Crazy Kinux wants more women capsuleers! Vikings of EVE recently learned that New Eden's premier blogger wants ideas to entice women into becoming capsuleers (see post:
The EVE Blog Banter Special Edition: The Ladies of New Eden)
Considering the subject we knew precisely where to start: Polling women capsuleers.
"Women don't set about looking for the stars," says Tigerjade. She is the wife of Isaiah Harms and a fellow Viking. Yes, one of those rare female capsuleers."Women become capsuleers because they're space-nuts, or their husband/boyfriend got them signed up."
When asked what attracted women Tigerjade responded, "Perhaps colonizing planets and growing things would get more women involved."
And here we find our first point: Women have a more nurturing side than men. Explosions just don't thrill them the same way. Perhaps because destruction seems too pointless?
Kit Harms chimed in, "Women tend to be more peaceful. The best way to involve us is to invent a role which is both invulnerable to war, yet highly valuable in warfare. Like the Red Cross."
She then went on to relate her experiences as a druid healer in another RPG life. "We healers were needed by the warriors, however we could peacefully walk upon the battlefield without being menaced. Battles are exciting, but there needs to be an option for those people who just DON'T want to blow things up."
This led us to speculate: Say a new career path is invented. Perhaps an NPC corporation like the Sister Servants of EVE could produce a line of medic ships. These ships would ride into battle with everyone else. Upon the first explosion tractor beams are deployed to retrieve both disabled ship and escape capsules of NPC crew.
Wait! What's this? My Bhaalgorn is no longer ornate shards of twisted metal? Yes. It would now be an inoperative hulk. Very much like a damaged module. Broken beyond use (valueless except for some limited form of reprocessing) unless mended by a dedicated repair person.
Warship reconstruction can be a pricey thing. Yet easily less expensive than buying all new modules and ships. And if you DON'T have to fly all the way to Jita... The wait would be worth it.
Next there are the NPC crew to attend to. Naturally these folks are your crew from the Bhaalgorn. A crew you flew with a long time. A crew that weathered many battles, and as a result made your fearsome battleship even more powerful than a freshly minted crew on a newly purchased Bhaalgorn. Naturally the return of your crew (or as many of them that escaped and were retrieved) would be a huge boon to you. Hopefully YOUR medic ship retrieved them and not the medic ship on the other side. Ransoming them back could be so expensive.
Implementation of such a plan would take some adaption. All who embark on the ship reconstruction and medical career would need extensive new skill sets. Plus a new type of starship would need created. Retrieval ships dedicated to a pacifist lifestyle, no weapons and therefore immune to damage during battle.
New missions would need offered; the "medics" would need entry level missions slanted toward humanitarian aid.
What about the ship reconstruction specialists? New content may not be needed here, because from mission runners to pirates someone is always losing ships. A savvy and dedicated retrieval mechanic should easily be able to earn a living rebuilding the lost ships of capsuleers. In fact a noob mercy medic could also do well retrieving the lost crew.
Skills already exists for the foundations of each of these paths. Science already has a "Biology" skill, and the "Mechanic" skill is there too. More advanced skills could build upon them.
What we don't have in New Eden is career options for pacifist capsuleers who want to provide highly valued assistance to the warriors without being "the freighter guy" or "hulk miner."
Since this is about seducing more women to New Eden I beg you to consider making it more enticing. Crazy Kinux is right. We need more women involved to balance our society. And they require peaceful roles that are more complex and with more opportunities than what's currently offered.
This stands as our recommendation.
Sincerely, Isaiah Harms
Director of Vikings of EVE.
CEO of Viking Fleet
Links to New Eden's other distinguished intelligentsia:
Is eve a man's world? Linked Dreams The Female of the Species
Jazz said...I don't blog so I am not sure how this all works...but here goes.
As a female player for almost 2 years now, I don't agree that Eve or CCP should change. I enjoy logging on every day and blowing up stuff (sorry, I don't cuss so that's the best you get from me). After a long day at work or whatever I am doing, the relief of just shooting things in missions or even other players is a great tension reliever.
On the flip side, the reason I got involved in Eve is due in part to my brother and a friend of his who always played and had a great comradarie with their corp mates. That was a huge draw for me and I have made many friends during my time in Eve as well as a few not so friendly people. Anyway, the mining and manufacturing aspects of the game were the biggest hook for me. I could go into a belt, relax and mine for hours and just chill out on vent with the guys as they went over ship setups or pvp action. When they post a fit in chat, I cop it down then tailor it to my skillset and try it out. If it works, then great, I have a new ship fit. The joy of building ships and mods has been something that I have also kept very active. Always making those iskies because EVERYONE needs ammo and ships. LOL
As I have evolved in Eve, I have become engaged to the CEO of our corp and taken greater roles such as Corp Manufacturer, POS manager and now second in Command of our Alliance. While some would say that is due to my fiance playing favorites, the truth is that those duties happened well before we ever met IRL. In laymans terms...I earned them by working my butt off in game and proving myself to be a team player and responsible and reliable person.
Okay, another point...I agree pink ships (I hate pink btw) are not the place for Eve but I (and some of the guys too) would like to be able to put details or paint on their ships to show individuality. But that's another article for someone else.
Okay, on to some details for you guys who talk to and try to recruit your significant other and gal pals into Eve. When you show them the game, don't be negative...this is my ship but you won't be able to fly it because it isn't right for you...that's crap!! We can train those skills too ya know....eventually.
Be open to their thoughts on the game and actually listen when they ask questions. Oh and when they do sign up for the free trial, don't take over their game and reset their settings or refit their ships. Instead give them advice on set ups and tell them why so they can actively participate in their gaming experience. Or give them links to BattleClinic loadouts and other pages so they can do their own research then ask questions when they need to.
Above all, be patient with them...as a noob (we were all there and we ALL needed help at some point).
Eve is a fantastically unique game, as we all know. However, there are no rewards for leveling up and no gifts/prizes for completing a skill. Unless of course, you have a great group of corpies who decide to reward you for some goal that is set. Being a female, and knowing how we think, most females want that aspect from a game. But not all of us.
Socially, yes, Eve is male dominated and that is great but there is room in this vast universe for us females too. Don't worry guys, you can still go into your man-cave and pvp until your heart's content.
Okay, there is my response/thoughts/opinions.
C-ya among the stars, Jazz
