EVE Online

This MMOG is about Space, Spaceships, Politics, and Power. It’s comprised of a massive single persistent PvP world that’s hosted on a single ‘supercomputer’ managed by the game developer.

It’s huge. Massively huge. Pop out the map interface and you zoom out from your current star system to a view of the entire galaxy.. thousands of stars, all with corresponding solar systems, planets, nebulas, asteroids, space stations.

Your in control of a spaceship that you can upgrade, sell, or trade in for another better class of spaceship. You gain in game currency through mining, trade, bounty hunting, pirating and/or certain odd jobs.

There’s 4 races, all descended from Humans, and 4 federations that each control a segment of protected space. To travel in a solar system, warp drive is available, and to travel between star systems, you must use a stargate. The resulting star map resembles a massive internet-like network of connected star systems. Each star system has a security rating that varies from 0.0 to 1.0 based on your federation’s strength in that system. 0.0 is like the wild wild west. It’s persistent territory that anybody in the game can claim as their own. Venture there only if you’ve got the strength to sustain pirates and/or attacks from the corporations that have claimed that space previously.

I haven’t spent a lot of time in the game so far, but I’ve spent enough to know that it’s one of those where joining or forming a corporation (equivalent to a clan or guild) and claiming space through strength in numbers is more viable. It’s really quite fun to explore the world, knowing that there’s no room for errors. If you die, that’s it, you start from square one, have to buy a new ship and rebuild. It’s a more real-world approach to gaming considering the single universe that all players log into and the strictly PvP (Player Versus Player) environment.

In my first foray into 0.0 space, I was curious to see what would happen if I make a 40 stargate jump to the outside of the galaxy.. no escorts of course. Let’s just say that about 20 jumps down the road, I make it to my first 0.0 security rated star system, only to come out the other end facing 3 warp disruptors and some pirates defending their claimed territory. Due to the disruptors I was unable to get away. I was a sitting duck. Next time I’ll be ready.

I like EVE’s approach to space travel. I find it easy to believe, easy to grasp, and cool to watch. Warp drive in particular.

Now that I’ve given a bit of a rundown, I’ll also mention how difficult this game can be. There’s a LOT to learn… a LOT. I’ve probably only scratched 0.5% of the surface of what you can do in the game, but a lot of the gameplay is aimed towards the concept of gaining power. Either economic power, political power, and military power. The gameplay is also aimed at a bit of a more mature gamer than the standard WoW player. It’s complexity alone is enough to scare away the tweens, and is one reason why it’s so interesting to me personally

I thought about forming a HushedCasket corporation. With enough people I think it’d be a fun game to try out. Let me know if you play. Until then I’m going to try and join another casual corporation, and see who I can blast away. If you like MMOGs definitely check out EVE Online. It’s an amazing piece of art and engineering.

EVE Online

Download | Shownotes

This week we interview Josh from Astro Gaming, makers of the MLG pro headset and also designers of the Xbox 360 console. We talk about the MLG scene and what’s cool about the MLG pro headset. Callins and tales from the foxhole will be coming later in the week. There are no show notes for this interview.