"Many MMORPGs have been created and will be created in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that Eve Online is perfect. Indeed, it has been said that Eve Online is the worst MMORPG ever published except for all those other games that have been tried from time to time."A lot of people hate Eve Online. Sure, the UI needs some work and the physics reminds people more of submarines than of space. And there is the rather boring PvE combat that grows old after awhile. Did I mention mining? Many players say that you don't win at Eve unless you are not playing the game.
So what accounts for Eve's success? Why do so many people follow the game even though they do not play? The game takes the term "Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game" seriously. Do you want massive? Look on Sundays when Eve routinely sees over 50,000 accounts logged into the same shard at the same time. Fleet fights occur involving up to 2,000 ships that are playable due to time dilation technology.
Do you want the necessity of interacting with others? To reach even the middle level of success usually involves joining player-run corporations. Those individuals who are highly successful outside that structure usually wind up interacting with a lot of other players. And it is that social interaction which creates different stories for each player in the game.
Do you want role-playing? Every player who logs in engages in it to some extent, from space truck drivers to space despots who rule empires of thousands of other players. Even The Mittani publicly admitted to the difference between himself and his in-game persona.
In the wake of the success of World of Warcraft, companies made MMORPGs that can be played as a single-player game until the level cap and then demand players become social and play together. Sure, some of those games are more popular, at least for a time, than Eve. But that formula for success has never matched that of WoW. Eve is different in that the developers want players to join together as much as possible even in an environment that discourages giving trust to others without care. In most other MMOs, the developers create the story and the players follow the yellow brick road to the pot of gold. In Eve, the players are the story and nothing is guaranteed. I think a game is better that way.
At this point for me it's 10 years of online MMOs and bored with many. 2 years right at that point in EVE which I started or tried just out of curiosity. Is it perfect like you said, No! But I love the game much more than any other out there.
ReplyDeletePlayers indeed are the story of the Universe, nothing is indeed guaranteed and the universe is always in a state of flux. Yeah love it.
Being single sharded is the biggest deal for me. There is only one pond, you're a fish. All the sharks are in your pond, along with all the minnows.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that anyone can kill you at any time is the second biggest bonus. Yes, in high security areas CONCORD will avenge your ship loss, but won't save you from the bad guys. Team up or die alone.
I see your Churchill, and raise you Mencken:
ReplyDelete[EVE Online] is the worship of jackals by jackasses. (Best quote first quote)
[EVE Online] is the theory that the common [carebears] know what they want and need, and deserve to get it, good and hard.
He even successfully predicted Mittani:
[EVE Online] is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
Churchill was a man of action, and Mencken was a man of ideas. Comparing them is as relevant as comparing a screwdriver to a DIY magazine :P
DeleteThanks for bringing up Mencken though, because his quotes make for some good reading. And that one fits Eve well too:
"It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place."
To me another big advantage of Eve over its competition, is that you're competing against other players not only in space fights, but also on the markets.
ReplyDelete