Kim Dested
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
6
   |
Posted - 2013.02.01 17:04:00 -
[1] - Quote
Here's my $0.02. There are such heated opinions on game mechanics because players HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO.
IMO, EVE is failing at at least four things:
1) Storytelling. It's fine to be a sandbox, but your game can't ONLY be a sandbox where you are depending on players alone to create the story. Let's take Incursions for example. What seemed like a "sound all horns, the enemy is at the gates!" part of the game now just seems like yet another endless grind. So the Sansha are invading ... how many people in EVE could tell you which side is winning? Or if there is an "endgame"? Or why they should care.
EVE needs to do better to create story-arcs, and things that will pit players against an unknown entity vs. each other. Kind of like my kids - you tell them to turn off the TV, or don't give them things to do, they will start beating each other up. EVERYBODY is unhappy. You come up with a cool activity for both to be busy with, or just separate them, where they each do their own thing, and again, EVERYBODY is happy.
2) Providing enough people with the feeling that they're the hero. I'm no psychologist, but I imagine that few people like to engage in an activity where they feel like they are the victim, or can be at any moment. That's just masochism. We play games to feel like winners, to feel like we matter, and to build up to better things, bigger things, and to be able to do more with them. Instead, we get an environment where the losses can be (and usually are) permanent, massive, senseless, and inescapable (ganked ships by bored players, getting podded and PERMANENTLY losing SP's that you can't easily replace). Too many things here are designed to grind you down, not lift you up.
3) Banding people together. For an MMO, where the whole point is to play with other people, mechanics of betrayal, theft, bullying, and griefing are not just allowed, they are actually promoted. I've come to a conclusion that I can't trust anybody in the game with a single ISK. Ever. So the mechanisms that allow corps, alliances, etc, are just a moot point to me. I really may as well be playing X3 when it comes out for all the interacting with others I do.
4) Guiding its users' behavior. Really, there are too many a-holes in this game who toss around words like carebears and tears. Who write litanies with no purpose other than to make a person feel worse. In game chat, in these forums, whatever. Who enjoy other people's distress. How many new users do you think you're going to get when the only reponses to new folks losing their favorite new toy are "suck it up," "you've learned your lesson," and "are those tears? are you crying?". Yeah, that's inviting. |
Kim Dested
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
6
|
Posted - 2013.02.01 17:48:00 -
[2] - Quote
Jenn aSide -
so let me recap your answers:
1) You're not an EVE player. Leave.
2) I'm obviously an EVE player and some people (hint: you) aren't. Leave the game.
3) You are the problem. You are describing a reaction different than the one you're supposed to have? Leave.
4) You obviously don't know what EVE is, and it's not for you. Leave already.
If I was trying to write a mock response to show an example of people's hostility, I couldn't have done a better job. Wow.
Never mind trying to discuss changes to the game rationally. When even the motivations for people's gameplay styles cannot be expressed without hostility and mockery, there's no hope for anything beyond that. |