I’ve had the opportunity to play a lot more Eve Online since my last article and I have to be honest and say I’m really enjoying the game. So much so, in fact, that I wish I had found it sooner. It truly is a departure from most MMOs out there and it has that “hard” feel to it like EverQuest did. The running joke is that the learning curve in Eve is extremely steep and I agree. The truth is though, I love it!
The first thing that strikes me as interesting about the MMO is that it is almost entirely player driven. The economy is pushed by players, your ability to advance is dependent on other players and your ability to do the more interesting activities in the game is totally wrapped up in, you guessed it, other players. It isn’t a solo game. You will never achieve the top end objectives alone. I also like that the developers have a laissez-faire attitude. Players are in the driver seat and the developers are the guide rails on the side of the road. There is no set of blinders that keep you on a narrow path. You pretty much are given license to do whatever you like providing you’re willing to suffer the consequences.
Another aspect that I’m really enjoying and will write about later is the skill system. I am quite impressed with how the game handles advancement. You have a 24 hour queue to set skills into. They require real time to train. Whether you’re playing or not they will continue to progress. As long as you log in every day and set up the queue you’ll advance. The great part about this is that if you can’t play one day it doesn’t feel as devastating as it might in another game. After all, you are getting something done. More importantly, however, you can completely change what you want to be. If you don’t like the direction you’re going you can reverse gears and go another way. It will take time but it is possible.
I am equally amazed by the sheer size of the game. Obviously, since it has a single server, it has to be big but I have yet to feel crowded. It is also really awesome that everything happens on “my” server. I never have to hear about things happening on another place that I’ll never see. This helps to drive the economy and raise the awareness of how important reputation is. Eve isn’t a game where you just throw a toon away and start over.
The game is not without a few down sides though. As previously stated if you’re not used to MMOs and willing to really learn a game Eve has a huge barrier to entry. It is for the old school elite MMO crowd, not the new casual one. Another thing that can be as annoying as it is fun is the skill system. No matter what, other than training learning skills and raising my statistics some, I can never get ahead. If a skill takes 40 hours to train then it will take 40 hours to train. I am patient though but sometimes I just wish that bar would hurry along! Finally, the game has open PvP. There are a lot of areas that are pretty safe but there is always the threat that someone will destroy you. I love the fact that you can go to specific places to PvP but I do wish there were some areas where you were completely safe. That, however, isn’t the point of Eve.
Ultimately, if you’ve never played this game, I think it is worth the free trial or a buddy pass. I was stunned at how amazing and different it was from all the other MMOs I’ve played. I plan on being there for a while so perhaps I’ll see you there?
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It took a couple weeks for me to warm up to the game, but I have been enjoying it as well. The complete freedom of a player run universe is fairly daunting, and the game is very complex. As a newb it almost helps to just jump in and go with what feels right and learn that way. Otherwise, you will be bogged down in so many statistics, items, skills, areas, missions, etc. that you will throw your hands up and say “How does anyone master this game!?” The truth is, I don’t think you really ever master it and that’s why I like it. Also, even though it is open PvP, you are pretty safe in anything from .6-1.0 space. .5 space to 0.0 space is where you need to worry, but for the most part there are pure PvE areas that should pose no issues.
I heard a story (I am not sure if it is totally true) that reveals the amount of player involvement/interaction in the game world. There was a huge corporation that owned a substantial portion of the galaxy (Given that its a huge galaxy, it was probably only a hundred or so systems – but thats still alot). They were pretty much accepted as the big boys on the block and it was rumored that some devs even played in that corp.
At the same time, there was a smaller but very ambitious corporation that wanted to take down the first one. A member from the latter group left his corporation and began fostering a friendship with what we will call the Big Boy Corp. He joined them, was one of their most loyal members, and helped them become the major corporation while playing with them for over a year.
Eventually he worked his way up in the ranks and was able to gain a large amount of control within the corporation. He was a well known, respected member and a major player on the server. Then, one day when few were online, he signed in and transferred all of the Big Boy Corp’s wealth he could get his hands on to his old guild and his own characters. He took their stations, assets, ships, etc. He then deleted the corporation and restarted one under the same name so that none of it could be recovered.
As you can imagine, this left a huge power vacuum that many corporations rushed to fill, and is still being filled to this day. Even though devs were said to be members of the dead corp, they decided that they would do nothing. Sabotage and corporate espionage are part of the game.
I have no idea if that story is true or even possible. I do know that the Big Boy Corp did exist and now doesn’t (whatever its real name was). Even if only part of that is possible/true, this game allows for some pretty crazy player interactions.
The story you are referring too is very real and even apeared in some newspaper. The twist was that the player who infiltrated the big corp was in fact a member of a “mercenary for hire” corp. He was paid real money to infiltrate and destroy the bigger corp from the inside. It made quite a mess of things for a while.
Myself I hated this game for a long time until my brother dragged me into it. I hated that everything in the game was bases around commerce. Now I found a small groups of pirates and we’re having a blast pillaging and burning where we are not supposed to go. I guess the whole “farwest and lawlessness” vibe is what keeps me in. We managed to raid people up to 0.8. Obviously players crops hates us for raiding their mining whales but so far we can avoid them by keeping on the move.
Yarr mateys!!
I’m not the pirate type but that does sound pretty awesome!
60 warrior looking for Healer/DPS.
Buy a Battlecruiser Buuncha:)