the edge of the first couple frustrating months. How that can best be accomplished is up to discussion, but the issue is all the people who won't even have that discussion and try to bully people out of it whenever it comes up. Eve is an ecosystem. In the real world, creatures at the bottom of the food chain don't have a choice about it. But since gamers do get to choose their experiences, for Eve's ecosystem to stay healthy it needs to work to attract new players to be the plankton instead of driving them away.


You're not forced in to a limited set of activities available you know. Sure, you're not going to be running that 180b profit per month reaction farm right away, but you're not exactly limited to mining, mission running & low level exploring either. You can actually compete with a limited skillset.

This post was lovingly crafted by a member of the Goonwaffe Posting Cabal, proud member of the popular gay hookup site somethingawful.com, Spelling Bee, Grammar Gestapo & #1 Official Gevlon Goblin Fanclub member.

Kaarous Aldurald
Black Hydra Consortium.
#123 - 2014-09-25 22:14:48 UTC  |  Edited by: Kaarous Aldurald
embrel wrote:
Kaarous Aldurald wrote:
You know, most of the people who are replying to you climbed over this obstacle. More than a few of us are damned proud to have done so. (for my part the difficulty is the only reason I subbed in the first place)

So what you really have to answer is:

"Everyone else climbed over the wall, but I don't think I should have to because..."

Because why?


Nice argument. Should have been used at the discovery of antibiotics too.


LOL. Because being alive and playing a videogame can in any way be equated.


Quote:

However, I am not sure whether there are enough around that climb these walls nowadays. At least active player numbers didn't look growing as of late.


PCU does not equal subs, and that's a common enough fallacy that no one here should be fool enough to use it.

Nevermind that, demonstrably and historically, lowering the bar helps no one. Especially if it comes at the cost of the core values of the game, which is really what this is all about, not the nebulous "NPE" people keep crying about.

[edit: Let me elaborate on that last point. EVE, like any other game, has it's core values. That makes it what it is. Some people don't like one or two of those, and would like to claim that subscriptions would rise if only those things were done away with. This is pretty much always a lie, and typically is accompanied by fear mongering and trying to claim that the game will die if the specific thing that they want isn't catered to.

"Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws."

One of ours, ten of theirs.

Best Meltdown Ever.

Kaarous Aldurald
Black Hydra Consortium.
#124 - 2014-09-25 22:19:12 UTC
Moth Eisig wrote:
The point is that there is no downside to making new characters more capable on their own to take off the edge of the first couple frustrating months.


Speaking a suicide ganker and a relatively prolific awoxer, I would be all for giving new players more skillpoints. That just increases the damage I can do, since with a shorter training time I can cycle awox alts faster.

"Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws."

One of ours, ten of theirs.

Best Meltdown Ever.

Beta Maoye
#125 - 2014-09-25 22:49:10 UTC  |  Edited by: Beta Maoye
Hanz Hrible wrote:
So I've been in the game for about a month and I have made several observations on the game from a completely fresh set of eyes on the game..

A new player wanting to explore, trade, or mine is highsec is completely free to do so- But beware joining a player corp- because you'll likely get war dec'd by a corp such as the Marmite Collective and you'll be shut down financially unless your corp pays them for surrender. So be prepared to hire a freight company to move your stuff for you.

A new player may join a powerful nullsec alliance and have Sov space to play in- But don't go exploring, because you'll be locked down by a warp disruption bubble by a player that has a 20million SP on you and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

A new player is free to make isk through faction warfare- But that new player likely won't have the DPS for the faction spawns on the complexes- and again, if another player shows up, don't expect a fair fight, because that player will not be a fellow newbro and the fight will be anything but balanced.

I really enjoy how deep and immersive the game is, with so many options- I do, but the way this game seems to be played is "hide in the shadows until you think you can sucker punch a newbro, and run away if anything else shows up"

I don't fly ships I can't afford, I'm not quitting the game, and I don't have isk problems- I'm having fun doing what I do, but it just seems like I'm limited to running with fleets in nullsec since I have no way to defend myself from rudes that have been playing the game for years and enjoy picking on people who've barely started.

I believed what you said is your true feelings about the game.

New players wanted to be cared. Verteran players also wanted to be cared, although some may sound harsh and cold to new players. Most are not against you. They just don't want CCP to make the game too easy. They want a hard and challenging game so that achievements in the game are meaningful and fun. They also don't want any damage to the status and knowledge they have spent years to acquire in the game. EVE is more than 10 years old. Many players have been playing the game for a long period of time. Imagine that you were a verteran player who have spent years to acquire in-game skills and learnt the rope to survive the game. You will expect you should have some advantages over new comers. You don't want a one month old new player on par with you. This is human nature. If CCP change the rule so that new players can fight and defend as effective as a verteran player, it will be most verteran players that will leave the game. CCP just cannot afford to get unstable new players at the expense of old loyal customers.

What CCP is trying to do now is to make the game easy to begin with but take a long time to master any one aspect of the game. It is part of their business model, so do not expect they will change it. New players cannot compete with verterans in term of skill-points in a short period of time, but it is possible to get same level of game knowledge by doing research on the web and asking right persons in the game. So be competitive in knowledge first.

As others have pointed out, if most new players find their life is too difficult within the first few months, more is needed to be done to improve the new player experience. Afterall, we want CCP to get new players to replace unsubs as a sustainable business so that they can keep developing EVE for our enjoyment.
J'Poll
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#126 - 2014-09-25 23:00:23 UTC
Lucas Kell wrote:
Jenn aSide wrote:
Right, And no one is saying that. But at a certain point, a person has to have at least SOME thinking abilities to play EVE, and some will to overcome challenges. I will never understand the folks like Lucas who seem to WANT to play with legions of gamers who can't be bother to figure out something as simple as EVE
I think you've misread something at some point as you seem to have no clue what I think about the game. Primarily, I don't think we should cater to "the legions", but we've pretty much reached the limit of what we will have with the current status quo. Now if CCP were happy with that, it would be fine, nothing needs to change, but they aren't, and they made it clear they'd like to work on new player retention. Whichever way you beat it, something needs to change for that to happen.

J'Poll wrote:
No, it means they target a very specific type of gamer, not the dime in a dozen type of gamer.

Which is exactly what CCP is doing, they don't want to be "WoW-in-space". They want to supply a game to a "special" type of gamer, one that doesn't mind using his brain, isn't afraid of some hard challenges and above all doesn't mind doing "1 step forward, 2 steps back" occasionally.
And that;s fine, but the current experience isn't just chucking away gamers that refuse to use their brains. People that could very well become great EVE players are being lost because they don't stumbling into a conversation with any of the 1% that can give them guidance, and the system itself is utterly useless in providing them information. You can't expect everyone to just inherently know how to play EVE.

J'Poll wrote:
Fun part, when I started there was hardly any tutorial to speak off.

I had NO trouble getting into the game..why?

Because whenever I start a new game, I start it with a clear mindset of not comparing it with other games.
That's they issue with a bunch of people, they try EVE (usually after it makes the news on some website or it comes on sale on steam) and expect it to be like "Game X". When it doesn't, they quit and blame EVE for not being correct.
Well done you. I'm sure you stating that will really help in retaining many new players.
See this is the problem. People are happy to chirp on about how they did it, but that doesn't resolve the actual issue that new player retention is crap.

J'Poll wrote:
About the tutorial, you do know there is an entire tutorial mission that focuses on fleet warfare?
I wasn't, so either it's new or it's carefully disguised as a "shoot red crosses" tutorial. I'll endeavor to rerun them ans take a gander.



To my quote reply:

When you get to Dagan in the SoE arc, read the mission.

It clearly states that Dagan can be too powerful for you and suggest that you should team up with someone to take him out.

Issus here though is that with half a decent build amd some tactics, you can solo him. So they should make Dagan "impossible" to solo and make it more obvious that you should team up with others.

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Crumplecorn
Eve Cluster Explorations
#127 - 2014-09-25 23:24:09 UTC
Moth Eisig wrote:
The point is that there is no downside to making new characters more capable on their own to take off the edge of the first couple frustrating months.
Well things were a lot harder for new players when I started and I was in lowsec within a month and in 0.0 essentially solo within 2 months.

Exactly how much easier should it be?

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Xuixien
Solar Winds Security Solutions
#128 - 2014-09-25 23:57:21 UTC
Prince Kobol wrote:
Xuixien wrote:
Prince Kobol wrote:
Xuixien wrote:
eve has a higher wash out rate than special forces yet continues to grow. it had a few hiccups recently, but most of the lost subs were part of the "boomers" we saw an influx of around 2011ish.


Continues to grow.. you sure about that one?


yes, after controlling for the boomer population, im sure eve is stll growing.


So let me get this straight, what you are saying is that after load of people join Eve but have now left, it is growing..

Also proof please because unless CCP have recently announced subs none of us know either way


if you ignore the boomers, yes, eve is growing and i see no reason to think otherwise.

Epic Space Cat, Horsegirl, Philanthropist

Xuixien
Solar Winds Security Solutions
#129 - 2014-09-26 00:07:02 UTC
Prince Kobol wrote:
Lucas Kell wrote:
J'Poll wrote:
If you know where to looks
Newbies don't know where to look. They are newbies. Most EVE players have no interest in telling newbies where to look, only in laughing at them because they did it wrong, asking for their stuff when they leave, and trolling them for the same.

The old "if you can't use your brain you can't play eve snarf snarf" stuff that get's spouted all the time is complete nonsense. At some point you have to look at the system and ask yourself if it's really working well enough. If so many people have trouble gaining traction in EVE, it seems to me the likely problem is EVE, not the players.


I don't often agree with Lucas but he does have a point.

Eve is probably one of the most complex MMO's on the market.. heck ever released, of course new players to the game are going to find life difficult when first starting out.

Like Lucas has said, if so many people who try Eve find life difficult to begin with then perhaps the problem is with Eve.

Also it doesn't help that the vast majority of HS corps are run by people who are clueless. I am not having a go at High Sec, just that any idiot can create a corp and then spew utter garbage which really doesn't help with new player retention as I suspect most new players first player corp will be based in High sec.


i disagree with the premise that its a "problem" that eve is complex and difficult to gain traction in. ccp has said they have no issue with the game weeding out their unintended audience. a person crying about bubbles and saying this is a reason nobody plays eve.... unintended audience.

Epic Space Cat, Horsegirl, Philanthropist

ZAKURELL0 LINDA
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#130 - 2014-09-26 01:37:23 UTC
as a newbro, in any given game, u need to kill slime for days before u r able to take on something with a name....... don't even think of dragon slain alone...... this of coz applies to EVE, but multiplying the difficulty with the famous learning cliff (not even a curve lol)

and remember to run away from the trolls...... as always......

RIP Iron Lady

Cpt Lift-Leg Ahab
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#131 - 2014-09-26 02:17:44 UTC
Priscilla Project wrote:
Really makes me wonder how I managed to play this game with skipping the tutorials completely ...
... oh no wait, I did the first one and decided that it's a bullshit way starting the game.

And I wonder how everyone else who deliberately went solo managed to learn how to play it.

Fact of the matter is that there are people who drop out for a reason ...
... and blaming the NPE for it only makes limited sense ...
... simply because obviously there are enough smart enough people around who didn't drop out.

One has to ask himself what the reason is that some people aren't capable enough.

Learning EVE involves effort.
If people aren't cut for it ... they leave.

Of course we need new players ... but at what cost?

If they can't handle it ... what does it tell about them?

Do we really want these kind of people?

I certainly don't think so.

And I doubt that the OP really is a new player anyway.

i skipped the tutorial as well, but i have a off and on relationship with EVE. i enjoy playing but i get bored real fast. Fortunately i have a good RL friend that keeps me playing,
UnknownEnemyCombatant
#132 - 2014-09-26 05:15:30 UTC
well, i just started the game about a week ago. i have been killed by players 100 times my sp. ohh well thats pvp. if you put yourself into positions like this expect the worst. on the other hand i have been involved in almost 2b worth of kills in a single day. my 5 frigs losses were well worth it and will do again.

i see loads of people crying about this or that. tbh get over it or move on. this goes for new and especially old players. eve is real.
Cipher Jones
The Thomas Edwards Taco Tuesday All Stars
#133 - 2014-09-26 05:45:49 UTC
Kousaka Otsu Shigure wrote:
Sorry but a month into the game will give you a really superficial insight of what eve is. So your OP is kinda not fair for the rest of us.

Try to give it at least a year.


Your statement reinforces the OPs thesis rather well, as it highly unlikely that someone will try an mmo for a year to see if they like it.

internet spaceships

are serious business sir.

and don't forget it

Prince Kobol
#134 - 2014-09-26 07:29:33 UTC
Xuixien wrote:
Prince Kobol wrote:
Xuixien wrote:
Prince Kobol wrote:
Xuixien wrote:
eve has a higher wash out rate than special forces yet continues to grow. it had a few hiccups recently, but most of the lost subs were part of the "boomers" we saw an influx of around 2011ish.


Continues to grow.. you sure about that one?


yes, after controlling for the boomer population, im sure eve is stll growing.


So let me get this straight, what you are saying is that after load of people join Eve but have now left, it is growing..

Also proof please because unless CCP have recently announced subs none of us know either way


if you ignore the boomers, yes, eve is growing and i see no reason to think otherwise.



Ignore all those people who joined and have left?

The only people who know for sure whether Eve is growing and losing subs is CCP.


The only thing we do know is that since CCP made the announcement 19 months ago that they hit 500,000 subscribers back in Feb 2013 (that included Dust 514 and Serenity) CCP have stop giving out Subscription numbers, something they gave out in every QEN report.

So why the big secret?
Gully Alex Foyle
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#135 - 2014-09-26 07:33:27 UTC
OP, while the points you raise are more or less true, I honestly fail to see why a new EVE player should have any sort of problem because of them. Let me be specific:

Hanz Hrible wrote:
A new player wanting to explore, trade, or mine is highsec is completely free to do so- But beware joining a player corp- because you'll likely get war dec'd
If your corp can't ensure your safety, just drop it and find another one; in the meanwhile you can explore, trade, mine, mission in highsec as much as you want, with very slim chances of anyone ganking you. So where's the problem?

Hanz Hrible wrote:
But don't go exploring, because you'll be locked down by a warp disruption bubble
Nullsec can be dangerous. Until you learn how to safely navigate bubbles, just stay out of it. By the way, SP makes no difference in bubble evasion (except being able to fly inties, but inties aren't good explo ships). So where's the problem?

Hanz Hrible wrote:
A new player is free to make isk through faction warfare- But that new player likely won't have the DPS for the faction spawns on the complexes- and again, if another player shows up, don't expect a fair fight, because that player will not be a fellow newbro and the fight will be anything but balanced.
Lowsec can be dangerous. Again, until you learn how to survive, just stay out of it. Again, SP makes no difference in staying alive in lowsec. As others have said, you can make decent ISK (LP) with zero effort with an unfitted frigate if you defensive-plex. Regarding PVP, yes it's not easy (especially solo) but again, the difference is player knowledge, skill and experience. SP matters very little (go check my killboard for Sept. 2013 if you want - I was 1 month 'old' and managed to kill - and die - a total of over 200 times). So where's the problem?

Maybe the problem is your expectations? Maybe you want to be 'the invincible superhero' right from day one?

If that's the case, you're better off in any one of the 'themepark' games.

EVE at its core is a competitive game. That means that skill, knowledge, experience (and - to an extent - SP) actually matter.

If a month-old newbro could easily 'win' over 5-year old vets that have put passion, time, thought and effort in the game, there would be no point in playing more than a month, would there?

Make space glamorous! Is EVE dying or not? Ask the EVE-O Death-o-meter!

Lucas Kell
Solitude Trading
S.N.O.T.
#136 - 2014-09-26 07:45:15 UTC
Jenn aSide wrote:
The bolded part is an assumption with no supporting evidence. a million folks could discover EVE tomorrow and be all like "wow, if I'd know, i'd have started 12 years ago"!
The proof is plain to see. Every year CCP announces the increase in subs in a celebration. But that's suddenly stopped coinciding with a steady drop in the ACU. And yes, of course new players will join, but if the rate at which new players join does not exceed the rate at which players quit, the number of subs will go down. If nothing gets changed, you can't expect that to just suddenly stop happening.

Jenn aSide wrote:
And yea, CCP said they want to work on player retention. That are a for profit company. That has zero to do with us (customers). When you post you aren't talking about what CCP wants, you are talking about what YOU want.
I want EVE to continue to grow. I have certain ways I think that could be made to happen, one of which is giving more knowledge to newer players earlier on how to become part of the game.

J'Poll wrote:
When you get to Dagan in the SoE arc, read the mission.

It clearly states that Dagan can be too powerful for you and suggest that you should team up with someone to take him out.

Issus here though is that with half a decent build amd some tactics, you can solo him. So they should make Dagan "impossible" to solo and make it more obvious that you should team up with others.
I wouldn't consider the SoE epic part of the tutorial. It's an incredibly long and dull series of missions that newbies get pointed at sometimes, but it's not really a tutorial. And saying "get friends" isn't really an introduction to fleet warfare. Then when a newbie does ask for help, usually a vet in the system fleets up, warps over, blaps Dagan to pieces and leaves fleet. All that teaches you is that vets in bigger ships are more powerful.

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Xuixien
Solar Winds Security Solutions
#137 - 2014-09-26 08:49:05 UTC
Prince Kobol wrote:



Ignore all those people who joined and have left?

The only people who know for sure whether Eve is growing and losing subs is CCP.


The only thing we do know is that since CCP made the announcement 19 months ago that they hit 500,000 subscribers back in Feb 2013 (that included Dust 514 and Serenity) CCP have stop giving out Subscription numbers, something they gave out in every QEN report.

So why the big secret?


Yes, the large number of new players who joined *not all of whom have left*. The influx was well above eves baseline growth rate, so you could calll it an artificial inflation, a bubble, a boom and bust or w/e. All eve did was crash a bit from a it of rapid growth but i doubt the baseline wasnt affected much.

Also, the qen stopped before 2013 i believe and the tinfoily "eve is dying, theyre masking sub numbers" surface. Then the 500k figure... And now back to tinfoil.

People always say eve is losing subs.... Meanwhile eve is 11 years old and is the only mmo that experienced 10 consecutive years of growth...

So no i am not inclined to believe narratives of a hemhorraging sub count. Worst case scenario we lost some boomers and a couple of vets.... Worst case is still not a very big deal

I typed this whole **** on a phone

Epic Space Cat, Horsegirl, Philanthropist

Tivook
Imperial Academy
Amarr Empire
#138 - 2014-09-26 09:08:25 UTC
I'd say it's because of the hardcore players getting their voices heard a bit too much, people quit because EVE is too hardcore.

By now we could have had a functioning Incarna in place which in my opinion would have opened up EVE to alot of players who prefer to have avatar based interaction.

In the beginning hardcore fans were useful but now they only bring drama and butthurt feelings if CCP aren't creating the game THEY want to see, which is a very conservative, outdated game.

It's sad to say but hardcore players are destructive and EVE would be happy to see them gone.
Subscribers pay for EVE, not those salty basement dwellers that play 18 hours a day.

EVE needs to evolve and if the hardcore fans disagree again like they did with Incarna they can go back to playing runescape 18 hours a day and bury themselves alive with pizza boxes in their moms' basements.

Next time CCP decides to do something innovative, let the customers vote. Not everyone reads the forums, a matter of fact, many dont.

Spawn a window when you log on that allows you to vote. Should we do this or that? I'm pretty sure the casual majority of EVE's players would have loved to see Incarna happen.
Xuixien
Solar Winds Security Solutions
#139 - 2014-09-26 09:14:50 UTC
Tivook wrote:
I'd say it's because of the hardcore players getting their voices heard a bit too much, people quit because EVE is too hardcore.

By now we could have had a functioning Incarna in place which in my opinion would have opened up EVE to alot of players who prefer to have avatar based interaction.

In the beginning hardcore fans were useful but now they only bring drama and butthurt feelings if CCP aren't creating the game THEY want to see, which is a very conservative, outdated game.

It's sad to say but hardcore players are destructive and EVE would be happy to see them gone.
Subscribers pay for EVE, not those salty basement dwellers that play 18 hours a day.

EVE needs to evolve and if the hardcore fans disagree again like they did with Incarna they can go back to playing runescape 18 hours a day and bury themselves alive with pizza boxes in their moms' basements.

Next time CCP decides to do something innovative, let the customers vote. Not everyone reads the forums, a matter of fact, many dont.

Spawn a window when you log on that allows you to vote. Should we do this or that? I'm pretty sure the casual majority of EVE's players would have loved to see Incarna happen.


Have I read this garbage before somewhere? Its like smelling the same bad fart twice.

Epic Space Cat, Horsegirl, Philanthropist

Six Beavers
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#140 - 2014-09-26 09:33:12 UTC
Subs are low because CCP has decided to turn Eve into Hello Kitty Online. If you aren't a good kitty you get perma-banned or nerfed, while the good kitties get more highsec burner missions and nerfs to ganking and bans to legit players.

Eve can't compete with wow/hello kitty on the carebear side and they are losing subs from the hardcore playerbase because nobody wants to play blue donut lovefest in a game about conflict and scamming.