The great folks at CCP granted us an interview with Scott Holden, Lead Content Creator and Tony Gonzalez, IP Development Manager, Lead Writer and Novelist. As with most of the interviews from GenCon this one was done on video, so consider this just a short teaser/overview of what you can expect when we post the full video interview.

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One of the things we talked a lot about was getting new players interested in EVE. The new storyline aspect of the Empyrean Age expansion pack is designed to do that, since it’s easier to draw new players when they feel like they’re part of something. New players are less interested in knowing that they can run a huge 5,000+ person corporation than they are in knowing they can impact the game in some way, be part of something bigger, etc. The sandbox approach is great for a core audience and your existing players, but it can be quite daunting for newer people to the game and genre. They also mentioned how the storyline elements would take a bigger role in upcoming advertisement.

We also touched on the popular misconception that a new player can never catch up to a veteran EVE player. Basically as long as you know what you want to do when you get started, take ship building for example; in as little as one to two months tops, you can be extremely good at building ships. Granted, you won’t be as good at everything across the board as that five year vet, but when it comes to ship building you will be on par. Then once you’ve gotten really good in your core desired skillset, you start adding on the additional skillsets over time. Also numbers are important. It is crucial to find a good group of people to play with, whether it be friends who start playing the same time as you, or a corporation you find in-game that fits your play style.

We also talked briefly about the Empyrean Age expansion and its release, some of the thoughts behind it and such. The content in it was something they wanted to add to the game for a long time and so far it is going really well. Very smooth launch, their smoothest to date and the feedback has been great. The game will always be about the players being able to do whatever they want out in the deep, but the storyline adds another tool to the toolbox for them to work with. Aaannnddd… That’s all for now, for the rest and more details you’ll have to wait for the video footage!