Blog Banter 31: Attemting the impossible

So, this year's last Blog Banter, issued by Seismic Stan at Freebooted, blogger chevalier and PvP duel extraordinaire is effectively about a very challenging topic:

As any games journalist would probably tell you, a true and complete review of a Massively Multiplayer Online game is impossible. MMOs are vast, forever evolving entities with too much content for a single reviewer to produce a fair and accurate review. However, a collection of dedicated bloggers and EVE players (past and present) with a wide range of experience in various aspects of the game might be able to pull it off.

This special 'End of Year' Blog Banter edition aims to be a crowd-sourced game review. Using your gaming knowledge and experience, join the community in writing a fair and qualified review of EVE Online: Crucible. This can be presented in any manner of your choosing, but will ideally include some kind of scoring system.

With each Blog Banter participant reviewing the areas of EVE Online in which they specialise, the result should be a Metacritic-esque and accurate review by the people who know best.

So, yeah, I'm definitely going to write objectively, with a scorecard about the game I love... Or at least I'll try. Most of us read a lot of game reviews, so establishing a scorecard might be easy, but to accurately describe a game, I have a different idea than the conventional reviews use. The success of a game depends on the customers and how vividly they approach the product. MMO's could not be reviewed witht he conventional criteria, because those are usually largely irrelevant in the context. What we will do is to establish a - what I, as a somewhat experienced MMO player - thinks is a good indicator of how people should look at MMOs before they decide. The aspects will be:

1. Atmosphere - How you feel ingame is a very distinct factor in MMOs. Basically, if the atmosphere of the game is bad, if it can't immerse you, it can't surround you, you'll probably stop playing within a month. 
2. Presentation - This category accounts for the graphics, sound, and usability of the game. A game that has a good presentation will have informative, easy-going interface, well thought-out graphical and audio styles and effects.
3. Scale - Some games are tuned towards small groups of people, sometimes even limiting how many players can interact in a give activity (for example, Guild Wars). Some are geared towards more people, featuring epic battles and such. This indicator shows how well the game incorporates this. A low score indicates that the game universe does not align well towards the intended goupsize.
4. Entry Barriers - In many MMOs, there are a set of requirements you need to comply in order to access content. It is sometimes hard and sometimes easy. A good MMO has appropriate entry barriers for each level of content, be it mechanical, social or mental.
5. Longevity - An MMO is a peristent world, so you expect long hours of gameplay from it. Longevity also tries to condense the amount of time it takes to get bored with most content.
6. Synergy - The relationship between the players and the developers must be a constant loop of comunication and feedback, lest the game will become outdated and irrelevant, or worse, deserted.
7. Community - The people playing a game adds to the game very much, but an immature or exclusionary community can detract from its attractiveness significantly.

Armed with these seven points, I'll try and give a thorough (and hopefully objective) review of the game EVE Online. The raings will represent how satisfied I am with the aspects. 0% represents a non-existent feature, or a 'would be better if you didn't even try' scenario, 50% means acceptable performance, while 100% signals perfection, (and thus, never achieveable).

1. Atmosphere

EVE Online is a sandbox-type game. In essence it presents you with choices and the tools to carry out your decisions. It does have a lot of scripted content, but it's usualy revolving around what players do with it. In this sense, EVE can be very immersive. The prospect of being a capsuleer is evidently shown by the game mechanics. How do you punish someone who does not die, does not feel pain and is free of any regulations? The only way to punish someone therefore is through their ingame wallet. Some people see their assets as achievements, but that mentality quickly fades as you learn from interactions with other players. This is, in fact, one of the most attractive features of the game. Player interaction is inevitable, final, and consequential. Whether you are shooting at someone, join their corporation, or by simply selling loot to them and buying stuff off the market - you are bound to interact with people. Once you come to understand that, it is really a thrillride, meaning new friends and enemies. You know you're either going to ruin someone's day or make it - or both.

On the bad side, the game at the beginning does little to convey this to the new player. How many times did people joining on their own end up running missions on mining alone? How many times did they get irritated by the small glitches to leave after their trial?

EVE takes understanding and honest will to get into, but those who do, are rewaarded with a great experience. This yields Atmosphere a fair 70% rating.

2. Presentation

EVE has astonishing graphics. It always has been a very pretty and beliavable game, but with the Crucible expansion, there simply are very few games that could stand up to it, especially when we're talking space flight. Though your first steps are hindered with a clunky, wall-of-texty UI that was built on outdated principles, you are really feeling yourself at the controls of a powerful starship... Or a financial empire... Or a space colony... The things to do are available to you with a whole lot of information, and the sounds are amazing. Wait, EVE has sound? Well, it does! And they go well with the game. The environmental effects that accurately convey the forces that are at work, Aura's human but emotionless voice - they all come together in a nice unity that helps you enjoy the game.

Though I already mentioned the UI problem, there is more to it. Namely, there are only so much things a screen can tell you, and it would be very hard to find a slick, simple graphical representation of the things that are displayed as text. This means I'll have to rate Presentation to a whopping 80%.

3. Scale

Scale is one of the trickiest of categories when it comes to EVE. There are many levels of engagement one can think of. The sandbox nature of the game allows for very varied and diverse scaling in all professions. The good thing is, rewards ususally scales with effort, and usually appropriately. What the game has an inherent difficulty handling is that there are situations where the meeting of different scales in the same area is not desirable.

EVE has a long way to go to cater for the needs of all type of playstyles, but it'll eventially get there. I still would still highlight Scale as the strength of EVE, granting it 90%

4. Entry Barriers

In all games, there are points where you are interested in something, but it seems too much fuss before you can get into and enjoy it. In EVE, overcoming these barriers is part of the fun, and is very muc incorporated into the game experience. Who of you didn't feel good when you discovered something new? When you realized that you know things that other don't? That's the gratification coming from overcoming barriers right there. However, looking back at my EVE career, I can sadly honestly say that there are much room for improvement. The most obvious barrier on everything is read, read, read. Then there are skill trainings, which sometimes feel tedious, and are in some cases relied on to keep people from abusing game mechanics. This is a poor choice, and makes the game feel uncomfortable at times. Then there is the mental barrier. Yes, EVE very much has them. I'm talking about PvP and related stuff. Is it obvious for a newbire how easy it is ti get into? Hell,no.

So, accounting for everything I have to concede that Entry Barriers are manageable and sometimes fun, but poorly utilized throughout the game, in numbers, this is 50%.

5. Longevity

There is only so much a game can include. There are a lot of limits, posed by hardware, software, and game design. In all that, EVE struggles to give you the most enjoyable content in most compact form. I mean, the client's size is respectably low compared to the plethora of features it bears, from the hundreds of ship models to the thousands of different graphical assets. In short, there's a lot to get bored of. This, ladies, gentlemen and capsuleers, is one way to go. The other, is make the conent repeatable, and by that, I obviously don't mean repetitive. What I mean is that you can use the same thing over and over, without getting bored. The third way to achieve longevity is to allow people to do other things parallel while the game is doing whatever you want it to do.

Guess, what? You name it, EVE has it. Problem is, you can't have your cake and eat it too. See, the content that is repeatable usually is so because it never is the same, meaning that it requires constant attention. The content that is semi-passive will get your brain oozing out of your nose soon if you don't do other things next to it. That is a paradox weakpoint here that devs constantly try and fail to address in the gaming world. So, what rating would I give for the Longevity of the game? 90%.

6. Synergy

There is a big challenge that MMOs must live up to: their players. Yes, the whiny, bitchy, impossible to please players, every dev's nightmare. However, some games are justr better at it. Some games have devs that are vigilant and always look for new ways to improve the experience. And, some players offer ideas to do just this. Synergy is the measure of how this comes together. Are the devs in touch with the gamers? Are they incorporating what they learn from the players? Are the players encouraged and empowered to help with the game development? Are they shown of the changes and allowed to feed back in due time?

If this review was created a few months back, the answers would probably be very different. CCP, the developer of EVE had, in the early years of development been focused on Synergy. They watched the players closely and provided. This old core value is now being rediscovered, as the Crucible expansion's improvements show. This is the reason, why I, in this case can honestly answer yes, yes, YES, hell, YEAH!

I'm going to give full credit to the staff that can pull this out, but I am, as the majority of the vocal players, actually very pleased about the direction this is heading, netting a rating of 95% for Synergy.

7. Community

MMOs by their nature support a very large number of people, who, if they are not satisfied, simply leave for greener pastures... Or do they? Well, if you love a game so much that you get not only pissed but outright enraged when you see it ruined, that must mea something, no? The players of EVE, the comunity if you like, just saved the game from the inevitable plunge in the pursuit of money. The fact that they'll make more money by stopping to crave it is hilarious. But I digress.

When you look at a game's community, you try and find traces of people bonding on some level over the game. When you look at the EVE players, you see not only communities, but in some cases a network of communities - a society developing over it.

Also, as a new player entering a frightening and challenging new univers, you always look for other people that might help you get started. You'd think the nasty players of EVE would be bad at this, but actually if you have more intelligence than a mildly educated crocodile, you'll be amazed at the sheer number of player orgnaizations that do just that - help newbies get a grip, and hook them on.

Granted, there are playerss who enjoy killing the innocnet fun of newbies, but losing your pod virginity is a cruicial step in EVE anyways. All things considered, the Community related to EVE gets 90%.

The Verdict

I could go on an pull an average of the numbers and be done with it, but what kind of ranter would I be if I did that?

So, we have a ourselves and MMO that struggles to let you in, with its many challenges, like skill training, bad UI, and so on. But, if you overcome those problems by reading, reading, and reading, you can actually start having fun. At that point it does fuel that I'm better than you feeling which many gamers look for. You're ejected into an... enthralling universe, which can quickly become your new hobby you spend time and occasionally money on, the kind that you aregue about with the wife because she wanted to buy a new pair of shoes instead. Then when you realize that playing a Massively Multiplayer Online game means interacting with other people, you get ever more hooked and suddenly shooting white boxes while trying to understand what the Fleet Commander yells at you seems much more fun than the candelight dinner on your anniversary. The devs are these spooky nordic guys who watch your every move, and you log in to your game suddenly finding a news item about the mass testing of how they'll ruin your endgame because that's just how CCP rolls. Yes, this is EVE, the second job you are charged for...

If I must summarize EVE in one word, what would it be? I'll probably go with internetspaceshipnerdgasm.

Cliffs and Hangers

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #31

Time and time again something pops up in EVE talk that has everybody perplexed: the 'learning cliff' of EVE. Yes, while other games have learning curves, EVE has a learning cliff. I don't really know the origins of this phrase but it aligns well to the natue of EVE. Today, we'll go on and dissect this one phenomena, and probably gain an understanding of what's behind this funny yet important phrase.

First off, what is a learning curve? It could well be represented by a graph, where one axis would be the knowledge of given game, while the other would be the time spent playing, so that the more you play, the more you know about the game. The steeper this curve is, the harder it is for a new player to learn the basics and start enjoying the game. However, in this regard, EVE is unique.

"The UI: just another player filter"

Some might argue that the EVE UI is logical and informative (I know I will in a short time), but let's face it - it is not your average game UI. The thing is, it is not a game UI at all. What you see when you log in is much more like a desktop of a specialised operating system, than a game UI. I don't know what others think, but if you look at it this way, it starts to make sense. There are a miriad of things to do in New Eden, would a conventional game interface serve the user well? Probably not. There are so many things you need to know at once.

The most game-like element is the ship HUD - which has to be all-at-a-glance, and it is. It may have a few shortcomings, but it generally speaking serves well. Then there is the character sheet, which in essence is nothing special - a sheet that displays categorized data on your character. But the other elements? Well, they are part of a toolset more likely. This is the reason why 'EVE feels like you're working with spreadsheets', because that is essentially what you do. There is only so much information graphical enhancements can convey without being overcrowded. Text and tables however, they are slower but much easier to keep clean. I bet this is the reason why the overview looks like the way it does, for example.

Looking more closely, I'd say that the first ledge of the learning cliff of EVE is the UI complexity. In essence, when a new player logs in, she is presented with the plethora of options at once. This results in something I call the Cockpit Syndrome. You get confused due to the sheer amount of information you are presented and you semi-conciously push away the source. This is not so much a learning challenge than one to overcome ones instinct and keep playing. Some (many) new players are lost this way. Is it a bad thing? I'm not really sure. I have already expressed my opinion on this.

Choices, choices, choices... and RTFM

So our intrepid new player succesfully overcame the Cockpit Syndrome and starts fiddling witht he game. She tries out a variety of things through the tutorials, settling in one or two professions, loosely defined by the skills she keeps in the queue... Wait what? Yeah, there are thousands of skills, from the obvious Rapid Firing to the not-so-intuitive Frequency Modulation. Once she successfully climbed up on the UI ledge, the first lesson our newbie learns is to always read and read and read - because there are a lot of things to know, and reading is the easy way of learning it. The hard way often involves ships blowing up and/or wallets emptying.

This part is really the worst ledge of the learning cliff. It looks as if you are almost there - then it moves away. Not everybody likes this. Most people, in fact, don't enjoy learning for knowing's sake. Yes, you read it right, and you should now think a bit about it.

Still, this aspect is the best part of being a newbie. There is always something cool you didn't know, something to explore and be amused at. Many bitter old veterans crave this feeling of 'shiny everywhere', but of course, nostalgia's never going to be the same. Still, the choices you make as a newbie will affect the entire EVe career - not in the traditional, class-gear-skill sense, like other RPGs, but more likely in an emotional sense. I, for example still enjoy missioning (thogh of course get bored of it after a few missions) and the reason is simple - we did them together and had much fun as newbies in our corp.

Regardless, if you want to enjoy the game you'll likely be wnring to concentrate on something, especially because skill training is the key of unlocking the awesome features EVE offers. But what to train, for example, if you want to fly a Raven battleship? Surprise, surprise, it has all the certificates in the Show Info window. How do you know that? Because you read, read, and read about the things you are interested in. What? You don't want to read? You'll have to learn to want to read because if you jump into that Raven without the relevant certificates, you'll most likely lose your ship, learning the hard way that you skills are inadequate. So, there goes simple, jump-in-do-it activities for you.

Complexity for... complexitys sake?

To those brave people treading the learning cliff of EVE, how many times did you wonder, shouldn't this be simpler? Shouldn't this be a one click activity? Well, you may be right. Given the sheer volume of content EVE provides, it is not hard to meet suboptimal choices and implementations. On top of that, there are things that are just too complicated... Or are they?

The key word is entertainment - since EVE Online ultimately is a game and the goal is to entertain you. The how is what is constrainted only by the player herself. Are you entertained by the fact that you have to learn a whole lot of things to have a good understanding? I know I am, even if some of those things seem illogical at first. Usually when you know more about them, you'll see why is it that way.

Complexity is not a bad thing. It drives your mind to face a challenge, and gives you the satisfaction of understanding. Never in other games feel you so good about knowing than in EVE's darkest corners. It is a game from another era, the era of thinker-gamers, when computer games were the privilege of educated people. The basic paradigms of EVE build on the the intelligence of the user, and I for one would hate to see the learning cliff entirely lost. Maybe have a few ladders to the most important ledges, but still.

There is owever a phenomenon that must be separated from the 'cliffs'. That some things are complex is a good thing. But there are a lot of little things - in the UI, the process of how activities work, that cause frustration by being too complex, even tedious. I'll dub these the 'hangers'. Those things that make you want to kill ('hang') yourself. So, if you are a vocal and caring player, you should stop complaining about entertaining complexity (even if its something you don't like - others still might) and start pointing out the hangers. They'll probably get around to solve them.

 Sessym out.