I’ve heard both Hilmar and other CCP’ers make the argument that players that socialize and get involved in groups will stay much longer. They often say that getting people to that stage is essential to increase player retention.
So I, therefore, think that the Chat, the corp finding UI, and many other social ways of interacting in this game needs a big update since it hasn’t really changed much over the past 10 years.
There are so many things that you could do here but I would start by getting some social media experts on the team that know what is essential in a 2020 chat and social platform to make people stay and to make people interact more. I think they would know much more than I but I have some ideas of what I think would work:
Social media wall (much like the Facebook wall) where you can post links, share in-game images, post zkillboard stats, videos from fights, and much more. This should be the main hub for interacting in the game. This could be linked on different levels so that you have both an official and an unofficial alliance wall with news, then an official and unofficial Corporation wall.
It would also be good if you could “subscribe” to different topic related walls to get news about topics that interest you. Like, Industry wall, PVP wall, Abyssal space wall, and so on.
I know that both discord and huge alliance homepages have some of this today but I think those places are hard to find for new players unless they get deep into the game.
Chat statuses like “AFK” “Looking for corp” “busy” “Recruiting” etc
Emojis emojis emojis and more emojis! I know, they might seem annoying to some people but they make a huge difference to a chat and social platform and this is why nearly all social tools outside of eve use them.
Corporation finding UI should have a recommended corp section based on your playstyle that is linked to your ‘Activity tracker’. This would be SO helpful for new players and it would make the activity tracker more meaningful. Just go out and do what you enjoy and you will get corps recommended to you based on the things that you do.
This feature should of course have an on/off switch because sometimes people might also be interested in things they haven’t tried. So it should be possible to both add and subtract stuff from your basic “activity tracker profile” that links to your recommended corps.
Much much more options when it comes to corporation searches. Right now you can search corps based on just a few categories like PVP, PvE, industry, mining, and so on. There should be much much more options here.
I think the quickest fix to this might be to have a “keyword” search together with the standard search so you can for example search for a PVP group, x amount of players with a keyword that is related to the words in the corporation ad. So, you can for example ad the keyword “abyssal” or “lore” or “high sec ganking” if you like that kind of stuff. This would make it much easier for people to get in touch with people that like to do the same thing.
If anyone else has more suggestions to what we could do to improve the Social aspects of eve online feel free to leave a comment
I personally love the minimalist style to chat. I hate the idea of emojis appearing within in-game chat - especially with how creative players have been in developing their own ASCII art for such uses. Plus, I guarantee if CCO tries to overhaul the chat engine again to add emoji support they will kill it worse that the migration to outside servers.
Updating the corp search would be a good improvement. I’m not sure I agree with the Activity Tracker linkage - since players change their interests over time - but adding activities to the search interface to allow players to filter corps in search results would be nice, and I think it aligns well with the keyword search concept.
Hard pass on an in-game corp/alliance ‘wall’ - that really is the kind of thing that I think is best kept out-of-game to reduce maintenance overhead for CCP and encourage individuality on the part of corps/alliances.
Not everything needs to happen inside EVE to be engaging. In fact, a lot of social things should be outside of EVE so that players can continue to interact when they are not able to be logged in.
You shouldn’t think “this what I like” when you think about new features because you are (just like me) a veteran in this game with a totally different perspective to the game than new players have. New players are for the most time much younger with a totally different mindset.
EVE needs to be built and changed so that it’s more suitable for newer players and the younger generation because they are the ones that will push this game into the future when most veterans quit playing because they start a family or can no longer find the time to play.
There is a very good reason why emojis, link sharing with pictures, and a long list of other features are integrated into tools like Discord. It’s because it is essential for younger players. It’s the foundation of any social tool on the market and it should also be essential for the EVE chat.
What is also essential for any social interaction tool is to have a core place where you can read news about stuff that you like and where people can post and share ideas. Right now there are designated discords for abyssal, trading, industry, and other topics but the best thing would, of course, be if all of this what integrated into the game so that it is easily accessible for new players.
The more things that happen outside of eve the less accessible it is for new players.
First of all, my opinion is absolutely as valid as that of any theoretical new player your changes are focused upon. I enjoy the minimalist chat - it is engaging without being overwhelming, and provides all of the data access I need in-game to partner with my corp and fleet successfully. Adding emojis, in-line image display, and other such changes will not improve my gameplay experience- and that experience is just as important to CCP as a new player.
You also keep making claims about what new players are and what drives them out of EVE, without any data to back it up.
Even if we were to accept your claim that new players interested in EVE are primarily younger - how does that require CCP to overhaul their community platforms to engage with these players? They are more likely to already have Discord as a tool, which actually makes leveraging their existing environment the smart choice on CCP’s part to encourage engagement.
EVE, while having a significant social component, is not a social media platform, and it would be a bad business decision for CCP to try and enter that space. Could there be value in increased integration with existing social media services, such as embedding voicecomm support and external chat server access natively within EVE? Yes, but it comes at a cost in developer hours, ongoing security efforts, and potential fees to the supported services to add these features. So unless and until CCP can find a high correlation between these changes and player subscriptions, making such changes would be a net detriment to EVE as an unnecessary expense with no Return on Investment.
They are not essential. They are only there because people lack words to express what they want to say. For simple emotions smileys like ‘:)’ are more than enough in EVE chats. We do not at all need more possibilities for useless spam.
I have nothing against emojis. I occasionally use them on these forums. And other modernisation like sharing pictures etc would be useful.
My only concern is like @Mkikaden_Tiragen says. It’ll go horribly horribly wrong before it goes right. And lets be honest, local chat in the markets will turn into what the chat is like during a twitch stream and that’s just obnoxious trash.
You can, and many people do, use discord for their corp chat and that covers the vast majority of your needs.
Regarding finding a new corp, CCP would benefit from having a rethink on corp adverts. There is so much ■■■■■■■■ out there and corps shouldn’t be able to lie so easy about what they do and when. Corps should be able to link a corp-level activity tracker in their adverts and people looking for a corp can look for these to see if a corp genuinely suits their activities and play times.
EVE will die as a game if they just listen to veterans and negate the new player base. So no, mine and your opinion are not as valuable as new players opinion because we are not the player who can carry this game into the future. Large parts of our generation is naturally going to quit when they get a family.
That’s not to say that veterans opinion matters, it certainly does, and it is a balance act for CCP to both please the older and the younger generation. But their main focus should always be to grow the younger player base as long as that doesn’t heavily impact the older player base.
I could probably point you to hundreds of research articles on what keeps users engaged on social media platforms and why social media platforms have chosen the design that they have but I think you get my point?
We know that emoji’s, news wall, interactive messages and a much better social media interphase works and this is exactly why billion dollar social media companies around the world have chosen this setup.
I hope that’s not something you disagree on right?
Since we know that it works. We know that it increases satisfaction and retention. The only question you need to ask yourself is: Would this change have massive negative effect on older players quitting the game because of it?
I would clearly say no. Even older players have used and are using social media tools that has the same or similar kind of setup. They are used to it and even though there probably is some grumpy old man that would quit because he find emoji’s annoying he would be a tiny minority among players overall.
CCP is not a social media company - let alone a multi-billion dollar enterprise with more staff than EVE has players. EVE is not a social media platform. It is a game which has a significant social aspect - but it is first and foremost a game. CCP already struggles to maintain a successful basic chat feature - what makes you think they could ever manage to support something more robust?
The reason why nearly all billion dollar social media companies have adopted emojis, newswalls, sharing links and a “subscribe to your interests model” is because it works REALLY WELL. It keeps people engaged and entertained that’s why they have this model.
People love sharing, people love expressing emotions, people love to have easier access to things that interest them.
This is why we have Zkillboard. People love sharing their kills. This is why Zkillboard has 15 different likes that you can click like “it would have lived if it was a shield super” or “loot fairy said no”. People love expressing their emotions.
And the reason we have many different discord groups with “abyssal lurkers”, trading groups or high sec ganking groups is also because people like to subscribe and get easy access to news that interests them.
So, there is no doubt in my mind that the changes I am proposing would make players much more engaged. Especially new players that often doesn’t know about or can’t find all the hundreds of 3rd party tools out there. which is a bit of jungle
My point is not to compare CCP to billion dollar companies. My point is to say that these features has a proven track record of keeping people engaged and stay longer on the platform. That’s exactly why nearly all social media companies use them.
So if they could support that new feature without it being to much of a burden on their time you would be on board?
Please stop comparing a video game to social media. It’s not the same in terms of anything you are wanting. CCP screwed the chat up, and we don’t need half the stuff you are saying we need in game.
This is where the 3rd party devs shine, allowing us to have what Eve doesn’t need in it.
Social media companies use then because that is the whole reason a social media company exists. These industries have entirely different customer demographics and business models. Revenue for a social media company is driven by advertising; revenue for a video game company is driven by sale of the game. There are zero functional parallels to be drawn here, and the fact that you keep reaching for ‘but what about the social media platforms!’ instead of addressing the actual realities of a video game company’s operations and business needs shows that you are so vested in being right that you are unwilling to listen to feedback.
CCP does not have the knowledge, skills, or assets to make these changes. It would be a significant financial investment (we are talking a minimum of multiple millions of dollars, realistically, between staffing and development costs) to change that - and unless they can guarantee a return on the investment it is bad business to try and change the chat system into some kind of social media platform.
Some of my groups have developed their own religion originating from the availability of the eggplant emoji and its default placement as a frequently used emoji on Discord for first-time users. We’ve been worshiping the Eggplant Goddess for more than 5 years now
As much as I would welcome new followers into The Way of the Eggplant™ as the embodiment of all that is good and holy in the universe, I don’t think Local chat needs to be spammed with emojis of any kind, eggplant or otherwise.
EVE is a subscription based game which means that their goal is to keep players engaged so they keep their subscription.
That is to a large extent the same goal as facebook has. If people stay on the facebook platform longer their revenue goes up since they will see more ads.
So, both has the goal of keeping people engaged, they want people to have fun and they want people to stay as long as possible.
I fully disagree that the investment would the that big and that it wouldn’t be worth it if the engagement and retention rate goes up.
