EVE Online’s Cradle of War expansion wants to make the space MMO more welcoming to new players, before killing them in galaxy-wide omniconflict

The effective onboarding of curious yet noncommitted first-time EVE Online players is a conundrum that developers Fenris Creations, formerly CCP Games, have been trying to solve for decades. Many are enticed by the MMORPG’s purely player-spun tales of espionage and military adventure, only to bounce off its dense hull of complex economic spacemaths and a sandbox occupied by oft-unpunished pirates and con artists. Perhaps the game’s next big expansion, Cradle of War, will have more luck when it