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EVE Online: Review Background
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com Community Manager Laura Genender has written a review of CCP's EVE Online that we've split into two parts. Part one will look at some of the background of the game and the different aspects of its gameplay. Part two, which will appear on Monday, will focus on the traditional review aspects of the game and produce a score.
One of the big contention points of EVE gameplay – hot or not? – is the skill/progression system. In World of Warcraft or Everquest, you spend three hours playing and gain (or lose!) experience during those three hours; your progress or lack thereof correlates to the effort you put in. In EVE, your skills progress based on a real-time clock. A skill that takes 5 days, 15 hours, 16 minutes, and 31 seconds will take that amount of time whether you are at the computer or logged off for the entire time. These training timers can be altered based on character stats – determined via starter stats, cybernetic implants, and some skills – but you can’t will a skill to train faster.
The upside to this is that the casual gamer can keep up with the more hardcore, providing they find some sort of income to buy the skillbooks (and the ships they learn to fly) and remember to update their skills when needed; the downside is that a hardcore MMO player can’t start EVE and earn their way to the top. Some of the top corporations even have a minimum skill-point level to join up, effectively barring new players despite any skill they possess. After c. five months or so I’m up to 4.3 million SP; some corps had requirements of 20 million or more.
;)
Read it all here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
EVE will soon have a new challenger to a throne of best SC-FI MMO - Jumpgate Evolution
It won't. Two very differen games and very different playstyles. You will probably see Eve-Players playing Jumpgate AND Eve..
Nice write up, would like to see more on the economy and market PVP. Also the map linked in the article is a bit outdated. here is a more detailed and up to date one: http://www.eve-files.com/media/corp/CRII/Latest.jpg
_________________________________
playing:
ww2online: Fader
EVE: Fader Bane
proud member of BKB http://www.bkbhq.com/
Actually, the one Taera linked is the most recent. It is updated dayly after downtime automatically. So it is always the most up to date map you can have.
(Not the most accurate, through. While it is absolutely accurate in giving you the information who has sovereignity in which region and system, it can not tell you who actually is the main force there. There are a lot of Regions that are practically not inhabitated because the owners are not there at the moment (in a war somewhere else), and it can not show the situation in regions that can not be claimed.)
Yay, a multi-part EVE review by a five month player who doesn't PvP.
Next week, a five-installment review of WoW by a level 7 Paladin who's never had a Horde toon.
Yeah, I'm afraid to say I'm not the best market PVPer, as you put it. When someone undercuts me by 1 ISK I start to see red and breath fire
Laura "Taera" Genender
Community Manager
MMORPG.com
if you look at the two maps you can see the one i linked is more accurate and more up to date with sov changes.
@ Taera: I perfectly understand that frustration, i can only do small bouts of trading before i have to stop with fears of popping a blood vessel.
_________________________________
playing:
ww2online: Fader
EVE: Fader Bane
proud member of BKB http://www.bkbhq.com/
Taera linked a map from 08-Feb-2008 07:06. Actually, she linked the link to the latest map, which is influence_2008-02-07_2008-02-08.png right now.
The Map you linked is from 04.02.2008. Thats four days..
{ Mod Edit }
As to those who would prefer a seasoned PVP veteran write a review, nothing's stopping you, feel free to post away. MMORPG can't help it if they don't have staffers who are seasoned vets in every game.
Besides, reviews generally written to entice new players to join a game, and this one covers the basics that every noob wants to know.
No point it describing life in Fleet Battleship wars that a player won't see for 6 months anyways. (besides, then you have to tell them about lag, blobs and the "fun" of gatecamping.
Over all, a decent review, and I'll look forward to the next one.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Its always good to see EvE get some reviews. If only they had 10 million players instead of WoW..... Im confident they would put the money back in the game rather then their pockets. As for JE, that looks to be a great game as well. I would be willing to bet every EvE player also plays JE but never quits either. The two teams should just merge IMO =P.
I never said i dont like EVE. I love EVE - it is the only TRUE MMO in my oppinion.
I personally couldnt get into it for several reasons.
JGE will be amazing game, i can bet on that right now.
And i recommend people interested in EVE , also to check it out. Because you just might find it very interesting. It will not be as social complex as EVE (although that remains to be seen)
But , imagine EVE , with twitch based flight and combat. With no skill learning at all.
Where outcome of fight is determined by how good you fly your ship , not by how long you played the game
and had skills learning.
All my respect to EVE
, but it trully believe JGE will become a serious contender for SCI-FI mmo supremacy 
"Memories are meant to fade. They're designed that way for a reason."
Uhm...yes...right....
Laura "Taera" Genender
Community Manager
MMORPG.com
if JGE turns out to be a level based space MMO i can tell you it will FAIL! as it should, i dont remember the last time any MMO has actually come out of the clone level based grind-mill with something new in order to keep players.
So again, if JGE turns out to be a level based space MMO it should fail!
As for the reviews some good basic stuff there
Another great example of Moore's Law. Give people access to that much space (developers and users alike) and they'll find uses for it that you can never imagine. "640K ought to be enough for anybody" - Bill Gates 1981
It is not true at all
Nice review. Maybe some abstractions would be in place at certain points (since non EvE players really know how much 50mil ISK is). Would have been nice with a mentioning of escalating missions and complexes from the PVE part (where you actually need to band together with your friends to finish it).
Keep up the good work
JGE?! Might be good, might be bad (it's sharded afterall) but it really doesn't belong in this thread.
(I am going by my own experiences in the game over a 7 mounth period)
Does EVE really need another review? Does it really deserve a 2 part review?
It really hasn't changed that much. The graphics overhaul just wasn't as great as it was played out to be and the gameplay is still stale.
The game is so boring that, when I won a free month of gametime, I logged in like twice and not for very long. I then forgot about the game until my free month was up and my account was charged a fee for the next month of play. I promptly canceled again, for the 3rd and final time.
I've been gaming online for years and have played tons of games, at length. That being said, I really don't think that EVE deserves the coverage and hype that it gets. I understand that this is my opinion. I know that many on this site disagree, but it just seems like this site is a bit too EVE-centric sometimes.
I frequent alot of gaming sites and forums and this is the only site where people that don't like EVE get slagged down by the people that like the game. The people that like the game insult the people that don't and question their intelligence because they don't like the game.
Well, Kryogenic, apparently the staff (or the reviewer, at least) has liked EVE so far, and wants to do a 2-part re-review from the point of view of someone beyond the first 'noob' hump (around 5-6 months played).
I don't know about your many other forums you frequent, but I'd think there people didn't also come to the EVE section of the forums to flame against the game either, which here is sadly very, very common.
I have seen, sadly, that there are those who cheerfully counterflame the people who attack EVE. I wish they would stop that, but the truth is when someone directly attacks something you care about, be it a hobby, a friend or an opinion, people get annoyed.
You find it insulting that someone tells you down when you're lumping all eve-players into, for instance, 'mindless business-grads who rather play a job then a game', yet find no fault with the people criticizing the game on opinions often so skewed that they bear no resemblance to any game I've ever played, EVE or any other.
'EVE is so boring'-lines are starting to sound like 'your momma's so fat' -jokes, really.
This thread is to discuss the article not people's opinions about the game.
The only reason I posted what I did is because this is the 3rd time this game has been reviewed on this site. Not only that, but the game really hasn't changed that much since the last review. The 2 major things that changed since then are the graphics overhaul and the fact that new characters start out with more skill points then they used to. Both of these changes had multiple features on the site devoted to them. It just seems to be over-kill to me.
Nice review. Gives a new player a good idea of what the game is about. Just one suggestion, the emphacis for the new player should be learning the smaller ships first and then moving on to the larger ones, much later. Whenever I see a two or three month old character in a battleship I laugh because I know he is strictly sharkbait having few skills to fight such a ship effectively. Heck I have been playing for over a year and still rarely fly a battleship.
Anyone whining about not having an experienced pvper giving the review has lost it. Think about it, you don't need that kind of a perspective for a beginner to get a feel for the game. Existing players don't need the info.
As to Jumpgate, I played it before and while I know they are updating it, it will not in my mind be in any form a competition to Eve. Jumpgate while fun at first gets old fast, and I doubt the updated version will change that. Nothing in that game to keep you in it long term in my opinion unless they are making drastic changes which at present I do not see.
Excellent review but new players shouldn't be scared. If they take the time to read and ask the right questions, watch a few you tube video, visit some forums, they will be PVP efficient within 2 months. Even in WOW, you're not really PVP efficient in that amount of time.
I've been playing since 2003 and made a bunch of new characters and have kept 1 very old one that I simply pay a month here and there for giggles. My new characters are usually able to PVP within the first 2 weeks and they can kick the ass of some 30 million SP players. It really depends on how you're doing it. I've learned all these little things by documenting myself and talking with my buddies on EVE. Corps that only accept 20 mil SP characters will make exceptions if you're smart enough with them. The most powerful tool is to be smart about what you're doing.
As for the Market, Laura wouldn't be able to fully review the market if she doesn't actually do it for like a month or so. You can't just jump in EVE and start reviewing everything by the surface... seriously, the market is dull at first sight then you dig deeper and start noticing that it's as complex as real economics lol
Shark, again, if the person knows what he's doing, he can jump in a battleship within a few month and be efficient. Their is no right and wrong really, BS is also a good way to make money in L3 and L4 (solo)... However, yes, the new players should stick with smaller ships. It's actually way better to go from Cruiser to tech 2 cruiser then battleships. (you get a better ships that doesn't require MORE advance weapon and tanking skills)
So we can put each other at the same level. I've just quitted EVE since these days I'm too busy to play a game like that. Is EVE my actual favorit game? Actually, no it's not.
So why do I praise EVE if it's not my favorit game?
EVE is technically a masterpiece. The lore is deeper then any other MMO, the science, the mystery and world is more alive then any other game out there, the meaning of a true persistent world is EVE. In a game like wow, you can't leave your mark in the game, in EVE... if you take the time to explore the actual EVE rift and fly for few hours towards the gate, you'll notice a bunch of cans... if you continue following these cans, you soon notice a beautiful setup of cans with a poem... if you take the time to read it, you'll notice that this mark is actually a tomb for someone that died 2 years ago. A bunch of players decided to take a moment and make a monument to their lost mate. 2 years ago mate... still there and shining.
I admit that the new graphic engine is really good but not as good as I actually expected however, it's much nicer then anything else around. What do you expect, it's space... you won't see a fountain with little birds but what you see is extremely nice.
I will admit that we tend to think as us EVE player being superior to any other MMO players. You know, in a way, I don't blame them. All we get is people saying: "EVE IS BORING! and EVE SUCKS"
Our best defense is the complexity and maturity of the game. Sure you'll find the young kids and big mouth on EVE but in general, you'll meet a much more mature crowd. In my corp, most of the guys have university degrees and alot of culture, they are all very respectable people. I'm not saying that we're not dumb... :P We do like the occasional sex joke and do make funky noises on vent. However, it's the first game where most of the people I've met are really more mature in general. I guess, EVE attracts that type of crowd and obviously, we tend to be proud.