Devan Corvel
Intaki Liberation Front
Intaki Prosperity Initiative
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Posted - 2013.11.07 22:13:00 -
[1] - Quote
I want to preface this post with the fact the I appreciate the live events team for all their efforts. It's a huge undertaking to engage a community the size of EVE and any effort in that area is appreciated. This latest even was rather ambitious for trying to engage opposing forces of players. That said, I feel there are a number of lessons that can be learned from the execution of today's event.
In my mind the overarching goals of a live event can be broken down as follows:
- Engage players
- Tell a story
Engagement breaks down into two parts: Getting players to participate, and leaving a positive impression of the events in people's minds so they want to participate in future, regardless of the outcome of the specific event.
Today's event was very successful in engaging a large number of players (oh gawd, the TiDi!). It also seemed to further the storyline of capsuleer alienation toward the major empires, reflected by the direction highlighted in the Origins trailer, and stated goals with the upcoming Rubicon expansion.
However, the fun (unless you were one of the nullsec blocs camping the objectives and farming kills) was missing.
Overall I have to say this event was negatively perceived because large quantities of carebears and lore-friendly players were essentially pitted unprepared and unsupported against practiced and coordinated nullsec kill-farmers. Most of us arriving in the destination systems only to get locked down and podded the moment we decloaked in 8V-SJJ. Because of this, it left a very bad taste in the mouths of the players who participated on the side of the empires. In my mind that hurts both the perception of the live events and damages player engagement.
Here's how I would have done it to allow everyone to have fun, but still preserve that intent of the event:
- Give more notice (like a week) to allow people to get organized, change their schedules, etc.
- Once the event starts, spawn Empire/Concord NPCs at the rally point and gates along the high-sec route, periodically spamming local with the event details and destination
- One the main force arrives at the target system, spawn NPCs/devs to protect the main gate into the destination system, providing logistics/support for the empire-friendly capsuleers.
- Once the fighting reaches critical mass, the empire forces suddenly pull out, leaving the capsuleers to fend for themselves.
- Allow enough time in the event for the capsuleers to regroup/get organized with reinforcements. (there were a number of fleets inbound when the event was called)
By giving people more time to adjust their schedules and get organized for an event, it allows more people to participate and reduces the number of players who can't attend at the drop of a hat (the majority of EVE players are 30+ with jobs and lives).
Increasing the initial Empire involvement would have made the event feel more organic and involved. Providing support would have increased engagement, instead of just supplying the pirates an effortless stream of killmails. I don't feel engaged if I land on grid on the other side of a gate, only to be locked down and popped at the pirate's leisure having contributed nothing (but loot and a corpse). This will always happen to participants, but the vast majority of the pro-empire capsuleers just seemed to get slaughtered the same as me. Having the empire forces there to even the fight, then suddenly pull out and leave the capsuleers hanging would have added more depth to the storytelling.
Increasing the window of the event would have made it more dynamic. From watching streams after I bought it, there were several fleets of players inbound when the event was called off. This frustrated a lot of folks and eliminated any regrouping efforts.
I don't say these things because I want to be critical of the live events team. I say them because I want to see these events get better, draw more players to the game, and increase the engagement of the existing player base. What was attempted today was very ambitious and was a good idea. I'd like to see more events like this, but with variables tweaked to make it work better within the context of EVE and its player base on all sides of the high/low/null sec lines.
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