Should You Play Eve Online

Should I play Eve Online?  It depends on who you are as a person. People play all different kinds of games for different reasons.  Some play cards, some play console shooters, some play games on Facebook.  Each player has a different taste for what they enjoy in a game.  Eve is definitely an acquired taste.

The rules are what are important to any game.  The rules of Eve are different than many other MMOs.  This is a game, which like all good science fiction enables the exploration of the human condition.  It allows for you to explore moral and ethical consequences through the choices you make.  Are you going to be a saint or a sinner?  A person of charity or a thief?  As you play the game you will find yourself drifting at times from the ideals you had in the beginning.  Will you remain true to your original intent, or will your character transition into a new way of experiencing the game?

Often, when people talk about Eve, you will hear about a few ideas that are central to Eve.  You will hear about the sandbox, or about emergent game play and how they are the reason Eve is fun to play.  In Eve there are no classes, there is nothing to lock you into a particular group other than the time it takes to have the skills to do something.  I’m a schoolteacher in real life, but in the game world I run a small production company, act as a scout for my groups activities, and when the time comes I am decent in a fight.   This is what my evolution through the game of Eve has made me.

Eve online has many flaws when compared to other popular MMOs.  The game can be confusing and difficult in the extreme for new players to adapt to.  The player versus environment (PvE) portion of the game is very repetitive and poor when compared to other games that focus on a PvE experience.  The solutions that many of those other MMOs use do not translate well to Eve, although there have been attempts to do so.  Mission levels, harder PvE content, and epic mission arcs are all attempts to improve the PvE experience.  Unfortunately they all suffer from repetitiveness and the ability to be gamed by clever players.

The more dynamic content is the situations players create for themselves. The player versus player (PvP) portion of the game is one of the main drivers of content in Eve online.  The stories that you hear about the game all are about the conflicts between people in the game.  Whether it is about ponzie schemes, heists, assassinations, the folding of alliances by spies, epic battles caused by epic mistakes, all of these stories are based upon real human drama.  It is the actions of individuals and groups that make for the most visceral stories.  Those stories are what make the game real for people as they as listeners can imagine themselves doing those things as well.

Unfortunately PvP can also be a detriment to the game.  The tools that CCP uses to allow those big fights can make the game not enjoyable for many.  Having to deal with people harassing you with a war declaration when you just want to get on and relax can be frustrating.  Hauling materials for a project and getting the load shot out from underneath you can be disheartening.  That is the price of freedom in this game.  The freedom to be a bad, bad man isn’t without consequence, but then transporting goods from here to there isn’t without risk or consequence as well.

Should you play Eve Online?  Yes, you should play the game, but play it with the correct expectations.  This is a game that requires you to put on your  big boy pants and get dirty with the hard work of building something that matters.  It’s your story and your time.

Be the hero.

Be the villain. 

Be human.