EVE Online

EVE Online is a strange game. On the one side it is the only MMORPG I know of that is continually growing, recently having reached 70,000 subscribers. This week they reached 17,000 simultaneous players at peak time, which they claim is a world record, because all of these players are playing on the same server. Whenever I see EVE reviewed, the game gets very high scores, just a little lower than World of Warcraft, and usually beating all the other usual suspects.

On the other hand EVE Online is the only MMORPG I bought where I didn't even play through the free month, but gave up after two weeks. And I don't plan a second visit to this game.

Okay, my personal EVE opinion might be negative because of things I experienced in the game, and not because of the game itself. First mistake was playing EVE from day one, after having spent only 2 days in the open beta which just ended. Everybody knows that a MMORPG is not at its best form right after release. Since then as far as I've heard lots of the missing content has been added, and many bugs ironed out. My second mistake was joining a big guild which knew the game from beta, was well organized, and relied on its members "working" for the guild instead of playing. The whole guild would assemble in one sector and start mining. Asteroid after asteroid was hit with mining lasers for hours on end. We didn't even travel back and forth to the space station, we just jettisoned the minerals when our holds were full, and another guild member collected them in a big industrial ship. EVE mining in a guild group is probably the most boring activity I ever did in a MMORPG. Even camping in Everquest for my Mammoth Cloak for 16 hours was more interesting, at least I got to kill a goblin every 23 minutes.

But the final nail on my personal EVE coffin happened when I was not playing with the guild, but was exploring EVE's excellent trading system. Third mistake, I had spotted a great trade opportunity and invested a major part of my personal virtual wealth in a cargo. And although I was transporting the cargo along a path which wasn't all that low security, I ended up getting shot down by a player pirate, who obviously didn't care about the negative consequences to his security status. He even "podded" me, that is shot down my escape pod, which made me lose not only my ship and cargo, but also part of my skills. I know they have been working on the "insurance" system since, slightly limiting the losses to players being shot down, but at that time when it happened to me, it was like losing several levels and most gear in a fantasy MMORPG. Now I'm all for MMORPG having at least a limited penalty for dying, to send you a clear message when you took too much risk. But in that case I didn't consider having taken an outrageous risk, I just had the bad luck of running into a griefer player, and the penalty for that was really crippling. After that I just couldn't stand that game any more.

Trying to consolidate my personal dislike with the fact that some people obviously like EVE Online very much, my conclusion is that EVE Online is a hardcore game, for hardcore players, and although I play *a lot*, I don't like playing *hard*.

The internet is full of great stories which players experienced or rather orchestrated in EVE Online. I don't think there are stories as complex about World of Warcraft, because in WoW killing another player isn't much of an inconvenience for the victim, and trying to scam him out of his virtual riches will probably fail due to lack of plausible "investment opportunities". While EVE makes for a more interesting life with better stories, on the other hand there is always a player victim suffering major hurt. As I can't stand the heat, I'll stay out of this particular kitchen.

In principle you could play this game without partaking in those big stories, without working on the big guild (sorry, corporation) politics. But unless things have dramatically changed since I left, EVE doesn't offer much of an alternative. Sure, you can just mine in safe sectors and do some small trade only following absolutely safe trade routes. But that would make for a rather boring game. Mining is terribly unfun, and profits from safe trading are tiny. Supposedly there is now something resembling "quests", but I doubt that the system rivals World of Warcraft quests in entertainment value. And unlike WoW, even as casual solo player you risk getting caught up in the stories of the hardcore. Unaffiliated players are often accused of being spies, and are shot down when they enter a sector which a big corporation claims as their own. No, EVE just isn't a good place for the casual gamer.

Now I leave explaining why EVE Online is so great for the hardcore gamer to one of them. I can see the principal attraction of being able to shake the world, but the amount of work and dedication required for that scares me off. In a game where the strong rule over the weak, you either need to put in a lot of effort, or you end up being the victim. The assured steady progress for everybody of a game like World of Warcraft is more my style.
- posted by Tobold @ 3:50 PM Permanent Link