6 ms·

Multiplayer Game 'Eve Online' Cultivates a Most Devoted Following

55 points by creamyhorror 14y ago

dagurp 14y ago
> The company employs close to 600 people, or 0.2 percent of Iceland’s population. (An equivalent U.S. company would have about 626,000 employees.) Last time I heard foreigners made up 30-40% of the staff in Iceland. > Just down the road from the CCP headquarters, the Harpa, a giant glass opera house, glows in different colors at night. It symbolized Iceland’s banking boom. Now it may have to be torn down, because it’s too expensive for the country to maintain. It's definitely bleeding money but nobody is talking about tearing it down.
- lazyjones 14y ago
  The article contains many such mistakes, for example there are not 500.000 players, that's the number of accounts. CCP never discloses the number of actual players and the game practically mandates the use of several accounts for more advanced gameplay.
coley 14y ago
I really enjoy EVE's sandbox. It's a great game to lose yourself in. The developers release expansions regularly and really listen to their player's feedback. One thing I find interesting is that most dedicated EVE players pay for two subscriptions. This allows you to have two characters that are both active and training skills. A popular setup is to have a subscription for a law-abiding citizen that can pass through all Solar Systems and make a lot of in-game currency through mining, mission running, transportation of goods, or any other means. The second subscription would most likely be used to engage other players, whether their victims are up for the challenge or not. If an EVE player is engaged illegally, the attacker becomes red-flagged, and if they keep it up, eventually won't be able to traverse high security solar systems without being pursued by a Faction Navy or CONCORD(EVE in-game police). Running from CONCORD is a bannable offense - as in, banned from the game. EVE is a wonderful world of capitalism, piracy, industry, and exploration, but I do wish CCP had a way of counting the number of players instead of subscriptions.
- drzaiusapelord 14y ago
  So you get banned if you engage in too much pvp? I thought this game was all about pvp.
  - Argorak 14y ago
    No, you get banned for running from CONCORD. It basically ensures that "safe" sectors stay that way. CONCORD is just the in-game representation of this.
    - s_kilk 14y ago
      Correct. Plus, it's damn-near impossible to escape from CONCORD anyway. If you unlawfully open fire on another player in High Security space you'll find a flotilla of huge police ships appearing almost instantly. Most players can't withstand even a single barrage from those CONCORD ships, so ship-loss is practically guaranteed.
  - rcxdude 14y ago
    You only get banned if you engage in unprovoked PVP in high-security space and you manage to keep your ship. It's supposed to be impossible to do, but several times techniques/exploits have been developed to circumvent or delay it so they just banned the practice to be completely clear on the mechanics.
    - shurcooL 14y ago
      I may not understand the full context here, but it sounds like a failure of the game mechanics/net code/implementation if they can't fully enforce some rule via in-game means and have to resort to banning accounts of those who break it.
      - cdash 14y ago
        I don't even know when the last time this has happened but it has probably been a very very long time. This isn't a common occurrence but something that has only happened maybe a few times when an exploit was found. EVE encourages clever use of game mechanics to do devious things and they have just clarified they don't consider escaping Concord clever use of game mechanics but an exploit. If someone actually finds a way to bypass Concord they fix it and don't leave it in the game.
tinfoilman 14y ago
These are just the latest breed of these types of people for eve. My eve history is beta, and on and off for years. I have 2 chars, my baby she was born on release day just shy of 90milion now(yes yes i un-subbed for years at a time) and a secondary of 40 million who is the transport/mining hauling alt. Now I was lucky, like really lucky. I found a group in beta, there was 10 of us, by release we were 8 but within 6 weeks we had our own BPOs and running a high sec manufacturing chain. We did alright but it was dull so we moved to Fountain, and were part of the group that originally found FA. Funny the original corp ended up being a front for BoB for years ran by the bob manufacturing team. Anyway FA at the start, m0o invaded, FA defended as best we could, my corp got invited to merge with Evol (who never recruited) and so started what I like to think of as the first step towards bob. The organizational involved to get BoB up and running and running for 3-4 years was massive. Never under estimate what molly and co were able to pull off. They were the first big alliance for me personally. Not that i am taking away from the people in this news bit, but i do think they are just redoing what we did originally in the day. The difference is they saw how we did it and done it better, we had to do it from scratch, and by doing so we made some amazing bonds and were the force for years. Also remember BoB did the BoB BBQ which is where they would rent a camp site somewhere in EU and everyone from BoB was invited, really bob was all about building a close team and i was sad when it got removed from the game like it did but meh a game is a game. Anyway I is off, Eve is awesome but only play if you have time to play, it will eat years off you
- ajacksified 14y ago
  ex-TEST director reporting in. It is, indeed, supremely impressive when looking at the infrastructure required to support an alliance of 5000 people; in TEST, for example, we have our own software developers and an ops team that keeps systems like voice chat, forums, wikis, killboards, and more running 24/7. And then there's the management / organizational side - juggling 20+ corporations, each with their own cultures, leadership, and focuses, and herding the cats towards battles. (BoB forced members to join battles, TEST incentivized battles, two methods with the same end goal.) In my tenure as Director of Training, we set up systems where brand-new characters could get free ships, equipment, and skill books and a channel for asking questions. It was nearly a full time job just managing the influx of new players. Ultimately, it fell to the wayside once I moved across the country, and come to think of it, I've been paying for a subscription I haven't actually used in many months...
Scramblejams 14y ago
Single page link: http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/110598-multiplayer-game-eve-online-cultivates-a-most-devoted-following http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/110598-multipla...
intended 14y ago
EVE has done one truly innovative trick, which I suspect is going to be template for many mass unit virtual battles in future - time dilation. Not everyone can just throw hard ware at a problem, Time dilation is one of the coolest things that have happened to make the Massively part MMO feel massive.
- danneu 14y ago
  I was curious so I googled it. http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Time_Dilation http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Time_Dilation Basically, EVE Online's universe spans a bunch of server nodes. When a node is under a lot of stress (large battles, high volume), the node's game speed slows down so that it can handle the load of player actions.
  - 1123581321 14y ago
    I'm not an Eve player. Is snaring opponents in a dilated node in order to get ahead of them time-wise a used strategy?
    - H_L 14y ago
      No. Under Time Dilation, everyone on the node is affected equally. This gives you more reaction time, but your opponent gets the same benefit. Edit: I see what you were saying now. Actually yes, I believe that there have been cases in which capital ships are tackled in TiDi systems. This puts them at a disadvantage since the corporation who captured them can quickly respond, and it takes them much longer to try and escape tackle.
    - saraid216 14y ago
      I suspect it's very difficult to actually pull it off, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has happened once or twice. My impression is that chasing people across several different systems is a relatively rare practice, since you're basically blind to what might be waiting for you when you jump after. Worse, you'd have to be giving the other player an impression that you're going to a specific destination and they'd have to notice that there's a faster route to begin with. Plus, if someone jumps into a dilated node, they've managed to put themselves inside the crossfire of at least two very large fleets anyways. Basically, the level of mind game necessary to even open the possibility of doing this makes it impractical at best.
9999 14y ago
I feel the same way about Eve that I feel about Dwarf Fortress. I love reading about it and find the surrounding community fascinating, but I just don't have the time to devote to properly playing it.
- danso 14y ago
  Me too...I've never played EVE but every dispatch I read about it makes it sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, as in, I can't believe there's an actual program in existence that allows such open-ended massively concurrent gaming...I mean, yes, all big MMOs (like WoW) have this, but it seems like EVE takes it to the next level in terms of how you can script/coordinate between large groups of players, like an actual general or tactician of a starship fleet in the distant future.
- fatbat 14y ago
  I feel the exact same way. I especially enjoyed reading one article a few years back about a real-world Eve scam. Not sure how to find it anymore but it was very well written as are a lot of Eve stories. I did not know CCP bought White Wolf Studios and will be looking forward to what they do with those creative brands. Will they dominate the sci-fi and horror genre?
  - didgeoridoo 14y ago
    Do you mean this story? http://www.computerandvideogames.com/180867/features/murder-incorporated/ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/180867/features/murder-...
gtaylor 14y ago
The timing for this post is hilarious. They just massively pissed off a large chunk of their third party developers, and an even larger chunk of the players that depend on third party apps: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=226648&p=14 https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=2266...

55 points by creamyhorror 14y ago

> The company employs close to 600 people, or 0.2 percent of Iceland’s population. (An equivalent U.S. company would have about 626,000 employees.) Last time I heard foreigners made up 30-40% of the staff in Iceland. > Just down the road from the CCP headquarters, the Harpa, a giant glass opera house, glows in different colors at night. It symbolized Iceland’s banking boom. Now it may have to be torn down, because it’s too expensive for the country to maintain. It's definitely bleeding money but nobody is talking about tearing it down.

lazyjones 14y ago
The article contains many such mistakes, for example there are not 500.000 players, that's the number of accounts. CCP never discloses the number of actual players and the game practically mandates the use of several accounts for more advanced gameplay.

coley 14y ago

I really enjoy EVE's sandbox. It's a great game to lose yourself in. The developers release expansions regularly and really listen to their player's feedback. One thing I find interesting is that most dedicated EVE players pay for two subscriptions. This allows you to have two characters that are both active and training skills. A popular setup is to have a subscription for a law-abiding citizen that can pass through all Solar Systems and make a lot of in-game currency through mining, mission running, transportation of goods, or any other means. The second subscription would most likely be used to engage other players, whether their victims are up for the challenge or not. If an EVE player is engaged illegally, the attacker becomes red-flagged, and if they keep it up, eventually won't be able to traverse high security solar systems without being pursued by a Faction Navy or CONCORD(EVE in-game police). Running from CONCORD is a bannable offense - as in, banned from the game. EVE is a wonderful world of capitalism, piracy, industry, and exploration, but I do wish CCP had a way of counting the number of players instead of subscriptions.

drzaiusapelord 14y ago
So you get banned if you engage in too much pvp? I thought this game was all about pvp.
- Argorak 14y ago
  No, you get banned for running from CONCORD. It basically ensures that "safe" sectors stay that way. CONCORD is just the in-game representation of this.
  - s_kilk 14y ago
    Correct. Plus, it's damn-near impossible to escape from CONCORD anyway. If you unlawfully open fire on another player in High Security space you'll find a flotilla of huge police ships appearing almost instantly. Most players can't withstand even a single barrage from those CONCORD ships, so ship-loss is practically guaranteed.
- rcxdude 14y ago
  You only get banned if you engage in unprovoked PVP in high-security space and you manage to keep your ship. It's supposed to be impossible to do, but several times techniques/exploits have been developed to circumvent or delay it so they just banned the practice to be completely clear on the mechanics.
  - shurcooL 14y ago
    I may not understand the full context here, but it sounds like a failure of the game mechanics/net code/implementation if they can't fully enforce some rule via in-game means and have to resort to banning accounts of those who break it.
    - cdash 14y ago
      I don't even know when the last time this has happened but it has probably been a very very long time. This isn't a common occurrence but something that has only happened maybe a few times when an exploit was found. EVE encourages clever use of game mechanics to do devious things and they have just clarified they don't consider escaping Concord clever use of game mechanics but an exploit. If someone actually finds a way to bypass Concord they fix it and don't leave it in the game.

tinfoilman 14y ago

These are just the latest breed of these types of people for eve. My eve history is beta, and on and off for years. I have 2 chars, my baby she was born on release day just shy of 90milion now(yes yes i un-subbed for years at a time) and a secondary of 40 million who is the transport/mining hauling alt. Now I was lucky, like really lucky. I found a group in beta, there was 10 of us, by release we were 8 but within 6 weeks we had our own BPOs and running a high sec manufacturing chain. We did alright but it was dull so we moved to Fountain, and were part of the group that originally found FA. Funny the original corp ended up being a front for BoB for years ran by the bob manufacturing team. Anyway FA at the start, m0o invaded, FA defended as best we could, my corp got invited to merge with Evol (who never recruited) and so started what I like to think of as the first step towards bob. The organizational involved to get BoB up and running and running for 3-4 years was massive. Never under estimate what molly and co were able to pull off. They were the first big alliance for me personally. Not that i am taking away from the people in this news bit, but i do think they are just redoing what we did originally in the day. The difference is they saw how we did it and done it better, we had to do it from scratch, and by doing so we made some amazing bonds and were the force for years. Also remember BoB did the BoB BBQ which is where they would rent a camp site somewhere in EU and everyone from BoB was invited, really bob was all about building a close team and i was sad when it got removed from the game like it did but meh a game is a game. Anyway I is off, Eve is awesome but only play if you have time to play, it will eat years off you

ajacksified 14y ago
ex-TEST director reporting in. It is, indeed, supremely impressive when looking at the infrastructure required to support an alliance of 5000 people; in TEST, for example, we have our own software developers and an ops team that keeps systems like voice chat, forums, wikis, killboards, and more running 24/7. And then there's the management / organizational side - juggling 20+ corporations, each with their own cultures, leadership, and focuses, and herding the cats towards battles. (BoB forced members to join battles, TEST incentivized battles, two methods with the same end goal.) In my tenure as Director of Training, we set up systems where brand-new characters could get free ships, equipment, and skill books and a channel for asking questions. It was nearly a full time job just managing the influx of new players. Ultimately, it fell to the wayside once I moved across the country, and come to think of it, I've been paying for a subscription I haven't actually used in many months...

Scramblejams 14y ago

Single page link: http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/110598-multiplayer-game-eve-online-cultivates-a-most-devoted-following http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/110598-multipla...

intended 14y ago

EVE has done one truly innovative trick, which I suspect is going to be template for many mass unit virtual battles in future - time dilation. Not everyone can just throw hard ware at a problem, Time dilation is one of the coolest things that have happened to make the Massively part MMO feel massive.

danneu 14y ago
I was curious so I googled it. http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Time_Dilation http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Time_Dilation Basically, EVE Online's universe spans a bunch of server nodes. When a node is under a lot of stress (large battles, high volume), the node's game speed slows down so that it can handle the load of player actions.
- 1123581321 14y ago
  I'm not an Eve player. Is snaring opponents in a dilated node in order to get ahead of them time-wise a used strategy?
  - H_L 14y ago
    No. Under Time Dilation, everyone on the node is affected equally. This gives you more reaction time, but your opponent gets the same benefit. Edit: I see what you were saying now. Actually yes, I believe that there have been cases in which capital ships are tackled in TiDi systems. This puts them at a disadvantage since the corporation who captured them can quickly respond, and it takes them much longer to try and escape tackle.
  - saraid216 14y ago
    I suspect it's very difficult to actually pull it off, but I wouldn't be surprised if it has happened once or twice. My impression is that chasing people across several different systems is a relatively rare practice, since you're basically blind to what might be waiting for you when you jump after. Worse, you'd have to be giving the other player an impression that you're going to a specific destination and they'd have to notice that there's a faster route to begin with. Plus, if someone jumps into a dilated node, they've managed to put themselves inside the crossfire of at least two very large fleets anyways. Basically, the level of mind game necessary to even open the possibility of doing this makes it impractical at best.

9999 14y ago

I feel the same way about Eve that I feel about Dwarf Fortress. I love reading about it and find the surrounding community fascinating, but I just don't have the time to devote to properly playing it.

danso 14y ago
Me too...I've never played EVE but every dispatch I read about it makes it sound like something out of a sci-fi novel, as in, I can't believe there's an actual program in existence that allows such open-ended massively concurrent gaming...I mean, yes, all big MMOs (like WoW) have this, but it seems like EVE takes it to the next level in terms of how you can script/coordinate between large groups of players, like an actual general or tactician of a starship fleet in the distant future.
fatbat 14y ago
I feel the exact same way. I especially enjoyed reading one article a few years back about a real-world Eve scam. Not sure how to find it anymore but it was very well written as are a lot of Eve stories. I did not know CCP bought White Wolf Studios and will be looking forward to what they do with those creative brands. Will they dominate the sci-fi and horror genre?
- didgeoridoo 14y ago
  Do you mean this story? http://www.computerandvideogames.com/180867/features/murder-incorporated/ http://www.computerandvideogames.com/180867/features/murder-...

gtaylor 14y ago

The timing for this post is hilarious. They just massively pissed off a large chunk of their third party developers, and an even larger chunk of the players that depend on third party apps: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=226648&p=14 https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=2266...