Zen and the Art of Internet Spaceship Maintenance

A well known WoW blogger, Tobold has recently decided to give EvE a shot. I have been following his articles about the experience and even made some suggestions here and there. I will say I from his posts it seems that Tobold’s purpose here is more to give him some credence when comparing EvE to WoW in the future rather than a genuine interest in exploring the game. I could be wrong and I sincerely hope that he enjoys EvE and finds ways to enjoy the game. In one post he posits that “if I can train skills while I’m logged off why even play the game?” and the subsequent comments deal with the concepts of progression within MMOs and various approaches to it. They seem to me to reveal how radically different the play styles are between those who play games like WoW and those who play EvE.

I illustrate these differences here.

I remember when I was skilling up for my driver’s license. I don’t recall feeling like I was spinning my wheels until then. Passing the test and acquiring that license was not the goal. I found that after I had that skill I was able to pilot a car and that greatly increased my options for entertainment, occupation, income, etc. and it also added an element of risk. I had certain activities I participated in before that and afterwards I had those still and then some. I then trained for a motorcycle. This too increased my options for entertainment and added risk. Again the actual passing of the test was not the goal. I didn’t sit back and bask in the glory of my class M license. These milestones were not my life’s progression. They were simply points at which my options in life expanded. Thats how skills in EvE work.

In EvE my progression has not been the steady trickling in of skill points or Isk. My progression has been, striking out on my own after 2 months, setting a course for the deepest  darkest parts of 0.0 and learning to survive there on my own. Later it was learning to be part of a corp, learning about and participating in massive capital warfare involving hundreds of pilots and defending or taking over vast swaths of space. It was starting and growing a corporation of my own and eventually running an alliance of over a hundred people (and then kinda screwing it up and losing it). It was escaping engagements with a sliver of hull remaining and negotiating aleigences with massive entities, operating my own POS and once talking my way out of losing a 5 Billion Isk ship simply by charm. It was choosing to learn small scale skirmish warfare and working my way up to be a competent solo and small gang combat pilot. One of my next progressions will be to become a skilled and competent fleet commander. None of these things are training skills or making Isk. They are related but one is a means to the other. I don’t play EvE to train a skill or make Isk. I play EvE to create and take part in an adventure of whatever type may catch my fancy today. People buying Isk or trading characters or being logged off while their skills train somehow has not had any effect on these accomplishments or my enjoyment of them at all.

As a child I would sometimes complain to my mom that I was bored. She would always respond that “only boring people get bored”. EvE exemplifies this. EvE is a game that does not require but greatly benefits from a bit of creativity and a sense of adventure. If you sit and wait for CCP to point you in a certain direction and say “that’s where the fun is”, you will be waiting forever. The fun comes from within each player and their interactions with one another.

EvE is about accomplishments and damn good stories not steady guaranteed progression.

Maybe next year I will. For now just some updates.

First off thanks to those who voted here to help me pick which screenshot to submit to CK’s contest. I really appreciate that the option to have me commit suicide only came in third in the voting. Anyway my submission has been accepted. Wish me luck. I need the Isk since I broke down and bought this marauder last night.

On another more sad note, Clown Punchers [BOZO] will be closing their doors. It is a real pity to see this corp go. I had more fun flying with them than any other corp I have been with and I was planning on returning after some time. I’m still not yet convinced this isn’t just an April Fools joke even though T posted it a couple days early but if it is not then EvE is losing the most foul mouthed, unrelenting and entertaining corp it ever had.

As a last little detail I have been collecting the various signatures I have for various games and put them together in a side page here. Check it out.