EVE New Citizens Q&A

if i am not going to take the person under my care and teach him to have fun my way.
I explain that there are a lot of toys and games in the sandbox that is EVE.
I explain that there is no way they can possible know what toys or games suits them best without checking them out.
But what ever they do they will need to have a way to get isk.
And PVP is one of the sandbox games that generally is not profitable and self-sufficient.
And mining is the fall-back way to make isk to cover PVP costs for many.
Trading is an option but manufacturing generally is not until later when you have more skill points and understanding of the market.
Doing combat missions can be profitable and does teach somethings and are good but falls way short of truly preparing you for EVE PVP.
Always be paranoid.
You may think that everyone is out to get you, and you will be right about 90% of the time.
This is a ruthless game.
Some play just because they can take unfair advantage of others.

Again, guys, it's important to not be dismissive about people that don't like things we like.

Most of the people that are bored with the lack of exterior direction in Eve aren't people that don't "get it". It's not that bloody complicated, they get it. They just don't like it, and prefer to spend their leisure time doing something with a clearly-defined goal. And that's entirely fair, Eve is really only a "game" by virtue of its design pedigree, if it were anything but a simulation-based activity on a computer it'd probably be more frequently called a "hobby", like painting or hanging out at the bar or joining the SCA.

It needs to be stressed that just because we like Eve, and it's not really a game as such, there is nothing wrong with people also liking things that actually are games, with defined goals and such. There's really nothing innately intellectually superior about faffing about in an imaginary space ship over faffing about with a pickup basketball game, or a MOBA where you're trying to destroy the other guy's base, or Scrabble.

This is important because talking down other people's hobbies makes you a pretentious ****, and "don't be a ****", pretentious or otherwise, is like rule #1 of surviving in Eve.

Actually, I think it's safe to say that it takes quite a while to get it.
I started a few years ago, played through all the tutorials, and was left horribly lost at the end of it. I got bored and quit.

Came back a few months ago after thinking about it a lot recently, got a better idea of what I wanted to do and dove in. I still feel lost occasionally.

One thing I wish they would do, is follow up on that quiz they have on the front page. Like a longer term career agent. Pick a career you want some help advancing, and get hints on how to achieve it.
I didn't even know PI was a thing until a week or two ago. I remember being annoyed when the quiz kept telling me that I should be something like a planetary exploiter (can't remember what they called it), but as far as I knew, there wasn't anyway to do that,

I think a longer path for people that need it would be good. A few missions for those that want to be fighty that force PvP confrontation, with losing being an acceptable outcome, followed by some missions that show the security and crimewatch mechanics would help immensely with the learning curve, as well as break that first barreir for a lot of people.
Miners could be walked through the different types of ore, refining waste, the risks of lowsec, ice, gas, jetcanning, Orca support, etc. I'm thinking much longer term missions than the tutorials, with days before they are due.


I guess ultimately, I think the game would benefit from a bit of a ramp between the end of tutorials and the deep end, not with mechanics, but in ways to achieve goals, or even in what types of goals are achievable.

Thanks for the replies all. Many good thoughts/ideas bounced around.

In the end though, it does seem all we can do is show them the idea of the sandbox and hope understand and like it. Some people like a theme park, some like a playground, there are many ways to have fun.

First thing to explain is the diference between a sandbox mmo-rpg and a themepark mmo-rpg.

That's really the keypoint.

You're right. This should be the closing statement of the last tutorial.

After the tutorials, people sent me to the Sisters of EVE arc, and I enjoyed that a lot. After I finished that though, that is when I felt lost. I have joined a corp, so I know what is in store for me down the road (PvP etc). But right now I don't feel there is too much to do to be honest.

I think the best thing CCP could do, is to add more epic arcs in after sisters of eve, and just give you arcs, that you can do for a month or so till you start figuring things out by yourself.

I would have to disagree with this, it sounds good on paper, but all it does is postpones the inevitable. More Missions just leads the player further down the thought process of a theme park mmo. If all a player does is mission arc after mission arc, they really aren't learning about other aspects of eve. Perhaps they just need to do a better job explaining how to search for a mission agent that best suites the individual players needs, do they want to do mining missions, distribution, or security. That way if they want to continue with missions, they will know how to proceed.

Just off the top of my head, perhaps an advanced tutorial to guide a player to where they want to go based on a series of questions, much like the one on the website, but it helps guide them in game, want to PVP, guide them to their faction office and lowsec for example.

I agree, but to new players, Mining or Missioning is where most of them go after the tutorials. Missioning has its purposes, and building standings is always a good idea for a lot of aspects in eve. I still think rather than send the new player in a specific direction, they should once again have the new player take the "career" poll they have on the website, and then after they find which might be best for them, explain all about it and let the player decide if they want to go that route or try another route. But of course, it difficult for me to approach this as a new player, I myself have over 3 years of experience in eve. I try to remain open minded, but it's easy to take little things for granted.

Point the new player at St Mio's "What to do in EVE Online" chart. Exploration is a decent way to start the game, along with Faction Warfare.