Yeah, that old CCP Rice presentation was basically rebuked 5 years later by CCP Hilmar’s 2019 presentation - Beyond The Friendship Machine - which starts @ 37.07 and ends @ 44.10… CCP Hilmar talks about new players and ‘The Magic Moment’ @ 42.50…
The Magic Moment is basically when new players get non-consensually PVP’d… That whole segment about new player retention and the graph he presents clearly counters that old CCP Rise presentation, which by the way was only done on new players with 2 weeks in the game…
CCP Hilmar:
Data and research suggests that some of the most powerful onboarding experiences we have in terms of retention in the game are player established fleet roams for new players in a mentorship style.
From 2006 to 2015, Agony Empire had nearly 10,000 pilots go through their ‘Fleet Roams For Newbies’ class and 82% of those players were still playing one year later.
CCP doesn’t have any initiatives for new players like that and wants to support community efforts to build bigger fleets and corps.
We try to get them to die with us, that is the most important moment.
CCP Hilmar:
Devastating Loss is really like, we now call it The Magic Moment, at the moment you lose your first spaceship is the moment whether, either you have enough understanding of why it happened, and or you have the social network to help you through it, then you play forever. If you don’t then you immediately quit and never come back.
Understanding why it happened, a ray of hope that you can respond and get back on your feet and get revenge, and social support. During the Magic Moment, that is what makes an elite Eve player.
Getting revenge is the clue to what he’s talking about… He’s not referring to ‘Devastating Loss’ as happening in a big fleet fight with other players because losing a ship there is to be expected… Nor is he talking about PvE because you can’t get revenge on AI NPC’s… He’s talking about being alone and getting attacked resulting in ship loss… Not understanding why it happened, not having a social support group, no hope of being able to respond and get back on their feet and get revenge… In other words, brand new players getting ganked…