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.

To boldly go where thousands have gone before...

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #30

Since the review for the Blog Banter 30 is out, I thought I owe an expansion to my banter post... Since, guess what, Bold Pilot Log entries are hitting 30 as well! So, Stan probably has got a take on the original concept, or if not he thought it was fitting into the profile of ORE and aptly named the mothership concept "Athena", which in his honor, I'll use as the name of the Gallente Mothership.

So, we have ourselves a ship that's capable of serving as a core for a deep space operation, such as Freebooting Freelancer Inc. Unauthorized Bounty and Resource Extraction, Manufacturing and Research Company. The idea here is to help small entities that probably wouldn't have the numbers to get a hold in wild space. They're only a few people a corp, with possibly less than ten active members, who usually are online for a limited time. They think the life in null or wormholes is really fun, but the POS is too permanent for their liking. Setting up a tower is too tedious if you have to be constantly on the move. Sou our wily space nomads get themselves a Mothership, the type of ship that'll serve them as their makeshift home, and will allow them quick movement if the ground gets too hot for their liking. All they have to do to move the whole base around is have it unanchor (come out of deployment mode), and jump the whole fleet at once (if they are on grid, and unless they are in combat) to a system far, far away...

Development of the Mothership concept

But guess what... It wasn't ORE's idea in the first place! In fact, the Minmatar people, especially the Thukkers always had a taste for a nomad lifeform... The problem was, they couldn't afford to run stations or towers in the far reaches of space, so what they did was is to re-purpose an existing capital ship design to suit their needs. Now they had everything they needed in the place they wanted in the time they wanted. The military implications of such a mobile outpost had not been considered at this time, and the concept was dismissed as a civilian effort. With the strengthening of the capsuleer militia however, the Republic started to look at ways to mix the effectiveness of the capsuleer vessels with the mobility of the Thukker Motherships. After a few months of engineering, this resulted in the Wolverine, the first capsule-fitted Mothership ever designed.

Meanwhile in the Empire... A few very bold Blood Raider attempts were led by ships with huge cargo and docking capacities, hauling hundreds of Raider dropships to the site of the Raid, similar to the first Incursion tactics. Soon, the military experts at the Empire realized what was happening - and that they can't fight off the Raiders without their own forces having a way to deploy full mobile operations. Searching for ways to achieve this goal, they put forth a commission for the most effective Mothership design. It was shortly decided that the Imperial Armaments' 'Reclaimer' will win.

The Caldari agents had ears and eyes everywhere again, and the Raata kind of liked the idea of having a ship serve as a mobile base for the quick response fleets. The race began as every major armaments provider started to test their own designs fr the task. In a somewhat heated discussion, the leaders of the State finally decided that the Kaalakiota Corporation's Albatross will be fitted for capsuleer usage.

The Gallente Federation's own engineers were still busy revising their Hybrid designs, when this new challenge was put forth. Luckily, ORE had been in the process of creating a ship design that would be more suitable for the hostile environment of capsuleer-inhabited outer space than the Rorqual. They sold the plans for an undisclosed (and probably incredibly high) sum of ISK to the Federation. A small group of talented scientists from all areas spent about a year, re-purposing the original blueprints to fit into the Federation's military profile.

Properties - what makes a MS a MS?

So, here we go. All the four factions have their own Mothership designs. There are things they share, in the form of base stats and bonuses, coming from their role. However, them being racial, this allows for a diversity of small boosts they can give to the fleet they are supporting. Let's go through the commonalities first:

• They have no drone bay or hardpoints. There should be a whole group of people that are (should be) able to defend them at all times.
• They have the ability to fit POS modules as if they were regular ones, and have the role bonuses to reduce the grid requirements to an acceptable level. The POS modules allow them to be used the corresponding station service. A list further down.
• They have the resources comparable to that of a Tier 3 Battleship. If they had more, they could fit capital modules in their spare slots, or they shouldn't have spare slots, both of which makes them too pewerful in combat or much less interesting to fly.
• They can support up to two gang links in their high slots.
• They can use their POS modules and gang links when in deployed mode, other modules can only be activated when they are mobile.
• Deployment itself does not consume fuels, but the usage of the station functions does.
• They cost about three carriers' worth of materials to build, and their hit points are tuned in a way that they have sufficient buffer to last through a low-number capital engagement with capital support. Dreadnoughts will be the bane of these ships.
• They have a cargo hold of 5000 or more. There are a lot fo things that you'd want to put in them even if you don't plan to participate in cargo heavy activities.

The POS modules would all fit to High Slots, allowing the following functions:

• Assembly Array: We want to be able to sustain ourselves in space, right? That means it has to be able to fit assembly arrays, fuel cost linked to manufacture job scale. It should also be able to construct ships, so allow the fitting of up to Large and Medium Advanced arrays.
• Ship Maintenance Array: Docking (as in a station) of up to a balanced number of people with subcapital ships only. Timed ship and module repair and capacitor recharge (which use fuel), fitting service (only when docked).
• Corporate Hangar Array: Storage of modules, commodities and ores within the hold of the ship. Essentially a corp hangar that's again only accessible if docked. Moving items, stacking, repackaging should cost fuel if there was at least one item to be executed on.
•  Mobile Laboratory & subtypes: Research slots. Each job consumes a certain amount of fuel depending on the scale it represents.
• Moon Harvesting Array: Yeah, you read it right. They can mine moons. Fuel is consumed for each cycle.
• Reactor Array: If they can mine moons, why not be able to react the materials? Well, they should be able to. Fuel, again is consumed per cycle. Silos are not wanted here, the materials could be placed in the cargo of the ship.
• Refining Array: The ability to reprocess minerals in deeps space is a really good thing. It should definitely not step on the toes of the Rorqual (compressing ore must remain a valid way of operation) and neither should it be more preferable than a station. Stuff can be refined from a corp hangar or the cargo and a balanced time will lapse before the end product appears in the location of origin.

Racial Bonuses

Now that we have looked at what the Mothership can do, let's stop for a moment. I did wish for factional ships rather than only one, but we can look at it from the other angle - why would I pick an Athena over a Reclaimer? Well, because they have different bonuses, meaning that the other might suit your play style! Remember, this has to keep small group in mind when in design. So, let's look at what kind of bonuses the ships would offer.

Wolverine:

• Bonus to traditional Minmatar Command links.
• Bonus to capacitor need of jumps.
• Bonus to Refining Array efficiency.

Reclaimer:

• Bonus to traditional Amarr Command Links
• Bonus to the maximum number of docked ships (when a ship maintenance array is fitted)
• Bonus to  Assembly Array slot number

Athena:

• Bonus to traditional Gallente Command links
• Bonus to jump range
• Bonus to Corporate Hangar capacity

Albatross:

• Bonus to traditional Caldari Command Links
• Bonus to jump fuel consumption.
• Bonus to Laboratory slot number

Closing Words

So, here we have them. The pride of any nomad group - their Mothership, their mobile home. No longer are they forced to carry around POS modules in clumsy ships, and no longer does it take hours to move from one system to another. Just unanchor the Mothership and go. Well, there obviously have to be some drawbacks, righ? Well, here is the list I can offer:

1. The whole stuff only works if the pilot is online. Account sharing is a bannable offense. I leave the conclusions to you.
2. It consumes fuel for every freaking operation (just as a POS would, maybe even more). You have to keep the checkbooks tight if want to rely on this thing.
3. The tank on this ship is really thin for its size. No capital modules means that the Motherships can barely be fitted to be saved by a good triage carrier when caught by a gang.
4. The only safety this ship has is that in can sit on a deep space bookmark and cloak up.

I'm pretty sure there are a lot of ways that you can exploit these things, and there may be big holes in the idea, but that's why I'm putting it out there - take a look and please comment if have any suggestion as to how it could be improved.

Sessym out.

Blog Banter 30: Immersive Marketing

Bold Pilot Log, Entry #28

'Tis a new month again, and our favourite British Minmatar Keeper O'Records Record-A-Worthy, put forth another two questions to banter posts for his keeping o'records. The first question cometh:

"With the Winter expansion possibly being named 'Crucible', it certainly is a melting pot of refinements and tweaks aimed at making the EVE experience smoother and more wholesome. If the developers suddenly found themselves some spare resources and approached you for an additional feature to include before release, what single concept would you pitch them and how would you implement it?"

You probably already know that I'm a lazy person, so I'll just point you at my previous post (funny how I answered the question before it was asked, huh? ). I'll wait patiently until you read my Letter to Sansha Claus, then, if you still want more rants, welcome back here.

For bonus points, the one thing lacking from this "patchwork" of iterations is a cohesive storyline to package "The Crucible" together. How could this expansion be marketed to potential new customers?"


Now that, ladies, gentlemen and capsuleers is a good and hard question. Exactly the ones that I like! So let's start dissecting it. So we want something that makes 'Crucible' make sense. I'll answer with another word. "Embrace". The whole excpansion is about breaking stagnation and embracing a new concept. To hold something close that's so dear to everyone. And that thing is violence and change. Let this expansion be the finger that points up: it gets only better! So how about this narrative:

"There are things that never change. Or this is that some want to believe. But they are wrong. We all were, at some point, wrong. The absence of change is something none desire. Change is your test, your challenge put forth by the universe. We, capsuleers are the cavaliers of change. Creation, destruction, violence, compassion - they all serve the same purpose. The world is merciless, harsh. Despite this, the whole has a purpose - and that purpose is ours to shape..."

I would certainly enjoy a trailer with something like that. It could be a nice sequel to the "I was there" episode saying that "we are capsuleers, we are the symbols of change".

I must however, put forth a disclaimer before continuing. When looking at new players, I'm very picky. I'm not content with 'any players will do'. This may seem an elitist attitude, but don't get me wrong. In my belief, there are people that have no need of the EVE universe, and it's probably better off without them, too. I know some of those people, and I'm certain you know some. These are the people that cannot enjoy the game for the same reasons long-term EVE players do. This is mainly because if you're living on a wormhole colony or something and hadn't already noticed, we have a say in where the game develops.

There are voices that should and shouldn't be heard. Those that don't play, those that can't accept the parts of the game they don't like, those that are not prepared to stay with the game - they'll probably never shut up... but they can be ignored in my opinion. I know that's a bit harsh, but so is EVE, and I like "her" that way. If I need love, I go to my wife. If I want violence and challenge, I'd prefer to pixel shoot pixel people in pixel spaceships than real fights.

And guess what? Crucible is a very good name - a well defining name. There are all kinds of people doing all kinds of things to each other. Because they want to. Because they can. And the heat of it all, the challenge, the test is yours to jump in. With a little care and clever design, CCP can show the world a new class of marketing: the active, interactive, immersive one. The "we'll give you what you want" message is well received from the existing players. And in my opinion, CCP should build on the tight community, keep it that way. Inflated subscriber numbers may not be as good as the beancounters think. EVE is not about fun - it is about complexity, longevity, planning, understanding, learning - the things that really define a hobby. Many people look at it that way - and that is what CCP should look to achieve. Because favourites, games are cycled throughout the lives of people - usually in a seven-year cycle - but hobbies persist. You never really quit hobbies. These are the things you enjoy spending your time on - and EVE should always provide a lot of opprtunities to reward the time spent on it.

There's something in marketing that many sales specialists build on when advertising: perceived vaule. In this world, in this economy, soon there will be only one thing that has substantial perceived value by the 'simple' people: longevity. EVE is good at it, but not as long as the database is running on Tranquility (and its descendants) - only until people consider the game to be worh talking about and the players worth helping. Do you really think they should ignore that?

Sessym out.