iceyburnz
Crux Special Tasks Group
Gallente Federation
1176
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Posted - 2013.10.31 15:55:00 -
[1] - Quote
Games need new players.
In this;
Eve works.
Dust doesn't work.
In Eve you get your noob ship, you fly about collecting isk and waiting for skills to train. During all this you have a fundimental choice. You can choose to PvP. In high sec, PvP is limited to ganking, war decs and flying roams in less secure space. No noob ever, has to PvP in Eve. And if they do, they can take steps (if they are smart) to ensure the fights are proper fights and not just ganks to buff killboard stats.
In Dust, apart from the Academy, there is no choice. Once those 1200 warpoints are accrued, off you go to the meat grinder. That advanced weaponry you just managed to skill in, is almost worthless without the experience and the SP to back it up. As I've said before, from war academy to real matches the experience isn't one of aspiration ("I suck but I want to get better"). Its a brutal pavement stomp, ("Why am I doing this to myself"). Its a crippling demotivating experience and frankly, you have to really really like the idea of Eve and Dust to want to keep playing. Nobody plays games to feel like they suck, people get enough of that in real life. I'm not suggesting anyone is cheating, but the closest feeling I've ever had to the "step up" experience of Dusts transition from noob matches to the real deal was in the old days of PC multiplayer shooters when hacks were a lot more prevelent. There is an implicit sense of unfairness about it all (note: Im only talking about brand new, 500k sp characters, my main has over 10 mil SP now and it feels "right" when I play, new guys - uh-huh, makes me glad I started in closed beta).
The point:
Dust needs to give new players a choice, one were they can fight the 4mil SP + guys with thier pro to gears, or kick it with other noobs. How to do this thats fair and not immersion breaking? I don't know. I guess you could make up a lore excuse.
But right now, Dust is not an attractive option for casual players, because that sense of "victory", even on a basic level, is very hard to come by, when you get past the war academy battles. |