EVE Frontier Free Access 5-15 September: With 100% Less Rubik's Cube

Sometimes I see something come across my social media streams and a weird thought pops into my head. The latest involves CCP Games' latest EVE universe game currently under development, EVE Frontier. The game is holding a free access event from 5-15 September for Cycle 2 and I see documentation from CCP for beginners on how to get through the tutorial. The YouTube video is below.

I'm not exactly surprised since I have a founder's pack and have played in a few cycles now. What I am still a little surprised about is the official documentation. In the testing cycles before CCP started selling founder's access packs player created guides were available on the game's Discord server. But I did begin playing EVE Online in 2009 and some assumptions die hard.

Back then players began in space with no in-game introduction. To say I felt lost and frustrated playing EVE Online in my first few minutes is a bit of an understatement. A former high-level developer, CCP Soundwave, described the new player experience a few years later in a sentence: "Here's a Rubik's Cube, go fuck yourself."

Over the last decade CCP's philosophy has changed. Rubik's Cubes out, tutorials in. Of course, in EVE Online the company for the longest time resisted the idea of a stand-alone tutorial zone where players are safe from veterans. From my experience so far in Frontier, players still aren't totally safe from others but mostly they are put in a system with other new players, if they don't spawn in an empty system to begin. Another one of those differences between the two games.

For the Frontier team, the advantages of documentation for new players is pretty obvious. The tutorial by this point has been tested by thousands of players. With the game in alpha (or is it pre-alpha?) leading players into more raw and less tested content helps development efforts and player testing. Also, I imagine they, and helpful players, get tired of answering questions about the tutorial and want to engage with more interesting content.

One thing I have noticed through the four testing cycles I've participated in so far is the availability of information, both official and player-created, for the game. I get the feeling in today's age throwing a Rubik's Cube at players and telling them to figure things out for themselves isn't exactly a winning strategy. Especially when you need players to come in and test your game.