Eve Online : First Impressions

It’s hard to write “first” impressions of a game that’s four years old, but nonetheless, this is where I find myself. Burnt out by World of Warcraft, ranting and raving about my addiction on this site, and swearing off MMO’s for good is where we last left off.

Well, I’ve at least kept part of it up; I’ve resisted the Burning Crusade completely. But I find myself once again sucked into the MMO world, having started playing Eve Online.

Eve Online is very different from other online games I’ve played. For starters, it’s set in the future, in a space base universe. But rather than being first person, like almost every MMO, the game is entirely ship based. In fact, until an upcoming expansion (and keep in mind there have already been several expansions), you can’t ever actually “get out” of your ship.

The best way to describe the game graphically and conceptually is Homeworld-esque. The interface is similar, with the same variation of ship sizes (you pilot one ship at a time, but can own as many as you’d like). Since space is quite different from your average Fantasy world, CCP, the makers of Eve Online, have taken a totally different approach to building their universe. Rather than hand crafting every last bush and shrub (for starters, bushes and shrubs don’t do too well in space), the universe is generated via algorithm, with each system having a random number of planets (with optional moons), space stations, and asteroid belts. The net result is a universe of over 6,000 solar systems. Many are controlled by various NPC factions, to which a fair amount of attention has been given, but many others are unclaimed–but conquerable–by player “Corporations” (what guilds are called in this game). The result is a near-infinite space that feels like one would expect. Adding to this sense of scope is the fact Eve is a single shard–not multiple servers. With a total subscriber number around 150,000, and peaks of 30-40k, this feeling of immensity is magnified.

Playing Eve Online for the first time when the game has been out for over four years is an interesting experience. Back when I played other early MMOs, I remembered wondering how a new player who jumped in the game later on would ever know what the hell was going on after so many patches. With so many patches, so many game play and rule changes, and no good documentation–what would a new player do? Picking up Eve Online, an MMO in a mature phase, I now have the answer.

You take it for granted. The game has amazing content, but when I go to Wikipedia and read what was added over the past major patches, I cringe at the thought of how boring the game would have been if I had jumped in from the start. I’d have never played it. Then I realized, I’ve already paid my “incompetent online game developer” dues through my other extensive MMO experience–I played boring, incomplete games for years. It is refreshing to play a game that is well developed, but with more content on the way: best of both worlds. Additionally, CCP is comfortable in their niche. They know they’re not Blizzard and Eve isn’t WoW, but they’re profitable, and they have their target audience. In a recent interview, one of their lead designers said they are quite happy with their numbers, and in fact worried that if they were to double in size again (as they have for the past years), it will make it difficult to maintain the “single shard” approach. An interesting dilemma, where bigger isn’t better.

Eve has a skill system that is innovative and controversial, but ultimately I find it pleasing. Rather than have an experience based system (kill X monsters, gain experience and unlock skills), or a skill based system (use X skill Y times to level it up), both of which are the bread and butter of MMO design, and ultimately different version of the same time sink, Eve Online takes a different approach. Eve Online unofficially admits skill training is a time sink. Their approach? Skills take real life time to train, but training is ongoing, whether you’re on or offline. The benefit to this is you’re never “grinding” a skill–you’re always training something on your own terms. There are no classes, only skills. While skills chain off each other, you are free to train anything you want in the universe (literally). Given that MMOs are all about the time sinking, I like that Eve’s time sink is outwardly stated, and a part of how long you’ve played the game (actively or passively) rather than a monotonous repeat fest. This makes casual gaming much easier, as your growth doesn’t revolve around your active play time.

The downside to this strategy is if you’re a new character joining a community that is four years old, you’re pretty well screwed to a certain extent. The gap between you and the top is not one you can close. Fortunately, the game is balanced enough that any character can play a useful role in a player corporation, but you are discriminated against via your play time. This is somewhat frustrating, but the way it plays out practically is that all characters are needed and contribute to the cause. A four year old player’s missile may hurt a lot more than my missile, but my missile will still be useful in a team operation.

Of course, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The game is all about the money. You have a few ways to make money: kill pirates, mine asteroids (and later on, planets and moons), run NPC missions, make stuff and sell it, or kill players. Some of these are more exciting than others–but all of them can get mildly repetitious, as with any online game. You will be grinding something in order to make your living.

The most appealing part of Eve Online to me is that the game is designed to be a player “sandbox.” All of the important aspects of the game are extremely nonlinear and customizable. For example, the skill system is open ended and based on other skills, rather than locked in by a player “class.” Ship customization is very robust, with a variety of combinations of ships and ship components available quickly to most characters at the “conceptual” level, with more advanced components requiring higher skills. For example, I can get access to an “afterburner” relatively quickly, but the fancier ones require more skills. I can still get access to enough toys to customize my ship uniquely, even at a low level. I like this. It makes the player feel rapidly engaged and gets around “no plate mail till level 40,” situations that annoy me. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is the player-driven aspect of the game.

Although one can make a perfectly acceptable career hunting NPC pirates or mining asteroid belts solo, the game is designed for player corporation versus corporation warfare. Corporations, both PC and NPC, drive everything. They require resources, they control planes and bases, and can conquer the stars. Reading the message boards alone gives a feeling of the scope of player on player interaction: one post was announcing that due to an ongoing war between two large corporations, a third party corp was unable to pay its debts because it wasn’t getting money from the protagonist of the conflict (follow that?). This was followed by a flamefest of every party involved, and pleas from other corporations on other sides who also wanted their debts paid. Some fleet on fleet operations involve 200+ ships, creating epic images of Star Wars and Star Trek. All for the control of intergalactic resources and ultimately–money. Not so different from the real world.

I have not yet gotten to the point where I can participate in this aspect of the game. Until my skills are higher and my character more developed, most “serious” corporations won’t take me. The key lesson I took away from Warcraft is that it is important to find a big, active, and strong guild. So for now, my merry band of friends and I are are slowly building our resources and characters. The question will be if the inevitable grind boredom sets in before we can get ourselves into a meaningful corporation. My hope is to at least taste the player driven part of the game, since that’s what separates Eve Online from other MMOs. So for now, I ride the “honeymoon period” of my new MMO, and Eve Online is refreshing enough to keep me intrigued.