Blog Banter 42: Multiplayer

“A gaming universe as vast and unique as EVE Online is constantly evolving and the experience is different for every participant. Conventional games review techniques cannot possibly hope to provide an accurate measure of every aspect of EVE’s gameplay. However, with a community initiative like the Blog Banters, we have the resources to deliver the most thorough and up-to-date review ever.

By combining the experiences of contributors from across the EVE metasphere, we get a wealth of opinions from veterans and rookies alike. We’ll be able to combine input from faction warfare specialists, wormhole residents, null-sec warriors, missioners, pirates, industrialists, roleplayers, politicians and more to paint a complete picture of the health and progress of EVE Online in its current Retribution incarnation.

Who better to review EVE Online than those who know it best?”

Who better indeed.  I was going to talk about sound just for all the not-funny “EvE has sound comments” so I could get my monthly quota of eye-rolling out of the way, but decided to go instead after the multiplayer.  If you haven’t played EvE let me tell you the multiplayer is completely pervasive.  You nearly cannot play the game in any way without affecting the experience of another player, or having another player change your experience.  In fact it might be really fun to try.  Let me give you en example.  You have done all the tutorials so you have some basic tools, and are ready for a cruiser-class vessel.  Here’s what you would have to do.

1. Buy the skillbook for the appropriate race of cruisers, and a Blue Print Original (BPO) for the cruiser from NPCs (This is about all NPCs sell anymore other than PI centers) ditto for BPOs for anything you want to put on the cruiser.
2. Research the Blueprint to acceptable levels to prevent wasting minerals
3. Mine asteroids or reprocess your mission loot to get the materials necessary to complete the cruiser.  This will take a while.  Using one of the new Venture class frigates that I *believe* you can get in a tutorial will probably speed things up, but still, you better have a couple evenings free, especially to find the right items to reprocess for zydrine and megacyte.
4. Haul all this stuff to a NPC station with a free manufacturing slot and plug it in and wait.

Time spent?  For a new player this odyssey might take weeks, especially researching the blueprint.  How does multiplayer speed things up?  Well if you find Sindel Pellion’s Angel Project and ask nicely, you can be sitting in a new cruiser for free in minutes.  Even if you don’t want to go quite that far you could buy it from the market (finished items are 100% generated by players in EvE) resulting in paying market value for your new pew pew machine.

Many things draw people into the game.  The story of it, the graphics, the hard-edged sci-fi element, the list goes on.  What makes EvE different is the community.  The wealth of information available regarding play styles, calculations, in-game communities, and even incredibly “professional” news sites to keep you up to the second on happenings in EvE.  The most successful people in EvE are those who find a niche both play style wise AND within the community.  This is not a solo game.  You have to take control of your interactions with others or they will do it for you, and usually to your detriment.

Let’s talk a bit about corporations and alliances.  Corporations are the “guilds” of EvE.  Ranging from single-man tax shelters in one corner, to the NPC Corporations with thousands of vaguely connected herds of usually anti-social drones, to the massive megacorporations that form the backbones of alliances; corporations run the gamut leadership wise as well.  Some are run by tight-fisted controlling dictators, some by lassez-faire schemes that rest lightly on the minions.  Alliances are what tends to make their mark on the politics of EvE.  Look at the Sov Map and you will see LOTS of entities claiming space.  Test Alliance is over 10,000, Goonwarm is nearly 9000.  Many more number in or around 3000.  Sure there’s plenty of alts, but you can fairly easily find a home with a few thousand new friends in this game.

The multiplayer has a dark side too.  People are out to get you.  Thousands of them.  Not even you really, just other people in general.  Helicity Boson is a name worth googling.  He wants to kill you.  He’s good at it too. Hell if you show up where I’m at I’ll be gunning for you unless you are blue.  Scammers will steal your money, market pvpers will ruin your sell orders, and pirates will flat out blow up your stuff.  And that’s what makes EvE awesome. You are always in competition with other players.  You always need to watch out and their are always 2 kinds of people.  Those who are better than you and lambs to the slaughter.  Find the line and make your mark.

I’m using it every time I can