BB74: The big thing at Fanfest

Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our 74th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are, please visit the Blog Banter page.

So when this Blog Banter goes live, Fanfest will be over. Hungover geeks from around the world will be departing Reykjavik after a five-day binge of important internet spaceships and partying. Whether you were there in person, watched the streams or read the dev blogs on your mobile hidden under your work desk there was probably something in there that gave you a “nerd-boner”. What for you personally was the most important thing to come out of Fanfest 2016?

Not being able to go to Iceland and partake of the festivities myself, my Fanfest experience was much like the rest of the player base as I crowded around either my work computer or phone in order to keep up with the steady stream of information while constantly checking over my shoulder to make sure that I wasn't caught paying more attention to internet spaceships than whatever it is I do for real world money. I couldn't really help it though, because the stream of information was a good one and really easy to get wrapped up in. This didn't feel like the past two times I had kept up with Fanfest, where everything felt like more promise than probability. The content of this year's Fanfest just seemed so much more tangible than I had experienced before. The update to Valkyrie, Projects Arena and Nova, all the new content coming in Citadel, planned changes coming beyond that, and a host of other things on display just seemed to really nail home the idea that CCP is alive and kicking and ready to kick some ass.

Which is good to see. The company has had some major set backs in the last few years. The failure of World of Darkness, the coming death of Dust 514, and the general stagnation of Eve itself have just made it feel like CCP is struggling to find itself in the current landscape of digital existence. Add in the fact that the company has taken some pretty big risks with its flagship product over the past year, with things like jump fatigue and skill point trading, and its safe to say that the foundation was looking shaky at best. But, the gamble on virtual reality seems to be paying off with Gunjack and Valkyrie being legitimate hits for the new technology. Eve itself is getting a massive update this week, complete with a killer new Permaband song, and coupled with the hype surrounding the current war, enthusiasm for the game is at a significant high point. 

While it's good to see CCP growing as a company and Eve growing as a game, the biggest point I took away from Fanfest is the need for the player base to be growing as a whole. CCP Ghost's presentation on the new player experience presented one jaw dropping stat that I think everyone needs to take to heart: in the past year, 1.5 million new people tried Eve and most of them didn't even last a few hours. Imagine that for a few seconds. Eve with one and a half million extra people flying in space. I know we're pretty married to the idea of "the learning cliff" and take pride in the fact that we play THE hard game, but that's just stunning to me. I've heard many stories of people starting and giving up on the game multiple times (sometimes something as simple as "I gave up with the character editor") and I can't help but wonder what the game would be like if more people who started it stuck with it. It should be said that there's no way that entire 1.5 million would stay, and we wouldn't want them to anyway. Eve exists as it is because its played by people who "get" the game, whiners aside. Not everyone who tries it is going to get it, but if we can get to a point where even a tenth of that number is able to get through the new player struggle and latch on to the game, per year, then we would wind up with a vastly different experience in our day to day gaming lives.

As a part of Signal Cartel, I encounter plenty of people new to the game. Exploration is considered to be a fairly newbie friendly career to pick up, and we've worked hard to be the name people think of when it comes to that career path. And I've found it interesting that as people move on from being "Signaleers" they still retain a certain kind of enthusiasm for the game at large. I think a major aspect of enjoying this game is finding a group to enjoy it with, and Signal has done a lot to grow this sensibility in our ranks. And I think that is a sentiment that can carry over to CCP's growing arsenal of titles. Think of it, four individual games united under one universe (five if Arena gets an Eve tie in). There is massive potential there, but only if we can make the flagship as accessible as possible. We don't need to do away with the learning cliff, we just need to give more people grappling hooks to scale it.

The potential growth of the Eve universe, and growth that is being missed, is the biggest thing I took away from Fanfest 2016. Much as it was a celebration of where New Eden stands today, it was also a glimpse at where it could be even a year from now. There's work to be done in making that happen, sure, but there was an incredible amount of work involved in getting to where we are now. At the end of the day, I'm more optimistic about the game now than I have ever been, and its fun to play in the only universe where this kind of thing would even be possible. But those possibilities are tied to numbers, and not just warm bodies. There's clear evidence that Eve can draw outsiders in. We just need to find better ways of keeping them in without losing the identity of what makes Eve EVE. This includes bringing in folks who check out Eve because they tried one of the other titles in the universe, such as Valkyrie or Gunjack. I don't have the answer on how to do that, but I'm confident it can be done and CCP Ghost has made me hopeful that he's the guy to do it.

We'll see what happens over the year though. The Citadel expansion is another big gamble by CCP, Valkyrie and Gunjack are still riding high on "novelty" aspects, and Nova and Arena may very well go the way of WoD. But after this weekend, I see no reason to not be hopeful about the game itself, and as such I see no reason to not be hopeful about the appeal to new players. A good game will simply draw people in.

Also, faction capitals look cool as shit.

When Eve gets too real

With all the hype around Fanfest and the upcoming Citadel expansion, the Eve player base is riding pretty high at the moment. But, there are a few things that have happened today that I'd like to touch on.

The first is the harassment of  Eve streamer Crass Kitty. Recently, her grandfather passed away, something that she shared with her stream viewers. About two weeks ago, her stream was flooded with a string of new followers who all had various names making fun of the fact that her grandfather died, along with a few generic misogynistic phrases thrown in for good measure. It got to the point that Crass ended her stream early rather than continue to deal with the problem. As has been revealed today, the effort was orchestrated by members of Goonswarm who apparently don't like Crass because she does a lot of interviews with members of the Money Badger Coalition. Beyond littering her stream with references to her dead relative, it seems that they've also tracked down her real life social media accounts (as in, the ones not associated in any way with her gaming life) and tried to harass her there as well. With the unveiling of the Goons being responsible for this, there has been the expected dramatic outcry and gnashing of teeth, along with a fresh discussion of where the battle lines are drawn in the course of internet shit posting. By and large, its gotten pretty ugly out there.

Secondly, notable Eve personality Yolo Swagtron posted a genuinely heartfelt message to his corp's forums about why he has quit the game and all game related media immediately. This is most noteworthy because at the time of quitting, Yolo was actually in Iceland at Fanfest in the depths of all the Eve he could handle. Long story short, he came to the realization that the game had almost completely overtaken his life and he no longer felt as if he was in control of his personal life because he was dedicating too much time to his Eve life. He stopped what he was doing, got on a plane back home, and disconnected from the game as much as he could the moment he touched down. Essentially, he quit as cold turkey as possible and isn't looking back.

Both of these are examples of the game infringing on a player's real life in ways that are simply unhealthy. In the case of Crass Kitty, a group of players have taken in game events and used them as a reason to harass and terrorize a person out of game. With Yolo, the game is taking the form of an addiction that is slowly but surely squeezing out the rest of a person's life. In both cases, its very important to remember that this is just a game. Its a great game, enthralling in its scope and forever evolving environment and its easy to get completely overwhelmed by it, but it is still just a game. It is not a reason to attack someone personally, and it is not something worth sacrificing the rest of your life for.

Personally, I'm pretty closed off in real life these days. I have a small group of friends I talk to on a regular basis, I spend time with family pretty regularly, and I have a fantastic wife whom I love spending time with. Outside of that, my only real socializing is done online. Be it a forum for my favorite football team, various electronic music communities, social media, or games, the vast majority of people I talk to are avatars that represent people whom I will never physically shake hands with. This works fine for me as I'm pretty awkward and silent in person. Even when I was in bands playing multiple shows a week, I would generally find some dark corner to hide in and just keep to myself. What can I say, I'm just better with text. Hell, I barely ever log into Signal Cartel comms for this reason. Eve absolutely takes up a massive portion of my attention, and as a result most of the people I talk to now are in game. So I can definitely see how being so invested in the game could spiral out of control until the game has simply taken over your life.

On the other side of the "Too Real" coin, I do try to keep in mind that there is an actual person on the other side of that avatar. Someone slogging through a day job who is looking to spend their spare time doing something they enjoy and trying to have a good time before they die. And while I can gleefully roll around in the offensive without batting an eye, there is simply no reason to focus in and try to hurt the actual person behind the avatar, internet anonymity be damned.

So I'd like to wish Tony well in his endeavors in the land of reality and say that I can fully respect the feeling that the game has gotten "larger than life". I genuinely hope you can find some happiness out there and can spend your time the way you want, and if you ever do come back to New Eden we'll be happy to have you back. For Crass, I just want to say that even though the depths of internet depravity get explored by Eve players, I hope it doesn't cause you to shy away from the game because you are benefit to the Eve streaming community. Also, you seem to like exploration and Asteros...join Signal Cartel now!

To everyone else, I just want to say: we're all going to die one day. Till then, can we just have some fun and not be dicks about it? Cause that would be great. TIA.

The New Eden Daily

CCP are introducing the concept of "dailies" to Eve Online. If you don't know what is ment by "daily", its an incentive to log into the game at least once a day to do some simple task for an extra reward. In the case of the current plan for Eve, the reward is an extra 10,000 skill points for killing an NPC once every 22 hours. Put down the gun.

On the surface, I like the idea. I do find it hilarious that in the pre-skill trading world the mantra was "SP doesn't matter, player skill matters". Post-skill trading and suddenly the entire fucking game revolves around an SP total. Now, with the mere suggestion that more skill points will be available to everyone each day, not only are skill points the single most life giving important aspect of the game, but everyone will have too many and ,that makes them meaningless.

Its important to point out something I just said a second time: these skill points are available to everyone, much like the 24 hours that make up each day. I've seen it said that this is a bad move because when time is the only factor for gaining skill points, then everyone is equal. Unlike skill injectors, which do have a price of admission that keeps plenty of people from using them, the daily reward is equal in that anyone can access it. Certainly, there will be days that individual players won't be able to log in and collect, but most if not all players will miss days. The only people hurt by this would be anyone not logging in for weeks at a time or anyone who lets their subscription lapse, and I can't be bothered to give a crap how they feel about it. Its nice to see an extra incentive for actually logging in and playing the game, however briefly.

And skill points are the only incentive that make sense. ISK rewards would only lead to extra inflation go against the idea of a purely player driven market. Similarly, in-game assets would also screw things up. And there is no way things that can be bought with actual money are going to be given out on a mass scale, so Plex and Arum are out. CCP wants you to play, not cut into income streams. Beyond all that, the only real way CCP could offer a reward is in skill points.

The only things that rub me wrong here are the limited activities that offer the reward, the set flat amount of SP rewarded, and the fear of "what comes next".

Firstly, the incentive should be tied to every playstyle possible, not just NPC killing. Hacking a can, mining a rock, shooting another player, selling an item, jumping a gate or wormhole, scanning a sig hell, spinning a ship...all things I would open up to receiving the extra SP. It should legitimately be that when a player logs in and does WHATEVER THEY WANT they get the bonus. Limiting it to a few activities forces all players to do those things, and that isn't Eve.

Second, 10,000 skill points at a time anywhere always is just silly. Like any other reward, this should scale with risk and effort. Lets go with the proposed NPC killing reward. It should not be "kill one NPC anywhere and get 10,000 skill points". It should be more like "1 skill point per high sec rat killed, 100 per lowsec rat, 500 per nullsec rat, 1000 per sleeper (in wormhole), up to 10,000 per day". Similar models for different activities. A flat rate is boring, lazy, and does not encourage actual gameplay sessions. It encourages log in, do quick thing, log out. Yawn.

Third, for this to work in the context of Eve, it HAS to remain limited. There needs to be a hard cap on the amount of skill points that can be earned each day through the daily rewards. You can only passively earn so many SP over 24 hours, after all. If we stick with the 10,000 SP amount, that needs to be the limit across ALL activities that can earn the SP reward. It cannot be rat for 10k, the mine for 10k, the market for 10k, then explore for 10k,et cetera. 10k a day, per character, period. No double days, no extra rewards. Keep it simple and keep it limited.

Again, I'm not against the concept here, and I still believe that skill points don't matter. But if this is going to work, it needs to be done right within the context of Eve. Otherwise, its going to be a laughing stock. Tread lightly, devs.

Starting an alt

When I started Eve, I had long heard it referred to as a "game of alts". It is just sort of assumed that any Eve player has multiple accounts in order to do several things at once. For a long time, I went against this idea, deciding that I would play as a single character on a single account forever and ever, amen. Then, war happened.

A while ago, CCP gave every active player 20 free days of "multi character training" (MCT), meaning that a single account could train two characters free of charge. At the time, I had a few PLEX laying around, so I used one for an extra month of MCT and turned one of my character slots into a servicable gank alt. Her name was Sam (short for Samantha), and she once shot a skiff in high sec just because. Right after she finished her training queue, I joined Signal Cartel. As I dove into the Hug Thug life, Sam just sort of fell to the wayside.

Fast forward a bit, and war has engulfed New Eden. I've already tried moving Ned out of Signal Cartel, and that just plain didn't feel right. But, I really want to take part in this next chapter of the history of Eve. While Ned might be the pacifist, Sam has just been laying around biding her time. She'll need some work to be actually useful in a war, but she isn't starting from scratch either. Problem is, so long as she is on the same account as Ned, she can't train unless I spring for more MCT, which isn't as efficient as just starting a second account.

So I pulled the trigger. Sam now resides in her own account and I have officially joined the "alt" crowd. I'll be putting Sam into Pandemic Horde to do what I can in the war as soon as possible. Ned stays at home in Signal Cartel, and everyone is happy.

Three cheers for multiple personalities!

War, Baby! (Or, War For Eve Babies)

I joined the game just slightly after the Battle of B-R. The hype over the biggest fight in video game history was still fresh in everyone's mind, the ClusterFuck Coalition was still riding high over establishing themselves as the premiere power in Nullsec, and everyone who was joining the game at the time had visions of being part of the "next big thing". What nobody knew then was that there wouldn't be a next big thing for the next two years. Certainly there were minor conflicts and events but nothing that truly changed the game in any significant way. There were big fights but nothing gigantic and headline worthy outside of Eve specific media. By and large, the game was just in a holding pattern, with no one willing to pull the trigger on the next big war.

As we approach the cusp of the next major set of changes focused on sovereignty and warfare (namely the introduction of new player structures and a re-imagining of capital ships in the Eve: Citadel expansion on April 27), the gears of war have been churning and grinding themselves into a frenzy that culminated this week in one of the largest battles in the history of New Eden, the Battle of MOE. Headlines are being made, both in game related media and gaming media in general. Fantastic videos of the battle have exploded across YouTube, and epic screenshots of bubbles and battleships are dotting the internets as far as a mouse can click. And we all know what (hopefully) comes with a lot of hype and exposure: newbros.

If you'd like to read up on how the Eve universe wound up at the Battle of M-OEE8, Matterall has a pretty great write up here. For an overview of how the battle looked and went, check out this dev blog by CCP Manifest.

Unlike B-R however, MOE isn't the climax of the last great war, but it is (fingers crossed) the first major escalation of what is set up to be the next great war. Unlike all the newbies that signed up in the wake of B-R, there's actually a chance to get in on the fun if you're getting in right now. But it's not like you could just start an account an YOLO it out to the frontlines of a freaking war on day one, right? Eve is supposed to be this long ass waiting game where you first start out by mining for six months just to afford your first good ship right. Screw that, get your ass out there and kill stuff!

There are several groups currently involved in this war who will gladly take your fresh, delicious newbro brains and throw them into the fires of war while laughing maniacally teaching and encouraging you to be the best killing machine you can be. What's more, they help you learn to make some money on your own, and help you get into ships and fleets in order to take part in all this content raining down from the heavens. Let's look at a few options for newbros to get in on the action. These are presented in alphabetical order to keep it simple.

A Band Apart -  A two year old alliance founded by the three year old lowsec PvP group Stay Frosty, ABA has always operated under an open door recruitment policy. Simply send in an application to one of the member corporations (I'd recommend Vagrant Skies first), and you're in. Currently, the alliance has players of all ages and skill levels deployed to support the Low Sec Voltron coalition, with more members joining the fight every day. Once the war is over, ABA will move back to lowsec and do what they do best, undocking and fighting everything that moves. The Alliance also has groups living in various other parts of space, so there's opportunity to try your hand at different things.

Brave Newbies - At one point, if you mentioned "new player" and PvP, it was assumed you were talking about these guys. While they've fallen on hard times as of late and aren't nearly the force that they once were, they are still the first major entity entirely focused around helping newbros get out there and start fighting. In the current war, Brave is filling in a support role for the other major players deployed against the Imperium, using their members to fill in fleets when others need more numbers and assisting in defending others' homelands. These guys have been training new players since day one and through everything they still find ways to have fun. Once the war is over, they'll just go back to learning, growing, being chaotic, and wearing the "We're bad at this" badge with honor. At least until the next coup, of course.

Dreddit - this is the primary newbie friendly corp of Test Alliance Please Ignore, one of the bigger members of the Money Badger Coalition and a long time adversary of The Imperium. Dreddit started out as and continues to exist as a group mostly focused on socializing through Reddit.com, and focuses more on community and recruitment (when not shooting internet spaceships, of course). These guys are very well established at helping new players get on their feet and into fights out in Nullsec, and they've got plenty of war experience to boot. Once this war is over, TEST offers plenty of ways for its members to find fun, regardless of the outcome. Be warned, TEST is pretty well known throughout the Eve universe, so expect to come across plenty of shit talking as you dive into the game.

KarmaFleet - If you want to get in on the Goonswarm (google them if you don't know them) side of things, then KarmaFleet is where you'll want to go. Essentially adopting the Reddit-centric newbie friendly recruitment strategy of Brave Newbies (who basically took the concept from Dreddit first), Karma is easiest way to get hooked up with the largest organization in the game, The Imperium. While The Imperium is basically seen as the villain by everyone else in the game (a role they enjoy), inwardly they view themselves as being the underdog against the rest of the world. All members get access to some great resources, including unlimited free small and cheap ships for PvP, plus a wealth of knowledge from one of the best sources in the game. These guys are on the defensive right now, though, so expect to be fighting early and often because right now it really is them versus everyone else. The only downside it once you're a Goon, its hard to wipe that from your record. Fortunately, these guys offer playstyles pretty much anywhere you can imagine, so you probably won't have to be anything else.

Pandemic Horde - Pandemic Legion is known for being one of the more skill intensive groups in the game, especially when it comes to capital ship warfare, but that doesn't mean they didn't want to get in on this whole "Use Reddit to recruit lots of new players" thing as well. Enter Pandemic Horde. In addition to all the usual trappings of a newbro group like free skillbooks and ships, Horde also has a unique "mentoring program" with their big brothers in PL. The Pandemic Family ("Pan Fam") is very well known for getting content to its members, with or without holding sov themselves. While Pandemic Legion currently backs up the rest of the Money Badger Coalition in taking on The Imperium head on, Horde is charged with a harrassment campaign on the other side of Imperium space, essentially ensuring that the war exists on all sides for Goonswarm and co.

Spectre Fleet - In the lexicon of Eve, "NPSI" basically means anyone who is not in your current fleet is someone worth shooting. Ordinarilly, this was reserved to informal groups who only got together every now and then, but Spectre Fleet has made it the core principle that they built themselves around. Their whole goal is to get people into ships and ammo onto hulls. While not specifically a new player focused group, they will take anyone they can get and force feed them fights to their hearts content. Currently, Spectre is deployed against the Imperium, but if they need to shoot others they will whenever and where ever suits them. When the war is over, they'll go back to doing what they do: fleets every day looking for fights anywhere they can find them.

A few other options - If you're not really wanting to jump head first into this war, but all the hype has you wanting to give the game a try, there are a few places to go. The first is Eve University, who are probably the oldest new player organization in the game. Styling themselves as an actual school for players, they offer classes and training on practically anything you could even possibly want to learn about the game. If you still want to get out where the fighting is, but don't really want to pick a side, consider Affirmative., a null sec based alliance who are happy to take wide eyed newbies out on a hunt, be they fellow members or otherwise. And if you're really not looking for the whole PvP thing, but still want to get out where other players can shoot you, you might be interested in Signal Cartel, a newbie friendly group focused on exploration and general silliness (yes, it's a shameless plug, its my blog :P).

Don't listen to all those comments on the articles you've read that say new Eve players can't get into the fun stuff. There has never been a better time to be a new player in New Eden because there have never been more groups focused on getting new players out into space experience the game. So don't just read about it, get in here and get going, baby!

***NOTE: If I missed any new player friendly groups currently involved in the war, please let me know and I will gladly add you to the list***

Spam that link!

Last weekend, a group of Eve streamers put on a 72 hour live stream in order to raise money for a charity. The event was called "EVEathon" and the charity was the newly created Spam4Heals non-profit focused on suicide prevention and mental health out reach to the gaming community. Any of my twitter followers probably noticed that I was very vocal about the event.

I don't really have any kind of super personal connection to suicide prevention. The only person I've known who has taken their own life is a friend of my mother who killed himself when I was ten years old. After that, as I got more and more into the metal scene, suicide was always one of those things that just sort of came with the territory. Me and everyone I knew was accused of being suicidal just because we wore dark clothes and listened to angry music. Outside of those two experiences, I have no real realm of consciousness when it comes to the act of taking your own life. But, that doesn't prevent me from having an opinion on it.

I do not judge anyone for killing themself. Whatever the reason is, I can fully understand the idea of feeling so helpless and out of control that you decide to take control of the one thing you actually can in your life, namely your time and method of death. Every other aspect of your life is either dependent on the consequences of you previous actions or upon things outside of your control. The one thing a person can absolutely decide about their life is when to end it and how, and I can understand the appeal of that. I don't think less of people who do kill themselves, and I do not think a person is "weak" if they end their own life.

However, I am a big believer in life. The one thing I can tell you for certain is that as long as you wake up, you've got a chance worth taking. There may be thousands of reasons you can think of to end your own life, be it illness or debt or depression or whatever other hardship you can come up with. I say this as someone who at one point was homeless and jobless: tomorrow gives you a chance, take it. The only other alternative is to legitimately have no chance. Yes, you can control the time and method of your death, but the cost of that is absolutely everything else that is even possible. Given the two options, I'll choose "tomorrow" every day.

So when Spam4Heals, an offshoot of the Broadcast4Reps, Best of us, and Care4Kids communities in Eve, became a thing, I had no problem latching onto it. My own optimism for day to day life is my driving factor for supporting it. After the Twitch marathon raised over $6,700 for it, I announced that all sales of my newly released album would be donated towards it. I love life and I want everyone else to love living as much as I do. Adding to that, I love video games and I love having people to discuss those games with, so the ultimate goal of the organization just clicks with me. Yes, things can get to the point that you feel the only option is to kill yourself, and yes, people need to be convinced otherwise. Suicide doesn't end pain and suffering, it just transfers it to folks you know. Tomorrow is an option, albeit a tough one, and its the option worth taking. If I can, in some small way, help convince someone of that, then I'm going to do whatever I can to make that happen. Life is rough, let's have fun.

I'll always be looking for ways to promote Spam4Heals, be it through awareness or through fundraising. As a gamer, I know that gaming as an outlet can feel incredibly lonely and its hard to find a group you can open up to. As a person, I know life can kick your ass and the only option might seem to be ending it. In either case, I'm going to take the stance of "fuck that, let's survive and party".

The world is more kick ass with you in it. I promise that, and I will fight for it.

Eve is hard

Earlier today, a link to a list of 10 obnoxiously hard games popped up in my twitter feed. Now, I've been a gamer my whole life, ever since little five year old me got a Nintendo Entertainment System for Christmas. Fun fact: I played Duck Hunt first because the gun looked cooler than a game about a guy in overalls. Ever since then I've feasted on games as the industry grew, and I developed a great enjoyment of finding games that other people would insist were too hard. This probably started with Battletoads, and grew from there (side note: fuck the Turbo Tunnel).

Anywho, so given my enjoyment of finding impossible games, I of course hit the link to see which ones I hadn't tried and which ones I had. I was happy to see roughly half of them were games I had played. Happier still because that meant I had some new games to look into. Because the list doesn't actually link any of the mentioned games, I'll do so here.

10. Kerbal Space Program - Not played
9. Discworld - Played
8. The Talos Principle - Played
7. Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes - Not played
6. Digital Combat Simulator - Not Played
5. Hacknet - Played
4. Spacechem - Not played
3. Victoria II - Not played
2. EvE Online - Ofc
1. Dwarf Fortress - Played

It definitely warmed my heart to see Eve close to the top of that list. I've mentioned before that the main reason I play is because I was told that a new player couldn't come into the game and survive at this point. And I'll agree that the writer has a point that the "spreadsheets in space" moniker and the extrodinarily complex user interface can seem insanely overwhelming at first. But, considering the amount of information and access that UI needs to offer to players, its little wonder that it seems complicated to fresh eyes. At least, until you figure out that you don't need to know every single detail of it immediately. You learn it over time as needed. Likewise, the idea of maintaining out of game spreadsheets in order to keep track of in game information seems like an impossible mountain to climb until you again realize that its something done over time, not immediately. The famously steep learning curve for Eve, in hindsight, is more of a slow walk uphill. Incidentally, I feel like an explanation of this is still missing from the "new player experience" and starting the game still seems too "learn everything NOW!" for my liking.

While the author of the list misses what makes Eve a difficult game, he's not wrong in labeling it a difficult game. As Dirk pointed out on Twitter, the reason Eve is hard is because of the players and their decisions. While other games have their forms of PvP and sense of competition, no other game can present itself as the sum total of the actions of its player base. From the politics of null sec to the movement of the markets in Jita, from the warzones of lowsec to the terrifying unknowns of wormhole space, from the wardecers, gankers, and PvE'ers in high sec to a simple little group of explorers living by the mantra of "we won't shoot first", its all meaningful because its all the result of player actions. And the consequences of those actions. Sure, the sci fi fan in me loves that it all comes packaged as a spaceship game, but the actual game consists of what everyone else is doing and how it affects you (and vice versa). Its not a scripted mechanic that can simply be learned. It is a persistent, evolving existence that requires constant learning, attention, re-evaluation, and adaptation. Its why those who play the game joke about being "bad at Eve". What made you good today is what someone else is going to figure out how to beat tomorrow.

Is that a perfect representation of the "challenge" of Eve? No. But its the philosophy I see in the game and its how I judge the actions of the developers.  Its why I will continuously say that CCP needs to embrace the idea of Eve being "the hard game" because what makes it hard isn't something written in the lines of code and ideally something they'll never have control over. And its a central reason why I remain optimistic that Eve can survive the decline of MMO's overall (a subject that probably deserves its own post altogether). Unlike the feeling of "a bunch of people playing a similar game simultaneously", the feel of Eve is genuinely "a bunch of people playing each other", and therein lies the difficulty inherent to the game. You can learn game mechanics and you can learn to optimize the ways you deal with those mechanics.

People, on the other hand, are hard to learn.