Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Our (Mine) Paradigm

Rixx has a fantastic blog post this morning discussing a unique concept in EVE; Paradigm.  Go ahead and take a look at it, then come back over here.

For those not knowledgeable about a paradigm, here is the description from Wiki:
  • a model or pattern for something that may be copied
  • a theory or a group of ideas about how something should be done, made, or thought about
Now, Rixx brings up a particular concept in relation to EVE Paradigm which is that he is in the midst of a reformation within EVE and his post as well as my own personal choices recently within EVE have had me start a brand new paradigm which I did not display previously.

Late in 2014 I had recently come back to the game after my longest sabbatical in the game.  For one year, I had unsubscribed from the game due to general dissatisfaction with the game and a personal malaise for EVE.  I did what I always have in the past, I searched for comfort, which for me was previous friends and possibly a place in a CFC alliance, as most of my EVE career has been in the North.

Having joined an old friend of mine in Fatal Ascension, I began the process of moving all of my ships (12 full carrier round trips from Black Rise to Fountain) and over 5 million m3 of non-ships as well.  It took roughly an entire week, but I was finally settled into Fountain just as Phoebe was hitting and the N3 conflict in Fountain took place.

I searched for content, but fleets were almost always during EU prime when I was at work.  There was very little at all to be done during US prime, so I found myself constantly either doing work on my alt corporation in low sec working on reactions, component manufacturing, invention and T2 manufacturing.

I also started to watch a Twitch streams at a higher frequency than I previously had.  There were a decent amount of the streamers who had this unique concept of actually streaming with the intention of providing assistance and demonstrating to new bros how to do things in EVE.  Part of Rixx's post this morning discusses the periphery of this issue:

"That it is us - the players themselves - that are to blame for the failure of Eve to "catch on" in a larger context. That we are, in the larger sense, solely responsible for choosing poorly when it comes to managing our sandbox."

When you combine Rixx's statement with a post by Neville Smit as well there has been a problem with the paradigm for new players, and this was something that I started to think about.

With my general non-activity in Fountain, my increased activity with alt characters and corporations in low security space, the huge steep learning curve of EVE and the previously well documented challenge of New Player Retention, I began to think of a new concept.  I'll get there in just a second.

The final piece of this puzzle for me was exploration.  This is something that I never really did much of previously.  It really was only when looking for wormholes which would provide a tactical advantage to roaming or in the good old days of probing for Ore sites when you had to probe them down to get them.  I took an alt character who really only served as a scout, but they had the necessary skills to scan and fly an Astero.  I played her for one week almost daily and loved going our and exploring.  This is when the plan started to come together for me.

I wanted to start a new corporation.  Originally this was to keep bookmarks organized, have corporate offices in empire space and just general organization for the scanning characters (2-3).  But, within a day or so, I thought "why not take this new corporation and actually use it to help with the New Player Experience".  So, I started this blog and began to aggressively advertise this corporation with the intention of assisting new bros or returning veterans to the game, with large parts of that steep learning curve especially with exploration and then shortly afterwards with wormhole mechanics.

I can say today that I am happier in the game now more than I have been since about 2010.  I have enthusiasm for the game, for teaching others, for sharing the love I have for this game, and all the possibilities that it offers for you.

This is my paradigm, which is "Demonstrating to others how to quickly learn and adapt techniques within EVE which increase your odds at survival, specifically with exploration and wormhole life".

What is your paradigm?

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