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Saturday, 31 July 2010

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Addressing the EVE learning curve

In the Exploration channel the other night, we started to discuss EVE’s complexity and the infamous “learning curve” graph everyone knows so well.

First, let me note that nearly everyone who refers to this graph or talks about a “steep learning curve” actually uses that term totally wrong. A learning curve depicts the rate of knowledge transfer or skill progress, so that if the curve moves upward very rapidly, in fact the learner will acquire new information very rapidly. Conversely, if it takes a long time to learn something such that incremental learning moves very slowly, you have a shallow learning curve. Remember, every time you communicate ineffectively, Oveur kills a kitten.

Part of the issue with EVE lies, not in the difficulty of learning within the environment, but in how much information a new player needs to acquire. I don’t have any hard data on this (bad hacker!) but I suspect that players learn very very quickly, particularly in supportive environments (e.g. player corps that take time to help newbies).

Then a relatively new player stated that only PVP has this sort of complexity in EVE. When I pointed out how ridiculous that sounded, and used the example of trading, someone else said, “what’s so complicated about ‘buy low, sell high‘?”.

If you want to reduce trading to that one maxim, then you might as well describe Minmatar PVP tactics as “hit orbit, F1, and scram.”

In reality, most areas of EVE have levels of complexity and nuance that the uninitiated don’t understand. Large-scale fleet combat looks to me like getting on grid first, calling primaries and secondaries, and hoping like hell you have more guns and RR than the other side. I don’t doubt in the slightest, though, that I just grossly oversimplified it, mostly because I’ve yet to participate in that scale of fleet combat.

So the player next to you in Local who does something different than you? Sure, he might just be a total n00bbear, but he also might have glimpsed a level of intricacy you didn’t even know existed.

Related posts:

  1. EVE Business Update
  2. Non-aggressive play style
  3. AGONY Unleashed PVP-BASIC class review

Date: 2010-03-21

Categories: OOC

Tags: , , ,

  • John
    Not necessarily misuse. Firstly natural languages are vague. Secondly there are often several "correct" common usages of a phrase that are different from the technical definition, but since natural language is an imprecise and evolving thing the common usage *is* "correct", even if it is factually wrong, e.g. the common and colloquial uses of words like cool, hot, bad, wicked etc. Thirdly any graph that has learning or a learning related thing on an axis is by definition a learning curve.

    As noted in the below wikipedia excerpt the common term "steep learning curve has two opposite meanings:
    "The familiar expression "steep learning curve" may refer alternately to rapid learning that is easy, or especially hard, or to steady progress that is increasingly difficult. Which is referred to needs to be clarified by context. The difference is specifically whether one is referring to the rate of learning or the rate of investment needed to learn."
  • The fact that people misuse the term -- which has an actual definition and application in cognitive science -- doesn't make it relative. If you use other things for the axes, it's no longer a "learning curve", anyway. :)

    But yeah, the labels in this graph are totally off, indeed, under any interpretation.
  • Kirith Kodachu
    I think your interpretation is wrong. The reason a steep learning curve is considered a bad thing is because it represents the amount of knowledge a player _has_ to learn quickly or be left behind. Thus why the graph is funny.
  • rixxjavix
    Nope, that's pretty much large scale fleet mechanics in a nutshell. lol, sorta. At least since Dominion.
  • EVE has a steep learning curve in terms of the required knowledge you need from the start and how you have to increase your knowledge to develop your gaming experience further.

    EVE has a shallow learning curve in terms of how the game imparts knowledge.

    It's all relative and a matter of how you name the axes of the graph displaying the learning curve.

    Speaking of which, the axes' names of the graph above are more or less rubbish (not that the thing is based on serious research but whatever): I play EVE a month and learn nothing. Suddenly my gaming skill (or knowledge of the game) takes a leap within a couple of days before slowing down to a halt again. Then I forget some stuff, after which I know everything instantly.

    Or how about WoW: it teaches me nothing in the first week before I learn everything in the second and third.

    Be that as it may, fortunately I don't see any need to kill any kittens.
  • The new "advanced military" tutorial does just that, actually :D
  • Hmm, EVE's getting better and better at introducing the game. EVE is one of those things that's easy to learn but hard to master.

    A pretty cool thing we came up with (Me and my corp mates) was a suicide bombing new player tutorial to get familiar with dying.
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