[This is part of a series of posts which started here: My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part I. If you didn’t start there, you probably want to.]
Next Stop – Spreadsheets In Spaaace!
The reference here is definitely an “If You Know, You Know” sort of thing. The game I went to, after World of Warcraft was none other than EVE Online. Based on my recollection of events that occurred while I was playing, I will speculate I started playing EVE in 2008-ish or so. Coming directly from Warcraft (with what amounted to an infinitely-customizable User Interface and all sorts of player “assistance” tweaks and modifications, there was a whole big bunch of “culture shock” involved in the process.
The Allure of EVE Online
In a LOT of ways, EVE Online is an absolutely fascinating game, even if purely from a technical perspective. At a time (and even still) when most MMO gaming companies need to have multiple different server environments segregating and separating players – to prevent computer system overload, presumably – EVE has always been a single “world”. Everyone in EVE plays in the same “New Eden” Universe.
While there is customization and stylization of your individual toon’s appearance, ultimately, you “are” the spaceship you’re flying. Despite (to the best of my knowledge) multiple requests, the concept of “space-legs” (being able to have your toon walk around environments – probably space stations – from a first- or third-person perspective) had been repeatedly and consistently rejected. This is a decision I am strongly in support of as I think it would actually detract from the game.
Additionally, while most MMOs separate out PVE (Player-Vs-Environment) and PVP (Player-Vs-Player) areas and such, EVE does no such thing. Instead, EVE classifies all star systems as either “High-Sec”, “Low-Sec”, or “Null-Sec”, based on their “security rating” (being 0.5-1.0, 0.1-0.4, or 0.0). In High-Sec, committing a “criminal act” (attacking another player, etc.) will result in you having a “criminal flag” applied to your toon and the guaranteed destruction of your ship. Note, though, there is no guarantee the victim escapes unharmed. Thus, even in High-Sec, “Suicide Ganking” is a real thing.
In Low-Sec, you’ll get flagged, but not destroyed, and in Null-Sec, it’s dog-eat-dog. {I am misremembering / misrepresenting the phrase, but it was summed up with, “CONCORD (Space Police Force) does not guarantee protection; they guarantee consequences.”]
The general rule of thumb is – the only way to stay safe is to never undock.
Unlike most MMOs, there is no “experience level” system. You need to purchase and train “Skills” (which, as the skills become more and more complex, also become more and more expensive to purchase) to add capability to your toon. These skills train according to a real-world clock. So, if you have a skill which has 3 hours remaining to train, and you log off … log back on 3 hours later and it’s just finished up.
One interesting advantage of this is it’s not possible to just dump a massive load of money (in-world or real-world) on a new toon and suddenly have them super-powerful at a low level. You haven’t spent the hours and days of training on a toon? It can’t fly and fight well – period.
Oh, finally, almost the entirety of the EVE “economy” is player-run and player-driven. Buying a ship? Highly likely another player manufactured it. Oh, and that player bought the minerals for construction from other players who mined them, etc. I believe there’s been at least one actual Economics Professor who’s studied the EVE economy as a self-contained microcosm.
My EVE Toon
Interestingly, my original EVE Toon is still around. [More on this in another “episode” of this series. I started as a Gallente. There’s not really much of a difference, race-wise, between the four selectable toon races other than the ships you’ll initially be flying and the play-style you’ll train for at first. Remember, all toons can train any of the skills.
Gallente ships tend to play with projectile turrets (for damage-dealing) and are armor tanks (they expect to lose their shields and just reinforce / repair armor to keep yourself alive). Caldari are a mix of missiles and projectile turrets and tend towards shield tanks. Amarr use energy weapons (“lasers”) and usually armor tanking. Lastly, there are the Minmatar which use damn near anything and all their ships fly differently. Back when I played, and for all I know it’s still true, some Minmatar ships / pilots used hull tanking. (Hulls being the last line of defense before your ship goes *BOOM*.)
I was skilling up my toon and eventually joined a Corp (Corporation – EVE’s “guilds”). Occasionally, we would do some sort of shared activities together, but, when you’re hanging out in High-Sec (as I was), there’s not nearly as much need for it. I was also working my way up the Gallente ship skill tree. I’d gotten to a well-fitted Battleship (one of the biggest combat ships possible in High-Sec) and had my eye on a Kronos, which was pretty much a much-higher tech version of it. To make it work “well”, it required a metric ton of ISK (in-game credits), so I was doing a LOT of work to make money.
Finally, I had done it and it was fun to fly in missions. And that was when it was announced, by Corp leadership, that dealings had been going on behind the scenes and we were being invited out to Null-Sec. One of the biggest (then) Alliances in Null-Sec was willing to declare us “neutral” / “friendly” and allow us to “live” in their systems. We’d been allowed to shift all of our ships and inventory items to a “jump freighter” (easiest way to describe it) which could get our stuff there safely. But we still had to fly ourselves there. The trip out to Null-Sec was … overly exciting, to put it mildly.
Once we got there, it was time to set up shop, contributing to the local economy and such. The Kronos Marauder was perfect for this, as it was largely intended, in-game, for just this sort of solitary running, able to do a lot of stuff before docking and unloading combat rewards.
And Then A War Broke Out
The alliance which invited us out was called “Band of Brothers”. If you have no knowledge of EVE, this may not mean anything to you, but they were, at the time, a massive alliance and owned a large chunk of null-sec space. There had been ongoing hostilities (no one had bothered to tell us high-sec N00BS about it) between them and an alliance known as Goonswarm.
We were asked to participate (using ships we were willing to lose) in some battles, some of which were absolute screen-killers for how many things were happening on-screen at once.
And Suddenly It Was Over
And then, in February 2009 … I logged off one day. The next day, when I logged back in, suddenly, all of the space which had been “owned” by Band of Brothers was now completely unowned. In fact, the entire alliance had disappeared. This ultimately became one of the legendary stories of MMO history and certainly of EVE history.
The shortest version is: someone in Goonswarm had learned the real-world identity of a member of the Corp which “owned” the Alliance. This person was then bribed – IN THE REAL WORLD!!! – to disband their Corp and, thus, the Band of Brothers Alliance. This was SUCCESSFUL!
When a massive number of players contacted CCP (the company which makes EVE), the eventual response amounted to “Suck It Up, Losers!” According to them, nothing had been done which violated the Terms of Service, nor exploited any broken game mechanics, so the events would stand and there would be no “rewind” of the universe to restore the alliance, etc.
At the same time, my Corp disbanded and dissolved around me. The shock of us heading out just in time for everything to be ripped away was too much for most players. Needless to say, I suddenly felt like a very tiny fish in a VERY big ocean. I knew two things right off the bat: 1) I needed to get back to High-Sec and I would be on my own to do it; 2) Going right away would probably be close to suicide.
RUN AWAY!!!
So, I spent a few days quietly, staying in the one system I was in and running for safety at the first hint there was anyone else in the system with me. I was also “training” (in the sense of making sure I understood how to do my best to avoid the common traps Null-Sec pirates used to catch and destroy player ships). Finally, I was ready to brave the trek back to High-Sec.
The only thing I was desperate to save was my shiny Kronos. I really didn’t want to need to earn all of the ISK to buy it and fit it correctly again. I packaged up everything else I cared about taking with me and shoved it into the cargo-hold. I also refit the ship as best possible to give me some survivability if I did manage to get caught.
I won’t go into the details, but it was a very nail-biting two hours which followed … jumping from star system to star system, using every trick I’d ever learned or heard about to escape being caught and killed. There was one time, I almost got nabbed at an inbound jump gate, but managed to get away in the nick of time.
Upon reaching Low-Sec (on the route back “home”), I breathed a slight sigh of relief, but knew the ordeal wasn’t over. I still had several more jumps to go to get back to anything that might even vaguely be called “safe”.
Ultimately – I made it, safe and sound, somewhat to even my surprise. I wound up playing for another month or so, learning the non-Gallente ships and systems for them, but eventually, there just wasn’t anything which really was drawing me back in to play, and I decided to let my subscription end.
Next – The Extended Lull
Continued in My Love-Hate Feelings For MMOs – Part IV.
