Garden of EVE

Readers from the Path of Bones may remember a previous mention of a game called EVE Online, and I suspect that anyone that has surfed the net, particularly game related sites, has probably seen their banner and sidebar adds.

My wife and I first encountered EVE Online shortly before it's May 2003 launch as beta testers. At the time we felt it was a game with potential, but too many bugs and too steep of a learning curve to be enjoyable. The game also prominently featured an open PvP focus, and that did not appeal to us at the time. (My personal opinion of open PvP has changed over the years, and now I believe that, properly handled, it can be a great way to add depth and realism in MMOs.)

But let me back up for a moment for those that don't know what EVE Online is about. Personally I consider EVE to be one of the most innovative MMOs to date, with many elements that I would love to see developing MMOs consider adding to their feature list. The concept is simple enough - your character is a pod pilot, a starship pilot above and beyond a simple commander. Your neural interface to your pod, and thus your entire ship, gives you a serious edge to normal starship captains (NPCs), and you're looking to make your mark on the big bad universe through combat, trade, manufacturing, or some combination there of. But within that basic simplicity is the full complexity of the universe ... there is a reason that CCP hired a real economist to manage and report on the in game economy of EVE.

The depth and complexity of the game, however, nearly killed it before it had a chance to blossom. Between the bugs that are inherent with a system that complex and a learning curve that, to a new player, appeared to be a sheer cliff with no hand holds in sight the game nearly didn't retain enough players to survive launch. The developers stuck to their guns, fixing bugs, improving the new player tutorial, and launching an internet ad campaign that was nothing short of viral. Over the 7 years that the game has been 'live' they have managed to build one of the most successful MMOs to date with their single server hosting more than 40, 000 players online simultaneously at peak times. (I know I've seen over 44,000, I believe they've had 46 or 47,000 ... and in June of this year they broke their previous record with 60,543 concurrent accounts logged in.)

Roughly 3 years ago my wife and I were looking for something different and decided to give EVE a try to see what had changed in the 4 years since the beta. What we found was a game that we not only enjoyed immensely but one that has certainly captured a place in our top MMOs. While we have departed from the game a few times, we have come back to it again fairly regularly.

So what brings us back? Speaking for myself, of course, it's hard to say exactly. It's a number of things really, the expansive, thriving, player driven economy, the skill based character advancement, and the variety of things available to a player; mission running, mining, PvP, or even just trading ... and almost all of it is available to all players of any skill level. (Though admittedly a player looking to carve out a place for himself out in the lawless frontier of 0.0 space is either going to need serious Corporation (guild/clan) support, a large number of skill points, or probably both.)

EVE, however, is a game that is well suited to a goal oriented player. The problem for a new player can be the sheer number of goals available to pursue, but in EVE given time and effort just about any goal is achievable. Time is, of course, one of the keys, even more so in EVE because skill advancement is based on real time; not played time ... real time. If a skill lists the training time as 4 days 12 hours when you start training, it will finish in 4 day and 12 hours online or offline, unless you interrupt it, or change your stats in a way that decreases the time requirement. This is great for a casual player because it means that as long as you have a skill in training it doesn't matter if you can only play an hour every other day that 30 day training plan will take 30 days to train (provided that you stay on top of the training to always have that next skill lined up and ready to go when it is time.)

Where the casual player can fall behind is, of course, money, but this is something that is easier for the player to equalize with friends than it can be in other MMOs where they can't give you XP to help you level. In EVE the casual player can either have the support of friends that are playing to help him, or it is also possible to purchase game currency indirectly in game by buying PLEX (an in game item that represents 30 days of game time) and selling the PLEX for in game currency. This also means that those players that have the means of generating enough ISK (in game currency) can basically play the game for free by buying their game time through PLEX in game.

In fact the community itself has developed a thriving economy outside of the game as well with several EVE related website hosting companies and other service type providers accepting ISK in exchange for their services.

The game, of course, does have it's flaws, from occasional glitches and bugs to griefers and pirates. Some people find it repetitive and cumbersome; though I believe that the latter complaints are more a result of player focus and perspective ... I mean when you break it down, life is repetitive - you get up in the morning, go to work, do the same basic things at work all day, come home, and most people have a daily or weekly routine that takes up much of the rest of their waking hours.

Many players also complain about a disconnect between the player and character due to the 'disembodied' nature of the game. That is to say that, at this point in the game, you can not leave your ship; you never see your character except for a portrait that you make at character creation. Likewise you can not customize the appearance of your ship. And other players consider the game a giant spreadsheet with a sci-fi user interface.

Certainly it's not a game for everyone, the PvP element alone will turn a lot of people off. For those fans of space trading games in the vein of Elite, Wing Commander: Privateer, or the X series the game offers a deep universe with some 7000+ systems, a manufacturing system that allows players to make everything from ammunition to largest capital ships in the game. For players that love PvP EVE offers full FFA open PvP (with some restrictions) and the opportunity to carve out their own section of frontier space and defend it against all opponents. For those that want a mix there's mission running, mining and exploration for the PvEers, and for those that want some PvP but not the full hard core of the frontier there's 'low sec' pirate hunting or Militia faction warfare.

If you do give it a try do remember that the universe is a very big and very unforgiving place, while there are certainly plenty of players out there willing to help a new player learn the ropes (EVE University for example) there are also plenty of sharks looking for fresh meat. Also remember, reputation can have an impact, while there are restrictions EVE is essentially FFA PvP (anyone can attack you at anytime) and even though most of the time 'empire' or 'high sec' is pretty safe, it is usually not a good idea to move highly valuable cargo in small unprotected ships: Link.