Mistress Suffering
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Posted - 2006.03.28 01:57:00 -
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It is entirely useful to think about how to make the game more inviting to new players as it moves forward. Because by doing so, we will all benefit from a more lively and lasting world.
Games that simply throttle down to a fixed group of relentless stagnant diehards are not a desirable path. We as players, shouldn't aim for it, and CCP as a moneymaking enterprise should not either.
Yes, Eve's entry path is quite deterring for many new players. I say this as someone who has watched friends, wife, and co-workers all come to take a look at a game that I enjoy.
The most common response from new players trying out Eve: It takes too much WORK to find the FUN buried within this. Sadly, I think that's frequently true. The other item that was a brutal deterrant is the fact that the lack of any sort of high end endpoint/cap, means that every character that starts before you will forever be ahead. In the purely competitive world that Eve is (because as you might have noticed, PvE Eve is painfully dull), giving an uncatchable advantage to others is a big turnoff.
As for how to solve that... I don't think just giving away skills/attributes is the way to go. I think Eve could use two items to address the above issues:
1. A professional interface designer to look at the existing UI/intro path, and make it a lot cleaner. Eve's interface is clunky. Sure, you can learn it in time, but that time costs us new players.
2. A skill system that allows people to eventually catch up with existing players. Use the server age vs character age model, where until you hit the server age you age and gain skills at +50% (or 33% or whatever). This means that eventually (and I do mean in a long eventually) it is theoretically possible to compete on an even footing with older chars. Even if someone isn't actually like to spend the 6 years it takes to do so (and CCP thanks you for trying), the simple fact that it would now be possible would make this gap no longer a deterrant. Instead, all existing advantage can be overcome.. with time and effort. And that's exactly what we should want.
There's no reason life has to be easy for new players. There's no reason they need to be take a dramatically different path than the one the rest of us, but failure to address the ever-increasing gap simply means that the longer Eve goes on, the more it kills itself. That's not useful or necessary.
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