Ten Ton Hammer:
You’ve also mentioned in your logs that a lot of the
Revelations 2 enhancements are based off of players’
requests, things that the players have wanted for quite some time. How
do you decide which requests to do? I mean, there are a lot of
development teams that go strictly off the numbers they see after
they’ve processed in-game statistics. Why do you guys do it
differently?
style="font-weight: bold;">Magnus:
We’re just strange people here in Iceland. *laughs*
We’ve always participated with the community. We really want
this to be their world and not our world.
That
said, we’ve added A LOT of content in the last two
expansions, and we felt like this would be the proper time to refine
some of these features. There are a lot of these instances in
Revelations 2 where we are making improvements or refinements on
existing material than simply adding more and more content.
There’s
already so much content in EVE, and I think we’re making the
right choice when it comes to refining rather than adding. There were a
lot of features that the players really wanted, and we set our minds to
it and really banged it all out.
Revelations 2 features a large number of player
requested changes.
Most
of the requests come through our forums, and we all actively read that
material. Players might not realize it, but reading the forums is like
a religion here at CCP. Most of us do it every day.
Ten Ton Hammer:
You do have a very active and very sincere forum community. While there
are still trolls, flames, and all the other evil that can spawn on
forums, in general your community is very courteous and is remarkable
well-spoken. How did you develop such a great official forum community?
style="font-weight: bold;">Magnus: To start, we
definitely respect all our users. After that, our users tend to be from
an older generation, which makes it easier for us to associate with
their personalities. It’s easy to be around them at fan
events and to grasp what they’re trying to tell us.
Our
game was originally made up of very hardcore users and I think that
really helped develop our community in the beginning, because they
worked very closely with us. They helped create an atmosphere that
helped withstand our growth.
Finally,
we never felt that we were a corporation trying to sell a game. CCP was
just a company that wanted to create a game that they wanted to play
with the gamers.
Ten Ton Hammer:
Before we finish up Magnus, is there anything else you’d like
people to know about Revelations 2?
style="font-weight: bold;">Magnus: People
should also know that we’re including many additions for
corporations and alliances going into Revelations 2, mostly concerning
management.
We’re
also expanding the concept of exploration, which has become an
extremely popular way to make money in EVE. We’re going to
expand that concept significantly, specifically for the solar explorers
and those who want to go explore on their own…
Ten Ton Hammer:
Sorry to interrupt, Magnus, but could you clarify what exploration
means to people who might not know the details of the game? It
doesn’t mean just piloting your ship off into space does it?
style="font-weight: bold;">Magnus: No, no,
no…that’s a good question though. Explorers are
searching for specific objects within the game, mainly with various
probes that they send out. They’re looking for certain things
within the system. If they find something in the system,
they’ll look for a particular type of site that
they’re looking for, and that might lead them to an excellent
source of income.
By changing the new player experience, Magnus hopes
that more players will be drawn to EVE.
Ten Ton Hammer:
Now that we’ve gotten that cleared up, is there anything else
you’d like to share?
style="font-weight: bold;">Magnus:
We’re still working on the new player experience in EVE.
It’s definitely something that we’re constantly
working on, trying to make it easier for players to grasp the game.
Ten Ton Hammer:
Do you know what those changes are?
style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">Magnus
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">: Well, we’re
trying to make them fun! That’s something we’re
still trying to crack. There’s also going to be added
protection and safety for the new player, to keep them from being
harassed by other gamers. We’re also looking at adding video
tutorials.
Ten Ton Hammer:
Just sitting back and watching a video while you’re traveling
would be very nice.
style="font-weight: bold;">Magnus: Exactly.
Ten Ton Hammer: I think we’ve covered almost
everything, Magnus. Thanks again for your time, and I hope we can chat
again at some of the upcoming conventions.
style="font-weight: bold;">Magnus: Definitely,
it’s always a pleasure.
unofficial source for EVE href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/43/all">news
and features!
Want to read more interviews like this onw? Check out our I href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/20">nterviews
section!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EVE Online Game Page.
