So after some thinking and maybe a bit of cockiness creeping in, I've decided that I can make a more direct contribution to how Dust 514 progresses from here. And so I'm going to stand for election in the first elected CPM.
I like to think that steering DUST University from the closed beta to what it is now, gives some indication as to the affinity and warm regard I hold for Dust 514 and the community that has grown around it in the last year. It also means that my respect for what CCP are trying to achieve has also grown during that time.
There are very few of the large developers that would've tried to do a game like Eve. And there are fewer still that would succeed in making such a game last 10 years. But despite being a small developer at the top of the world (or maybe because of it), CCP have achieved the near impossible. A single shard universe so large and detailed in scoop and having its own history, that no one has managed to top it.
And CCP are making it even larger with the addition of DUST 514.
But before you all come to the conclusion that I'm a creature of CCP, like all things you love, there are times when you hate them too.
Dust is so far behind its promise right now that some are questioning its continued survival. I admit there are even times when it makes me want to bang my head against the wall. I usually bang the Duelshock very hard against the wall instead. Meaning that I'm now on my fifth one after getting the PS3 for Dust a year ago.
My recent piece that I wrote for the Duster Blog after they very kindly asked for my opinion isn't exactly a love letter to CCP. Some of the cursing I've come out with on Boots On The Ground is a little embarrassing considering the ban of gutter language I have in D-UNI. But these are only because I love the game, so I get cross with CCP when they make mistakes.
But despite these frustrations I've done very little gaming other than on Dust. Oh I've dabbled a with The Last Of Us and played some Skyrim on the 360 but its Dust that has captured my imagination in a way that only one game has before. Eve Online.
I recently did a video on my YouTube channel detailing my opinions as to why the naysayers are wrong about the demise of Dust. As much as I want to poke CCP with a sharp stick at times I want them to succeed more.
So what do I think I can do on the CPM. Well, I've no real interest in the political realities of New Eden, so Planetary Conquest and the meta game around it are very dull to me at the moment. I don't think they represent value to a new player, just the established ones. And this game needs new players. A lot of them and it needs them fast.
And for that there needs to be a sense of fun back into the game. A sense of enjoyment and just having a blast with friends, rather than the pitiful grind of an SP dungeon.
There also need to be a complete dismantling of the laughably poor New Player Experience of Dust 514, and a rebuilding of it from the ground up. Even with the game in such an incomplete state, there's more complexity than any other FPS out there. Its a comment I get in application after application that arrives in the DUST University inbox. 'I'm lost!! Please help!!' is the usual cry from a new Merc. And some of the old ones too, truth be told...
The game needs to explain itself better. I've already submitted ideas to CCP and I've had positive feedback from them on it. We can do a lot in D-UNI but the game can't rely on us and others do all the work for it.
So that's what I want to focus on should I be lucky enough to get the chance. Work for the new players so they stick around, enjoy themselves and provide targets for the older ones....
No comments:
Post a Comment