Sunday afternoon I was logged on as my trade alt, and I jumped into Metropolis to check the market there for opportunities. The closest system was Ryddinjorn, a 1.0 system. When I jumped in I saw about 30-some in local and did a d-scan just to see what ships were out there. Lots and lots of Reapers – Minmatar noob ships. About half of the scan listing. It turns out that the only station in the system is a Pator Tech School, and it’s one of those where new capsuleers are born.
So out of curiosity, I warped to the station, just in time to see reaper after reaper launching from the station. I thought it might be some corp organized activity for new players, but they mostly warped off in different directions. I checked the info on a dozen or so and all of them were Pator Tech School corpies, and 10 were less than a day old. They all had different names (not the kind you’d see auto generated), and different avatars.
I watched for a while more and saw more noob ships launch, and some return to station, and many of them were also less than a day old, too. There was no obvious coordination between them, which you’d likely see if they were participating in an organized activity. And I doubt they’d be alts of experienced players – they’re not likely to stay in a 1.0 system flying noob ships. I finally decided that these were simply new players in the game, likely out running tutorial missions.
Now I’m not sure how typical it is to see that many newbies all that young all logged on in one system in the same half hour period. But if this is typical for a Sunday afternoon, and if it happens to a similar degree in other capsuleer birthplace systems (what do you call them? maternity wards? hatcheries? 
) and if a decent percentage of these new players stick with the game, then I think that’s a good sign for the health of the game.
To all the new players, Welcome to New Eden!
(I’m not a pirate, but I did wonder what the reaction would be if I were to scan one down and gank it. But a trader alt in a shuttle is not the right combo for that kind of mischief. )
March 3rd, 2010 at 20:36
Hahahaha, always fun to see a torrent of noob ships flying around.
Even pirates have to be careful in 1.0 sec systems that are defined as starter systems as much of the scamming mechanics are deemed exploits in those systems to give some noobs a little breathing room, but not sure how well those rules are followed!