CK's Blog Banter

Welcome to another special installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by myself, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to me. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!


EVE Online, as the saying goes, is probably the most hardcore MMORPG currently available to the gaming masses. Hell, let's be serious it's one a the very few true MASSIVELY MULTI-PLAYER Role-Playing Game out there, and one of a handfull who's seen its subscriber numbers go up since its launch. But gentlemen, we have a problem.

I say gentlemen because, though there are few ladies roaming New Eden, the truth is, there are too few of them. As @Mynxee wrote about in "The Real Sisters of EVE", in a recent issue of EON magazine (issue #018 for those curious souls), EVE is an MMO that is overwhelmingly played by male, and where the female player population hovers at a about 5% of its total subscriber base.

I am one of those who believes that, though the game should not be changed to specifically go after that part of the gaming population, EVE Online would greatly benefit if somehow the balance the 2 genders roaming New Eden would lean towards an equilibrium. So I ask...

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?

For one, this game is definitely not attractive for any girl whos not into scifi and a bit into technical aspects, even though I agree that all the tech-talk (ooh look at my shiny new e-peen laZor!!) is something which I find, even now after so many years annoying. It's not that its not needed in a world as EvE, but I have the tendency to fall into a supporter role – I've played Priests years in Ragnarok Online, Supporters, Healers in others. So, coming to Eve I wanted that same role, though Logistics isn't that attractive to me, and there isn't much choice to play a more passive side of the game, while still immersing into it. Passive might be the wrong kind of word; just not being the one blowing things up and ruining some others guys day.

Second, you can't create a bond with a ship. In Sims, in Morrowind or Oblivion you can make up your mind what this char will do, how it will react and appear to others and this makes it fun to play creating bonds with the thing in front of you. In Eve, no chance. A ship is a ship, unpersonal and no way to interact with it.

Everything is set. You can't design your own ship, cant give it new shiny colors – there are more colors than pink too – and there is no way to alternate its appearance. Yes, T3's came in a while ago, but its definitely not enough to personalize and thus creating a bond with the thing in front of you. Where is the creativity?!

So to attract more of us, I'd say give us more options in design, have more roles which aim for a passive, non aggressive style of play, and, something I really hated in browser games, an less aggressive type of environment. We will come eventually if we want a second helping, and a notch higher, harder game.

I've saved this from someone from the old and new Blogpack, it's also something which might and should be considered:

• 10 things not to do around female gamers

Fly Safe everyone!

Related Posts

1. Ombeve - The Ladies of New Eden
2. Astral Dominix- Is Eve A Man’s World?
3. The Cataclysmic Variable- Sorry, No Pink Spaceships Here Please
4. EveOGanda- Chicks n’ Ships
5. The Ghosts Report- The Girls Who Fly Spaceships
6. Eve’s Parity Bit- Is there something special about women?
7. Eve SOB- It’s not about fluffy bloody kittens
8. Max Torps- Space Boobies are bad, m’kay?
9. Arukemos- I like girls
10. Garhead- Making Eve more casual
11. PsycheDiver- What women want
12. Capsuliere- Women in Eve
13. Rantuket - I Wish My Wife Played Eve
14. Record of Alva Dyson - Women who want Eve
15. Hydrostatic Capsule - tech 2 stilettos
    
16. -more to follow