What a shame Adams never had a chance to experience EVE Online, where 5,000 solar systems evolve daily in one enormous persistent universe populated by nearly 200,000 players. Each player’s character not only belongs to one of four races but also possesses a specific home world, ancestry, career path, and specialization that further hone his background. You can also tweak your character’s appearance, ensuring long odds that any two EVE Online inhabitants are exactly alike.
I dock at the State War Academy School and meet Lína Ingvarsdóttir, EVE Online’s producer. The space station, just one of many in the game, is a hive of activity, with other characters constantly chatting about their missions, offering jobs to each other, buying and selling equipment, and just generally enjoying themselves. You can also use space stations to stash excess stuff, repair and upgrade your ship, buy better spacecraft, and more.
One Down, Three to Go. Train multiple weapons on one target, rather than spreading them across different enemies.
“Everyone in EVE Online plays on a single server,” Ingvarsdóttir notes. “This creates a universe in which every action has an effect on everyone, and it provides a dynamic economy unrivaled by any other virtual world.”
“We wanted to avoid the classic battle between good and evil and instead explore the vast expanse that lies in between.”
- Lína Ingvarsdóttir, producer
Everyone Has a Part to Play
Shortly after you create your character and complete the basic tutorial, you’ll want to join a corporation. Each one offers a unique focus, so carefully review your available choices first. “EVE Online is so open-ended, no single strategy is the key to success,” Ingvarsdóttir explains. “You’re free to create your destiny, whether you want to be a miner, fighter, producer, researcher, mission runner, market player, or any combination of those.”
Never Tell Me the Odds. Dogfight in an asteroid field.
Where you go and what you do depends on how you want to play the game. You can meet agents in space stations and accept missions from them, earning rewards and positive standing with them upon completion of those tasks. You can also work with your corporation, mining asteroids for valuable ores that you can sell or use to manufacture everything from small objects to large starships. Just watch out for the pirates who often prowl asteroid fields — that’s where traveling in a group comes in handy.
“Even though it’s perfectly possible to play solo, the game becomes both easier and more immersive when you have a group of like-minded people with whom to play,” Ingvarsdóttir notes as she pops open a bottle of that popular drink known as Quafe. “There’s a role for everyone.”
Make It So. Thank the maker for warp drives, or it would take forever to get anywhere.
By pooling members’ wealth, corporations set up manufacturing facilities that churn out products for sale and for personal use, eventually taking control of their own “turf.” They typically stake out a lawless area of space not patrolled by the security group known as CONCORD. Combat often breaks out there, so most corporations form alliances with other groups as a means of defense.
Game Hardware
Check out our systems for your best gaming experience.
- Site: EVE Online
- Publisher: CCP Games
- Developer: CCP Games
- Genre: Role-Playing Game
Game Media
Music from Eve Online (Requires QuickTime)
“Everyone plays on a single server. Every action has an effect on everyone, and that provides a dynamic economy unrivaled by any other virtual world.”
- Lína Ingvarsdóttir
Death is a Serious Matter
Don’t pick a fight in a secure area of space, however, unless your corporation is paying a weekly fee to engage in hostilities against another one. CONCORD security ships and sentry guns seek to neutralize anyone acting aggressively, with that player suffering a loss in standing. Knock your standing down too many notches and you won’t be able to even cross the border of a sector without security forces heading your way.
Head For Cover. A battlecruiser takes serious damage.
The destruction of your ship results in a wreck that any other player can recover for the stuff you were carrying. Luckily, you won’t die, since you’ll be safely encased in a pod floating among your lost cargo, unless someone else decides to destroy that too. Then you’ll need to be revived as a clone at a facility, suffering the loss of any implants you had purchased, as well as a decline in your skills.
“The first words written in EVE Online’s design document were: ‘Death is a serious matter,’ indicating that we didn’t want a newly-dead character to spawn one minute later with items and skills intact,” Ingvarsdóttir recalls. “EVE’s heavy death penalty is one of its unique factors.”
EVE Belongs to the Players
The EVE Online universe evolves through the introduction of free expansion packs that drive the story. (For more information about the game’s back story, see “In the Beginning…” on page two.) CCP Games releases two of them each year, and player feedback dictates the inclusion of their many new features. Ingvarsdóttir points out: “We don’t feel EVE is our world.”
Engage. Three menacing ships head into battle.
To illustrate her point, she recalls an incident: “We started a story about a group of researchers working on some mysterious project. The plan was to have a pirate faction attack their research station, Crielere, and reduce it to ashes.
“However, when the assault began, armies of players rushed to Crielere’s defense and managed to fend off everything the pirate forces could throw at them. We were very impressed because this showed initiative and immersion on the part of the players.”
Our conversation comes to a close and we leave the station, I flying my standard Caldari Ibis frigate and Ingvarsdóttir guiding a sleek battlecruiser, make unknown. Before we part ways, Ingvarsdóttir pings me on an inter-ship channel. The future of the game, she promises, involves not only “shiny new amazing graphics” but also “massive, all-out war.” As she engages her ship’s warp drive, she adds: “Interesting times.”
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