Player Vs. Player
I’ve contended in the past that EvE stands for “Everyone vs. Everyone” and by and large I like to think I’ve been proven correct more often than not. I’m going to talk about why EvE is a PvP centric game. First let’s look at the types of space.
- Wormhole Space
- Sov Nullsec
- NPC Nullsec
- FW Lowsec
- Lowsec
- Highsec
6 categories of space. In 3 of them you can shoot freely at anyone. 2 more you can shoot at anyone with a few restrictions that, while tactically important, don’t slow too many people down. In only 1 of them are there serious ramifications for actually shooting at people without warning. That’s PvP.
Now hit your market button. See all those orders? Buy something from one of them. See who you bought from. Now wait until he gets undercut. Buy something. The new guy? He just engaged in PvP.
Now join an incursion fleet. Enter a contested site. If you win you get a share of the prize. If you lose you get nothing. That’s PvP.
Go hunting for scannable sites. Not finding many? That’s because there are a limited number of them and other people are scanning them down. That’s PvP.
Think your missions are safe? Ask Suddenly Ninjas when they grab the Damsel out of your can. What is that? PvP.
Mining? Well there’s not much competition. Yet. Wait a little while and when there’s 7 or 8 hulks mulching a belt tell me it’s not competitive to see who gets the good rocks.
Heck you don’t even have to log in for PvP these days. Ask Riverini and The Mittani, who are now running competing news sites.
I’m not using some bizarre definition of PvP. I’m saying EvE is a PvP game because, and I quote:
PVP, abbreviation for Player Vs Player. Describes scenarios common in electronic gaming in which players are pitted against each other.
The EvE sandbox is designed for players to be pitted against players. Load up eveonline.com. What does it say? One Universe to Explore (small font) and Conquer (Big font) not “One Universe to Explore and Share in Peace and Harmony” not “One world where you can endlessly play in repetitive safety” EvE changes and the changes bring conflict.
EvE is a game about conflict. It is a game where players compete for resources, for money, for loot, for respect, or for glory. They compete with each other. This isn’t a game where your Night Elf Mohawk can run up into the mountains and eat kobolds for breakfast, making money and gathering from near-infinite resources to make the sword of NPC murdering +556. This isn’t a game where you can follow a scripted story for months on end to find out what the evil sorcerer plans to do to stop the plucky NPC heroes. This is a game where YOU decide what YOU want to do and your main opposition isn’t the red crosses or the asteroids. It’s the broken brackets in space and lines of text on the markets.
P.S. on a personal note I’m finishing a big move soon and should be back on a semi-regular publishing schedule Soon (TM)
I’m using it every time I can
Posted on August 21, 2012, in PvP. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Mad Haberdashers 
Open the game map. Remove lines and labels. For stars, choose Statistics/Average pilots active in the last 30minutes. You’ll see a big bright zone. That’s highsec. It’s surrounded by a huge black zone. That’s the rest.
EVE is 90% highsec. That’s PvE, safety, grinding.
The 10% gives the marketing to CCP to keep on feeding space-WoW players with the false identity of “ima pro pvper lol”
The same 10% plays PvP in WoW too. WoW is a PvP game then?
You read 10% of his post. That means you’re literate? The part you missed: all the stuff people do in hisec (trading, mining, incursions, anomalies) is also PvP.
Highsec is Safe? It’s certainly safER than the other categories, but it is by no means safe. Ask the 19,000 victims of the current Hulkageddon how safe highsec is.
A-fucking-MEN. Preach on, Reverend!
Ya know, maybe it’s time for a new set of allegories on my part to describe the difference between hi, low, and nullsec.
Previously, it was:
Hisec = Murrica. Bad shit _can_ still happen, but you’re fairly safe driving down the street and sipping your Starfucks mocha whilst texting on your phone and paying NO fucking attention to that annoyance known as the “outside world”. Even if bad shit _does_ happen, the cops will get their man, and in EVE, they ALWAYS do.
Lowsec = 3rd world banana republic. There’s cops that may lend a hand in the cities and main travel routes (stations and gates), but if you’re off the beaten path and get jacked, you’re fucked.
Nullsec = Somalia. Complete with self-important warlords, and dudes running around with AKs randomly jacking people just cause they can.
2.0 version, aka the Halo Edition:
Hisec = single-player/co-op mode. Oh sure, someone may snipe that Elite you wanted to tag, or grab the rocket launcher you wanted, but other than that they’re 99% of the time just more an annoyance than anything else.
Lowsec = Capture the Flag. Literally. Sit on the lil bunker, get points, and work to “take” more space. Now with lolsex 2.0, taking space actually “means” something — your opposition can’t dock there, and you get buffs to LP/ISK payouts and costs for items. Woot.
Nullsec = Team Deathmatch. Complete opposite of lowsec/CTF … nobody really gives a shit about the “space”, it’s all about killing moar of the other team in the most creative and lulzworthy ways possible, preferably FRAPS’d to show all your buddies how you teabagged/bumped those wrecks when you held the field.