14 DAY TRIAL // John Lander, the executive producer at CCP working on EVE Online, believes that the MMO he is in charge of will never be actually friendly towards players and will not actively work to make them feel welcomed in the universe it inhabits.
The development team is ready to make it easier for players to buy, download and then get into the game, but that’s only linked to the processes and the mechanics and not the actual tone of EVE Online.
He tells Eurogamer that, “I want to try and reduce that barrier of entry to playing Eve. I don’t ever want Eve to be nice and fluffy and it’s a wonderful place to be.”
“I think there’s a place in the MMO world for a dark and dangerous, really good sci-fi world where you can be the goodie, the baddie, a criminal, the Good Samaritan. But it’s very important we allow as many people as possible to get access to that game,” he adds.
CCP has recently introduced the Retribution expansion for EVE Online, which is designed to bring a number of changes to the user interface, which make it easier to understand the information that the game presents and act on it.
There is a delicate balance between ease of access and complexity when it comes to risk and reward.
Lander wants the community to know that even if Retribution is well received, the company is already looking at a number of features that could benefit from changes in the coming months and year.
CCP has worked on prototypes and a number of them will be introduced in new expansions.
EVE Online is an MMO that relies on a single shard structure, which means that all those playing the game share the same universe, with no instancing.
The game is also well known for its ruthless player community and its elaborate betrayal stories.