I was perusing Noobs latest post… “Day 832 : Roid Rage and the End” and at the end he tells of a “thing” he found in space… something unusual… something unexplained… something… weird.
As he puts it,
“…encountered some weird station
scenery attached to the bizzaro Gallente science station model. I'd go and make
sure it's common scenery of some form but I'm rather attached to the notion
that it's an alien UFO.”
It was a UBGL… (Unidentified Blinking Green Light)... seemingly
attached to nothing… like a beacon, but (mebbe) not. Now Noob didn’t say if he
tried to pull a show-info on it or whether it was something he could even click
or target, but I prefer not to know if it was… you see, I really really liked
that it was mysterious… unknown… weird.
And I think we need more of that in EvE. What I mean is I think we
need less from CCP…
Less “discussion” about what is to come…
Less “transparency” over the mechanics of what is to come…
Less “What do YOU want?” asked about what is to come…
No, what we may really need is more of CCP responding like this on
the forums…
“Wait, what did you say you ‘found’ out in
space?”
“What’s that? You say
/you were mysteriously pulled out of warp
/you warped to a mission and instead were confronted
/you were attacked at a [wormhole/gate/sun/planet/moon/etc.]
/your POS was camped
/your POS was bubbled
/your POS was attacked
/your POS was taken down
by
/[unknown] NPC faction(s)
/NPC pirates
/NPC fleet(s)
that had
/X ship(s)
/X fit(s)
/X mods
and that you
/you were mysteriously pulled out of warp
/you warped to a mission and instead were confronted
/you were attacked at a [wormhole/gate/sun/planet/moon/etc.]
/your POS was camped
/your POS was bubbled
/your POS was attacked
/your POS was taken down
/[unknown] NPC faction(s)
/NPC pirates
/NPC fleet(s)
that had
/X ship(s)
/X fit(s)
/X mods
/watched them from a distance
/barely
escaped from them
/killed them
/got totally pwned by them
/had your fleet wiped out by them
/ran screaming from them
/got PODDED by them(!?!)
and they
/used mods you had never seen before
/dropped loot you had never seen before
/had salvage you had never seen before
/looted and salvaged YOUR ships!!
/LOLed in local... using your NAME(S)?”
/used mods you had never seen before
/dropped loot you had never seen before
/had salvage you had never seen before
/looted and salvaged YOUR ships!!
/LOLed in local... using your NAME(S)?”
"Oh my... Now that’s very strange
aint it?... I wonder just where (that/them/those)
came from?” “Please keep us updated on what you find ok?”
IRL we don’t get updates and blogs posts from the almighty or the
gods on high entitled; “What’s Coming Soon to a Universe near YOU!” So why do we in New
Eden? I mean it’s a Science FICTION Space Game right? OK, so when I read a new
Sci-Fi novel or see a new Sci-Fi movie the LAST thing I want is all the
spoilers given to me ahead of time… so why do we expect, or even want, all the
spoilers laid out in advance in EVE? Not just laid out for us but laid out in detail,
with forums and debate and even voting FFS?
I actually do wish CCP would reintroduce the wondrous element of
DISCOVERY, bring back an air MYSTERY and add a touch of THE UNKNOWN to our game.
Oh maybe not on every planned, proposed or considered change and/or addition (but in truth would that necessarily be ‘bad’?
Really think hard on that for a bit before you answer…) but to make some,
mebbe lots of the smaller but impactful, additions or changes… like say the
burner missions and/or frigate only wormholes… as UNANNCOUNCED changes and/or additions…
and allow us to DISCOVER them all on our own. Imagine being offered a mission
or scanning down a wormhole NO ONE has EVER even heard of before… Now THAT would be something wouldn’t it?
So CCP, if you want players to get or stay interested in EVE then
let us DISCOVER the game on our own.… consider shutting up for a while, write some
new and interesting code, and let the ships fall where they may. You sorta did
that back in ’03 and you did a bang up job of it when you released Apocrypha… and
that worked out fantastically.
Give us back a ‘verse like the one that those very first players
in ’03 undocked into and the verse those lucky players first found when
wormholes first appeared in the skies of New Eden… a ‘verse full of DISCOVERY
and WONDER.
Modern day EVE has wayyy too much talk talk… and not nearly enough
WTF and OMG… and we NEED more of that… lots more.
PS. Cripes... my brother and sister bloggers will understand this...
I have re-read this post a few times since I published it... and the problem is... now I know I have no choice but to try and come up with some :words: for a post entitled
"Let the Ships Fall Where They May...."
<facepalm> gods help me... =\
Good point. I used to play a text multi-user game (ok, a MUD) where you could earn 'Explorer Points' for doing seemingly obscure things, or just finding places - like trying to squeeze through a drain, challenging Death for a game of chess instead of waiting out the death sequence, visiting an island which offered no quest whatsoever just for the purpose of sightseeing, attempting to fight a giant snake with your bare hands. None of these were documented anywhere, nor were you notified in an obvious fashion when you got them - but they did show up on your character description.
ReplyDeleteAnd even in our enlightened times, where patch notes announce every detail so that the discerning power gamers can have their theorycrafting complete before the update even reaches the intertubes - such kind of exploration could be snuck in nevertheless.
It is exactly the ...patch notes announce every detail... so that ...power gamers can have their theorycrafting complete... I am railing against. When Goons, or anyone, has a plan in place to 'game' the game's newest set of rules BEFORE they hit Tranquility something is badly wrong with the process...
DeleteWhen CCP gave us wormholes, they did NOT give us a rulebook or a game mechanics manual for Anoikis like "Wormholes For Dummies" or "How To Run Sleeper Sites For Fun and Profit"... I was not here for Apocrypha, but everything I have read reads like the heady days of Yuri Gagarin, when America trembled at the sound of our... oops, wrong movie metaphor... but actually not... Space exploration was then and still is today a damn deadly and dangerous affair. There is no "Space Exploration for Dummies" guidebook IRL why should there be one in New Eden?
Now I don't mean the Whyfore and How Tos for our spaceships, modules, flight and orbital mechanics, cloning and all such man made artifice... but out there in the black we should not have a detail road map... WE should be discovering the rules and making roadmap as we go.
I dunt know about you but my real life dint come with Patch Notes... why should my virtual life?
Sorry, but have to disagree with at least part of your main point.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm going to play a game, I want to know what the rules are. Period.
One can still have mystery without obscuring mechanics, and yes, that mystery is cool and awesome and needed.
That's why I refused to use the site guides for the first 12-18 months; I wanted to go into a mission/sleeper site/etc with a fit based only off the description I got of the site in-game. Yeah, I lost a few ships, and yes, I wasn't as efficient as I could have been, but in a way, it was more fun.
I did not say you can't have a rulebook... just not a step by step Mission Guide for missions NO ONE has seen yet... detailed guides for wormholes NO ONE has ever jumped through... no pre-researched guides for interactions within the game that have never been seen before.
DeleteI'm only proposing that CCP should not announce those mechanics that have to do with HOW to run "X" site, fit against "X" opponent, gather "X" bacon... I want CCP to let US figure that stuff out for ourselves... the way they did so successfully with wormholes.
You know as well as I that in short order our intrepid playerbase will post updates to EVE Survival and the myriad blogs and forums and suchlike on anything NEW in the game... I just want to look forward to DISCOVERING stuff out there... I don't want efficient... I want FUN!
Yeah, that's part of the reason I've left EvE and, if I'm honest, likely will never be back. It's not fun any more. Part of that is CCP's fault for the reasons you've mentioned and part is the players'. That I agree with you about.
DeleteThe reason I made the comments about the mechanics is that I've seen far too many people actually advocate for obscuring basic mechanics from players and touting it as good design.
Yea, and sorry I am to hear that. But, if I may, I believe EVE is fun if you make it fun... EVE is after all one of the most 'subjective' MMOs in the world. We create our own stories here... CCP just makes the gameboard and pieces... we fill in the rest.
DeleteMy post was about the gameboard and pieces and how I really prefer finding out new areas and new pieces on our own, I think it adds to the 'virtuality' of the game. CCP has gotten too caught up in communicating with the playerbase about the future... In the end it really is their game, not ours... we are just those who are privileged to play there. CCP needs to remember that and work more FOR us, not so very very much WITH us.
As for anyone who feels basic mechanics, how things work and/or how to do things in EVE (and I too have heard this touted a 'good design') are mostly veteran griefers and scammers who want even more of an advantage over newer players... and they can all go fuk themselves. Seriously. HOW to play the game, especially how to play successfully against older players, should be as transparent and accessible as possible to ALL players, MOST especially to new players.
I just want parts of the board to read... "Here be Dragons"... and leave it up to us to figure our where they are, what they are, how to not get eaten by them, how to kill them, and then, how to successfully cart off the mountains of gold they were guarding... =]
Agree completely, Tur (and sorry for the very late reply). You know, your Here Be Dragons comment brought one of the level 1 mission to mind where you have to get a thing and if you info it, the description reads "This is a thing. It does stuff." I laughed myself silly when I encountered that. It'd be nice if CCP could get some of that humour back.
DeleteFor the record - you can't interact with the thing at all.
ReplyDeleteTiny things like this build atmosphere. It's a big universe. Add oddities that are fun just to go and see. It worked with the Titanomachy. I wonder if CCP has the tools to create tiny things like this that provide no material gain but amplify the notion that you're in a living, breathing universe. Keep them out of the release notes and let them spread by word of mouth.
That's wonderful! I was hoping it was a not a beacon or some such pedestrian object in space...
DeleteI can guarantee you CCP has the tools to create ANYTHING they want to in the game, from weird green lit whatinthehellsthats to Missions with large NPC fleets of PVP fit pirates that bash your POS cause theyduntlikeyerface...
...the notion that you're in a living, breathing universe. Keep them out of the release notes and let them spread by word of mouth. This, This! and THIS!! That's what I'm talking about!! You got it brother.
For my part, Babylon 5 was a seriously good TV series in that it keep showing you small pieces of the puzzle before any big reveal. It was a touch of wut the?!?!, a dash of ooooo, with a side serving of mystery spiced with a dash of uh-oh...
ReplyDeleteWhen something big happened, the phone would go off during the ad breaks, and various friends would be yelling down the line going "Did you see that? DID YOU SEE THAT!??!?!?"
It would be because one of the characters in the show went out and hunted down the mystery (often times to the own detriment) and not because of patch notes. We don't need to see everything. We don't need to know everything.
Totally agree with you in other words Tur. Hope life is treating you well.
Hey Helena! Yea... sorta... I got job issues.... as In lack of. Oh well, RL sucks and EVE is harsh huh?
DeleteI do so wish CCP would back down from the transparency thing... they are caught up in it and not GIVING us a good game... you can't please everyone and you sure as hell can't please the EVE Playerbase!! Not by asking them what they want... too many very diverse opinions... too much talk talk...
Heck, yeah, EVE needs mystery. I didn't get into exploration because the labor of scanning down and "discovering" Rat Site #14 didn't appeal to me. Moar strange, plz.
ReplyDeleteMoar strange plz.... My new mantra and shoulda been the title... =] Thanx man!
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