Last night, I was floating in our Wormhole, chatting and getting to know some of my Corpmates in INQ-E.  Though I feel like I have been with these guys forever, and have even been promoted to Director of Recruitment for the Corp, it has only been a very short time that I have been playing with them.  Why then, has Eve grabbed ahold of me so completely where dozens of better funded, newer, and shinier MMOs have left me wanting?
One of my Corpmates, William, warned me that Eve is seductive and will not let go.   The same question continues to haunt me… why?
Eve feels real.  While the setting is in space, the need for a suspension of reality seems much less than in high-fantasy settings.  Everything is ‘possible’ and realistic and it allows me to feel more in touch with my character, than when I was Cyndre the Gnome Warlock.   Lord Cyndre the Space Cowboy could be me.
The interconnected nature of the community also serves to create that draw and hold you. Your actions have direct impact on the world around you. Who you meet, what you say, the choices and mistakes you make all have a large impact on your surroundings.   Say what you will about Goons, but they have the ability to change the world on a whim.    You can’t do that in WoW. The only time a player changed the world was the quest to open AQ, and that was scripted and pre-planned…  In Eve, players make noticable and direct impacts every second.  Player created content accounts for a huge chunk of the world, and it grows by leaps and bounds every year.
Last night INQ-E claimed our own solar system.  We are now working together to build and establish an entire ecosystem, community and business all in the framework of an empty, worthless chunk of space that the developers saw fit to code, hoping someone might decide to try to settle it.  You can’t do that in every game. You can’t do that in most games. In just a few weeks, I have been a part of the design and creation of a significant piece of the Eve universe… In twenty years of online gaming, this is the first time I have had that privlage.
Perhaps, a part of it is the concept of Themepark vs. Sandbox…  In a Themepark MMO we are visitors in the developer’s world. The artists and quest designers create a ride for us to go on, but without us, the world continues on.  In Eve, in the sandbox, we are the world.  We join the developers in the world design and the content design. Together, we create and shape a universe that is what we make it, not what their design document said it would be.
I am not saying Eve is ‘better’ than X game, only that it has captivated me beyond my wildest imagination and I can feel the seduction drawing me in.
~Cyndre
Nice to hear ya guys have moved (almost) safely to your new home. :)
Pretty suprised you actually were _buying_ a wormhole though, not had scanned one down. Still, the end result is most important, no how ya got there. Sleepers beware and prepare to be farmed!
Very curious how you guys will handle the logistics of living in a wormhole. Self sufficient, or weekly/monthly pilgrimages to the nearest trade hub to resupply?
Yesterday I’ve finally reactivated my account and started playing myself. The new UI (new for me that is) looks nice, but took me like 5 minutes to find the contracts window (who would imagine that the “E” in upper left is clickable… ;;>_>).
Luckily joining channels didn’t change, so I guess I’ll stalk your corp’s public channel a bit, unless it’s not allowed
We tried scanning them down for a long time. Man hours might have been in the hundreds… But we had a very specific criteria, not just **any** wormhole, so trying to find precisely what we wanted, AND not have to take the risk of attacking and forcing out another wormhole corp to get it, was looking very unlikely.
As for logistics, we have a very active private forums where all members voice their opions and suggestions on how every facet of our Corp should run. From the oldest vet to the newest player, we listen and mold Corp policy to create as workable a solution as we can. At this stage we are fairly pleased with how our W-Space System design is shaping up, and it should allow for a lot of content and massive wealth for everyone involved. As for specifics… you won’t get them from me here…
Jump in our Public channel and chat us up. We are a friendly bunch, and you are most welcome.
Buying w-space systems can save a load of time and effort, particularly if you want to occupy a higher-class of w-space, as these are less often connected to k-space by wormholes. In fact, class 4 w-space systems notoriously have wormholes that only connect to other w-space systems.
It took me over a month of almost daily scanning from high-sec to look for a suitable system a branch of our corporation could move in to, and I never found one. In the end, our colleagues living in class 5 w-space scouted through a (recently) uninhabited system on their way out of w-space, and we traded bookmarks so that we could find it from empire space.
That was our experience as well Penny. We knew we were going to ultimatly invest several Billion ISK into the set-up and move, so we wanted to make sure it was a system that was ‘perfect’ for our long-term needs.
In the end, it was a fantastic choice, because we are in REALLY good shape right now, being about 90% set-up and starting to reap what we have sown.
Blogpost incoming soon with details…
E-famous!
OMG!
Oh yes. I’ve gone through many games, MMOs and otherwise, since starting Eve, but I always come back. Always. Even during my unsub period last year, I tracked what was going on in New Eden almost daily.
Themeparks are nice vacations were nothing can happen to you, but everything we do in Eve has direct or indirect impacts on the game world and other players. SWTOR was the latest vacation to teach me how much I missed Eve. Sixty bazillion lil’ servers, no-consequence PvP, and three NPC clusters scattered everywhere. So cute and fluffy.
You guys own that WH like a Boss. Fly safe.
How much of your experience would you say is due to your connections in game?
From your posts over the last few weeks, it’s apparent that you’ve had excellent support from the beginning.
My gut is telling me that the experience is not as enjoyable for someone starting the game cold, on their own, without a network.
Well I do frequently say that my success is due in large part to my mates in INQ-E. That being said, I made those contacts as a new Eve player, and knew none of them before hand.
If you enter Eve, meaning to solo, and expecting the same experience that I am having, you will be let down. If you sit around expecting people to just give you everything, also let down incoming. If you make efforts to meet people, join a corp and get involved, you will be rewarded.
I have had dozens of corp invites since joining the game, not including the spam jetcan ads floating around, so it isn’t hard to find a corp. (Hint: I am recruitment director for a great one, so new players already have one contact they can lean on.)
Hope that answers your question!
Just to add to this, I did not know Cyndre before EVE. His only connection to the Corp was the same connection available to everyone else: my blog posts (and now these here).
He contacted me, joined the Corp, became an active member, set some goals, and did the ‘work’ needed to make those goals happen.