Today was a lovely summer day. The weather was about eighty three degrees (28 Celsius). The sky was pale blue, populated by soft, lazy cumulous clouds that drifted from one edge of the horizon to another. A breeze cooled my skin from the heat of the sun and the air was sweet from recent rains. Thankfully, I was able to escape its clutches and retreat into my office to curl up in my office chair and log into Eve.
Have no worries, I've not been corrupted by the 'outside' thing. I may have to grudgingly admit that it may not be as big of a myth as I once thought but regardless..
Eve is an interesting game to me. In some ways it is a very adult game. I don't mean breasts and naked bodies. There is plenty of butt shaking but its all the drake bait kind. It is slower in pace, involves strategy and thinking, your entire game can be market research and market gaming. Someone even complained that it feels too much like work. But, that is something that we can relate to even if we don't want to.
I still think it is a harsh game. I receive a lot of traffic from Gevlon's Greedy Goblin blog. I read his blog he reads mine. I appreciative the traffic. I hang out in his chat room and harass him and everyone else i find. He occasionally scolds me for being sillly. Then he logs off and we discuss cookies (soft oatmeal chocolate chip for the win).
I appreciate the traffic and I decided today that Gevlon gets some mentions. he has written that he feels eVe is not harsh and in fact it is easier then WoW. I've ignored a lot of his opinion on that even though I disagree because it is his opinion. But, he has been pulling people into Eve. This is a good thing because people are good. However, if they wander in thinking that EVE is a safe easier then WoW land we may not retain them.
I started playing Aion last week. I've always wanted to try it. It is a very pretty game. I barely pay attention, hit some gigantic pretty beetles and collect stuff. I have no idea about what I am doing. I am still leveling fine. I don't care when I die. I just respawn and run back over to kill more beetles. The only issue I have is that every time I see other players I spaz out and expect them to kill me.
That is the Eve effect. Few people come to Eve feeling that way. But you will leave Eve with that type of reaction. Did I mention that I have my Eve client up in the other window to chat and undock if something interesting goes down?
Gevlon is not an average new Eve player. Considering his work in WoW and World of Tanks, i a not surprised that he has been successful in his niche in Eve. Yet, even he is finding it tough to break out of that niche like he wants to because Eve is not an easy game. One of those reasons is because Eve's game play moves far beyond the mechanics of the game itself. But, that is not what i am going to talk about today.
The point is that Gevlon is well prepared for the harsh environment of Eve. he is willing to research and learn. he may not be willing to easily back down on his opinions but he can take criticism (even if he ignores it) and understands meta gaming.
Not every player does. I know Gevlon often lumps people into predefined categories but that is not my thing. Ignorance is sometimes simply a lack of knowledge. Lacking knowledge can come from not knowing where to find the knowledge or even knowing that the knowledge is out there. Education is a very powerful tool in Eve.
Because, Eve allows mean things to happen there is a continual parade of people on the forums who do not understand why they are dying. The lack of individual instances is very confusing to some as are the aggression mechanics. These things are not shoved into your face even with CCP's new force feeding methods.
In Aion, I ignore the 'local' chat channels. They are full of RMT (I originally wrote ISK there and laughed at myself) spammers and people looking for groups. I did a similar thing in City of Heroes but I'd chat on the city channels for the areas where everyone hung around. This is a habit that people need to break when coming to Eve where local is a rich source of information and communication. There are times when there are people waving their hands in local trying to get a new players attention so that they can help them.
Of course, not all the education in the world can sometimes save people. I don't think I can save the world or the game or everyone that enters it.
And speaking of education...
While I was writing this, I lost my train of thought because my random newbie logged in to say that he wasn't going to subscribe. Real life had come and kicked him in the teeth and he didn't have time for the game.
He is a cool guy and hopefully, if he is interested in gaming in the future he will come back and visit. But its kinda disappointing. You meet cool people online. You may or may not meet them IRL (who is coming to Eve Vegas again?) but people are still people.
I'm gonna leave this post wandering off without much of a focused ending for the night I think. Unhappy making news broke my post.
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