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Massively Speaking Podcast
Massively Speaking Episode 185: Bree-to-play
Latest episode: Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
Reader Comments (2)
Posted: Jun 29th 2009 2:55PM (Unverified) said
It is to MMOs what Civilizations is to strategy games.
That is, it's hyper-intelligently designed, but, still not the best, for several reasons.
The developers make no attempt to welcome new players to the game. You are folded in as a newb, you literally will be a newb for 2 consecutive years in this game... no matter how much of your day you spend playing it, the minimum amount of time required to fly higher grade ships with technology that's good enough to matter against the majority of the population in PVP is around 2 years.
I don't have 2 years to play a single game, and be a noob the entire time. I already spent 18 months in EVE learning this fact. No matter the optimization, or the guides you read, or the friends you make, or the ISK you have (I've got over a billion that I can't even spend), you will be just another blip in the blob.
Furthermore, blob warfare will not go away. The game is designed such that there is no limitation to the number of people who can fight on the same side. The Caldari winning the militia wars wasn't a factor of Caldari players working hard and having good teamwork. It was a factor of there just being more than twice as many Caldari players.
These things need to be addressed in some fashion, and they are not, and probably will not be. Players need to be able to get up to speed faster. PVP is far too lossy, not in the amount of ISK you lose when your ship and modules pop, but the amount of time it takes to re-fit a ship... astronomical amounts of your in-game time will be flying from station to station to pick up the parts you need... or... sitting in Jita with everyone else... at all times.
Anyway, I say all of this because it saddens me that CCP has let the game deteriorate the way that it has. You can't ever really invite your friends to play with you like you can in other MMOs... it won't be a matter of a couple of months before they can raid with you, it will be years.
http://www.judgex.com/
Posted: Jun 29th 2009 3:36PM SgtBaker said
That's false. They're really trying to shape the new player experience to more "user friendly". They've done countless changes over the years. I agree that the new player experience is still not quite what it should be - but saying that the developers are making no attempts to welcome new players is just plain false.
I agree on your blob-warfare thoughts though. At least to the point of where I'd really like to see CCP promote skirmish warfare through game mechanics more than they've done so far (the stealth and Black Ops changes were kinda ok, but I want to see more).
EVE is by no means "ready" and it still has long ways to go - but it's by far the best MMO out there both in terms of developer attention (and how eager they're to overhaul and re-invent the game) and in involvement required - EVE requires attention, concentration and skill - it's not for everyone, nor is it trying to be.