Assembly Hall

Can't like this enough. +1

Evelopedia was probably not around when you were first starting, but it is an excellent resource these days. I wish I had access to it when I started 4+ years ago.

The New Player Experience category includes topics such as:
The Agent Finder
Can Flipping
Career Agents
Rookie Lowsec Survival Guide
Piracy Guide
Fitting Ships
Akita T's Golden Rules
Joining a Corporation

And a lot more. And that's just in the NPE category. The Guide category has 191 pages in it right now. The Evelopedia has TONS of great information in it, and additional references to outside materials as well.

We only need to point new players to it.

QFT! The devs need to concentrate on finding ways to expand the "Sandbox" to keep the curious and new players. "Don't fly what you can't afford to lose." isn't a very good recruiting mantra. Fostering the attitude of mocking other groups of players makes this MMO seem to be the haven of cyber bullies and douchebags.

Attitudes and snarkery aside, there's a lot of great points being made here on both sides of the issue; that being, as I understand it, how do we increase enrolment while protecting the uniqueness of the game and its structure as we know it (or most of it as everyone has their own perception of how it could be made better).

This game definitely isn't for everyone, and neither is any other game out there. The one thing no one can change is each of our personal differences, preferences and tolerances. We all like different things. We all come from different backgrounds, have different life experiences, education and environments we live in. How can one form of entertainment be expected to satisfy everyone? It can't.

As some have pointed out; those who've been around a long time, especially; this game has changed over the years and new players have more training available to them than now than ever before. Still, EVE is a complex and multileveled universe. The cartoon 'learning curve' graph isn't totally off the mark. While EVE certainly has its flaws; each opinion to their own; it is still evolving and will continue to do so to both the admiration and condemnation of all those players/citizens who agree/disagree with those changes. Sounds like most societies I've visited.

You will never get away from the fact that some people simply prefer the immediate satisfaction and adrenaline offered by super-intense, single point shooters or their favourite sports like basketball and hockey while others like, ahem, simulated golf. About the only thing that drives me nuts is the sounds form thousands of one-armed bandits and the bleary-eyed zombies slouched in front of them, going through their pre-programmed onerous motions of plug-and-pull. I know, sounds a lot like mining...but it's not! And I digress...

There's one thing that is pretty much universal though. Everyone likes a good story. Some read them, some watch them on TV or at the movies and some even create their own. While there are many who simply like to log on for PVP fights and/or ganking, EVE is really about each citizen creating their own story and for a newbie, that can be a terrifying prospect; if they even realize it - one does need to get over the initial spaceships and lasers cool factor. Again, not for everyone.

It's also been pointed out that there are many who don't quite get it; who finish the tutorials and then sit floating wondering what to do next? How to do it? Where to do it? Come to think of it, sounds like my first date way back...

I, myself, am one of those who are self starters. I don't need, never have needed, any help from anyone. First thing I did after finishing my tutorials was to pick a fight with a BS; me still in my Ibis! Station guns intervened but I was sure I could've taken him. Lol, all things start from dreams, don't they?

I can understand several of the newbie complaints, though. One of those being about the missions. The missions in EVE have only one real purpose; to gradually develop/pigeon-hole your faction affiliation while providing you with a meagre means of increasing your wealth and experience. Perhaps a little too vague a goal for someone just starting out to grasp the significance of what those even mean, never mind their consequences as you blindly step up the ladder whilst trying to avoid all those ever-present snake pits and gankers..."Why is everyone shooting me?"

Some of those missions are simply silly and were obviously created by bored staff who probably had a quota to fill each day.
If only the missions had more substance, like a story to follow; no, not one story, many stories! Like those old Baldur's Gate games, or, for older folks, even those old role-playing books where choices you made changed the story you encountered. These storied missions would give newbies something tangible to aim for, figure out, even get them learning how more technical or diverse options work within EVE so that, eventually, they are ready to start creating their own story; no longer timid, wide-eyed newbs, but confident,well, more confident, adventurers.

We all have to remember, while EVE is a universe as expansive and sporadically developing as it is, with lots of options and opportunities for even the crustiest old guard to take advantage of, without new blood coming in, EVE will eventually stagnate itself, and, sadly, cease to exist. The game and the business model, both, must reinvigorate itself continuously for the benefit of us all. And if that means making changes to help induct new Pilots, Im all for it.

Cheers!

That link is broken. Now I will never know how to play.

Giving corporations a reason to hire nubs is probably a reasonable goal. How do you define newbies and how would it work though?

Perhaps something that the 0.0 people don't realize is that for a lot of players factional warfare is kind of their tutorial. A lot of these corporations exist with surprisingly in-depth training programs for PvP environments. Now, each factional warfare group is going to run things differently than a nulsec corp, but fleshing out the experience in high-sec and steering more players towards these factional warfare groups is actually something that would help players ease into the game over a period of months or years. Now some of them may never leave it, granted, but they aren't hurting the game either. To this end, I think anything that hurts factional warfare is, in fact, bad for the long-term well-being of the game.

Pirate corporations and gate campers give the low-sec an often deservedly poor reputation. You can't just throw a person into the most brutal PvP environment on the internet, just like you can't expect to give someone a website that teaches them how to swim, give them 2 minutes of video instruction, and then drop into the middle of the Atlantic. Going from high-sec to low-sec in a few months is something only a few people are willing or able to do, and frankly few low-sec corps care to help with either.

I have recently started playing again and must say, using my google-fu to find answers is very difficult!!!!

I can always find a full page of helpful links but it breaks down like this:

50% - Out of date postings about mechanics / calculations that have changed.
35% - Thread with title of what I want followed but 15 pages of off-topic conversation.
09% - Broken links or spam pages.
05% - People asking the same question as me with no answers.
01% - Helpful links with some merit and up to date information.

While I consider myself fairly adept at finding information online I sometimes have to go through dozens of pages before finding the tidbit I am looking for.

Example: Look up the amount of Titanium refined from Spodumain. 95% of resources will say 700 per 250 batch. In reality it is 3190!! My friend and I went out and purchased enough from the market to do a batch and confirm! This was changed in a previous expansion but most people never updated their websites. ( Even Cerlestes and Grismar show it incorrectly )

This is EvE's own site, link below, with a chart showing Tri/Spod at 700 but if I click on the link for Spodumain itself, it shows 3190!

** Link function not working** http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Advanced_mining

This kind of mis-information is very problematic for new players that are trying to find their own way, if one mineral is wrong on a chart of dozens, what about the rest of the chart? is it all different?

I kinda sidetracked myself, sorry.

TL;DR version

Too many links with out of date information out there.
CCP Should look into a way to keep their own website up to date -or- require that information be clearly labeled with game version!
Searchable patch notes would help too.

mentor insignia?

I sit on enough channels that i dont really have time to pay attention to noob help, its pretty chaotic in there, but i dont mind people convo'ing me as i fly around. however, i dont take time to go find noobs in need of help because there are so many of them, and they dont ever know who to ask.
ISD have their own requirements taht im really not intrested in , but id still like to help noobs,

possibly a tag (free for anyone who wants one) but then with a rating system available to characters under 30 days old? thats a jacket id wear