If there is already an Eve Online thread please let me know and possibly link to it here. (‘eve’ being only 3 letters I cannot search)
I bought the game yesterday and I’m not sure what to think. I like it, but I have managed to play for hours and hours without doing anything remotely constructive. This is probably the norm in MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) but I am slightly worried that I never will get ‘into’ the game. It is a bit intimidating/overwhelming (being part of a world based on power and influence, with thousands and thousands of real people)
I am not even sure I have a point to make in this thread. I guess I just wanted to start an ‘eve online’ thread for the sake of it. That said I will try to make it worthwhile by asking a few questions.
How quickly did you (eve-playing doper) get into the game in a big way?
Will the 1 hour downtime per day be forever or just while they test patches and things?
Are bounty missions a virtual no-go area until you are well into the game?
I was in the beta, but stopped playing after three or four days. I didn’t do anything constructive that entire time.
It’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen, but it’s also dull as toast. Having the scale of the galaxy be more realistic is a very nice idea, but it also means you spend loads of time in dull transit. I suppose I can understand why they made the whole thing be PvP, but it just means more dullness – even if I were into attacking other players, I wasn’t powerful enough at the start, so I had to resort to making trade runs or mining. Mining is dull in any game. And the trade runs were just an interminable hassle because of the huge scale of the game.
As a graphics demo, though, it’s phenomenal. I wish they had been able to apply that UI design and rendering engine to an interesting game.
The complete name of the game is “Eve Arden,” and the point is to amass enough points so that you get to star in a remake of “The Mothers-In-Law” with Kay Ballard.
Well, actually, that makes a certain amount of sense. I can’t imagine people who are unadventurous, unsavvy, and monumental whniers having a lot of fun in Eve’s universe.
“The EVE experience is big on player community and not so big on actual, imposed rules . . . First you need a character, and EVE has a near-overwhelming range of options right off the bat.”
—Sounds pretty accurate.
“It’s common stuff, but there’s nothing common about modifying your character’s physical portrait. Skin, eye and hair color, yeah sure, but EVE gives you a crack at amateur plastic surgery too . . .”
—I am going to tiptoe very quietly away from that one . . .
I spent the course of three evenings playing in the beta. The first, I mined some stuff. The second, I mined some more stuff. The third, I bought some nifty gear to help me buy more stuff. Then I came to my senses. It’s one of the hardest games to get into, ever.
The question is, what was GMR mining for in Eve’s apartment?!
I was looking at EVE Online (wooohooo! ahem Sorry Eve) before it was released, late last year. It looked absolutely beautiful and had some great music, and the players seemed to be really into the idea. And, mind you, I think the idea of it has merit… something like Homeworld but more geared towards a massively-multiplayer world populated by real people. Then I realized what it would mean, and it’s pretty much what people are describing here – long periods of very little activity with brief bursts of action, intrigue, or the like.
There is potential in a game like EVE… where games like Everquest are filled with players who are primarily focused on stat-building, EVE seems to offer more opportunity for some real in-depth role-playing. However, to meet this potential, it will need to have something more like millions of players rather than thousands, and it will require large chunks of time and effort to establish that level of role-playing consistently.
I wish I had time for it, because it could be something really impressive… an online role-playing game for people who are really there for serious role-playing. Unfortunately, with 3 kids, a wife, a full-time job, and a house that needs some work done on it, I rarely have time for anything more than a few hours a week for gaming these days. Not enough, I fear, for something like EVE. Too many people like me, and EVE will never achieve its potential.
So let me get this straight – there’s a game called “Eve” that’s out now, and there’s a poster on the SDMB whose name is Eve? What are the odds! That is rich and I’m sure is a never-ending source of hilarity. I’d bet that jokes along those lines couldn’t possibly ever get tiresome!
Lobsang, you might want to see what the buzz is on the Ars Technica games forums. There’s a lot of the pompous geekishness of any videogame-centric forum, but I do know they’ve got a lot of people who at least tried the game.