OUCH

Fellow blogger Alexia Morgen from Punishment is putting together a new group in EVE called "OUCH", the Open University of Celestial Hardship. The point of it will be to train new players how to survive in null-sec and low-sec, by operating completely in null sec.

Unlike the EVE-U this means getting involved in fleets, roams, alliances at a starter level and learning the hard and fast rules of EVE. And I fully support it. The EVE-U is based in high-sec, and thus the members will rarely be in danger, where in OUCH the player always has the potential for danger, and so will learn hard lessons pretty early on in the game when the loss isn't that much to worry about.

I learned the hard way. I started EVE, read the Piracy 101 guide, strapped a missile launcher, scram and web to my Inquisitor and went straight out to low-sec space to forge a name for myself, and I would have loved to have some support with me to teach me the works, even if I do solo most the time. I've learned my lessons the hard way like most people in EVE, and as such i've learned them first time usually. The element of danger adds alot to a learning curve, if you don't do A then you'll die. If you forget about B then you'll die. etc.

I agree there should be a some way of learning if not in a safe environment, then in a structured environment. Hopefully people will join the corp and will die. But dying is a lesson that must be learned at some point, and I hope it's learned first time how to avoid being caught like that again, or what targets to go for with certain ships and such like. How to scan down ships and see if a ship is scanning you down will be immensely valuable knowledge to learn from the beginning, learning to warp immediately if your ship is destroyed to avoid being podded. Learning how to fit an effective PVP ship and what ships are used for solo, support, RR, tanking active or passive/buffer, the list goes on.

EVE is a hard game outside of Empire space, and players need to know how to survive, and the best way to learn is to actually try.

I'm going to wish Alexia good luck on this venture, as it's one of the better enterprises any capsuleer can undertake, sharing knowledge without expecting a reward for the services. I'm going to try to make donations every now and then to help this, and hope others will do the same. Now I just need to figure out where to make any donations :D

Fly Safe.

- Noir Avlaa.