You Don’t Need To Play EVE Online To Love It
I’ve got two confessions to make. One, I love EVE Online. Two, I barely play EVE Online.
I think I’m in love with the idea of EVE Online more than the actual day-to-day gameplay. This isn’t to say that I don’t like the gameplay mechanics, it’s just that they really aren’t as thrilling as the forces of nature that drive the game. The politics, the backstabbing, the huge intergalactic wars and they stories they tell. These are the things that inspire my love of EVE and what make me want to play it.
I think all MMORPGs are a little like this. Does anyone actually enjoy pressing a couple of buttons on a keyboard or moving a mouse around? I don’t think so, it’s not exactly thrilling stuff. I actually think the attraction of MMOs is not the gameplay, but the incentives of mental hubris they allow us to desire. If everyone was equal in World of Warcraft, would everyone play?
I don’t mind the fact that I don’t get to play EVE a lot. Sure, I play a few hours every week but that’s a drop in the pond compared to the gazillion of hours I pumped into Everquest and Everquest 2. But that’s OK. See, you don’t need to play EVE Online to love it. You can read about it, watch it, study it… it’s, quite literally, another world just waiting to be observed by MMO anthropologists.
To prove my point, here’s a series of great articles from Rock, Paper, Shotgun about life in EVE Online:
- The Five Year Spree, Part 1: Nova
- The Five Year Spree, Part 2: Rise & Fall
- The Five Year Spree, Part 3: Fountain
- The Five Year Spree, Part 4: The End
Or better yet, watch this:
Now if that doesn’t make you want to love EVE yet not play it, I don’t know what will.
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Did you ever get round to joining a corp after you didn’t got for eve uni?
No, not yet. I’m a complete slacker. I end up spending most of time missing running and salvaging so I can save up cash. I really need to get a move on with the corp thing…
Now i just want to grab you by the indie-kid hair and scream “GET. IN. A ****ING. CORP!” whilst slapping you around.
Even the articles you linked are all about events that you could only experience in a corp….
Personal advice – go join one of the FW militias. Joining as an individual will move you into the militia’s NPC corp. Once you’ve been flying in the militia fleets for a while, you could always apply to one of the player corps in your militia (once you know who the guys you think you’d like to play with are). But, in the meantime you get to experience a new part of the game and get the togetherness of a corp (or close to it) through militia chat and fleets, without worrying about joining up to a corp and then having to commit time to it. Also, you don’t need to give up the missions while you are militia so you don’t loose any part of the game you have now.
I only recently left minnie militia and there are some great guys in there so would recommend that. I’m sure all militias have good people in them though so just choose one you have the standings for.
Thanks for the articles, I’ve never read them before.
Have you read any of the chronicles?
Rock, Paper, Shotgun also have a great article about The Great War. I’ll see if I can dig it up.
I haven’t read any of the chronicles. What are they?
http://www.eveonline.com/background/potw/
“All These Lives Are Fit to Ruin” is a great one and I don’t think it’s too long. http://www.eveonline.com/background/potw/default.asp?cid=20-04-09
Awesome, thanks a ton!
Can’t but agree. I love the idea of EVE, but I can never get into playing it. I try to resub every now and then though…
In my opinion, EVE is only good when you find a good group of people you enjoy playing the game with. That involves getting into a good corporation, then getting to the people in that corporation. The trick is to place yourself where the action is.
Yeah, corps seem like a hugely important part of EVE. It’s odd that they don’t have better recruitment methods in-game… but then I suppose that it’s all part of it.
I started to comment, and it got so long it turned into an article over on my blog, LOL!
http://lemegeton.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/do-you-need-a-corp-in-eve/
Anyways, loved reading through those articles, since I was also in Frege about the time as RPS/StateCorp.
Nice article and cool blog
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