Student Perspect: My EVE University

Editor Introduction:
EVE University is a diverse community in itself, with many players from many places, playing across the entire spectrum of the 24 hour timezones. It is sometimes very easy to have your opinion drowned out by the others around you, but with this series of articles, Student Perspective, we will be looking at getting the view of individual Unistas, their thoughts and trepidations. Fears and goals. And front and foremost getting to know them a little better.
Opinions in this section are not edited, and it can be assured that EVE University management take all suggestions and ideas into consideration when revising various policies.
– Zeroniss

 

About The Author

Athanor Ruthoern

Athanor Ruthoern

Athanor Ruthoern is a current EVE University student and a staff member of the Personnel Department. She is part of the healthily growing female player base in EVE Online. Today she offers us her perspective on the daunting challenges a new University member faces.

Choosing E-UNI

As many others I, was given the recommendation to join EVE University, but at that time I had already been invited to join a private help channel and was offered a spot in another corporation. I wanted to take the right choice from the beginning so I spent some time on studying the game, EVE, EVE Uni and a few other corporations before I decided what I wanted to do. So I joined E-uni public chat to get to know EVE Uni better and I was a little appalled over the attitude in the channel.

Non EVE Uni members where using it as their private chat channel and people where generally unfriendly and unhelpful so it was hard to get qualified help in all the spam. Yes I have seen worse but I was really not expecting this from a Corporation which took itself as the webpage expressed.

But after considering my options I decided EVE Uni would be my best option to learn, meet new people and be the base from where the rest of EVE would be opened for me, therefore I decided I wanted to join.

 

Applying to E-UNI

Now that I had decided to join EVE University, I took some more time reading up on the webpage. Even though I had already read articles, rules and information about joining, it still felt like a massive amount to read up on. The application form was okay,  besides having to give a resume of the rules which was a little boring. I did not understand allot of the special rules about engagement and war and had to read up and ask in E-Uni chat about it. At one point I just got tired of it and added it to summary, noting to return as needed or when I understood more of the game.

Like many others queuing up I was impatient to get my interview done and get in. When I finally got my interview it was three questions – two of them which I also had answered in my application form. So that was a bit frustrating. Then I had to wait 1-2 days for the war to be over as I had chosen to wait for it to end. I spent that time reading up on the Welcome to EVE University page.

Expectations

My expectations for the EVE Uni membership was a friendly, mature, knowledgeable, helpful player base. I expected the Corp to be organized and built up around helping, teaching, and meeting new players. For the staff a place to have fun and socialize.

The First Week

This game in itself is overwhelming, which is one reason why joining a corporation like EVE University would be a good idea.  Alas, in my first week in the Uni the Uni added to this burden, with all the extra things to set up and read.

So still soaking wet and new in the Uni I had a ton of questions to ask. I had my first meeting with ‘chat.e-uni’ –  the channel was bustling with activity. In the channel people are chatting about everything and having fun. The only problem with such a channel is it is not easy to find the right help. If you ask a question you will get a short answer, which might not be the whole answer you are looking for. So if you trying to understand how game mechanics work, this is not the place for it. Trying to ask further about a given subject is easily lost in the chatter. Sometimes your questions can be lost altogether or meet with cheeky replies; people might just try to have fun but it can be quite frustrating in the long run.

Joining up on Mumble one of the first things which I meet is the ‘OMG a girl effect’. Yes I am a girl and I do not care – I just want to play the game. But people on Mumble are very friendly and helpful.  I went out with some older members on their level 4 mission – you can easily get into a mission group if you wish to. This way you get to know some EVE Uni members, learn about the game, and gain a good portion of ISK. I read up some more about EVE University and the game in general.

First Month

So I found myself spending more time on Mumble, learning more about the people and the University. I quickly learned what a massive organization it is and how much work people like Kelduum Revaan and others puts into running this place. The public channel is also full of people like Seamus Donohue, who loves teaching people and helping them out. Now I wanted to learn everything about EVE at the same time which resulted in me getting an overflow of information. E-Uni does not help you narrow down what you want to learn first so I had to do that myself. By this I meant choosing subject and then the Wiki has a lot of pages you can go and read/stream classes but no guidelines to where to begin or not to begin, but I hear that the Mentor program is a good place to start for initial tips. If you ask for help in mumble or chat you might get linked to a wiki page, but in order to understand the info on that page you have to read 2 other wiki pages.

When I first joined there was barely any classes in European day/evening – most classes was when I was asleep and if there was one it was a class on too high a level for me to understand. But after two weeks a greater amount of classes were offered. Like in real life teachers are different and it is a personal matter whom you learn best from.  Personally I found that some teachers speak too quickly, I couldn’t comprehend every word. The teacher moved on so quickly that I could not understand the meaning as a whole. Added to this being new in EVE means you’re not familiar with all the expressions and terms used, putting you behind if the teacher is not aware of it. Class difficulty should of course also be taken into account. But I did not find the class difficulty listed on the wiki very helpful as I had drone 101 with difficulty 1 I did not understand all of while I had no problem with classes with higher rating. It would be very helpful if it was listed what knowledge prerequisite was needed for each class and where to find it or if the teacher said so before each individual class. But the classes are very helpful and a good way to learn more.

Getting to know new corp members can be a little hard as there always so many online talking in any given channel and I play at different times during the day so no set playing schedule. If I did some more group missioning I am sure I will get to know some more people better.  I have been doing some fleets and I am slowly starting to see some familiar faces.

As opposed to many others I find the uni PVP fleets a bit dull. But the more responsibility I get the more fun it is for me. I needing a little more in my hands to keep myself busy and some high risk helps cheer things up. Sitting around in a fleet with 30 other Unistas waiting and taking orders like a zombie is not me. But the fleets are very newbie friendly and anybody who set up their overview to Uni standards and read the Rookie’s Guide to Fleet Ops will have no problem taking part and I heard plenty who finds every second of it really exciting. Personally I am not discouraged yet from PVP – I just need to find my niche in it.

Summing It Up

So does the Uni live up to my expectations now that I’ve been here a little longer? Yes it does. I could not imagine how much work was put into organizing this Corporation. People are very nice and helpful besides a few in the chat channels. There is a lot of knowledge although some of it could be distributed better. The application process is a little overwhelming. The responsibility for learning and getting friends is on your own shoulders but people here are willing to help you. It is defiantly worth getting into EVE University for new EVE players.

 

 

Q&A with Ian Chisholm of Clear Skies

EVE University is proud to host a Question and Answers session with Ian Chisholm, the creator of Clear Skies and the man behind Captain John Rourke.

John Rourke, Captain of Clear Skies

Ian Chisholm is most prominently known in the EVE community as being the creator of the (to date) three Clear Skies short films – a machinima series based in the EVE Universe starring John Rourke and his crew.

The event will be held on Monday, 27th June 2011, at 19:00 UTC on the EVE University Mumble server. All Alumni and current students are cordially invited to attend and show your support for the series, and to pose any burning questions you may have for Mr. Chisholm.

For further details, see here.

Information on Clear Skies can be found here.

EVE University Reaches 2000 Active Members

A truly momentous occasion, we spoke to EVE University CEO Kelduum Revaan about this exciting event. “We had hovered around 1600 a couple of times in the past, but the membership only includes people active in the last month now, and so we are excited to see where this will go. There is a great deal of work needed to run a corporation of this size, and it couldn’t be done without the Directors, Managers and Staff, so well done everyone.”

Kelduum expressed excitement about coming changes in the University, including the much anticipated revision to the Ivy League Navy. “I’m looking forward to seeing the results of the changes to the ILN, which should allow it to scale along with the University.”

Many changes are already underway, including much needed expansions to some of the reimbursement programs – which while may not be much for the experienced player, can offer to be a veritable lifeline for the new one.

Kelduum was confident about the University’s growth, despite growing concerns of recruitment problems caused by the new, intended Incarna interface. “Assuming we can keep the recruiting numbers up, we should be able to challenge both Dreddit and GoonWaffe for their titles as the largest single corporations in EVE,” he said with a wry smile.

DUST University Launched Following E3

Following the pivotal announcement at E3 2011 by CCP CEO Hilmar Pétursson slating the much anticipated DUST 514 for an exclusive PlayStation 3 release in the summer of 2012, we have a tantalizing announcement of our own. With much excitement, EVE University CEO Kelduum Revaan announced today the formal launch of the DUST University website; www.dustuniversity.org. Continue reading

EVE University Professor Releases Tutorial Videos

ALDRAT, Metropolis – EVE Online can be highly intimidating for new pilots. Mastering even the basics to survive in New Eden is a daunting challenge. To make this easier for capsuleers, Seamus Donohue and EVE University have released a series of tutorial videos which guide new pilots through character creation through the introductory career mission tracks.

This 46-part series, encompassing over seven hours of content, can be found at http://tinyurl.com/SurviveEVE, or by searching for “How to Survive EVE Online” on YouTube. Each video runs from 6 to 14 minutes in length.

“I like explaining things,” said Seamus Donohue, “so when I saw ‘How to Survive Minecraft’ by ‘paulsoaresjr’ on YouTube, I decided it would be a good idea to create a similar series for EVE Online. In my case, I had watched the entire Minecraft series before actually buying Minecraft.” Continue reading

EVE University Test Flight in EON Magazine

EVE University staff had the distinct pleasure of featuring in the latest issue of EON Magazine, the official print publication to accompany the EVE Online experience.

EON Magazine

EON Magazine

The feature piece in question, Test Flight, focuses on fittings and uses for the many combat ships in the EVE Universe. Why would this be a resourceful asset you ask? Well, put simply, there are tens of thousands of fitting combinations that are useable. Thousands are used daily, and a handful are known as ‘cookie cutter’ fits – basically the best fits to get the job done.

It is the prevalence of cookie cutters that has led to casual name dropping of specific ships as ‘best use’. For examples, Rifters are frequently known as the best PVP tech 1 frigate in the game. Omens are known as a particularly difficult cruiser to fit and fly effectively. Hurricanes are known as particularly fast battlecruisers. The list goes on. However, that is not to say that the other variations out there aren’t good if fit right.

EVE University staff were initially approached to offer fits they felt would be useful to the community, with particular focus on the newer player, but not shunning the old one. And that is what we hoped to deliver, offering a wide variety of fittings (spread 1, spread 2) that new and young pilots alike can enjoy (EVE University CEO Kelduum Revaan was even kind enough to offer a tanked Hulk fit, for those who want to offer a surprising bite to would-be suicide gankers).

Continue reading

The Life of a SpyMaster: Speaking with Akay Quinn

Intel and subterfuge are two interesting components to EVE Online. Not only does the concept provide tangible and manifest benefits within the game, but it plays a very strong meta-game position as well (that being, effects going beyond the realm of the game).

Few networks have become as proficient at the art of intelligence gathering as the dreaded Goonswarm Intelligence Agency (or GIA for short), who have been accredited with some of the most intriguing intelligence leaks and corporate upsets in the history of EVE.

We have today the privilege of speaking to Akay Quinn, current chief of GIA, filling the position that The Mittani once held.

Zeroniss: So when did you start playing EVE Online? Continue reading