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To become a capsuleer (an alternate NPE proposal)

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Author
Memphis Baas
#41 - 2016-05-26 22:52:59 UTC  |  Edited by: Memphis Baas
I don't know of any MMO out there that starts the players on a separate server. True, there are newbie zones that may be separate from the rest of the zones, and even have one-way gates so no one can get back in, but everybody starts on the server where they're going to play.

And, create your character twice? Once on the test server, then again on the main server?

This is a sandbox MMO, and I agree with Jenn aSide that people want to be entertained; very few of us want to entertain others, and maybe we can keep ourselves entertained for a month or so, solo, but after that, it's boring.

The problem is that CCP wants us players to "provide the content" but they expect to be the only ones collecting all the pay that this content generates. Being CEO / Director and trying to organize stuff is HARD; it's a job. Unpaid job. So the whole game becomes about as efficient and successful as any activity that relies on volunteers to keep volunteering.

I don't see any benefits to being a content provider. I don't see any extra rewards being awarded to the participants in the massive battles that have attracted so many new players, or to the alliances that recruit newbies and toss them into the null wars, or to the people who take time to instruct newbies here or in-game.

My proposal is that CCP create an internal team that can review wars and other player actions and can reward players that generate "good content." Or, even better, forget about doing it manually with a team, and automate the process:

Reward corps/alliances that recruit newbies.
Reward corps/alliances that keep new players for more than 3 months.
Reward both sides of any battle that results in TIDI, or that you, CCP, are publicizing the hell out of.
Reward well-written wiki and guide sites, for as long as they're online and updated.
Set up the underlying game mechanics for a mentor program of some sort and reward the mentor(s).

Basically, pay the content creators. Somehow.
Indahmawar Fazmarai
#42 - 2016-05-27 06:48:33 UTC
Memphis Baas wrote:
I don't know of any MMO out there that starts the players on a separate server. True, there are newbie zones that may be separate from the rest of the zones, and even have one-way gates so no one can get back in, but everybody starts on the server where they're going to play.

And, create your character twice? Once on the test server, then again on the main server?


First the fast, no you won't create your character twice. You will not have a character until you enter TQ, before that you just have a placeholder with no name nor identity. You create your character when you become a capsuleer and join TQ.

As for "no MMO starts in a separate server", that's pointless to EVE. No MMO haves a single shard persistent universe with lasting consequences to everything. EVE is a unique game and IMO its complexity and unforgiveness is costing players to CCP during the early phase where a player knows nothing, not even what he likes.

You don't need Tranquility to teach players to warp, fit a module, start a industry job or set a buy order. You don't need your freshmen to worry about being scammed or cheated or misleaded when they just want to learn to fly their ship and shoot some stuff...
ISD Buldath
#43 - 2016-05-27 06:56:18 UTC
The Sooner I can get to the Newbros, the better.

~ISD Buldath

Instructor King of the Forums! Knight of the General Discussion

Support, Training and Resources Division

Interstellar Services Department

I do not respond to EVE-Mails regarding forum moderation.

Indahmawar Fazmarai
#44 - 2016-05-27 06:58:37 UTC
Pandora Carrollon wrote:
Indahmawar Fazmarai wrote:
Since EVE is a sandbox, what is the "right" way to play it? The NPE can't and shouldn't answer that. And then in order to learn that you shall not double tank nor mix weapon sizes nor this or that, a player doesn't requires to be in Tranquility.


Sorry, I wasn't implying there was a 'right' way to play, only that there are bunch of 'wrong' ways to play and I had to stumble through a lot of those wrong ways. Oddly, sometimes this concept is very true and it usually applies to life. Not really a 'right' way to live it but there are a bunch of wrong ways to try to live it! LOL!

Indahmawar Fazmarai wrote:
IMO what is wrong with Tranquility as a training ground is that it punishes being a new player. Some people will be afraid to interact because they know that they don't know and that EVE is unforgiving on ignorance. How can they tell a scammer from a sincere helping hand? How can they tell that someone in Help Channel is an idiot or gives good advice? How can they know when they are still learning the bare essentials?

They need to be detached from Tranquility's unforgiveness until they are confident on knowing the essentials. Maybe until they figure what the sandbox is about for them.

EVE NPE moved from "have a ship, go figure what to do" to "have a ship, press buttons and get bacon, then forget about it" to "have a ship, maybe you should try this and that, then press buttons to get bacon". But after all, a player still starts by making a irrevocable random decission (race, gender, name) and then is tossed into a chat with 2,000 strangers giving a random mix of ignorance, good advice and terrible advice.

Plus, to many new players, all that happens in a foreign language they may not command well and in a format that doesn't allows to print again/copy/paste to Google Translate. (Tutorial videos are absolutely the worst offenders in this aspect).


PS: on the language thing, I'd bet that the strongest correlation between player personal information and retention is for "do they speak English in his country?"


This is why I'm all for rookie systems that have even tighter restrictions than what they do now. Like I said in other threads, making a 1.1 Security space system that only lets frigates or smaller in and the markets there are pretty much restricted to newbie items. Maybe a Citadel from "Mentor Corporation" which players can join if they want to help newbies. You zip in with your capsule, get a rookie ship and then fleet up with newbies that want help. You show them the ropes. Your login hours as a mentor are added up and maybe you get ISK, or SP's or something you can either use with that toon or transfer to another. Your job wouldn't be to help them play the game your way, it would be to teach them how to use the game to find out how to play their way.

I do like the 'pre-capusleer' storyline idea but I'm not certain it needs to be on its own server as that sets a precedent that EVE feels like it's been trying to fight its whole life, but that's just an opinion from a perspective, so it's not worth much.

I feel we have been talking about a great 'possible' NPE -BUT- I'm not sure what effect it will actually have on retention. As I stated before, I think it's really about the player type unless you're willing to un-do just about everything about the game and super simplify it. At that point you really have an MMO version of Master of Orion.


Well, the point behind this proposal is that CCP Ghost is briliantly wrong and the whole idea of using NPCs to drive a narrative and entice players is gonna misfire because EVE is not a game about NPCs. God knows I wish NPCs where a thing in EVE, but they aren't.

Yet the idea of using a story to entice players during the phase when they know nothing and must figure on their own whether they want to keep playing the game, is a good idea. I just suggest going to a different story and making it a safer experience by remvoing the unnecessary, anti-teaching hazards that Tranquility means to new players.

There is no point to have people afraid to ask, misled if they ask or punished if they didn't learned yet an essential. "EVE is a jerk" is not a valuable lesson when you just want to figure whether you want to spend the next 2,000 hours and 1,000 $ building a career in EVE.
Indahmawar Fazmarai
#45 - 2016-05-27 07:02:14 UTC
ISD Buldath wrote:
The Sooner I can get to the Newbros, the better.


On the "tutorial server" it would be ISD and GM's responsability to inform the players. Should be easier than with the Help channel (specially if general chat was split in different threads to limit the volume of messages in each thread)
Benny Ohu
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#46 - 2016-05-27 08:50:20 UTC
Indahmawar Fazmarai wrote:
But NPC empires are grossly irrelevant in EVE, and such narrative will lead players into finding that their tutorial experience is bullshit.

bullseye

i don't like sticking new players on a different shard, though. love the isd but they're not always well informed, there's not many of them, they're not always around and tranquility has more potential to offer newbies interaction with vets, which is the most important thing
Indahmawar Fazmarai
#47 - 2016-05-27 11:29:46 UTC
Benny Ohu wrote:
Indahmawar Fazmarai wrote:
But NPC empires are grossly irrelevant in EVE, and such narrative will lead players into finding that their tutorial experience is bullshit.

bullseye

i don't like sticking new players on a different shard, though. love the isd but they're not always well informed, there's not many of them, they're not always around and tranquility has more potential to offer newbies interaction with vets, which is the most important thing


Yes, the separate shard is a controversial point, but I think the benefits would overcome the potential costs. I mean, the tutorial part could even be completely offline, although having access to CCP teaching would be a valuable asset of a online server. Obviosuly veterans are an asset too, but maybe it's a bit of overkill to have a veteran answering the essentials on "how do I fit a module" or "what gun I need to put in my Ibis". Even as CCP haves an habit of saving costs by handing over stuff to unpaid volunteers, enticing new players is a key action to a game which, according to CCP, easily appeals to 2 million people each year and then loses them equaly easy... so easy that the first million go away without staying for not even two hours.

Having dedicated and stress-free tutorial services as a "gateway drug" haves a great potential IMO. The reward of becoming a capsuleer and "meet the big boys" in Tranquility would have a value in itself. And by being detached from TQ, a player not running the tutorial would not be missing anything like SP or ISK, only his own knowledge on the game.

All in all, veteran or don't, now there is a real opportunity cost to not running through the NPE with each fresh alt. In my system, rewards would be associated to creating the capsuleer after running the Tutorial or after bypassing the Tutorial.
Memphis Baas
#48 - 2016-05-27 11:41:30 UTC
The easy access to ISD to answer questions and hold newbies' hands will not be representative of what the EVE game is like on TQ. You're proposing to have CCP train newbies, and basically train them to direct their questions to CCP. Then they get thrown on TQ, and instead of sensible posting in Newbie Q/A or even GD, they'll just make countless "CCP PLZ READ" posts.

It also requires work on CCP's part, because you're asking for a non-automated newbie experience. Basically, teachers - classroom. Completely disregarding EVE University and other similar newbie-training programs, and also completely disregarding various corp/alliance officers and recruiters who are quite willing to put in the work to train any recruits they get.

The game is complex from the beginning, but explaining the skill system and how to properly fit a ship takes a couple hours, whereas showing the newbies some PVP so they can learn, and get a feel for what the game is about, can take months.

It's up to us to train the newbies.
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