Destination SkillQueue
Are We There Yet
6405
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Posted - 2014.05.12 16:39:00 -
[1] - Quote
I won't deny improving the PvE experience wouldn't help the game be more videly liked, but you have to keep the larger picture in mind. The nature of EVE will always mean it's not going to be the top dog. It's not casual friendly, you play a spaceship and the gameplay style in general isn't popular.
Not casual friendly:
You can play EVE casually, but it doesn't mainly cater to them and they're the large mass. They want easy access to content, to play their way without unwanted interference from others and don't like to suffer meaningful setbacks. Access to EVE content can be hard. It's not clear what is available or where you find it. Even when you do it an be likely to cause you setbacks or require long skilling to start doing.
You play as a ship:
People want to create their own unique and cool looking avatar and play with it. EVE has common looking meaningless human avatars. You play the ships. Ships with limited, inconvenient and expensive customization options. This probably isn't a huge issue with EVE players, since if it was, they wouldn't be playing in the first place. It's a bigger problem for potential customers and even existing ones exhibit strong desires toward avatar gameplay or more powerful and convenient customization tools for their avatar or ships.
Gameplay:
Spreadsheets-online, double clicking movement, poor visibility for the action offered(shooting crosses/boxes), action is slow paced and the game does the action for you(You command your ship. You don't pilot/aim/shoot/dodge). These are not all bad things, but they're not popular nor sell the game well to the masses. The gameplay offered inspires people, but they don't want to deal with the reality of making it all possible. They're like kids who saw a war movie and think how cool and exciting it's to be a soldier, but most of them would be very put off by the reality of what being a soldier is and what is involved in getting huge armies to fight each other. They just want to feel like the hero for a moment before reality intrudes upon them again.
Making a change where shooting the crosses is more challenging and rewarding isn't going to be a major shift in the game for anyone not already playing it and even some who are aren't going to value your that change, because EVE is primarily about the players and the crosses are there just to keep their wallet on the positive. Again I don't think it would be a bad thing, but I wanted to put it in perspective. It can even be seen as a negative by some, since development resources are limited and the focus of the game is not fighting NPCs. There are a lot of games that focus on that and EVE will always be the lesser choice for people who want to primarily play against NPCs. |