EVE General Discussion

If staying in hisec and away from PvP provided as many tools and mechanics to generate your own content as PvP does, EVE would be in the millions of subscribers.

Rather than hope that 1 in a thousand noobs "gets it" on his own (assuming this thread is not a troll), CCP would be smart to ensure that whatever noobs got on their own, it was a right thing to do.

I have NEVER based anywhere except high sec. I do not PvP, join player corps, mine in low sec or null sec, or buy plex (on a scholarship budget). I do not 'multi-box' or 'afk mine'.

I mine in high sec, build what I can, buy what I want.

Now, with just over a year of playing EvE, I have over 100 ships and 4 billion isk. These assets are now on a new toon building skills for use.

I know other players have more ships/isk, but I am satisfied with my success so far and don't plan to change. I even sent Miko 500 million isk for that excellent OP.

My whole point is staying is high sec and mining CAN work if you're patient. I got my patience from being a Over-The-Road trucker for 19 years. That patience is not very common. If CCP wants to retain new players, they need to realize new player need some idea they can actually succeed without having to join a player corp.

The player corps in this game abuse noobs and convince them to go to other games

Yes, of course it works... for a couple of years. Then you will have several accounts, will be running a POS or doing advanced PI stuff, will have collected several BPOs and will be chuggin along, happy to have achieved your goals. Then, one day, you will wonder what else is left to do, where does your mastery of hisec take you next.

Then EVE will backstab you and once you're on the ground, staring at the ceiling in disbelief as life and hope abandon you, she will pee in your face and shout: "PvP, a-hole! You should had been exploding ships all the time as there is nothing else left to do and I'd rather die than give you anything worth your time, effort and money... You Disgusting Useless CAREBEAR!!!"

Which translated into developer lingo, is: "now you should leave your comfort zone, meet other people and kill them to explore the other tools provided by the sandbox".

Preferably from day 1.

Preferably by making friends first at Something Awful if your goal is nullsec.

That, or buy the same Lucky Ticket as the OP...

A wonderful story!!!

And kudos to the corp that took you under their wing!

Some CCP developers should tattoo that on their foreheads...



Those are four of the reasons why 80% of players leave the game. And CCP is convinced than the solution is, rather than value those customers and check what can EVE do for them, just push those suckers harder into becoming like the 20%.

What is this obsession with pvp? I mean, I heartily congratulate the OP on embracing Eve and for having a great time, and I enjoyed reading the story.

Personally - and I don't care what the haters will say - I'd love someone to come with a noob story and say "I got myself a covops and traversed the universe in search of adventures and riches and loved it" and for the community to respond with - awesome, glad to hear it.

People keep mentioning low player rentention and suggesting it has to do with being wardecced or that they aren't properly eased into pvp.

My view - and a personal experience - is that most people come from PVE mmos and when they encounter the visually beautiful Eve they think they are going to experience the best PVE of their gaming lifetime. After completing the training missions the biggest cry you hear is ...so what now? Well go join a gank corp and blow some ships up, is the reply. Hmmm, isn't that a little soulless? A tad dull?

What would maintain new player rentention and boost numbers is PVE - lots of it, deep lore, factions actually mean something, each player faction having unique attributes....well, I've talked about this before, the list is endless. I imagine most - and I've talked to quite a few - who abandon Eve after a few days/weeks go back to PVE-centric mmos.

I love EvE - and I love the unique aspects, including the danger of being ganked and all the pvp related stuff. don't mind it at all. Just a little tired of all those who shout - now this guy "gets it". Well I get it - but pvp does not interest me. I continue playing because eve is the most intelligent and visually stunning game around - but I only keep playing with the hope that PVE will one day become a primary focus.

Thanks.

I did say, however, that I look forward to PVE becoming a primary focus. I would never want Eve to lose its pvp-focus and I'm glad there are many who enjoy this aspect of the game.

I'm just saying that PVP and its discussion seems to be the only thing many are interested in and I often feel as if it's being "shoved down my throat"- including the devs from the comments made. Also if you look at new releases they are usually centred around pvp. I believe one of the reasons for this is that pvp mechanics are cheap and easy to produce. Creating a deep and meaningful PVE experience will take time/money/dedication. But if they ever decide to take this leap many more will play.

Well, the market is full with PvE titles, whose developers can't develop them fast enough to cope with the passive consumption of such PvE content. If it takes a motnh to make a dungeon and a week to minmax it, there is no way developers can keep the pace with players.

When CCP was developing EVE, they were aware that they couldn't afford to develop the game themselves, not as they wanted it. Thus they made a game that was more of a toolbox than a ride.

This way, players would generate the content consumed by other players, and it was a briliant idea.

It has worked for 10 years in a row.

But it had an Achilles heel, one which went largely unnoticed for years as things looked pretty.

That weak spot was PvE. Players couldn't generate PvE, in no way. And EVE's PvE was abysmally bad. Yet despite that, PvE was the main reason why people played EVE, and paid CCP for it.

So as EVE grew itself a fame as the game where player generated PvP was epic, the game was actually being paid because of the terrible and universally frowned upon PvE.

Until CCP attempted to expand the gameplay, fix the old engine, sort some critical isues and many more things all at once.

Incarna flopped and CCP no longer worked on PvE. Fixing the existing game -fixing the PvP- was more pressing. Not gettign new content nor the promsie for it, PvEr stopped joining the game. CCP resold the game to existing PvPr and accounts per player rose as activity stagnated.

And now... activity is going down. PvP claim that *they* are leaving the game, but let's be real: PvErs always outnumbered PvPrs.

CCP can't just start developing PvE content so it's consumed as usual. They need PvE that is generated by the players so the large playerbase they used to enjoy can come back and play EVE their way -trusting NPCS rather than risk being victmized by players. But that will have to wait until PvP is expanded in 2015... and it is uncertain how many people will be left by then, both ingame and at CCP.

love this post, explains a lot I didn't know as a relatively new player.

Thank your for this post!
It made me feel so much younger.

It is exactly this kind of ethusiasm that makes Eve so special! Hope you will continue to have good times like this.
Most important you already learned the major point of Eve: Eve is about HOW to loose your ships and enjoy loosing it!

Fly dangerous,
Khardia