The situation on the information front changed over the past few days. On Wednesday PC Gamer produced an 18-minute documentary on the game.
After a chorus of "we want gameplay video" in the comments, CCP released a 57 minute video on Saturday of a group of players attempting to take down what in other games is known as a BAM (Big-Ass Monster).
As one might expect from an EVE video, the footage is not exactly compelling. Also, the footage is extremely alpha with many EVE Online assets used as placeholders for objects.
What is EVE Frontier? I personally think of the game as a Massively Multiplayer Moddable Role Playing Game (And yes, I got the idea from CCP Jötunn). From the PC Gamer video, EVE Frontier Product Manager CCP Overload gave the following explanation.
EVE Frontier is a survival game set in space with a focus on self-reliance, moment-to-moment gameplay and unlocking third party development with an inclusive business model. I think it's bordering on survival horror almost in this huge vast empty universe with the rotting vestiges of an old civilization that grew too large and eventually collapsed.We're focusing really on the exploration. They'll be able to go vast distances. In order to do so they'll really have to prepare for that journey. They'll have to take resources with them they might be able to survive out in the cold, in the wilderness. There'll be places wherepeople choose to gather because there's an abundance of natural resources. Much like in our real life we expect people to do the same with their digital civilization. You may choose to go out deep into the wilderness but it will be hard to live there. It will be tough, it'll be brutal, but maybe you can forge your own destiny in that space.
And yes, at least the premise of the lore makes Frontier a role-playing game. As CCP Maximum Cats explained at the very beginning of the video:
One of the story arcs that we are trying to craft for the players is what I like to call a dark sci-fi Pinocchio story which is starting in this world as something that is probably even less than human and then gradually digging your way out of that towards becoming a real human again evolving towards a proper transhumanist form something that would be properly adapted towards life in space as opposed to if we were to go to space now.
Anyone writing about EVE Frontier has to address the elephant in the room: the use of blockchain technology. CCP Overload was joined by Senior Full Stack Developer CCP Sondheim to explain CCP's goals.
CCP Sondheim: We're excited to be introducing smart assemblies as a feature. So lets us open up this universe to a layer where other players will be able to modify and co-create this universe with us.CCP Overload: CCP has always worked with third party developers. It's part of what makes EVE Online so good at what it does and we have just taken that and amplified it with EVE Frontier. It's open source and that means that you can go in and you can program directly into the game with our smart assemblies features.CCP Sondheim: Smart assemblies are structures in space that you as a player will be able to modify using code that you are writing and then deploying onto the blockchain.CCP Overload: And as part of that we're working to enshrine what we call digital physics into the immutable part of the blockchain.
The thought of allowing players to mod in an online multiplayer game seems ludicrous at first glance. Allowing players to write and implement code that can negatively impact other players doesn't seem like such a good idea. But modding in single player games like Skyrim and Fallout series extended the lives of those games by years without Bethesda becoming too involved. If the demand for mods for Fallout 76 when that game first launched is any indication, perhaps the modding aspect of EVE Frontier is a selling point beyond the community of modders that always gravitates to successful video games.
One concern I have is the creation and widespread adoption of cheat software like teleport hacks. Nothing is more frustrating than spending 15-20 minutes sneaking around and fighting to a location to gather a rare spawn only to have someone using a teleport hack jump in and snatch the resource away from me at the last moment. CCP claims the use of the blockchain will solve issue like that from occurring.
CCP Maximum Cats: In the frontier everything is underpinned by digital physics very much in the same way that when we're walking around when we are throwing things putting glasses on tables we don't think about how gravity is pulling us down. Within the virtual universe that we're creating together on Eve Frontier blockchain is that physics layer that helps us to enshrine these rules to make sure that they are beyond anyone's touching – even ours at CCP.
I'd like to call out the last point. Even beyond employee or company manipulation of Frontier's crypto-currency CCP has a history of employee misconduct, most famously with 2007's T20 scandal. Addressing concerns about the game universe is extremely important in the success of any online game.
I want to bring up a section of the video from the Creative Director for EVE Frontier, CCP Sondheim. One of the visions for Frontier is to have a living world, but unlike efforts like those envisioned for Everquest Next and Star Citizen CCP is eschewing the involvement of NPCs.
CCP Maximum Cats: Despite our play test still being in very in very early form and the tools that we are providing to the parts of the player community who are engaging in this modding are still very basic. Despite all that the things that we saw emerging we are already very interesting. The thing that we provide them is basically a chest that you could find in any other survival game but it comes with the layer of programmability...They managed to connect these individual chests spread out across the universe and network in a clever way with clever interfaces. But you come up to this kiosk and it tells you we are missing these resources here if you give these resources to us we're going to pay you. Through mechanics like this it becomes an emergent living economy which is not made by us. The only thing that we provided in there is just a singular building block.Now imagine if we add something like a smart turret unit to that equation and then you can have these scenarios where you come to a kiosk and if you do something you know that the kiosk doesn't like it starts shooting you or vice versa. You can start creating not just market systems but emerging security systems which can be much more interesting than the security systems that we normally see in interactive media in virtual worlds. Which is you do something bad the game will just punish you. This is more like a society is punishing you and a certain part of the society that you choose to interact with in a way that we would not be able to design.We will probably see player groups collapse not because they got defeated by someone on the battlefield but because they mismanaged their monetary policy, they didn't manage their inflation rate or things like that.
One criticism I've heard of EVE Online over the years is that the game is not really a sandbox. They point to voxel technology, say EVE does not have a similar building block system, and state players in EVE don't really build anything affecting the game world. At the very least in Frontier the developers can point to building blocks players can use to shape the universe.
Before giving my final thoughts, I'd like to provide those of three members of CCP's leadership from the video talking about where they envision Frontier winding up. First, the CEO of CCP Games, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson.
Hilmar: So we have a role of a creator of the world. But a lot of that sort of world creation myth is like somebody creates and then people take over. So there will be a bit of creation activity that hopefully will fade out. Then there will be this activity of like the NPC economy is bootstrapping the quote unquote the real economy. And then ideally these things fade away, the training wheels are completely off, and the world sort of lives and breathes through the activity of the people playing.
Next, the Creative Director CCP Maximum Cats.
CCP Maximum Cats: The path that we're trying to follow is we are building the singular foundational building blocks and the the the core game mechanics and you know the engine itself. But then all of these higher level things such as social mechanics, the economy, and the high level landscape of warfare for example. All of these things are from the player base and are emerging already in like in more or less in real time whenever we're having playtests.
Finally, the project manager CCP Overload.
CCP Overload: Our motto is we create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life. We want to build EVE Frontier such that as time goes on and it becomes more and more decentralized the true long-term goal with uh open sourcing the carbon development platform means that the ownership of the game itself will essentially reside in the citizens of the frontier. They choose to be here. They choose to live here in this virtual world. They should have a say in it.
And my thoughts. I'm still not sure about the wisdom of attempting to create a massively multiplayer moddable role playing game. Sandbox games featuring unconsensual PvP activity with full loot mechanics do not fall into the mainstream of gaming. Add in a technology guaranteed to draw in people looking to gain real world wealth by shearing unsuspecting normie sheep and ruining their gameplay and I personally would hesitate to play the game. But playing up until the game's commercial launch should be relatively safe so I'll continue to cover the development of Frontier.
Correction: I confused the CCP developer names of the Creative Director and Full Stack Engineer. I have corrected the quotes.
