I’ve been getting into EVE Online lately, thanks to the free 14-day trial. At this point I am not even sure if EVE Online should be classified as a game. It’s a glorified spreadsheet. As a game, it sucks and I am not sure why 100k people would pay a monthly subscription fee to run a bunch of numbers in a graphical spreadsheet.
Gameplay mainly consists of, well, doing nothing. You hit the autopilot or the mining laser and then wait for a few minutes. Rinse, repeat. Sometimes a bunch of feisty pirates try to murder you. You pick your target from the overview list, lock on your weapons, pick an orbit range from a context menue and switch on your laser. Then you watch. A few minutes later, either you or the pirate is dead. The only form of interactivity in combat I have found so far is occasionally hitting your shield booster to partially replenish your shields. It’s “auto-attack” combat in its most simplicistic form. Maybe combat gets more interactive once you acquire more sophisticated equipment but I somehow doubt it would change much.
Missions work the same. You set your destination, hit the autopilot and wait. Sometimes you even get to do the combat thingy while running a mission. Excitement abound. Mining in EVE has been one of the dullest gaming experiences in my life. Collecting ressources has been boring in every single game ever made but EVE takes the cake. You autopilot to an asteroid field, you switch on the mining laser and wait until your cargo hold is full and then you head back to base to sell or you dump the ressources into a container which you can later haul back to the base. If you’re mining in more dangerous area, you get to do more “combat”, either PvE or PvP.
Whether you win or lose in combat seems to be entirely dependent on your equipment and your character’s skill. Skills are developed automatically. You select a skill and then you wait. Like the rest of the game, you actually don’t have to DO anything. You don’t even have to be online. Offline skill developement certainly solves the problems of catassers outclassing everyone else but instead of rewarding those who play the most, the system rewards those who have been paying subsciption fees for the longest. Can’t say I am particularly fond of the idea.
I called EVE Online a glorified spreadsheet. I’m not exaggerating. The graphics are just window-dressing, they don’t provide any information. You don’t even have to look at what’s happening. I’ve stopped paying attention after a few minutes. All you do is pick stuff from lists and context menus. The game would work every bit as well without any graphics. Just slap together a standard Windows UI with all the options, have some text feedback and a progress bar and you’d have a fully functional non-graphical version of EVE Online.
There must be at least something that keeps 100k people playing and paying. Beats me, but it’s probably related to the whole PvP and corporations (the EVE equivalent of guilds) thing. From what I’ve gleaned from various forums, EVE seems to have a fairly intriguing guild politics and warfare aspect. So we have this really shoddily designed, mind-numbingly boring sandbox that does at least one thing well: it provides the players with sufficient tools to entertain each other.
I’ve never been much of a fan of sandbox-type gameplay in MMOs but there are a lot of people out there who prefer it to grinding through static content. Not matter how much EVE Online sucks as a game, the game has a surprisingly large number of fans. 100k subscribers is an amazing number for a game developed by a tiny Icelandic game developer, especially considering that EVE Online isn’t high fantasy mainstream.
8-10-2006 @ 07:18
go do some PVP you noob
10-1-2006 @ 13:05
Well every game is a database with input, output and various functions at the end of the day. Some may require fine motor skills and a good mouse with a durable shoot button. Others emphasise more brains, strategy and human interaction. It depends what your into mate, if you wan’t skill go play CS, or even better save that for the real world, go surfing or learn to play the guitar. And yes mining is boring, let other people do that and find a different role. That’s why you’ve failed to experience the dynamics and potential of pvp which is a completely different game to what you’ve just written about.
Solo is boring I agree, mining moreso, you need to socialise. You’ve failed to discover is Eve is not just a database, but a cybernetic database with 20k+ real people interacting and influencing its structure. Sure you have to make some compromises with the interface to achieve that (point and click etc..), but they’ve done better than anyone else, and there are a lot of tactical options to explore.
Sharp teamwork and social interaction make this game, not the interface.
1-7-2007 @ 14:31
Was looking for an EVE Online mining spreadsheet and came across this (ironic no?) I agree with jetax, get some friends playing and u will see a totally different side of the game. Even World of Warcraft is bloody boring on your own, but get some friends playing and suddenly it’s much more fun. Oh yeah, try mining in low security space and u definitely won’t be bored long.
7-2-2007 @ 15:25
I’ve tried the trial too and frankly this game is just to get ISK (in game credits) to make your character better, buy stuffs and buy ships. The only fun comes from you going into battles with your friends online. I can get that fun from any game at my local cybercafe or even from my Freelancer game.
There’s no space anomaly to discover or mystery to unravel. Heck, there’s no aliens either and this is a space game! We are ALONE.
12-5-2007 @ 11:42
Well said mate, this has got to be one of the worst online games ive ever played. The control system is lame, i’m glad i only played the trial version of this.
9-30-2008 @ 13:39
I also played the game on the trial account and the 1st 10 or so days i didnt think it was any good, but once u get out meeting others in the game and start understanding the ways of evolving it all makes sence its not just a spreadsheet it’s about team work and comunication !