Sometimes I put myself in the shoes of a newcomer, willing to roleplay and also willing to roleplay for conflict and what Eve stands for. Most of the time you either have the choice to :
- Get along with the hugglefest and/or key figures, at the expense of conflict, which often results in apolitical characters mostly fitted for parties and chitchat.
- Go the hard way and choose conflict. Most of the time this results in the newcomer being totally inexperienced in either what conflicts and consequences are in Eve, and also how this translates into RP in itself, which often doubles the dramatic consequences that can follow, since the RP community is not that huge and your utter failings can sometimes mean that your character reputation is doomed and only worth to get thrashed/biomassed eventually, for the simple reason that it will not get diluted in the mass and people will remembers. This is especially true for a new character that can antagonize (even with friends) and does not have the reputation backbone of an experienced RPer to soften these consequences (people will be more forgiving for someone liked, and more forgiving for someone that does not have to prove himself anymore). So eventually, getting into RP in Eve if this path is chosen often makes me think to those baby turtles rushing to the sea and hoping to be the one on thousands to succeed and not geting eaten by all the birds and predators around.
I think that if there is something in which the community is not doing very well and could do better, is it's tolerance and acceptance that new blood can make mistakes, and that lambasting them at the first error either ICly and more grave, OOCly, is not the best way to deal with it. Sure, making mistakes means consequences and like everything in Eve, means learning it the hard way. But the RP community also tends to take one of the bad sides of the Eve community in general, which is to think itself very elitist (i'm fine with elitism, i'm a damn elitist on RP quality and all that) and thus that people are somehow held to pass some kind of hardcore initiation rite to be accepted. Most of the time reactions are different whether it's a newcomer doing a mistake, or and old player. It's some kind of passive and diffuse OOC/IC bleedover in its way.
Of course the best advice for newcomers is always to find a RP corporation/group to play with and make his teeth with, so that it at least offers a certain layer of protection. It does not mean that protection is infallible, quite the contrary, but it still is there. Also, there is the risk to join a corporation that has been more or less shunned by the RP echo chamber, and those exist everywhere. Most of the time they are living on the fringe because their leader is despised, or something in that vein. And where the community is sometimes guilty, is to just look at the ticker of the newcomer and curbstomp him ICly just because of it.
Not surprising in the end that most choose the safe path.
