Destructoid Review of - EVE Online: Commissioned officer edition

Destructoid (a gaming website) recently posted a review of the EVE Online: Commissioned officer edition box. The reviewer did a pretty crap job. As is often typical with reviews of EVE reviews he took the trial, got confused, got bored, died, didn't understand what was happening and eventually quit the game leaving a review riddled with factual innacuracies (somehow his shuttle contained all his assets and was blown up mid-warp). As can be expected the 156 comments on the review show a blend of EVE fanbois hating the review, mixed with a few people who actually had a similar experience and went back to WOW.

Now I am not saying that it was a good review. Rather the review and the comments reveal a real problem with the game. As much fun as it is to laugh at EVE's steep learning curve, it is new players that give the game life. If they are bored or frustrated then they will simply quit and move on. Most players start on a free trial anyways so there is no investment lost for them.

The Commissioned Officer Edition is an example of everything that is wrong with the way EVE tries to help new players. The main advantage to it is that it comes with an implant that boosts attributes and learning. However the implant only works for a month. If the implant is destroyed you can petition a GM to get it replaced.

That is right... CCP ships a new player friendly feature that likely requires petitioning a GM to use. What a great way help lower the learning curve.

P.S. Several more great entries in the cheapfleet challenge... but we still need more. See here for details.

WTF is this..... EVE Commissioned Officer Edition

Check it out on Massively

To quote the WTF part...

On October 19th in North America, the studio is releasing a new boxed edition of the game, titled EVE Online: Commissioned Officer Edition. The "commissioned officer" refers to an exclusive in-game item that comes with the package, a Cerebral Accelerator implant that will give a significant boost to new pilot skill development for the first 30 days.

EDIT: Here is the official press release from CCP.