Should Some Be More Equal Than Others?

CCP (Eve-online) is trying to capitalize upon Earth and Beyond's decline:

Welcome Earth and Beyond users... CCP is now offering Earth and Beyond users access to a special evaluation program in cooperation with Gamespy. Earth and Beyond users have been forced to start looking for an alternative Sci-fi online game as Electronic Arts has announced it will close down Earth and Beyond at the end of summer... This upgrade program will include a no-obligation free trial of EVE Online and an in-game walkthrough of the game by an EVE volunteer who will explain the differences between the two games and help with the transition into EVE from Earth and Beyond. (see here).

This seems helpful and perhaps it is even practical (assuming sufficiant volunteers).   Yet, to wonder an analysis suggested in Raph Koster's Small Worlds presentation: would it be more efficient to target only the guild leaders?

Instead of targeting the mob, should they be incentivizing the leaders to migrate? After all, one might be able to channel more attention and enhance the information flows by working through the guild leaders.  So goes the theory.  Or is just simply too outrageous to the majority of VW denizens on the wrong end of the power-law?  In the words of George Orwell, all... are created equal, just some are more equal than others"?

Comments

[Edward Castronova]

1.

I thought a wise strategy would have been for EVE to give E&B folks a comparable account. Reduce the switching cost to raid the installed base of the other nnetwork, in effect. But of course, current EVE players would howl at the perceived injustice. But if you could convince current EVE subscribers that leveling in E&B is not unlike leveling in EVE, and that therefore the new folks had paid their dues, it might work. It would be even more interesting if this user-raiding happened between two ongoing games.

[Lee Delarm]

2.

Except for the fact that leveling in E&B is NOTHING like leveling in EVE, the only similarity being that both use time spent to increase character power (generall).

In EVE you "level" just by training skills which takes longer and longer as you level the skill up higher (1-5 I believe). You also have to buy skills but this isn't much of a problem since EVE is the most EXTRODINARILY group oriented game I have ever played and therefore once you find yourself a guild or whatever, you simply ask for the money to buy it. The guild members will most likely provide everything you need, or at least they did for me, even entirely new ships at no cost to me, just mining (which seems to be a highly profitable experience if a tad on the LONG side).

[DivineShadow]

3.

"Instead of targeting the mob, just incentivize their hub leaders to migrate?"

Diregarding that EVE is a very confontational (or PVP-Oriented) game experience and EnB is a PvE environment, finding those community leaders is no small task.

[Jayce]

4.

Not too outrageous it seems. In Asheron's Call 1 there was a contest related to the storyline which was only open to leaders of established guilds (the Dark Master quest/gauntlet) and then only after having been chosen individually. Few or no one complained about it, and indeed it added to the mythology in a way more constructive than the "endgame mythology" so many achiever-oriented VWs rely on.

That said, individual attention will net more fish than only targetting guild leaders. So IMO, efficient - yes, maximally effective - no.

[dan]

5.

"Diregarding that EVE is a very confontational (or PVP-Oriented) game experience and EnB is a PvE environment, finding those community leaders is no small task."

EVE has PvP. E&B did not (at least when I played it.) I would not call EVE "very confrontational." I played it a lot and never participated in PvP. There is plenty of room for PvE and non-combat play, if that's the way the player wants to play it. I wouldn't rate it as top for non-combat environments, but for PvE it's pretty good.

The idea of targetting guild leaders is interesting but leaves a major issue unsolved: how does such a guild ramp quickly when they start from zero? Oh, yes, they have economies of scale, but they still have to learn the mechanics, ramp up the credit earning and production, and get established, before they can reach something resembling the status quo ante from the other game.

Now if EVE hadn't gotten more unfriendly towards the meta-market of eBay...

Well, even so, an under-the-table deal where management pitched 100 million (not that much in EVE terms) credits the way of the guild-leader to smoothe the transition might go a long way to encouraging migration en masse.

[Sourtone]

6.

I see there being three kinds of players: Guild Leaders (can include officers), Guild Members (can also include officers), and "The Horde."

Only a few players are cut out to be successful guild leaders (I'm certainly not one of them). While many may have the intelligence required for it and may in fact be leading from behind there's a certain natural charisma that's required to get people to follow you. Many players have the maturity to belong to a guild and treat that guild as a sort of second (or sometimes only) circle of friends to those in Real Life.

Then there is The Horde... that large mass of players that prefer to solo, don't have the maturity to either be accepted into a guild or be able to stay in it, and those players who in-advertantly join a "public" guild.

If they target all E&B players (and frankly Eve was offering a free trial before E&B shut down) they can expect players from all levels... if they just target Guild Leaders they will get a smaller number of converts but probably the ones of higher quality.

So yes... some are more equal then others ;)