4 ms·

Not the entire game, sadly. A majority of the player base lives out of NPC-controlled space. Originally, this was intended as the 'safe' tutorial space, where

Not the entire game, sadly. A majority of the player base lives out of NPC-controlled space. Originally, this was intended as the 'safe' tutorial space, where players would quickly want to leave to go for the more lucrative but more dangerous parts of space where everything is indeed player controlled. In the earlier years, you could easily make a week worth of 'hi-sec' grinding by spending half an hour in 'null-sec'. You would indeed risk losing that half hour of work when trying to haul it back to some market, but the pay would make it worth it many times over. However, as the years progressed, the developer seemed to realized that the majority of the players simply did not like to leave the NPC-policed space, and started catering to those. (Another factor is that jump-capable ships made hauling things back to high-sec markets low risk, which had a huge impact on prices of null-sec-only goods.) A large amount of content has been added to the 'hi-security' parts, giving less and less incentives for players to leave for 'null-security' space. The player-generated content in null-sec is what makes EVE appear in the news and attract new players, but the reality is that the majority is not directly involved with that part of the game. (In fairness, the universe and markets are still unified, so both those worlds still impact each other. But for many players that impact will be limited by price changes and getting blown at 'Burn Jita'.)

Alex3917 6y ago
Interesting, that's exactly the same thing that happened to UO also. And catering toward these players seems to be the reason why WoW succeeded so massively. It's unfortunate because the risk of getting killed and losing everything on your player is really the core of what made these games fun in the first place.
- the_af 6y ago
  High risk of getting killed and losing all progress is probably hostile to the more casual players. I think it could be worked around if getting killed was not a big deal -- if much like in roguelikes, getting killed and restarting was part of the fun. But in traditional MMO games with grinding and accruing experience and loot, getting killed and losing stuff does seem like a big deal. Maybe it's an inherent flaw of grind-based gameplay?
  - Alex3917 6y ago
    > But in traditional MMO games with grinding and accruing experience and loot, getting killed and losing stuff does seem like a big deal. It wasn't all your stuff. The bulk of your assets would be in your bank account or, if you were wealthier, in your house. The only stuff you would take out into the wilderness or into a dungeon is whatever you needed for that particular trip. So your losses would be limited to whatever you brought with you, plus whatever loot you had accrued while hunting or mining or whatever. So yeah if you were only playing for 20 minutes a day and you were constantly dying, I understand why it would be bewildering and upsetting. But if you were actually playing for 5+ hours a day because you were 12 or whatever, it was just part of the fun.
    - the_af 6y ago
      > But if you were actually playing for 5+ hours a day because you were 12 or whatever, it was just part of the fun Haha, agreed. If you are 12 it's no big deal. I wonder what's the target audience and age for current MMO games.

Alex3917 6y ago

Interesting, that's exactly the same thing that happened to UO also. And catering toward these players seems to be the reason why WoW succeeded so massively. It's unfortunate because the risk of getting killed and losing everything on your player is really the core of what made these games fun in the first place.

the_af 6y ago
High risk of getting killed and losing all progress is probably hostile to the more casual players. I think it could be worked around if getting killed was not a big deal -- if much like in roguelikes, getting killed and restarting was part of the fun. But in traditional MMO games with grinding and accruing experience and loot, getting killed and losing stuff does seem like a big deal. Maybe it's an inherent flaw of grind-based gameplay?
- Alex3917 6y ago
  > But in traditional MMO games with grinding and accruing experience and loot, getting killed and losing stuff does seem like a big deal. It wasn't all your stuff. The bulk of your assets would be in your bank account or, if you were wealthier, in your house. The only stuff you would take out into the wilderness or into a dungeon is whatever you needed for that particular trip. So your losses would be limited to whatever you brought with you, plus whatever loot you had accrued while hunting or mining or whatever. So yeah if you were only playing for 20 minutes a day and you were constantly dying, I understand why it would be bewildering and upsetting. But if you were actually playing for 5+ hours a day because you were 12 or whatever, it was just part of the fun.
  - the_af 6y ago
    > But if you were actually playing for 5+ hours a day because you were 12 or whatever, it was just part of the fun Haha, agreed. If you are 12 it's no big deal. I wonder what's the target audience and age for current MMO games.