What women want (in Eve) - Blog Banter

**DISCLAIMER** I am not a woman, I have no intrinsic knowledge as to what they want or don't want in a game. I am basing this entire article off what my experience with other female gamers has been.

This entry is part of Crazy Kinux's 17th Blog Banter where he asked "What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game?" This is a pretty heavy subject, so lets get down to it.

With women making up less that 5% of the total Eve player base it is understandable why CCP might want to tap into this under represented market. One thing is clear, the must not sacrifice their current player base to do this. Even if they were able to increase the number of women playing the game by 300% it would be catastrophic if those same changes caused the male player base to drop by even 1/3. So the question shouldn't just be "How can CCP attract, and retain, more female players?" It should be "How can CCP attract and retain more female players while not diminishing it's current player base?"

New Name, Same Author

Just to clarify things - this is the same person who has been posting all along. I decided to create an email account and blog profile for my in game character using that name an avatar. This may confuse people, but I figured it was less confusing than the previous setting where I was posting under a pseudonym (David E. Talvoces is not my real name) about an avatar I play in a game... I just thought this would be easier.

It all comes down to nepotism - Alternate History Meme

Last night I was chatting with the lovely people in the Eve-Bloggers channel. Jerran Ragnar (author of Victoria Aut Mors) spoke up. "We should all do a post on the same topic tomorrow!" Silence ensued. I offered up that I thought that could be interested and asked what Jerran had in mind. More silence ensued. Someone else pointed out "I thought that what CK's Blog Banter was for?" This time the silence was tinged with that wonderful aura of "Yeah, moron." I came to Jerran's defense saying that just because CK did it didn't meant that we couldn't play Newton to his Hooke and claim it for our own. Sadly we were still without a good idea, but then Mike Azaria spoke up and said "Well, the blog banter tends to usually be forward looking. So why don't we do something looking into the past?" (Please note I am paraphrasing, so Mike - don't pod me.)

Through a quick round of "pass the buck" Jerran was selected to lead us off and has done so with his latest post. He went ahead and summed up the meme as thus -

“What would you change about Eve if you could go back in time?”. It can be something about the world itself, game play, or anything else you can think of.

He went the route of exploring the setting of the game and thought about taking capsuleers out of the capsule. My entry is a bit more focused on a game mechanic that annoys me and I'd like to explore through a short work of fiction with a summary at the end (so if you don't like the fiction you can fast forward.) Enjoy!

Wait... I won what?

So I am not sure whether my college English professor would be ecstatic or dismayed. This is the woman once graded a piece of my fiction A+++ for content, D- for grammar and gave me and average of a C. I tried to argue with her that really the average of an A triple plus and a D minus should be a B. She was unamused.

Apparently my grammar has either improved or CrazyKinux was able to look past such mortal trappings. My story "Abyssus in Terra" was able to land me a PLEX in his recent Tyrannis Contest. While I did not win the grand honor of interviewing a CCP developer I am still beside myself with happiness. It is probably a good thing that the interview went to someone else as I am not the most experienced player and the most probing question I could ask would involve the developers favorite color.

I would like to give congratulations to Cailais who won the interview with Let the Gods be Gods! as well as Mandrill over at I Am Keith Nelson, Illectro with It's Not Just About Planets You Know, and KailJoric with Nothing Personal, It's just Business, as well as the 26 other entries (I will admit I have not yet had time to read them all.) I would also like to thank CrazyKinux for putting together this contest as well as CCP for donating some really amazing prizes.

For Prize Confirmation CK can contact holyyakker[at]gmail[dot]com - in game name is not author name.

Hanger Update

I realized that in my previous hanger update I missed a couple boats.

Angry Phallus - My Iteron IV was my move it boat before I got my Orca and then my Obelisk.
Jamal's Folly - This is the Retriever after "The Flying Dutchman" was lost due to pilot stupidity.

I've been impressed reading all the other posts about peoples hangars. I find it fascinating just how many different ships there are. I'm glad I've never had the pokemon mentality of "Gotta Catch em All!" because this game would drive me batshit crazy if I did.

Blog Readership

Over at Ecliptic Rift casiella put up a great post on how to drive some traffic to your blog. I thought that I would throw my own $0.02 into the mix.

I suppose an article from me on how to drive traffic to your blog seems a bit like a one-legged man writing a "How To" guide for ass kicking contests. ".5 or Higher!" has a grand has a grand total of 9 followers and less than 50 posts, but this is not my first time to a rodeo. I actually run a website for a small local group and it is a blog based medium. The average readership is about 200 to 300 unique visitors a month, which for a local news site is relatively high. So here are my insights into blogging in general.

What's in MY Hanger you ask?

Over at Evoganda Rixx asked us "What is in your hanger?"

Well, technically Rixx also asked us if we had a specific naming convention so I'll skip the boring "no" answer and get to the important part.

Sadly, I also have a very boring hanger.

Catalyst - "Repoman" used for salvaging with 4 tractor beams and 4 salvagers
Hulk - "Pendereski" used for mining (duh) and named after a Polish composer, I'm a music major
Myrmidon - "Monkey Lover" used for mission running, I chew through L2 and I can't wait to have enough standing to try my hand at some L3s.
Gallente Shuttle - "Puddle Jumper" "Run Rabbit Run" used for what shuttles are used for, quickly getting from one homebase to another
Orca - "Mobile Meth Lab" is a name that I inherited when I bought the ship off a corpmate, he asked me to keep the name and I said sure.
Obelisk - "Footlocker" is my move all my shit from here to there.

I think I have another couple small vessels, but that is my overall hanger. Nothing that impressive, I was very proud when I bought my Orca and my Obelisk though. I am currently training up for a Hyperion and while I can fly a Megathron I'm thinking the Hyperion might be a better choice. If you have an opinion on Hyperion vs. Megathron or if you want to suggest a name for either vessel hit me up in the comments.

Abyssus in Terra

This entry is written for the contest posted on CrazyKinux's site found here. I wrote it before looking at any other submissions and was relieved to see that I was not the only one writing fiction. I tried to make my fiction reflect the realities of both what this will mean for game play and for what it will mean for the Eve Universe as game setting. My apologies if any of my tech or in game mechanics seem fudges as I am a relatively new player, though I will tell you that I broke out EFT for Part 3. I hope you enjoy.

Chatting it up with Celebrates

I'm sitting here listening to The Drone Bay podcast, checking out Eve Blogs on Capusleer, and now posting on my own blog. If my mother could see me now I don't think pride would be the first thing that comes through her head, quite the opposite. I would make a big deal about The Drone Bay being back, but I've never knew about them before. I just heard about them in the Eve Blogger channel in game last night and started to check it out. I probably won't do them justice, since I won't be going back and listening to the old episodes, and I'm sure that means I'll miss out on some of the inside jokes, but I have enough trouble keeping up on my blogs and real life without having to find time for over 20 hours of old Eve News. I will say that the show that went up last night was informative and entertaining, so a great job to Kinux, Crovan, Alsedrech, and Maeve.

It was fun hanging out in the Eve Blogger channel last night. I've lurked for a bit in the past, but last night I chatted a little. I don't really know the people yet so I kinda feel like that guy who shows up when you are eating with your friends and takes the one empty seat at the table because there is no other room and then tries to interject themselves into your conversation. I hate that guy, I hate being that guy. I did realize something though, when it finally donned on me that Crovan was posting about the podcast as self promotion, not just as a junkie who was glad the crack dealer was back in town, it brought home how cool the single server experience of Eve is.

Other web celebrates play MMORPGs, both the creators of Ctrl+Atl+Delete Comics and Penny Arcade Comics have WoW Guilds. But if you wanted to play the game with them you'd have to first be on their server, then you'd probably have to be in their guild, or you'd have to be in the same general area as they are. Since Eve is a single server and allows for server wide channels it is completely conceivable that I could chat with Kinux or Kirith. Hell, last night I was chatting with Maeve and Crovan. Just another reason Eve is cool.

I have a lot of blog post ideas brewing, so stay tuned. Hopefully I'll be able to get my submission done in time for Kinux's contest.

Burnt Offerings and other terrible metaphors

I like games. I've played CCG (Collectible Card Games), Tabletop RPGs (more systems than I'm willing to list), board games (both American and "German" style), video games on systems dating back to ColecoVision, MMORPGS in limited varieties, FPS games, Turn Based Strategy, Tabletop Wargames (if I never paint another stinking Eldar I can die a happy man), I've even LARPed (if you don't know what LARP is I'm not going to explain it and if you do know about it you can't laugh because you are probably as pathetic a soul a me. So when I say "I like games" I am not just talking about one small corner of the genre. And while this is an Eve Blog please indulge my brief moment of exposition on gaming in general (or just don't read the post, it isn't like I'll know the difference.)

There are three main reasons I enjoy playing a game. They are as follows:

1. The story latches onto me like a pitbull convinced I'm smuggling prime rib in my trousers.
2. There is some element of social interaction that just makes the game compelling to play, in essence the game is merely a vehicle for me and my friends to have a good time.
3. The intellectual puzzle the game provides gives me hours of endless amusement, either a puzzle I must master on my own or a chance for me to grind my brain against an opponents till one of use emerges victorious.
4. Or there is an element of prowess, either through hand eye coordination, effective use of real time strategy, or some other measurable skill that exists in the moment
   
   (the main difference between 2 and 3 is the immediacy of 3. I'm allowed to mull over a move in Scrabble or a turn of Civilization for a long time, or at least until my opponent brains me. But I can't ponder the mysteries of a Zerg rush and live, its is a matter of skillful reaction.)