Last night I spent a few hours showing an old friend the game. He had been a long time friend and officer of mine in Warcraft years ago, but he had grown weary of the game and was looking for something new and exciting. Having tried EVE previously but not being too impressed at the time, and honestly I understand his sentiments as at one time Warcraft was the only language I could speak, he was here again to give this space MMO we have all come to love a fresh look.
So there I was, miles away from his starting zone but curious to put the new player experience to the real test. His character was a day old, and having tried the game once before likely more than a year ago, he probably remembered very little from his previous and short lived experience. Here was a veteran of Warcraft, but a rookie of EVE.
From my experiences with ZeeOhSix when he first came on board here at the AU-F I was determined not to simply give him any handouts to help him along, as even with the best of intentions, sometimes giving someone a free head start only costs them in the long run. Zee, with his wise and particularly intrepid ways, informed me that he would in fact not accept any assistance that he could not earn with his own two hands, so long as he was equally responsible for the work.
However, how do you let a day old player come participate with a year old player and not just shower them with free stuff and fun? I made a compromise, being an old friend who I had not talked to for a very long time, I figured, let's give his new player experience some real pizzazz! Originally, and even now to a point, Amos is waiting for this experience still, I had a corporate orientation package planned. You bring a new guy in, fresh off the trial, and what do you do to really show him the game so he knows what the rest of us do, that this is the bee's knees of MMOs? Well, in my mind you do one of two things, you bring him on some L4s, or you bring him 0.0 ratting. And the whole time you do this, you are talking about PvP with him and how this amazing money you are making goes towards it.
Much as I suspected there were almost tangible gasps of excitement and fun as he saw millions of ISK ding in his wallet while I pounded on swarms of NPC rats in an L4 and he floated around taking pot shots at them in his Executioner. As we chatted, shared a mutual fondness for MMO gaming, and got all riled up by talk of PvP, PvE, and all that EVE has to offer to a newer player, I started thinking about my own experiences as a rookie EVE player. Here he was, zipping around in a frigate that sells for 50k and he was watching millions of ISK plop in his wallet every 15 minutes. Every once in awhile he would get aggro and a single shot would get a lucky hit on his agile ship and he would be almost into structure, his frigate ready to burst into pieces and scream through space in a ball of flame.
This was me, more than a year ago, zipping through missions in my little Atron, so proud of my fast little sexy ship that seemed such a huge step forward from the rookie ship. Here was me losing that ship, thinking to myself, "PvE is so hard, I am going mining!" By the way, did you notice my fit? "Oh just a light neutron blaster, a civilian gun, a shield booster, this passive targeter once I can fit it, maybe the rats won't know I'm about to fire on them and I can stealth in, that should do the trick," I would say to myself as I fit my new ship thinking I had finally gotten into a powerful, fast, and agile tool with which I would annihilate these difficult L1s!
It is times like these, although I always know these things in the back of mind, when the realization comes roaring back, how far I and those around me have come since those days so long ago. When did it become common for me to float around in space in ships worth more than a hundred million, watching as my wallet hovers at nearly a billion on more than one character, taking such slight amusement at seeing it go up and down by twenty million every once in awhile as I peruse the markets, rat, or sell goods? I used to think a named sensor dampener drop off frigate rats in 0.6 space that was worth 3,000,000.00 ISK was a fortune and that I had so much money I could buy the biggest ship around and everyone would be impressed by my Vexor because it was such a big ship. I used to hop in my Vexor worth a few mil, and mine space rock in a ghostly empty solar system for a few hundred thousand ISK per hour dreaming of a Brutix battlecruiser as my wallet creeped forward towards the legendary 26,000,000.00 ISK that I needed to purchase it. People who own Brutix must be rich beyond belief, after all, that is not just a few hours of mining, but a couple of weeks worth! I used to take that same Vexor into L2s, poorly fitted, poorly skilled and experienced, and warp out, hull on fire, swearing PvE was the devil and I could not imagine how anyone made a living in the game from it because it must have been designed by idiots bent on tormenting new players.
It is with much gratitude and a great fondness that I look back and know that I got to experience that sort of awe and spectacle at how vast and open the game is, and that although at the time I felt like an Assault Frigate was obviously only piloted by the most veteran players in the game, that I would somehow, make it there someday. Make it to be that veteran who flew all the amazing, unbelievable ships that only the most accomplished and experienced people in the game could ever hope to fly.
But what about the new player experience, now that I am a veteran, I can pass off to a day old player a couple of L4s and a storyline, and suddenly he's looking at 20,000,000.00 ISK in his wallet after a few hours in the game? Let's be honest, the awe and wonder will not go anywhere, but the toil and frustration will. I wish I had someone like me taking me out, showing me the finish line as it were, or in reality always a new beginning and journey, the epitome of PvE, an L4, and encouraging me to think of low and null security as this wonderous place where players police themselves, and where untold riches were ripened to the point of absurdity, waiting on someone to just pluck money as if from the air itself. I spent months, months, being deathly afraid of low and null security as if it were some death trap that you jump into and suddenly found yourself assailed by hostile players at every turn. Months grinding the same L3s, the same asteroids, the same goal to get into bigger and bigger ships. Months I could have been skilling up to dash into low and null, make wild stories about good times, and be free to roam about and experience the full force of the gaming experience EVE has to offer.
These days, having nearly forgotten on a day to day basis, what it was like in those early times for me fresh off the press and still in an NPC corporation, I go out to 0.0 once a week or so, I bring a buddy, and I rake in a few hundred million ISK in a matter of hours, and though it pleases me greatly, it is business as usual. Let me not forget, nor take for granted, that half the fun is in the discovery, splendor, wonder, and awe one experiences as one journeys through this game with endless possibilities. Let me not forget, how it feels to be amazed, shocked, and thrilled to play a game that is so vast and intricate.
Looking back for a few hours last night, and then looking forward to the horizon of my gaming experience, I can only hope to continue this journey with friends, and help others along their way, as I would have wanted to be led myself, more than a year ago.
I used to think the Enyo was the epitome of success and experience, that only the most accomplished of players could fly or afford them in pitted combat. Now it sits collecting dust in my hangar at Misaba, the very first one I purchased and the paint barely has any scratches on it. Suddenly accomplishment takes on a whole new meaning for me. Having escaped the sense that material goods ingame like the POSs we have placed or the cruisers we now offer for pennies on the dollar are the measuring stick of success, I now look at who I am surrounded with on a nightly basis, and realize that is the true success. Though I always knew this in the back of my mind, last night I was reminded of this simple fact, in blazing clarity.
I may be busy almost every night, I may not chat, I may seem short, or say little, and I may be neck deep in corporate administration or hauling for hours every night for a week in a row sometimes, but I always peek my head up from the trenches now and then, and smile as I watch all my friends having a good time and dreaming the same dreams I had so long ago, of guts and glory and lasting memories.
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