Jita Park Speakers Corner

More noobs please

Contrast that article with the agile development creed of “release early, release often.”

Some people are really going to let the “reset to green safety on logout” thing stick in their craw, while forgetting that it eliminates the need to navigate the ESC menu to clear the “don't bug me” option when they redone with pirating and are flying their mission running alt. It makes me laugh to see people suggesting that the “Safety” mechanism is dumbing down the game when it will actually make life easier for social engineers and foot-shooters.

The new inventory is coming along quite well: usability tweaks can only be discovered when people use it. Releasing the Unified Inventory in parallel with the old version is a nice idea, obviously coming from someone who works with the luxury of time and money supporting their eCommerce site where they can do A/B testing: in which instance the users do not have the choice of using A or B. unified inventory was not just a new UI, it reached into the inventory handling code: there was no option to use the new UI alongside the old UI because the existence of the new inventory system meant the old one had to die. If only the experts out there in the blogosphere would read what CCP devs write, the world would be a better place.

I agree with the idea of eliminating “expansions” altogether. Too many people have come to think of “expansions” as being new continents to explore, new daily missions to grind, new level cap to race to, new race to play, and more shinies to grind for in the end game. It is funny though: the “end game” for me is the part where the game ends.

Perhaps EVE marketing could be focussed on stories? Here is that battle recorder you folks have been begging for, for years. Publish some awesome fight videos and tell us the back story! More stuff like R&K Clarion Call!

Hello, I'm a noob. And also a massive care bear, staunchly refusing to do any PvP in any game...

So, if you'd be going by the reputation of EVE by now I should be huddled in a corner, silently weeping, crushed in spirit by all the scammers, gankers and scary pirates. But what's actually happening is I'm running level 2 missions feeling like a total badass, well on the way to my first battlecruiser and generally having the time of my life.

I think if your aim is to get more peasants like me into the game so they can be put to the sword, the best way to do so is to counteract EVE's reputation by producing and then relentlessly promoting a well put together 20-30 minute video explaining how you can be 99% safe in the game as long as you don't do dumb things like fly a ship you can't afford to lose or loot from yellow cans and wrecks.

Why 20-30 minutes long? Because the objective after 10 years should no longer be to make interested parties aware that the game exists, believe me they all know. The objective is to clear away their misconceptions, and provide them with detailed, factual information so they can then decide for themselves if they want to make the major, life-altering decision to try yet another MMO.

Here's a brief kind of summary for the video I imagined:
1. Frigates are fun and dirt cheap, the money for them pretty much grows on trees, you get like 5 for free by the time you finish your tutorials. And they enable you to enjoy a big-big chunk of the game.
2. No one can force you to do PvP if you don't want to, missions are a grand old time and good money.
3. A brief introduction to High Sec and Concord, can flipping, aggression mechanics and the safety system.
4. How to be smart: don't fly anything you can't afford to lose, avoiding scams.
5. How EVE differs from other MMOs: the best character creator in existence; no leveling grinds; no classes, just ships you can switch to in an instant; an introduction to the sandbox; a thousand different ways to play the game, make money and get ahead
6. Further research: link to Seamus Donohue's 'How to Survive EVE Online' and 'Blood-Stained Stars' video walkthroughs.

The last item is especially important, the popularity and huge sway of YouTube 'Let's Play'-ers proves that there's no better marketing for a game then watching someone good actually play it while providing commentary. AND the two EVE University series are also a truly brilliant resource you can follow along to as a new player, for me they've converted the 'Brick Wall' of learning EVE into a gentle and fun-to-follow upwards path.

Seriously, it's 2012, by now everyone knows that MMOs are a major time investment, so they'll want to do a fair bit of research before committing to trying it. I've done mine through google, reading whatever random forum posts the search gods decided to throw at me, but the experience could be so much better by providing actually usable, detailed information on eveonline.com. So if I were in charge of EVE's marketing team, I'd erect a 'New Player Resources' section on eveonline.com on day 1, putting Seamus's videos front and center right from the get go.

So that's my two cents, what say you?

I was pretty discouraged by the fact that of the topics discussed in this thread not a single sentence had made it into the minutes.

I'd love to still play this game in 20 years, but that definitely won't happen if you guys only put your efforts in player retention and massaging the numbers.

To drive home my earlier point about the importance of let's play-ers in marketing games in 2013, here's some numbers on the more popular ones:

Hutch
http://www.youtube.com/user/shaun0728
600,000 subscribers, 100,000 avg. video views, 95,000,000 total views

Totalbiscuit
http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalHalibut
900,000 subscribers, 150,000 avg. video views, 335,000,000 total views

Paul Soares Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/user/paulsoaresjr/
500,000 subscribers, 95,000 avg. video views, 190,000,000 total views

Dodger
http://www.youtube.com/user/presshearttocontinue
275,000 subscribers, 50,000 avg. video views, 21,000,000 total views

Games that blew up in a big way thanks to the YouTube LP community embracing them: Minecraft, Magicka, Terraria, Slender, The Hidden, Trouble in Terrorist Town, DayZ, Fallout 3, Dishonored

Reaching out to and collaborating with any one of these guys would give you well produced, detailed and sensible content alongside a huge publicity spike, for basically spare change.