[EVE Online] The Band of Brothers (BoB) alliance (the 6th largest in EVE with 1531 members) has declared war on the Ascendant Frontier (ASCN) alliance (the largest in EVE with 3829 members). My corporation, Ars Caelestis, is part of ASCN. While this is part of what playing EVE is all about, I really wonder how the server cluster will hold up in battles with the potential to become huge.
Monthly Archive for September, 2006
Since I have been thinking about it anyway, I want to do the flip side of this post.
EVE on the other hand starts out kind of rough and ugly. Confusing at times and seeming as if there is nothing to do.
I will cite the problem in the opposite direction: there is everything to do. Once you exit the tutorial, you can run missions, mine, hunt baby rats, start training for trade runs, jump into corp politics, explore the galaxy, learn the market… Many people, when faced with unlimited choice, lock up and cannot handle it. If no direction is inherently more meaningful than any other, they may not even see a reason to move.
In economic terms, people feel opportunity costs. The more choices you have, the more things you need to give up to do anything else right now. If you are playing a Warrior, you have given up the other seven WoW choices (for now). If you are training Learning 1, there are over 300 other skills that you are not training, there are people several years ahead of you, and it will never be possible to cap every skill. From the instant you log on, you can check the market and see the multi-million ISK items out there, with the tier II items directly next to the ones you can use. If you see a level 10 in the WoW newbie zone, he’s slumming. WoW even has an eventual “win” condition. It has rules, and borders, and an end zone.
Freedom, opportunity, and choices scare a lot of people. There are enough places in real life where they are faced with radical existentialism, and they do not want to deal with it in a game. My mother yet to come to grips with Mario, who can move sideways and jump, or do both at the same time!
: Zubon
I came across an old post today on Terra Nova. Part of it hit the nail on the head as to why I prefer EVE over WoW. Let me share that part with you.
WoW (and too it symbolizes so much in the genre) is a place that reeks of fun and playfulness on the surface, but once ensnared, players are led into a deception that spells W*O*R*K. Eve-Online on the other hand is Icelandic with Calvinist overtones – yet in this confining straightjacket there is opportunity to find one’s own way towards a demeanor of play. One represents a fall into an abyss, the other, a rise from one to redemption…
Most all MMOs out there that I have played go for the fun and easy right off the bat. Levels ding several times a night. New skills and new armor in a flurry of action. Fast forward a few months and it’s days to get a level and you are still wearing that same ugly cloak you found 2 weeks ago. EVE on the other hand starts out kind of rough and ugly. Confusing at times and seeming as if there is nothing to do. Fast forward a few months and you can go from a hardcore ice miner to a covert-ops pilot sneaking behind the enemy forces in the time it takes to dock and switch ships.
Yes, I am an EVE fanboy and I hope more MMORPGs can find a way to make a game keep getting more fun as you play it, like EVE does.
- Ethic
is your last name Zubon? or what… just wondering.
This is a fair question that I get every now and again. Why I am “Zubon” has a fairly random story, which appears after the break.
[EVE Online] The first Titan has been built and it was Ascendant Frontier that made it happen. It’s a pretty big deal, and an even bigger ship. Way to go ASCN! Ars Caelestis is proud to be a part of ASCN.
Updated:
ASCN leader CYVOK posted on the official EVE forums: “Maybe our second titan finished at 13:02 today, maybe it didn’t.” Hmm…
- Ethic
[World of Warcraft] Been kind of feeling burnt out of gaming lately. I’ve been working two jobs racking up 65 hours a week on a regular basis and when I get free time all I want to do is sleep. Having said that, my wife recently mentioned that she wanted to play World of Warcraft some more.
My account has been inactive for a while, but I thought about it. If I bought a second account, we could play together. I ran the option by her and she thought it sounded like something fun for us to do together. I found a copy of WoW on sale at the local game store and it’s sitting here on top of my copy of Half-Life2 Episode 1 and a book “Small Stakes Hold ‘em”. HL2e1 is something I actually finished playing recently, but the book has yet to be cracked open (poker is one of my other hobbies). I’m just waiting for the word from her to fire up both computers down here in the nerdcenter of the house. I imagine I’ll have some things to write and perhaps I’ll even have her write a post or two.
We shall see.
- Ethic
The Warlords expansion to Civilization IV adds Churchill and Stalin to the list of leaders available, helping you to recreate The War, although Italy is still represented by the Romans. You can round out the Allies with FDR running the Americans while Mao and Hirohito battle in Asia. Germany, of course, will be ruled by … … Bismarck.
Something seems to be missing here.
: Zubon
PS – Hirohito but no Tokugawa?
Moving along from that last post, you are now a game developer. MMOs are never completely done, and you are looking for ideas and feedback in making changes. You had cast a wider net during initial development, but now you mostly listen to your current players. These are the people who are willing to pay to play your game (or something very like it), rather than the great many who say they want something but never buy it.
You have a good game! You are successful! You are the next EVE Online, growing from a niche game into something of international note! Can you still get useful input from your playerbase?
Let us assume for the moment that you have a better than average guild, and your guild is this good because of how you work together, not just due to a few workhorse players. Even though you and your friends may not be the best players in the game, the way you go about playing, raiding, etc. gets you to your goals much better than those idiots you meet in pickup groups.
This might be because you engage in cooperative alt creation and leveling, have a high degree of trust in awarding loot, maintain a consistent schedule, enforce strict requirements upon guild members, or what have you. You have found What Works, or at least what works for you. What happens when you let more people into the guild?
Since the official word is out, I figured I’d get a little discussion going. Our own Nicodemus and Spot are starting a project together (that has nothing to do with us here at KTR). The project is an MMORPG called “Immortal Destiny”. Also, Nicodemus recently released a book titled “MMO Evolution”. I purchased the first copy (so I was told) and am currently devouring the contents. Just to be clear, I had no prior knowledge about either of these events, I read the press release just like many others.
So the claim is to be “the first truly evolutionary massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) designed to empower players and provide extraordinary experiences and entertainment.” One can only hope. But what is “evolutionary”? Let’s dig in a little further.