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[GoGo Yubari]

Why are we not talking about this? I guess it's big news.

I'm desperately trying not to be cynical about the whole ambulation thing. I love the idea that we can walk around the Eve universe and the level of immersion it can bring us, but despite all CCPs assurances that it will be awesome, I'm not buying it will be anything else than a tacked on gimmick barely held together by duct tape and bubblegum.

I can actually come up with a lot of cool stuff that could be done with this vis-a-vis planetary interaction, 0.0 alliances, etc. mostly in an amazing visualized UI kind of way, but also with solid game-play repercussions. I can see it, I could sketch it out. Add a whole new playing field for alliance strategists, fleet commanders, tacticians and so on. Resource management and leadership, baby. It could be glorious and even open up a way to play the game purely from the insides of stations (turning an old joke into an established part of the system).

But everything CCP is saying of staged launches (which in itself are a great new way of pushing content out) and what's actually coming out first.. it's not much. Actually it's a pittance, even tho' I've no doubt it will look and feel awesome. But no gameplay. No meat on the stick.

I really, really want to avoid being disappointed by this, but I'm really, really skeptical. Somehow I think a lot of players are in the same situation as me. That said, the introduction of a physical avatar - whether it will answer the concerns I outlined in this post - will pull a lot of new players to come in and take a look. No doubt that's something CCP is looking forward to.

But for those players, who've previously avoided the game because of what it is, the experience of just seeing the station through their avatar won't be enough. They'll need gameplay to match their expectations and I don't see Eve as is will cut it for the majority of them.

[Senn Typhos]

I'm fairly cynical myself, and prone to pessimism. So I've set my expectations low on this one.

All I'm hoping for is that when ambulation arrives - if it does in my lifetime - it will offer some neat tricks. Negotiations between wardec parties will suddenly have a more personal feel to them. Meetings with friends will be more impressive (no offense to RP channels, I don't think this will be the death of them). And, without a doubt, more important than any other factor, I'd like to be able to buy Senn some nice clothes and dress him up like my outer-space doll, and giggle to myself girlishly.

Yes, it's most likely a gimmick, and yes, CCP will probably catch a lot of flak for adding new stuff instead of fixing old stuff.

We will be on the eve of experiencing all the same problems with WoW's RP community.

You will eventually witness a text depiction of a Brutor and his lithe Gallentean lover loosing the animalistic passions that a lonely life in space brings on.

However, what I've come to love about EVE is that it's viewed through a prism, not a looking glass. The dimensions of player interaction, if you think about it, are astonishingly complex at times. This will offer just one more lens through which you can view your character, those of other players, and interact in a realistic setting while you argue terms of shipping expense, discuss politics in heated debate, or catch up with an old friend.

Furthermore, I know CCP will probably add a "go to dock" button to avoid players bitching too much, but I do have this fantasy in my head about someone receiving notification of an attack on their home system and having to book it through a station at full speed to reach their ship in time.

[Esna Pitoojee]

I'm... quite apprehensive about Incarna/Captain's Quarters as well.

However... I'm also tentatively hoping that the return of Aura will bring an revamped tutorial with it, possibly integrating Captain's Quarters as a sort of overly flashy tutorial while the rest of Incarna is developed.
Yeah, it won't be perfect. But it'll be better than just leaving it out there with no connection to the game as it currently exists.

[Benjamin Shepherd]

I think everyone who plays this game is always cynical and cold.

CCP wins.

[Graanvlokkie]

Incarna has the potential to be great.

The first feature, the Captains Quarters, doesn't add anything to the game, however. Seems like a fancy interface it open up menus that already exist on the right hand side of the screen. I dont think we can judge the whole of Incarna by this first feature.

Edit: The reason we haven't been talking about it is because there isnt anything to talk about, is there?

[Kaleigh Doyle]

Keep your expectations low and take what's given at face value.

[DosTuMai]

In some ways, I'm excited about Incarna, but I'm not expecting much. Yes, it'll pull in far more noobs and probably make station camping different, but would we be able to fight within the confines of the station, or will it still be on space only?
I'm going to remain skeptical about Captain's Quarters and Incarna and take a 'wait and see' approach.

[lallara zhuul]

I'm very enthusiastic about my new screensaver that I will have on the background while I chat in the channels.

There will be a toon that will do a lot of /dancing and I can make her wear all kinds of doodads.

RRrrooWWrr!

[orange]

So, recently did a little RP which would have been a bit more interesting once Incarna becomes interactive.

A fellow Caldari RP wanted to buy a Wolf, but wanted it built to Caldari standards by Caldari.  So one of my characters took on the job and we had a bit of a back & forth about what LDIS had done to make it a Lai Dai Wolf and not a Boundless Creation (things like Fernite-Titanium hybrid plating and a LD non-capsuleer C2 system).  The show and tell would have been more interesting standing in front of the ship in question in a hangar (and could have been done with voice I suppose).

The real trick for Incarna (in my mind) will be getting people to actually speak using Eve-Voice Channels for their location.  A room limited to say 32 people (damn those station fire marshals) with spacial audio volume system (the volume of any sound is adjusted based on their distance from you) would make things very interesting, but require lots of work.  Chat channels become like a clubs twitter feed (which they already kind of are)!

It seems like Captain's Quarters are good way to test out the basic interaction mechanism without having characters interact yet.  The next step in my mind is to expand it to Corporate Offices, where you can go meet the NPC agent you are working for or talk to a PC corps holo/android/staff about joining.

[Kybernetes Moros]

In true proto-bittervet fashion, my expectations of (at least the first iteration of) Incarna aren't tremendously high, but hey, new stuff is new stuff and it might be improved.

Overriding my concerns about playability, bugginess, and so on, however, is the question as to what Incarna is for. There are a lot of little things that I could see being done with it, and a few fairly neat experiences like what Senn mentioned, having to run through a station to reach your ship in time for event x, but I find myself unconvinced that it will actually serve a purpose beyond pretty graphics.

That's not to say I've taken a stance of 'eh, Incarna is a lost cause, damn those CCP folks and their evil ways'; it's more something like 'it could be cool, I suppose; there are things I'd rather see done first, but this has potential too'. We'll see what happens as time goes by, anyway.

[Myrhial Arkenath]

Give people something that is purely fun and they will still find a way to strike it down I for one think the quarters are a nice little kiddypool start into what incarna can or might be. Yes, it does not fix anything, nor does it add anything of value, but since when is it a crime to add something to your game that is purely for the fun of having it? All this internet spaceships serious business is depressing sometimes. You haters go be cold and bitter, I'll stick to my having fun. 

Besides, there's just been a whole patch dedicated to fixing small annoyances, and there is always going to be a million more things that could be better, but those things take time. The team that is behind this isn't going to do much about those things because it isn't even remotely close to their area of expertise. So the whole "they could do better things with their time" sounds like such a terrible argument to me.

[Benjamin Shepherd]

Give people something that is purely fun and they will still find a way to strike it down I for one think the quarters are a nice little kiddypool start into what incarna can or might be. Yes, it does not fix anything, nor does it add anything of value, but since when is it a crime to add something to your game that is purely for the fun of having it? All this internet spaceships serious business is depressing sometimes. You haters go be cold and bitter, I'll stick to my having fun. 

Besides, there's just been a whole patch dedicated to fixing small annoyances, and there is always going to be a million more things that could be better, but those things take time. The team that is behind this isn't going to do much about those things because it isn't even remotely close to their area of expertise. So the whole "they could do better things with their time" sounds like such a terrible argument to me.

Exactly this.

[orange]

I suspect most people would be cold & bitter about an industrial update... 

[Milo Caman]

Well, on the plus-side, it might make for some more interesting material for Site Artwork and such 

[Isobel Mitar]

I'm looking forward to it.

Before the character generator was released, I was very unenthusiastic about Ambulation / Incarna. I expected I would likely be forced to walk around as a standard computer game female - a boobmonster with scoliosis and skimpy clothes. Now I am cautiously hopeful.

There are still ways to get Incarna wrong - like wasd movement (imagine typing while walking...) or having to be on voice to talk in a room (sucks to have kids or flatmates who are light sleepers!) but CCP having avoided some pitfalls makes me hope they can avoid most of the rest too.