Why New Players Get Confused

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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Video game advertising has always been “sketchy” at best (“not finished product”, “pre-alpha state”, etc.) But in the last few years it’s gone from borderline misleading to outright fraud. A great example of this are the ads for pretty much any mobile game.

It seems the rest of the video game industry is following suit to various extents. I think EVE is probably on the lower end of the offender scale, but I have to imagine there’s a lot of peer pressure when you see everyone and their dog in the industry continuing to take these kind of liberties with advertising.

This is EVE was epic.

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I guess WoW should too, but then again you could be wrong, what do I know? I personally love the story trailers, but then again I am a bit more of a lore nerd.

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I think it’s good that EVE has very different trailers with some focusing on storytelling and others on player interactions.

After all different trailers reach different potential new players. Doing all trailers only one ‘best’ way will limit your reach.

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84

The more interesting question is – why does CCP go for that instead of more realistic spaceship flying?

Is the average player on the market more interested in characters that you can see and walk around with and thus CCP hopes to lure those in here? Is it just their current marketing ‘‘philosophy’’? I don’t know.

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You mean the one when you undock and get 1-shotted by a Tornado? Or the one where a 10+ multiboxer ganks you on a stargate? Or maybe the one where you get smart-bombed on a gate camp? Those “realistic” ones?

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Hey, I don’t have a problem with CCP’s trailers. I’m okay with cinematic liberties being taken in trailers as long as we’re within the right general framework (space simulation game).

You’re gonna have to direct this question to one of these guys above who have watched all the trailers and weeded out ‘‘realistic’’ scenes from ‘‘unrealistic’’ ones.

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With the caveat that it’s been a while since I saw a WoW trailer so I don’t know what they’re doing these days, I’d say Blizzard has more leeway in this area given their game is heavily focused on ambulation. I guess a comparison would be if they did an ad where a third of the video features aerial combat when that isn’t a part of the game (AFAIK, it’s been years since I played).

Can they not do lore showing mainly spaceships flying through space instead of people walking around in stations?

In other words, a “bait and switch.”

:laughing: That would certainly be honest advertising.

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88

I think a lot of game commercials are silly and over the top. My father spent his pay check buying his two daughters this one for Hanukkah back in 77.

I think they run under $50 with popular games built in now.

I know some of you don’t care for me to compare this game to other MMOs, but I was reading what John said about needing a longer tutorial. The original Guild Wars has many users, after 20 years, still existing within their massive tutorial called “Pre-searing Ascalon”. The character who never leaves the tutorial are called Perma Pres. You can leave the tutorial very quickly, you only need to do some simple tasks and then run up to Sir Tydus and join the academy. After that you get thrust into the whole game experience with spanning several contents with 3 base standalone modules and the Eye of the North add on content. Otherwise you are cut off from the real game until you leave the tutorial. I would link a video here, but there are 20 years worth of them on Youtube.

I did 4 Legendary Defenders of Ascalon on my account. The LDoA is where you get your character up to level cap (20) within the tutorial section. It becomes a chore after you hit level 7 because monsters don’t generate much XP. I never did the harder title of Survivor, as that one requires you to generate the level 20 amount of XP without dying. If you die, it resets to zero. So some of us never left the tutorial, I have one out of 8 characters as a Perma Pre.

I think of the Eve Online tutorial as the career schools, the start up is just window dressing. Most of it is video cut scene and a lot of new players will end up skipping it and starting at an AIR station with no clue. Even the ones who complete it, still don’t know where or how to get the free ships.

ATTN New User: Find a career school, there are 12 of them!

Have fun!

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I find this fascinating. Could you explain why people stay in the tutorial for 20 years? Is it because it’s a safe zone or something?

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Not sure about this, but I used to play Unreal Tournament 2004 Demo and until few years back out of sentiment I didn’t buy or felt the need to buy the game itself. Why? Simply because I just wanted to play one fast match and massacre bots and for that the three maps and 5 different game modes were totally enough, I played a round or two and then closed it. And I wasn’t the only one, the demo actually allowed to play online (afaik only with other demo players) and there were actually lot of servers full of players.

So maybe there is similar reason in GW - mayb it offers enough to some casuals who wants here and now just run one dungeon and go back to work.

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Not to get too far off the topic. No, it is not safe, you can die. Real PvP didn’t start in this game until we got Factions. This is the tutorial map and once the character leaves the character can never return, because the tutorial map is two years in the past.

tutorial map
tutorial map1200×1075 132 KB

The landscape is massive for only a tutorial. There are also titles, one can only achieve here as I stated above. People sell rare drops here and then use another character to mule their platinum and gold through the academy. Some just like the vistas.

vista 1
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vista 2
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There is also fighting NPCs as well.

NPC battle
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This is the map after you leave the tutorial called post searing. The red area is the original position and size of the tutorial map.

post searing
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That little ship takes you to Factions and Nightfall ( if you own the trilogy ) which are on other maps in distant lands. I don’t want to say too much about it, after the fall of Ascalon, there is no way back except making a new character. That is about all I can offer as an explanation.

Have fun!

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Thanks for the explanation. Still seems kind of strange to me, but no need to say more.

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New players get confused by mechanics that are completely counterintuitive, are not explained anywhere in the game, make little to no sense and contradict all prior knowledge and experience because after learning an amount of knowledge that would justify a masters degree in most other fields, you then have to learn all the exceptions from the rules which are often without logic or reason behind them and in most cases completely unnessessary or adding no real benefit to the game.

If you play a game that demans so much time, dedication and cost (it’s still one of the most expensive sub-games out there) and you encounter really stupid things every so often that you can’t explain to your self and even if you ask experienced players they can’t give you a good answer why that is as it is… you begin to think it’s not worth it wasting your time with that pile of bandaid solution and horrible ideas that somehow never got reworked.

At least that is the summary of like 90% of the newbros who left after a few weeks or months that I talked to (I am running a newbro-training corp for years, so yeah, meet and help exactly those “new players” a lot and its pretty sad to see a large portion of them leave the game over frustration about complete bullcrap that should have been fixed or removed long ago).

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94

I agree the game mechanics are confusing to those use to WASD movement and 1234 shooting.

I was trained in house by my neighbor and also have my husband, but my husband doesn’t play often as I do. The neighbor told me to get my character skilled up. After my grand child made my characters up I set the main to train for 40 to 50 days. After 2 or 3 weeks went by, the neighbor asked why I wasn’t online. I told him, I am skill training. Then I took in some Youtube video tutorials, even the real bad ones. I finally got around to playing and made a lot of ISK. I bought some clothes, a station, even some ships to explode. But it still doesn’t appeal to me.

I will say that Eve Online is tons better than Star Trek Online. STO feels so flat. All you need to do for space battles, is put all your power into forward shields, fly in reverse, and shoot everything at the enemy. They all line up to be destroyed. If you do blow up, your ship respawns in the same place. Which isn’t what happens in the TV show. Unless you are referencing the next gen episode about the time loop. I haven’t played No Man’s Sky, but neighbor already spoiled that one for me and told me how it ends.

I disagree that it takes a lot of knowledge or masters degree.

I write fiction, unfortunately if I write science-fiction, I have to make everything seem plausible. The readers never seem to comprehend the definition of fiction. However I never want to come off sounding like a complete idiot, such as the writers of Another Life. I basically wiped all my shortcut keys and started my own that make sense to me; M=map, I=inventory, etc..

I do see errors in warp travel. If you are making a space fold, how is it we can drop a marker midway through the path? The gates seem more like space folds and the warp tunnel is just FTL flight. I never expect that kind of accuracy from a video game.

I guess a lot more players would stick with it, assuming they find something they enjoy within the first hour of play. As for me, I was dragged in here by my neighbor. Assuming he continues playing and doesn’t get hit by a beer truck, I guess I will continue to play as well. Anyone know where I can rent a beer truck?

Have fun!

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The only thing I don’t like about warp travel is that I can’t just hit the warp button and enter warp without first having to align my ship with something.

It has no rhyme or reason except to provide the PvPers a way to PvP. My ship can warp through a planet or a star with no trouble, but can’t enter warp unless I’m pointed at… something. It bugs me.

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Interesting point. I guess that’s an argument for “emergency warp”. Maybe if it caused hull damage as a result?

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I can give you two answers. One is the more science fact answer.

  1. In space one has to have a destination that you are wanting to get to. Then after a lot of calculations. I don’t math that good. You send the ship towards that destination. This is why in actual space changing course in mid-flight is herculean task for NASA. The engineers have to realign the ship towards the new destination and then set the new course.

The second: Is game mechanics. in simple terms. Yes the idea is to blow up ships. Have your warp point set and your finger ready to click the mouse or key. And then hope your modules and such are going to get you into warp fast. It does take a few seconds. Some can take up to almost, I think 5, 6 seconds or more. The fastest, again going off bad memory, is 3.some seconds. That I am lead to understand i real difficult to hit.

But it really comes down to is having situational awareness. Assessing the situation with in a few seconds and taping the key or mouse to either fight or go to warp.

As for any “emergency warp” idea. I would abuse the hell out of it. If I can get my retriever into warp after I finish mining quickly. Better believe I am going to hit the emergency warp. Or coming through a gate, High or otherwise, why on gods green earth would I not want to hit the emergency warp. Threat or no threat.

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Why would it cause hull damage?

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No. There is no scientific reason for it. It was to enable bumping as a PvP tactic and that’s it. Our ships warp through planets and suns and no one questions the science behind it.

NASA requires calculations for course changes because of fuel concerns. Eve ships don’t have that problem. The slightest change in course for NASA can leave the crew stranded in space with no chance of rescue. They’ll be stranded until they die. That and they have to have the right speed and trajectory to align with the space station or for reentry into the atmosphere. Again- not concerns for Eve.

Nah, it’s just for PvP concerns. I get that. Can’t do away with bumping after 20 years of it being in the game.

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Balance, give and take, etc. One could argue that not being aligned results in abnormal stress to the hull (aka: damage). Also to avoid players using this as a “regular” thing. Something like the hull being damaged 10-20% (random) every time an “emergency warp” happens.