Blog Banter 33: The Capsuleer Experience
Like mana from Valhalla (yes I know I'm mixing my religious metaphors), the latest Dev Blog by CCP Legion asks questions which make for perfect Blog Bantering. To quote him "...we want to make the first days, weeks and months in EVE enjoyable and not just something ‘you have to plough through in order to get to the good stuff’" and the newly formed Player Experience team will focus on "...where and why people lose interest in EVE...".
"We invite you to pour your heart (or guts) out and tell us what you think is good or bad with the current new player experience and what you think could be done about the problems."
So let's get self-eviscerating. Banter on.
Cheers
Mat "Freebooted" Westhorpe
I have to say – when I first read this banter, I thought, “Capsuleer? God, I fucking miss that app.” Sure, we are talking about the newbie experience here, but does anyone else miss that thing? Anyway.
The new player experience is certainly something that needs to be improved. Many games have tried this; EQ2 with the “island” you get stuck on for a while and other games with friendly “zones”, etc. World of Warcraft does this by having mountains surrounding everything; essentially the same. Eve does not need that type of new player experience. I think what Eve needs is a more interactive “community” in the first space station you are spawned to.
What I mean by this is that getting a bunch of tutorial windows popping up is sometimes confusing. A story-line would be helpful, as to why you are here, where you came from, etc. An understanding that you are on your own is nice, too. How about the freedom to, within the first month, recycle all of your skill points?
Knowing full well that it is “dangerous out there” is one thing. It is another to be mining for the first time, like an idiot, in your first Iteron and a jetcan or three. How can we fix that? I don’t know. Is it broken? Part of me doesn’t think so. When I started playing, I didn’t jetcan because I paid attention to the game. Maybe that’s really it: Eve is hard to pay attention to when you are new.
Other Banters:
Diary of a Garbageman 
I wholeheartedly agree with the death-by-windows experience being a little off-putting and I love the idea of a more meaningful story to the new player’s first hours as a capsuleer. The free SP re-spec is genius.
Also, “EVE is hard… to pay attention to when you are new.” quoted for truth.