Assembly Hall

I'm really disappointed by how this game treats information regarding gameplay. You are supposed to know almost everything via outside tutorials, external wikis, and fan pages. They are useful and fine resources, but I find both unacceptable on the part of the developers to lazily leave the "learning the game" part to, for all intents and purposes, third party volunteers (the fans who make these sites); and also ineffective for the total newbie that tries the game without knowing any friends or external sites.

I had this impression since long ago, but today I finally decided to post this after trying to follow the Factional Warfare path on my own. The amount of stuff you must figure out for yourself is even greater than for industry, planetary interaction, or general PvP.

I don't know why information can be presented as follows:

"This is a Caldari State facility. Capture it by clearing all the opposing ships in it (if any) to help capture the system for your faction.

• Only Tech I Frigates can enter this complex.
• You must remain closer than 20km to capture the facility for your faction.
• Microwarpdrives work normally inside this deadspace pocket.
• You will not be able to warp from inside the complex to any point also inside.
• If you are fighting for the Caldari, don't attack the NPC ships, as they will help you.
• Be careful, enemy capsuleers may enter the complex and fight you over it.
• Allied capsuleers can help you capture the complex faster."

Simple, clear, and visually understandable.

This is just an example. I know for a fact that the "newbie unfriendliness" of this game costs CCP and the community thousands of good players that never get past the trial period or the first subscription due to sheer frustration due to incidents like this one. The shameful, useless tutorial process must be also overhauled: Forget the confusing "wall of text" and introduce explanatory pictures and bullet point type of sentences.

To CSM representatives that read this, please, raise this issue. It's more important than it seems. I'm sure we've lost tens of thousands of players due to this through the years.

TL;DR: CCP needs to make gameplay information much more accessible to the learning player, both revising the approach it follows for the tutorials, and putting much more effort in the "info" windows (among other things).

I stand corrected; edited the original post to eliminate the invalid example. However, that doesn't invalidate the main point of my post: a problem with how information is presented in this game.

I know I'm in the wrong place to be a newbie. That is what I'm trying to change.

I don't know any other game that can't be learn either doing the tutorials, or reading the manual. Here the tutorials are a mess, just a collection of poor, too simple missions, that don't really teach you anything. And there is no manual either.

A game should be about enjoying it, not about researching how to play it and about gameplay facts that sometimes seem hidden on purpose.

Exactly what I mean. Although this character is new, I'm a veteran of the game. Only after going through the new player process again after so many years, with as much knowledge as I have now about the game, I realize how difficult it is for a truly new player; how much information he is missing due to a shameful tutorial and how hard it is to learn the game without constantly doing something wrong and learning from fatal mistakes (and that's assuming you ever get to know exactly what happened, which again, you don't).

In the current state, it is very easy for a new player to just leave due to sheer frustration after a couple of losses where you don't know anything about what's going on or how you were supposed to do things properly.

This game needs a serious overhaul of tutorials to provide more meaningful information, in a more readable and clear way, and forcing you to practice these concepts with properly designed scenarios, not the current lazy implementation (NPC surrendering because he was webbed, without actually seeing what a webber does? Why warp-disrupt an NPC that will not leave the area anyway?). Allow the missions to be failed and repeated until the player executes them correctly. Explain with graphs and pictures complex matters like tracking, probing, electronic warfare...

I find it hard to explain why CCP has put so little effort trough the years in a critical part of the game such as this one. Only God knows how many players have we lost due to a poor tutorial, very limited localization, and the general "obscurity" of the game, but I personally know a few of them, people I know for a fact they would enjoy the game if they had made through the initial stages and the language barrier (in my case, spanish).

Exactly this.

There is simply too much information in this game to digest in an hour (or two) long tutorial. And it is always changing in terms of how people use that information.

That is why I tend to warn newbies that EVE is a "process game." You learn FAR MORE by doing things and failing than just reading.
Is it frustrating? Yes.
Do player learn from the experience? Absolutely. Because humans have this interesting trait where we retain information better through negative reinforcement.
Does this discourage players? Sometimes. Then again... EVE kinda caters to the type of players who lose and want to stop losing***.



***think back to your childhood. Remember that friend who you played ____ game against and he/she always lost? Then a few weeks later you meet for a rematch and he/she utterly CRUSHES you... repeatedly. All because he/she has spent that time figuring out what rules are and testing things against other players.
That's an EVE player in a nutshell.

I was there in 2006. And you're right.

But the fact that things were "terrible" then doesn't mean that we must give thanks now that they are just "bad" . It only shows the low priority CCP has always assigned to this, and that it remains an unfinished issue after many, many years.

I am new and did not find the game too hard, because I asked 200 million questions in the help channel and grouped with some good people. I think the learning curve is okay just from the tutorial and in game help is very effective.

The player base is both the best and worst I have ever seen in humanity in a game.

Some things I don't like, but newbie help is not one of them. The players have been so generous to me without me even asking. I am really in love with the play base in general.

There are some things I specifically do and do not like.

I like:

1. PVPers with a sense of fair play and who test my limits. Without a fleet, all I can do is run right now but it is alot of fun evading these guys. Skirmishes in my empire space is fun too.
2. The help channels, nothing like this exists in either WoW or FFXIV the two mmos I play off and on. I have asked a billion questions in rookie help and help and about 90% of the time I am assisted quickly and accurately. Amazing. This made me subscribe.
3. The roleplaying community. It's just plain fun. Everyone has such a great character and I can't believe how on point everyone is in Intergalactic Summit. Characters are deep, funny and entertaining, and best of all, lots of diversity!
4. Faction warfare vets - they are clearly very invested in the game but ive been invited into a few fleets even though I am complete newbie and not in their corp. You can tell it is a whole game unto itself that you can get lost in.
5. Mini games. PI, mining, RP, Exploration - there's so much to do! If I am writing my book I can just mine on the side or do PI, or if I need an adrenaline rush I can quickly find PVP a few jumps away with factional warfare.
6. Missions. They are fun and entertaining, and I've found way more exciting if you do them in null sec. I am now officially addicted to Serpentis and Militia missions into enemy territory.
7. The spaceships galore! I drool over them! Even the rookie ships are gorgeous!

I do not like:

1. The attitude of some players, who just want to ruin the fun of others. Ie, people who hate miners for no in character reason, people who are just plain racist or hateful bags of cat poop. People in the game and on the forums especially like to make fun of people with Aspergers, Jews, Suicidal people, **** victims people who have any kind of emotion at all, and let's not forget, the ever present Homophobia sponsored by repressed homosexuals in denial. Posts sit up for 3-5 years with complete garbage like this in them. I have never seen this level of teenage angst in one game forum.

2. Bad weird suspicious nepotism. Stuff in Eve should stay in Eve. The whole idea of CCP being in bed with a player corp is a little too creepy for me. It reminds me of, oh two games I used to play that were totally ruined by coke snorting GM's getting cozy with players who were promoted for no reason other than sleeping with the people in control. You should never make decisions which affect both an entire game world which is also your job based on your genitals or access to coca.

TO be fair, I see that a major restructuring went down recently and even though their is an atrocious past record, seems like CCP knows this is a bad thing for business. But then again I wouldn't be surprised tomorrow to learn that ISIS is secretly using EVE to plan attacks, thats how bad this whole thing looks to a totally newbie like me. Im not saying thats how it is, its just how it looks in the news and player opinions - ive been through hundreds of posts outlining legitimate concerns that are poopoo'd in the typical kneejerk seasoned troll player pattern. It looks desperate and it looks like nepotism to me.

I did come across this:


"If you suspect any CCP employees of favoritism you should report the incident to CCP's Internal Affairs team via internalaffairs@ccpgames.com.

As a result of last year's company reorganization Internal Affairs is part of the Security team lead by Darius JOHNSON (aka CCP Sreegs) which will ensure that your complaints are investigated in a most neutral & objective manner."


Now I am not saying I feel targeted by it or that it will ever be a concern for me. But it does stink like fish.