On May 20 CCP introduced a learning website for new players: EVE Academy. They call it “the ultimate beginner’s guide to EVE Online.” With content that provides a “tailored learning experience” for new players, EVE Academy offers information about new-player career options as well as lists of additional resources that will help new players make their way in New Eden.
Flattening the Learning Curve
EVE’s learning curve is notoriously steep, and new player retention has long been a challenge for CCP. In recent months, Eve’s Product Director, CCP Rattati, has reiterated in multiple interviews CCP’s ongoing and increasing commitment to the new-player experience and to new-player retention. EVE Academy appears to be one result of that investment.
The bulk of Academy content is focused on four career areas:
Each of these career areas has a prominent box and link on the home page of the Academy which leads to a dedicated page packed with training videos, descriptions of key game mechanics, recommended fits, and suggested lists of activities for a new player to undertake. Much of the content is not original. The videos are player-generated content posted on YouTube, and the fits appear to be old fits that have been reused (as of this writing, deprecated modules like pre-change warp core stabilizers can be found). In this way the Academy serves not just as vehicle for content generated and maintained by CCP but an entry into the wider world of community content. This connection to community content is further developed by a Community Resources section on each page that includes links to more videos, written sites, EVE-related Twitch streams, and in-game corps dedicated to the activity discussed on the page.
Growing the Academy
The Academy is currently in Beta, and according to the announcement post, CCP will continue to add material based on input from the community. There is an official forum thread dedicated to gathering feedback and suggestions for improving the Academy. While fairly limited in scope at this time, it is possible that over time it could grow to be a staple of the EVE community, much like the EVE Uni wiki pages have been for many years. Involvement from as many people as possible in the EVE community can only make this resource better.
The Academy also ties into CCP’s approach to monetization. Several of the career paths in the Academy has a specific name such as “Soldier of Fortune” for PvP and “Enforcer” for PvE. These names directly match the names CCP uses for the recently updated packs on the EVE Store such as the Soldier of Fortune Pack and the Enforcer Pack. Links to these packs, as well as links to Expert Systems packs and Omega Clone subscription are also linked directly from the relevant page in the Academy.
CCP’s introduction of a centralized, authoritative source of information for new players may prove to be a valuable addition for the EVE community, especially if the community actively participates in helping CCP shape the content in it.
