Eve Blog Banter #2

Welcome to the second installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month’s EVE Blog Banter comes to us from Brinelan over at The Shard. He asks: What drew us into EVE, what keeps us playing the game and what brought us back if we’ve ever left?

Sorry for being late with my post.  Anyway, I had the idea for the topic while I was admiring the beauty of eve on a long trip doing courier missions.

A Smuggler's Gate in Vale of the Silent

I started playing on a recommendation from a friend.  I had started up in 2005, and got stuck in the tutorial.  After that it was almost a year before I tried to get out of that tutorial, and after playing for over 2 years since then I wish I had tried harder the first time around.

I have taken breaks in the 2 years that I have been playing, but what really keeps me in and what I compare every game to is the same.  I love the depth and complexity of the world.  The market is as deep and complex as you want it to be.  No other economy or market can compare.  It is always interesting when you see prices fluctuate, and then it can be traced back to a major conflict in some far off region of space.  Minerals are being affected by that right now.  There is a lot of capital ships dying in the wars going on in 0.0, and mineral prices are showing that. Hi-end minerals are tanking as alliances dump them en masse on the market to get money to replace ships.  What game out there has such a complex economy ?  None that I have seen.

I also love the sandboxy nature of the game. You can really do what you want, and there is a place for everyone.  If you want to be safeish then hisec is for you, and if you want a bit of danger yet still have some of the amenities of hisec there is low sec, and if you want to build your own empire from scratch and take part in epic conflicts there is 0.0.

I have been in 0.0 for almost 2 years, and as a break I went back to empire for a little bit.  All I can say is that it is seriously like playing two totally different games.  The markets are different, the dangers are different.  I feel much safer in 0.0 then I do in empire.  In empire, any ship sitting on any gate could be the one to lock you in its sights and kill you, where in 0.0 you know the people around you and you know who will be the one removing your ship from around your pod.

Lastly, the beauty of the game can really be astonishing at times.  I did an article about the beauty of eve back in June and I think that really says it all.  I normally play with the game not taking up my whole widescreen monitor so that I can have another eve window’s chat windows open for intel, but on a roaming op I will put my game using the whole screen so that I can enjoy the views (Premium graphics with shadows and bloom effects really throw things over the top!).  You would never know the game is over 7 years old (5 years open to the public).

I have certainly played a lot of other games and the depth is really something I haven’t seen elsewhere.  Many other games are more-or-less on rails, yet eve is open ended.  You make your own path, and make your own fortunes.  I am glad that I came back and stuck with it.

This view greeted me as I came out of a jump.

Participants:

• CrazyKinux’s Musing: EVE Blog Banter #2: Space, the Final Frontier…
• Ombeve: OOC Blog Banter 2
• The Wandering Druid of Tranquility: Internet Spaceships is Serious Business
• Semper EVE: The Allure of EVE
• A Merry Life and a Short One: EVE Blog Banter #2 – This Is My Time
• Life in Low Sec: Blog Banter #2: EVE’s Enduring Allure
• Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah: Eve Blog Banter – What Drew Me Into Eve?
• Roc’s Rambling: Blog Banter #2: Staying Power
• Sahirs Journey: Why am I sitting in an internet spaceship?
• Diving into PsychDiver’s Psyche: EVE Blog Banter #2: All I Ever Wanted To Be Was A Capsuleer
• Achernar: Just gathering intel
• Sweet Little Bad Girl: Blog Banter #2
• The Ralpha Dogs: The Appeal of the Never-Ending Story
• A Mule in EVE: Mule Psychology : EvE Style
• A Misguided Adventure: Blog Banter – Enduring Allure
• One Man and His Spaceship: Blog Banter 2 – November 2008 Edition
• Letrange’s EVE Blog: That Banter Thing
• Diary of a Space Jokey: EVE Blog Banter: How’d I get here ?!
• I May Find Peace Within The Emptiness…: EVE Blog Banter #2: New Eden Bearhug…