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Apocrypha
launched earlier this week, along side the new retail Special Edition
of EVE

Earlier
this year I fired up the EVE client with a simple goal in mind.
While I already have a fleet worth of characters docked in stations
throughout known space, I wanted to dive back into the tutorial to
reconnect with that portion of the game, and hopefully gain a better
perspective on the potential impact the new player experience would
have on the game when Apocrypha launched.  



The two main things that stood out for me were the massive amount of
information you needed to absorb in a relatively short period of time
(often referred to as the learning cliff) and the way EVE left you to
your own devices perhaps a bit too early in your piloting career. EVE
is a giant sandbox through and through, and one that I consider href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/64435" target="_blank">
the best sandbox MMO currently on the market,
yet there was previously too much sand and not a solid enough structure
to contain it all for new players. The EVE universe contained plenty of
tools and massive piles of sand, but the “box” part
didn’t come into play until much later, once you’d
learned more about the game and could figure out where the wood planks
were hidden to build the box yourself. While some veteran players may
have enjoyed this ‘wild west’ approach, many
potential pilots turned in their license long before their free trial
expired.



Then along came another kind of box, the EVE logo boldly emblazoned on
the front below the words “Special Edition”. While
there were href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65196" target="_blank">some
bumps along the road to retail,
the decision to produce physical copies of EVE couldn’t have
been made at a better time. Simply put, Apocrypha is what an expansion
for an established MMO should be like. It offers something for players
of all skill levels, from first time pilots on up to the most
experienced veterans of New Eden. MMO developers who hope to broaden
their install base while continuing to provide fresh content for
long-term subscribers should pay close attention to Apocrypha. style="font-style: italic;">This
is how it’s done folks.



The
New Face of Known Space



Even sandbox MMOs need to find ways to acclimate players to the
universe in an interesting, yet informative way. There’s a
fine line that needs to be maintained between structure and freedom,
otherwise you run the risk of pushing your core audience away.
Considering the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65110" target="_blank">overall
complexity of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/" target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">EVE Online
this challenge was tenfold, though over the years the initial barrier
for entry remained just low enough for the brave and dedicated to
slowly fill up new sectors of known space.



While some veterans of EVE set out into the unknown to discover their
first wormholes the moment Apocrypha went live, many (myself included)
opted to create new characters for the sake of playing through the New
Player Experience. I can honestly say that I haven’t seen
this much activity around the entry level stations in all the years
I’ve been a part of New Eden. The past few days have felt
more like the launch of a brand new MMO rather than a 10th expansion in
that regard. Seeing so many clunky starter frigates warping in and out
certainly put a smile on my face as I set about the tutorial missions.



The visual enhancements to special effects have proven to be quite
popular, if the talk in local chat over the past few days is any
indication. I can’t even count the number of times
I’ve read, “Have you seen the new shield booster
effect? It rocks!” Even mundane tasks such as mining have
been given a facelift; new mining laser effects give the appearance
that you’re actually pulling ore into your cargo hold.
There’s also a cool new look to asteroids which makes them
more easily identifiable at a glance than ever before. EVE has always
been a beautiful game, but being a visually oriented gamer I really
appreciate all the effort that went into this latest round of graphical
improvements.

The other hot topic of discussion is of course the nifty new skill
training queue. While it may not be as useful for players sporting
millions of skill points, learning to use the queue blends seamlessly
into the new tutorial. Skills are now given to players in a manner
which explains how they fit into the grand scheme of possible career
choices, whereas previously players would amass a giant pile of skills
via character creation based on seemingly arbitrary choices with no
real explanation of what they were used for, or in some cases, they
would serve no purpose at all depending on what you wanted to
accomplish in the game. When combined with the epic mission arc, adding
this kind of structure at the entry level is easily the most
significant leap forward EVE has seen in years.

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Apocrypha
raises the bar in terms of delivering meaningful content to a broad
spectrum of players

The
Damsel
in Distress



At the conclusion of the old tutorial missions, players were more or
less given a pat on the back by their agent and then left to their own
devices. I still remember hitting that point the first time and
thinking, “Ok, what now?” It was easy to feel
slightly overwhelmed, and with no true social hubs in EVE I also had
that moment of wondering whether I’d meet other pilots and
hopefully survive in some of the harsher environments outside of high
sec space.



While I don’t want to give any spoilers here as to the
content of the epic mission arc, I find it to be a brilliant solution
for transitioning players from the tutorial to the great wide open of
New Eden. Unlike standard agent missions, the missions along the epic
arc never expire, so there isn’t that pressure to do them on
anyone’s schedule other than your own. In the meantime, they
were cleverly crafted in such a way that it encourages players to work
together while not making it mandatory, at least earlier on in the
chain.



One sticking point here is that while my tutorial agent did mention
where I needed to be to begin the epic missions, they failed to add a
bookmark for my new contact, and I foolishly forgot to do so myself.
Thankfully some of the other pilots in the area were kind enough to
point me in the right direction; otherwise I’d likely still
be spinning the 3D map in circles looking for a star system that
sounded familiar. Another slight bump in the transition comes in the
form of your new contact being seven jumps away. Considering the
vastness of known space that’s not too terribly far, but
those jumps begin to add up once you realize you have half a dozen
ships sitting in your hanger that you might want to bring with you.



Captain’s
Log: Stardate 3160.9



Dalmarus made some excellent points about expanded content in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65024" target="_blank">a
recent Forever
Fantasy column.
In that article’s accompanying href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=41301"
target="_blank">forum discussion,
the EverQuest:
Lost Dungeons of Norrath
expansion was brought up which is an excellent example of delivering
meaningful content to a broader spectrum of players; something SOE had
previously been criticized for not accomplishing with the earlier,
raid-centric Planes of Power.  LDoN has not only been one of
my favorite expansions, but in many ways it set the bar for what could
be achieved with new content when developers broaden their focus to
accommodate a larger potential audience.



By and large, Apocrypha manages to bring something new to the
established universe of EVE in meaningful ways for players of just
about any skill level. Even if the expansion itself weren’t
free to current subscribers, I think Apocrypha raises the bar both in
terms of quality and providing meaningful content to a broad spectrum
of players. I’ve been a big proponent for content that
expands a core MMO experience outward rather than strictly upward, and
the latest installment of the EVE saga not only accomplished exactly
that, but does so with flying colors. Mind you, most of those colors
are different shades of gunmetal gray, but this style="font-style: italic;">is
EVE I’m talking about here!



Have you been playing through Apocrypha? If so, be sure to share some
of your impressions on our forums, or if you’d prefer, href="mailto:[email protected]">my inbox
is always open!  In the meantime, this is Captain Sardu,
signing off!