Is That All I Get?

I finished up the new New Player Experience last night. I jumped through a stargate for the first time, visited a couple of sites outside the new player system, and returned via pod express. At the end of the session, I was left with one thought. Meh.

I only had two major problems with the second half of the content. The first involved the use of the autopilot. No. Just no. Friends don't let friends use the autopilot. Yes, the autopilot feature is very valuable in picking out a course to a destination. But please, don't make players have to push the auto button in order to advance to the next step. At one point, one of the tool tips completely covered the autopilot button and I had to scramble to figure out how to move the UI element to the top of the screen in order to push the button. Ugh!

The second is the use of the redeem feature when I received new items from the fleet commander. Look, I realize that with the conversion to a freemium model, acquainting new players with how to redeem their purchases from the cash shop is important. But players really shouldn't get used to the fact that their mission rewards come from the same place as their cash shop purchases. Please, don't blur the lines.

Not that the second half of the two hour experience didn't have its moments. The fight where I tackled a carrier was cool (although I should have used a scram). The visit to the Asterhaus and the subsequent fly through the Minmatar fleet had me rubber necking like a new player. And I have to admit flying into the final fight was pretty cool. The sight of a Drifter battleship slowly disintegrating and finally exploding below me was great. And this final part of the fight is pretty epic. The video should begin at the 1:00:00 mark and lasts 2 1/2 minutes. (Warning: strong language involved and is not safe for work).



The "meh" thought occurred because of the message Aura delivered when I woke up back in the station. The fleet commander left me a Venture, a Rifter blueprint, and the advice to go to the career agents. The career agents? Ugh! What a buzz kill!

The real problem I have is that we had two hours of voice-acted content and players are now sent to the career agents. That's a pretty big drop in the quality of the content. I really hope that players don't look at that and have a "Tortage" moment where they feel they are the victims of a bait and switch. The good thing CCP has going for them is that most of the players who may object aren't paying for the game, so they may stick around anyways. Hopefully by then the new players will have learned that the real game is played with other players. Still, I can see where players could think differently.

I plan on continuing documenting the adventures of my new alpha clone character. I just have the feeling the next few sessions won't have the attraction that these first two had.