EVE New Citizens Q&A

from http://poeticstanziel.blogspot.ca/2012/11/protecting-our-newbies.html

So, as players, do we have any responsibility to EVE Online's newbies?

As someone who came to EVE Online late, April 2011, I have an occasional worry about EVE dying. Especially when the ***** level from veterans gets particularly high.

(Even from me, although I cannot see myself leaving EVE unless CCP does something monumentally stupid, like turning highsec into a nearly PvP-free zone. I feel more confident that CCP will not do that, much more confident than I did a couple months ago. I have the Ministry of Love to thank for restoring my faith that, while highsec has become somewhat safer this last year, the balance hasn't significantly tipped toward carebear gameplay.)

A game that's been around for as long as EVE Online, it's a major outlier compared to every other MMO. There have been MMOs that have been around longer, though their playerbases are but pale shadows of what they once were. That EVE has continued to grow for as long as it has, that's a complete anomaly in the industry. Currently EVE seems to have reached a plateau. EVE seems to be teetering at this moment in time. It's playerbase could very well start to shrink. That's what worries me. I'd like to be playing this game for ten years from now.

It seems the only way forward, to grow the game once again, is to attract new players to the fold. EVE is always going to have the slow bleed of veteran players, so we need new players to replace them, plus some.

EVE is such a harsh and unforgiving game, that it doesn't take much to totally turn off a new player. It doesn't take much for them to click UNINSTALL. And I think that's because most new players are used to being coddled by game mechanics. They aren't used to a community that often prides itself on eating its young.

I feel that if new players are given the opportunity to explore the game, to gradually get accustomed to the community, the harsh realities of New Eden, that they'll come to respect how this game is played, that they'll respect that a game that doesn't coddle its players is the more rewarding game experience, that they'll come to respect the actual strength of the community. But this realization is not instant, not in a game like EVE, not in a sandbox, it takes time to shift players from their old expectations and habits.

So, from that I wonder, do we, or should we, as a playerbase, be trying much harder to help our newbies, accept and integrate them into our community, be less critical of their mistakes and assumptions and prejudices? To teach them what EVE Online has to offer as a gaming experience? Should we spend less time feeding on our young, and more time raising them?

There are, of course, excellent examples all over the place of people helping newbros. Giving them ships. Giving them ISK. But there are as many examples of new players that leave the game because they've been treated like complete ****, nothing more than easy marks and tear processors. Certainly, some of those stories, of new players going off the deep end when attacked or scammed, are hilarious, but is it healthy for the game if those stories were more prevalent? Some of those players weren't going to cut it, no matter what, but some may have, had they had a more gentle hand guiding them, rather than a knife to the gut. Someone to give them a pole and instruction on how to use it, rather than just a basket of fish.

Now, before anybody starts screaming. The last group of people that this post is directed at is CCP. This is a player issue. Not a CCP issue. I do not want, would rail against any, mechanic changes that would make it easier for newbies. Players can play how they want. If someone wants to spend their game time trying to scam and/or kill newbies, make their game lives miserable, then so be it. This is a sandbox. I wouldn't dream of telling those people to stop being assholes to new players. Part of the appeal of EVE is the assholery that happens.

So, this is not an issue where CCP needs to step in with game mechanics as a solution. This is purely a sandbox issue, one that is entirely in the hands of the players. Assholery happens. When it's directed at new players, I'd hope it's the exception, not the rule. And I'm pretty sure that is the case.

I know many of us give out fish, often. I've done it. Just the other day I killed a dude, and after looking at the killmail realized that a) he was flying a really inexpensive meta-module fit, and b) his character was eight days old. Fear that this guy might get fed up being killed all the time (and he was getting popped frequently), that he might give up on EVE, I sent him a nice evemail and 25M ISK, and a couple suggestions on where to go for some PvP and general EVE training (Fweddit, of course, was one of those suggestions.) I know Sindel has her angel project, where she gives out free ships to newbros. I know Fweddit itself pitched in and helped replace a Loki after relieving a relatively new player of their's. These stories are everywhere, but all of this is just handing out fish.

What about giving out the rod so that they can catch their own fish?

There is EVE University. But I've always thought that they mostly churn out the wrong type of player. They teach mechanics and such, for sure, but when it comes to teaching players how to approach the game, that's where EVE University mostly fails. They don't teach the value of conflict, but how to avoid conflict. We need fewer players with a sense of entitlement about their playstyle and their stuff.

(cont'd)

Maybe CCP should set it so using "Uninstall" also removes the boot.ini


OT: I agree with a lot of the points on this, we seem to use newbies as a way to pad kill boards and show off rather than encourage them to get into different parts of EvE, help them with what THEY want to do rather than what WE want them to do.


I don't agree that we should give them free stuff though, giving a new player say, 100m isn't a good thing as they'll waste it on things they don't necessarily understand and when they move on, run out of isk, they won't be ready for the grind it takes to get back up there and possible do the "OMG ITZ 2 HARDZ 2 GET IKS /ragequit".

Nope.. they can take responsibility for themselves. Let's face it, most new players are used to easy instant gratification activities in general and don't like having to actually use their head for more than a hat holder. You can't patch stupid.

Because except of ganking newbies and hisec dwellers there is nothing else to shoot at, right?

Get real, without hisec Eve would be just that: game without high security area. Hisec lovers would go away and Eve most probably would move to a real niche of hardcore pvp but who said Eve has to be mainstream? Beside, in chess there is no hisec and game is in top 3 best strategic games of all times since few thousands of years.

That being said, newbies need love and kind advice to grow up and contribute to Eve universe. But they have to show they care and listen to advice and help offered. Anybody from "I ask but f*ck you I wanna fly my titan NAOW" deserves no more than heavy trolololo and arrow pointing to WoW.

LOL. Touche'
but I was thinking more of the game economy than the target practice they provide.

Well, economy is going up in conditions of relative peace. Let's say that only hisec right now is able to provide enough manufacture and trade power for all Eve because CONCORD is watching over most of indy movements and stations don't prohibit anybody from docking and do their trade/manu/whatever. Of course taking that out would have to be compensated by either all manu moved to NPCs (lame) or tools for players to establish enough "peace" for prosperity (great if executed in smart way - whatever that means).

Which btw has nothing to do with newbies as they are not able to do much even on indy side of Eve, they lack skills, money and most important part experience and know-how. Do you honestly think that if CCP would freeze new subs now all economy would just stop instantly?

Yeah I would certainly say don't just give them stuff because we all know what happens to those spoiled kids when they finally get into the real world(plus nobody likes those spoiled kids). But as a new player I would have liked some kind of short segregation where noobs were by themselves in some sort of noob space where they would deal with each other and pvp with one another but only for like two or three Weeks then kick then out in the real world. Also would have made it easier if the corp finder had a bit more detail and information on corps and not just what the corp puts in themselves (because nobody lies on the internet). But all in all seems fine, I am doing not so bad.

It seems you need to be careful in eve online.

This is a really good post and coming from a pretty hardcore gamer of 10+ years, I agree completely... I have seen games die because of lack of new players.

In saying all this however, as a player that isn't too old myself and that remembers being very new, the biggest things holding me back were....

- Rookie Channel was a great help, but it was so packed that if you asked a question is was often missed as the screen scrolled. Could there be multiple rookie channels for different facets of the game?

- Finding a good corp was good, although it's hard to find how active a corp is. I had to go through a few corps to get into one I felt comfortable with.

Coming across a veteran willing to take you under your wing is an awesome start. found one by chance and she gave me some ISK to get my going, bought me a new ship and taught me some mining tricks.