Eve promises limitless possibilities, and it does deliver on the potential that a player can grow to extreme heights. But EvE does not promise handholds or paths - and this is what many prospective eve players fail to recognize, or worse, fail to embrace.
No and no, it wouldn’t be EvE and it wouldn’t help player retention (in my opinion)
The alternative question is if the average EvE experience were shown as it really is (the initial struggle through tons of interface elements, mechanics, common tactics, not to mention temporary challenges like getting isk, resources and setting the first medium term goals AND that losses are real and often unexpected), would it deter people from trying it ? Starting in EvE is like growing up under fire. It takes time and there’s always some level of danger in any activity. Players are up against the most dangerous opponents that any game can provide: other players. I wouldn’t recommend EvE to someone who is totally naive of the concepts of a full blown pvp game. At least that bit of honesty should be present somehow in ads about EvE.
The best way to prepare players is not the NPE. I sincerely think that the NPE is, and always will be inadequate, in the same way that schools do not teach about real life, but only about discrete elements of real life. The best NPE, honestly, is to play with other people, asap, pronto - and a lot more effort should be put into tackling that difficult task. The NPE itself should be about basic mechanics and especially the UI, without trying to be a safety net for hurt feelings of loss. Safety comes from who one plays with, the advice and perhaps material aid one gets, and this cannot be captured by software. What the NPE could be, first of all a way to get acquainted with the controls, with the basic ways to get resources like isk, and a warning that one has to set goals and stick to them for long enough to achieve something, well we seem to be far off from that. The de facto new player experience should be experiencing other players as guides and tutors. It would perhaps also kill the illusion that EvE can be done solo as a new player - bar the really tenacious ones, of course, who thrive in complex environments and love tons of data, but these are the least likely to quit…
The game is not changeable, one would have to change the very core and concept to make it change, and then it wouldn’t be even a shadow of EvE. I firmly believe that many new players, including those that come with completely wrong expectations and maybe even attitudes, can be shown how to survive their first weeks in EvE, set on a relevant development path for their pilot, start appreciating the vastness of the possibilities, and then thrive for years to come. Only other players can do that on any scale. Separating wheat from chaff happens in any game - a game may not be to one’s liking after all - but perhaps more so in EvE, and needlessly, because people get overwhelmed with tons of info they need to absorb, plus the fact that it’s a full on pvp game anywhere. So, guidance is necessary if the aim is growth of the retention and the pcu.
Yep. This game is unique, it should remain unique, because quite frankly, the pve in this game is not good enough to make it a good game that’s not unique but more pleasing for about two months. The pvp is good enough, but pvp is most likely a major hindrance to new player retention if they are not guided properly. That is my honest opinion. Vets learned to take the negative with the positive. Their task is to teach new players about the positive - which outweighs the negative or we wouldn’t be here.
