EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

Galactic Green Eggs and Ham

The number one complaint I’ve heard about EVE over the years is that the game is simply too hard for casual players to learn. The second would be that the pace of combat early on is simply too slow, or that more direction should be given for players unfamiliar with EVE’s various career paths. Somewhere in between you’ll also hear a lot of people say, “Dude! It would be so flippin’ cool if CCP made another game and called it ADAM! They could set it in Old Eden and it would totally rock!” But that inevitably leads to bad “BoB-ing for apples” jokes, so we’ll just ignore that for now. (OK, I promise that’s my last awful pun… for now!)

Character creation is just one area seeing a complete revamp in EVE.

The point here is, for the release of the Apocrypha expansion, EVE’s developers have very wisely addressed one of the game’s largest roadblocks for new players by completely revamping the new player experience. By lowering the barrier for entry, EVE will likely see a much higher retention rate of trial accounts becoming paid subscribers. By adding in epic mission arcs starting in the tutorial phase, this will also give players a better sense of direction straight out of flight school, whereas now you tend to be left to your own devices a bit too early on considering all there is to learn in the game.

Hopefully this is just the start of much grander plans for EVE to be more welcoming to new players. The battle-hardened vets that make up the bulk of EVE’s established community may disagree, but I think the game will only continue to thrive so long as the developers continue to focus on appealing to a wider range of potential players. A good example here would be the Walking in Stations project, which to some old-timers may seem like a wasted effort since they’ve happily existed in EVE for years without the need to obsess over which belt matches their hair better. But for more casual gamers the idea of adding in a purely social element is just what the doctor ordered. Moving forward, I think striking a balance between staying true to long time players while also attracting a broader spectrum of new subscribers will be the key to EVE dodging STO’s magic IP bullet.

I firmly believe that developing content to attract new players is just as important as pumping out an endless stream of high-end challenges for an established player base if an MMO hopes to survive in an aggressively expanding market. If I look at Game X as it stands today and think it looks cool but not quite cool enough to purchase, why would I purchase it tomorrow when an expansion is released boasting, “More high-end raids! Faction grind until you’re blind! Endless Doodles of POW for hardcore Zippers! Oh, and for low level players we’ve added an awesome cardboard box that just kind of sits there on your shelf.”    

EVE Online's Special Edition retail release is a great way to welcome new players.

Allocating resources to strike that balance is a challenge all MMO developers face, one made all the more difficult when you have the hungry mouths of existing players always wanting new content to chew on. But at the end of the day MMOs are a business, and for any business to thrive against the competition it needs to diversify at an entry level. Lumping all of your virtual eggs into a giant raid basket won’t help you achieve that goal, which makes New MMO 2009 that much more appealing to gamers by comparison.

With the impressive list of improvements being made at the entry level of New Eden, EVE’s developers clearly understand this as well. That’s why this is exactly the right time for a retail release, as it capitalizes on offering something new and improved for the curious, and gives EVE the opportunity to sink its space hooks into a broader audience well ahead of STO’s launch.

Captain’s Arena Log: Stardate 3020.9

By now I’ve surely gotten your fingers itching to tell me I’m either: a) Nuts, b) Secretly a robot spy sent from the future, or c) A terrible sports announcer, but you have some of your own thoughts to share on how EVE will stay ahead of STO (or you may not think it will at all!). So let your fingers do the walking across your keyboard right here on our forums and immortalize your words in virtual text! Or if you prefer, I’m always happy to deny point B (even if I can’t provide any proof) if you send a virtual carrier pigeon (that’s my extremely non-robotic way of saying email) to my inbox!

Until next time dear readers, this is Captain Sardu signing off!