Hell hath no fury

2010-04-23T06:04:00.000-07:00

So, been asked to write regarding this:http://www.crazykinux.com/2010/04/eve-blog-banter-special-edition-ladies.html

"What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game. Will Incarna do the trick? Can anything else be done in the mean time? Can we the players do our part to share the game we love with our counterparts, with our sisters or daughters, with the Ladies in our lives? What could be added to the game to make it more attractive to them? Should anything be changed? Is the game at fault, or its player base to blame?"

From

As a female Eve player, I can tell you, we are out there, and no, not all of us conform to the "women are industrialists" stereotype.

What aspects of Eve do women enjoy? The same aspects as men playing eve.

Hellcats take on 0.0 and lowsec, and are just as ruthless as any male pirate down there.
There are ruthless cuthroat female traders, no it is not a bot undercutting you constantly, it is probably one of us multitasking, adjusting orders while blowing someone out of the sky!

I have not run into too many female mission runners, but, as someone who was previously a fully paid up member of the "I dont do pvp in MMOs" crowd, I have to say that Eve PvE leaves a LOT to be desired, I can manage at most, 2 - 3 missions before I lose the will to live.

It is true that the majority of females playing eve that I run into are industrialists, mostly who have been introduced to the game by their husband or boyfriend.

I began playing Eve because my then boyfriend told me I could play a "healer" in his carebear corp. (Logistics ships)
This lasted as long as it took me to find out about jamming, and shortly afterwards I made a pvp character to join in highsec wars.

The most fun I have had in eve is commanding small roaming gangs, patiently waiting for the targets to arrive, and hunting them down across vast reaches of space, sometimes flying 30 or more jumps just to see if they are there....especially if they have been smacktalking in local to me previously....Hell hath no fury like a woman reading moronic playground smacktalk.

What puts me off of eve? As mentioned above, moronic playground smacktalk...seriously guys, if you are going to smack, try at a level beyond what I can find in a kindergarten....words for genitals are not rude, or shocking, naming your ships after genitals, or sexual acts, will lead to you being hunted down and podded....repeatedly. Seriously, it is not big, nor is it clever....it will not force me to uncloak in a ragefit or undock in a velator to take on your uber ship of scariness.

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and space is a very cold place at times....and, at the risk of being stereotypical, you should know by now that women remember idiots and idiotic comments for a loooong time. We may not get you this time, but, I wouldnt advise undocking in anything containing valuable cargo for a while.

PvP is business, not personal, however, if you make it personal, that is at your own risk.

Most MMOs have a higher % of females than Eve, but then, the general population playing eve is not of the same mould as the general MMO population, it is a niche game, and this is no bad thing (My sec status would drop like a stone if some of the crowd from other MMOs got into Eve)

The main issue that I see, is the public perception of Eve, it is constantly rated on MMORPG.com as one of the best MMOs, however, it is, rightly, seen as a viscious, no holds barred game...and this puts many people off without trying it.

I spend a lot of time in rookie help (probably not good for my blood pressure), and find that the "Learning curve" is overstated, and puts many people off. Yes, Eve does not hold your hand, but neither is it as complicated as some people would have you believe. With patience, and clear explanations, and assistance is specialising, new players can quickly become as hooked as us vets.

People are told "you will get blown up the instant you go into low sec"...when we all know this is very far from the truth. "You will get suicide ganked if you mine" "You will get constantly canflipped"
All of the above are over exaggerations which do nothing to encourage new players. Sitting in help channels, I cannot help but wonder if this is what some people actually want. They like their little sandbox, and do not want new people in their sand.
The rudeness of responses to questions will also put people off. I know it can be frustrating to answer the same question for the millionth time, but as long as they are not acting like a muppet, what is the problem with helping new players out?

These issues apply to both male and female players, however, I feel that female players are more likely to take a "I dont want to sit here and be abused for asking a simple question" approach, and instead of raging back at the person, will rather log off, and never log back in.

My suggestion for how to increase female player %? Remember you were new once too. If I am being spoken to like an idiot in my first day in a new game, I am likely to conclude (not entirely incorrectly), that a large part of the population are rude and immature, and decide this isnt the game for me.

Links to 5 other posts on this:

http://ceruleanecho.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/ooc-dont-change-eve-for-me/
http://eveoganda.blogspot.com/2010/04/eve-blog-banter-chicks-n-ships.html
http://nomadicgamer.com/2010/04/20/new-eden-doesnt-need-to-change-for-eve-adam-needs-to-get-over-himself/
http://freebooted.blogspot.com/2010/04/evequality-rise-of-female-gamer.html
http://capsuliere.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/8/

Random Ramblings

Hell hath no fury