A Taste of EVE Online
I’ve been playing EVE Online, on and off, since 2006. I love the game, and collectively, I have probably invested a total of 1 year and 6 months in subscriptions for the game. Some people ask me what EVE really is and what it’s all about, and for the most part, I can only explain what I’ve discovered so far – the surface of a very deep and complex MMORPG.
Of course, not all games are for everybody, and EVE is not an exception to that rule. First, it’s a sci-fi game set in space, where you control, you guessed it, space ships. There are no dwarves or elves or orcs for characters, ships are the only representations of players in the game, aside from the player portrait (human portrait which you create during character creation). Second, EVE is perhaps the most political, economical, player-driven MMORPG in existence today. It is taken VERY seriously by players, specially veteran players who have invested so much time into the game, and have joined corporations – the EVE equivalent of guilds. Suffice to say, if 1.) you’re not a space-themed sci-fi fan, and 2.) You’re not into serious economics and politics, then this game is probably not for you. Then again, if you only intend to scratch the surface, and have your own merry way alone or with just a few friends, indulging the vastness of space and the shininess of your battleships, then you might just enjoy playing albeit only the icing of a VERY big cake that is EVE Online.
Let’s say you ARE into space-themed sci-fi, then you’ll love the engagements – from small dogfights between squadrons, to large, epic battles between corporation fleets, that number hundreds to thousands of ships ranging from frigates to titans. If you love serious ecoomics and politics, then you will love the game’s player-driven economy and politics. But what else is in store for you in EVE? Well for starters, players have the freedom to do anything (within the boundaries of the game’s capabilities) they want in the game. When I mean anything, I mean they can mine minerals, process them, be technology researcher, be a trader, a manufacturer, be a fighter pilot for a militia, be the CEO of your own corporation that makes billions of ISK (in-game currency), be a mercernary, an assassin, a pirate, anything, YES, anything. Another thing, a corporation can actually OWN a part of space and establish a base of operations, and construct space ports, contruction yards, manufacturing plants, etc., and have a little “sector” (or a lot of sectors) for themselves. Of course, what I mean by own, is that they take it by force. If it’s non-NPC controlled space, then it’s free for the taking, provided nobody beat you to it. If somebody has, and you want the territory, then either an alliance or a war is imminent. There’s actually more than just what I have already told you, but those are beyond the scope of this article.
Ship Sizes in EVE
Just how serious is serious? Imagine the real world – the government, any government, is willing to enter a war because of valuable resources. High ranking officials are assassinated so that institutions are destabilized. Corporate espionage and sabotage happens within organizations and companies so that others will thrive. These all happen in EVE. That’s how serious it is. Take a look at these three (some of the most controversial) events in the game: GoonSwarm, Tourney Assassination, and $16,500. These are just examples of just what a player can expect from EVE. Twisted, really. But that’s how things are.
Because of the game’s complexity, some first time players shy away from the game failing to understand what’s great about this MMORPG. EVE Online only has about less than half a million active subscribers and since it only has one live server, about 30,000 players are online at the same time. Note that a player need not be logged in most of the time to progress in the game. That is how the devs designed the character system of EVE. Your character learns skills even while you’re offline.
Watch this latest trailer if you’re interested or head on to www.eve-online.com. If you want a more spruced up guide of EVE Online, you can read this article in Destructoid. Thanks for reading! ^_^
5 Responses to “A Taste of EVE Online”
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Politics in MMO has been around from the beginning. On Ragnarok Online, people have been playing the game with zealousness that you thought their very lives depends on them. Alliances are broken by political maneuvers. Guild leaders are ousted via smear campaigns.
This is also true with RAN Online, Granado Espada, and every other MMORPG games that I have played.
Same is true with Economics.
So in my opinion, you’ll want to play EVE because:
1. you like sci-fi
2. you like to learn skills without any effort
True on both accounts. And the 2nd one also applies to those who prefer using bots.
At least there’s no grind… :-/
I actually love hearing the stories of the shit that goes down in EVE more than actually playing it. This isn’t a reflection of the quality of the game, but more of the fact that I just don’t have the time to devote to an MMO these days.
My favorite political tidbit from EVE was a peace treaty between factions known as the “Honda Accord”.
EVE Online is a real value for my buck (at least in my opinion) since I pay for training time of my character (even when I’m offline) and not just playing time.