It can be if you mean to be a very serious industrialist. EVE spreadsheets are off the charts with some I’ve seen.
But if that is not for you then do not do it. It certainly is not required at all.
I will say EVE is not very solo friendly. You really do much better joining a corporation (aka guild). Generally I like to solo but EVE seems to have a much better class of player than most MMOs and the corporation I am in is what keeps me coming back. Great bunch.
Today EVE just had a HUGE shakeup. One Alliance just gutted another alliance overnight via espionage (sort of). These two Alliances are HUGE and have been at each other’s throats for years and going back and forth. Last night one of the Alliance’s Directors turned traitor and essentially dissolved the Alliance in one fell swoop. As a result their territory is now wide open to attack (and being attacked as I speak…a few hours ago I heard over 600 ships have been lost and still climbing).
It is an event that will have repercussions for the whole playerbase. The effects will be felt for months easily. In no other game do they allow this level of politics. Most shield players so nothing “bad” ever really happens. In EVE it can get brutal. May not sound like fun but I assure you it can be great fun. I really cannot describe how big a deal and profound an event this is in EVE to a non-EVE player but it shows that EVE is mostly player driven and is an alive thing.
They also have a big new expansion coming out in early March which looks to be quite interesting (although as a new player accessing the new content would be difficult…but you could as there are no arbitrary, “you need to be this level,” to do stuff).
I’m pretty much out of EVE atm, but I happened across the news and am currently experiencing a good deal of schadenfreude. I was in ASCN back in the day. This makes me want to log in and fly a cov ops down to NOL. Say, that’s a damn good idea. I think I have a jump clone and a Buzzard in Stain…
OMG, I hadn’t logged in yet today. The Alliance Control map is going crazy! Who was the one on the inside of that? I mean, Band Of Brothers practically ‘won’ the game a few years ago… this is huge!
runs off to log in, hoping his alliance is already in the process of grabbing territory
I listened to an interview with The Mittani (Goon’s CEO) on EVE Radio today. This is his version of events and I believe them to be true but of course consider the source.
Apparently BoB had a guy (Hoogarath or something…that is wrong but close) who was displeased with the direction BoB was taking. He approached Mittani who was dubious at first (this was a few days ago). The guy claimed to have access to various goodies and Mittani told him to put up or shut up. The guy gave Mittani access to BoB Director forums among other things (which Mittani promises to post).
Now knowing it was for real Mittani pondered what to do. His inclination was to do a smash and grab. However, it dawned on him that this guy had Director access to the Executor Corp of the whole alliance. Mechanics being what they are he realized this guy could pull the plug on the whole alliance. No vote. No 24 hours cooldown. Just bam.
And that is what they did.
They disbanded BoB and then immediately stole the name (registered it for themselves). They reset standings all over the place so BoB corps showed red to each other and others. They plundered BNC assets to HUGE effect…walking off with something like 20-30 cap ships and other assets.
But here is the really brutal part. When the Alliance disbanded they lost Sovereignty everywhere. All their jump bridges went inactive, all their cyno jammers (prevents enemies from warping in) went inactive, all their Player Owned Structures (POS) jumped their fuel costs by 30% or more. Any Titan or Motherships in production are now stillborn (I heard 2 Titans and a Mom…total rumor though but two Titans and a Mom constitute a MASSIVE amount of resources).
Essentially the walls to the fortress crumbled in one fell swoop.
Delve (where BoB lived) is hugely valuable. It is a cluster fuck of epic proportions down there as everyone and their sister is piling on it.
BoB is trying to hold on but it is going to be spectacularly difficult for them now. They lost all the things that protected them and losing production capacity at an alarming rate. They have BNC.E intact which is huge but still…HUGE mess.
Time will tell.
If I can find the EVE Radio link to the interview I will post it. My boss at work hates it when I listen on headphones plugged in to my computer but today I did.
Really is amazing stuff! No other MMO comes freaking close to this level of player generated content. Gotta love it!
For a non-player, it may take a bit to parse that, but oh so true. I was once part of BRUCE, the good-guy, white-hat alliance, and the statement held true for them as well as BoB.
None of this sounds like fun to me, which is what I play games for. What about all the other BoB members? All their hard work, play hours, accomplishments have gone to s**t, not from any in-game attack or mechanism they could have defended against, but because some a-hole higher-up decided to throw it all away.
In a lot of MMO’s this kind of act (deliberately disbanding a guild with the intentions of damaging it and giving away its possessions, territory, etc.) would be a bannable offense. I’m sure there are a LOT of BoB players and leaders who are very, very sad at their lost efforts and quitting the game ASAP or not looking forward to the work required to building their holdings back up.
On the other hand, this sort of thing is well-known to the EVE community. There’s not a person plays the game that doesn’t know how free it is with player-to-player interaction, and people can and will screw you over. I’m sure some got complacent in their power, but this can and will happen. Further, I’m willing to bet that a chunk of BoB is made up of hardcore players, who, while pissed off, are going to rebuild and try it again. Some might even have welcomed it as a chance to shake things up and start anew.
Someone said upthread that EVE is a simulation and not a game, and that’s really more accurate. It’s a sandbox game, more so than most MMOs, and the player interaction is what it’s all about. The folks who like EVE are the same who play nothing but PVP in other games, whether it be economic or combat, and while I dislike the majority’s disrespect for other styles of play, I can’t deny that they are some seriously hardass players.
It’s the point of the game. It’s why many of us play it. Personally, the thing that keeps me playing EVE is the fact that I, one bored computer nerd sitting in his room, has the potential to affect the entire player base through my actions.
You should see how many people are online and excited over this. The people in my corporation are falling over themselves trying to capitalize on this. We are trying to get some capital ship parts built, because the price will skyrocket. The price will skyrocket because there will be increased demand from this new crazy big war. It’s exciting to think that we the players shape the world, not the game creators.
There is another thread that just started to discuss this specific event in EVE, if everyone wants to continue over there so we don’t hijack this thread further.
It’s rather likely that BoB membership will increase because of this, with old members re-subscribing to help avenge the losses. That’s what happened when Mercenary Coalition backstabbed them by forming Tortuga.
Or put it another way - the famous Guiding Hand Social Club heist (which was the same sort of betrayal as this BoB disbanding) that was written up in several print publications was and still is publicity that draws players to EVE. Not that most people want to engage in large-scale corp theft, or approve of it when it happens, or are happy when it happens to them. But the fact that such things can happen, the fact that the actions of a single person can have a real, discernible, lasting impact on the gameworld is an immensely compelling feature to many players.
That’s the draw of EVE. Almost everything is player created. You don’t have a right to “accomplishments” and such unless you can defend what you build with those profits. Players in EVE (should) understand that you don’t even undock in anything you cannot afford to lose. The idea that what you work for is in any way inviolate or indestructible is not a common one in EVE.
First, it was from a very clear game mechanic. Directors are able to essentially act as CEO’s. You don’t give director level access to someone unless you trust them implicitly. And you can achieve 100% security on that front if you happen to be the alliance head and decide on having nobody be given director access.
So yes, it’s an in-game mechanic that can be defended against, possibly with 100% efficiency.
It’s also something that CCP itself promotes as a feature of the game.
Quite. I learned this one the hard way when I was out and about happily targeting NPCs in my shiny battlecruiser that represented a significant percentage of my wealth when I got jumped by a PKer. I didn’t have a chance. I stared at the screen for a bit, went ‘huh. Yep, he got me’ and stopped playing. I can’t keep up with EVE, but it’s still my favorite MMO because the devs really commit to the player-based economics. CCP is probably laughing their collective ass off over this whole fiasco instead of being worried about potential subscription losses.
Two corps that contain Dopers are currently in merger talks. Being that I am in one of them, my unbiased opinion says you should join ours. Talk to “Jock Rockstrong” “Teras Menac” “Tyramatus” or “Aruqan” in game.
