When some things upgrade, others must go. So true is this for the CCP-sponsored EVE online wiki, EVElopedia, that will be seeing its last day on February 29 at 0900 UTC after extended downtime.
“After careful consideration whilst planning upgrades and changes to Tranquility, we have decided to discontinue the EVElopedia as of the announced extended downtime on Monday February 29th, 2016,” said CCP Falcon in regards to the final days of EVElopedia. EVElopedia will be replaced by the new Help Center and a Flight Academy project that are both in development by CCP.
The rationale for the shutdown largely stems from EVElopedia’s largely outdated contents, availability of player-run wiki’s, and the availability of static EVE universe data via CREST.
Out with the old, in with the new.
Being a game often criticized as having the learning curve of a concave cliff, libraries of information to help new players are warranted.
Long ago, and still to this day, you would find some helpful tips in player bios. This is hardly a great spot to trickle down important information. Thus, the EVElopedia came to be. Although a fair enough resource for all things EVE, it was never a true one-stop shop. The EVElopedia often lacked critical tidbits on various vital facts of gameplay nuances. To fill these voids, the official forums and eve/reddit provide an additional layer of information, although acting more as an echo-chamber for new player confusion, rather than a didactic educational source.
To source really thorough up-to-date guides and information about EVE, players need to use player run wikis provided by player-run organizations that include The Imperium, Brave Newbies, and EVE University, to name a few. Even though these are great sources of information, they too can be filled with outdated information, as well as being totally dependent on the specific communities ability to constantly develop, edit, and organize their respective wiki. Not an easy task, but where successful, speaks volumes for the communities commitment to their respective organization and player development programs.
A good little bee hard at study, learning the in’s and out’s of local chat smack-talk.
It will be interesting to see how the new Help Center and Flight Academy project develop. Will these new databases be a new beacon for success in EVE? Or just a similar mixed-bag of random information hardly to be used? Given the pervasive nature of player run wiki’s, are CCP-based out of game help guides even that important? How much guiding does a player really need in a sandbox without killing the sandbox? Please discuss in the comments below.
To those having a hard time saying goodbye, CCP has provided an archive of all player content hosted on the EVElopedia that can be downloaded here (102MB download). Since the EVElopedia contained a plethora of prime fiction and official backstory, this information will relocated to a new yet to be announced home over the next few months.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Anehii.
