EVE Online at Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMOG Gamers to the Next Level!

By Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor

In the real world, there’s really no limit to what you can learn. If an individual put their mind to learning a particular skill or set of knowledge, the only restrictions they would encounter might be time, money, or their basic level of intelligence. Still, the real world holds fathomless amounts of information that is merely a trip to the library or a few keystrokes on the computer away.

Unfortunately, most of our online video games don’t hold this kind of depth. Due to the restrictions of our computers and the broadband connections we’re operating - on along with a host of gameplay feature and mechanic issues - massively multiplayer online games typically have a preconditioned set of skills and abilities that a player must learn understand and learn to operate. Inside the game, character can only learn a limited assortment of abilities, skills, and professions that are sufficiently capped to limit growth within the world. While the lore of the world may be expansive, players can only see this content through their character’s point of view, so much of it might be passed by or simply ignored.

EVE Online is a game with tons of depth, but a very different type of MMOG experience.

But what would a game be like if there were no restrictions? What if a character’s skill wasn’t limited by the amount of time a player could play or the type of class an individual selected? How would players act if they were allowed to set their own rules within a game? Would this sort of game be successful?

The answers to many of these questions lies within the vast confines of EVE Online, an massively multiplayer online roleplaying game that takes the common forms of the MMO gaming and turns the standard on its head. Released mid-2003 to a diverse range of reviews and industry opinions, EVE Online is unlike almost any other game on the MMOG market currently. With its space-based gameplay, players are free to create their own vast organizations within the world along with supplying everything needed for a thriving in-game economic marketplace. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg, and a vastly complex game world exists within the EVE’s far from empty universes.

Yet until recently, all of my previous rhetoric was based off of third hand accounts and the experiences of other games. As one of those early skeptics back in 2003, I turned my attentions to the easier to understand games of that time period and went on my merry way. However, when I joined Ten Ton Hammer last year, one of my first assignments was an interview with the developers of CCP, specifically Magnus Bergsson. Being a long time White Wolf fan, I was excited about the premise of chatting with Magnus about the merging of the two companies, but our entire conversation got sidetracked by the unveiling of the (in)famous “Ambulation Video” that has now received its fair share of attention by the EVE Online community.

Scams and player versus player activities are encouraged.

I was fascinated. This was a world of gritty complexity; a shocking step away from the norm of fantasy-based roleplaying. Like a clarion call, I found myself going on the Internet and absorbing any information I could find on the game. The more I searched, the more I discovered, and I quickly learned that EVE Online wasn’t the game for a simple casual gamer. Here was a game that truly evoked the notion of a virtual gaming world, where players were free to develop their own set of rules and nothing was off limits. From “The Great Scam” which involved some in-game capitalists losing 480 million ISK (EVE Online's currency) to the 700 billion ISK scam extorted by the EIB, a group of individuals that created their own in-game bank….then have one individual proceed to steal all the money from other players. Still other EVE scams have been documented discussing the stealing of player owned ships and other nasty tactics.

While most of these actions would be considered “griefing” in other games, the EVE Online developers actually accept this type of action. Every player in the EVE universe knows (or at least should know) that the world is a dogfight; only the strongest survive. The more I read about this sort of behavior, the more intrigued I became. I wanted to learn more.

Once I’d gotten past the scams and “big news” headlines that pop up any time you do any EVE research, I began to learn the mechanics of the game. While the “offline” advancement mechanics certainly seem aimed at the casual gamer, the world of EVE couldn’t be further from a “easy” experience. Even in the preliminary research stages, I found the discussions and talks of the game fell into some interesting mathematical philosophies and the true merchants in the game were wholly concerned with discovering the true natures of their own economy. Even those EVE player more interested in combat would talk deep mathematics, trying for the best min-max options when developing their outfitted ships.

But what gamer doesn’t want this sort of complexity in their game? While having a fundamentally simple game may be intriguing for a short while, the deeper a game’s content the longer a player will continue to play, as long as that content isn’t excruciatingly hard to grasp. Although I’m no mathematical dunce, I certainly don’t fall into the “math wizard” category either, and the discussions that consistently occur on the EVE forums were never beyond me.

Stay tuned at Ten Ton Hammer for more upcoming EVE Online coverage!

The deeper I peered into the outer rim of the EVE Online community, the more my interest in the game grew. But the fact that EVE is such an immediate diversion from common MMO gameplay made me hesitate (more than once!) to really let myself into the game. What would an open sandbox, skill-based, PvP-friendly, MMO game environment be like? Truly, I’d never experienced anything quite like EVE Online, but it seemed like something I should really sink my teeth into.

So nearly a year after my interest was originally piqued, I’ve jumped into the game with both feet. Over the next few weeks I’ll be offering up my experiences with EVE Online from the perspective of a brand new player. As always, I’ll attempt to be completely honest with my views on the game, which means the quality features along with the disappointing aspects. At the same time, I’ll try my best to relate the unique world of EVE to players of the more common fantasy MMOGs. Although EVE fans (who truly epitomize the word fan-atic) may take issue with this tact, I think it’s important for the common MMO gamer to understand the universe of EVE in common terms.

Until then, keep your browsers pointed at Ten Ton Hammer!