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EVE Evolved: PvP masterclass - Introduction
One of the most perplexing things about EVE Online has to be the fact that although the game is essentially designed around PvP, a lot of players avoid it entirely. In this new series of articles, I will explain PvP from the bottom up, with a particular focus on helping anyone that has always wanted to give EVE's high quality PvP a try but wasn't sure what to do. In this first article, I examine the different types of PvP available in EVE Online and suggest ways to get involved in them even if you're just finishing the 14-day trial.Types of PvP:In most MMOs, PvP means organised battleground matches or one versus one player duels. For those games lucky enough to have open world PvP, the options are a lot more varied. In EVE Online, the exact right combination of factors come together to create what on a good day I can only describe as the best PvP experience I have ever had in a computer game. Rather than just being something fun to do, PvP in EVE arises as a natural consequence of normal play, used by players to push forward their own agenda in a harsh, dismal space-borne society.Continue reading as I help you choose which type of PvP suits you the best and suggest ways to get involved in it.
A newbie's first war declaration in EVE Online
It's almost guaranteed that at some point in your time as an EVE Online pilot, you'll encounter a war declaration from another corporation. In some cases, the wardec may be provoked -- another corp's pilot killed or harassed, perhaps one ninja salvaging too many, and the next thing you know Concord sends you an email notifying you of hard times ahead. Then again, wardecs can also simply be used for kicks and consequence-free highsec kills. Potentially, a war declaration can also be a form of ransoming, a way for aggressors to extort money as a 'fee' to retract the wardec. Regardless of its cause, the situation remains the same: your opponents are free to fire upon you in high security space without triggering a response from Concord. For a newer player, a feeling of panic can sink in. That warm, comfy security blanket of highsec no longer offers its sheltering protection from harm. Perhaps for the first time, there's real risk involved in playing the game. That's an angle of war declarations that writer Sam Guss discusses in a piece for MMORPG.com called "EVE Online: Surviving Your First War." (Guss is also a writer at EVE-Mag). But that's really just the backdrop. He recounts his own experience with being wardecced, from the surprise of the initial wardec to the sobering 24-hour countdown to war against far more experienced PvP-ers.
The Daily Grind: Is the real draw of MMOs the company you keep?
One of the main things that keeps us playing MMOs are the communities that populate them. While some players can, and do, play their chosen game solo, for most it's the social component of these titles that pulls us away from those stunning graphics of consoles games and RPG titles for the PC. By comparison, while they're beautiful, many of those games seem 'empty' after having spent time with a massively multiplayer title.Communities in whatever form they take -- be it a guild, alliance, or corporation -- are essential to the success of an MMO, but interest in playing a given title can wane over time. Likewise with the social aspects of these titles, tempers can flare and patience wears thin. Sometimes you find you just don't have that much in common with the people you're playing with and it's time to move on. Bearing that in mind, are the people you choose to play with in your MMO of choice the same people you started out with? Do you see any parallels between how the company you keep in-game changes over time and how your real-life relationships with friends is always changing?
EVE Online: Et tu, Brute?
Mynxee of the Life in Low Sec blog is a prominent member of the EVE Online community, but like many others who share her passion for both playing the game and blogging about the experience, she has a tendency to 'violence boats'. Lots of them. In light of this fact, she found herself in a bit of a dilemma: Should friends made in the online space, who share the same passion for the game, be off-limits when she's hunting for targets in EVE? She posed this question to her fellow capsuleers (and bloggers); carebears and pirates alike responded in kind. In fact, the comments read like a Who's Who of the EVE blogging community. While a few felt killing their friends should be off limits, the consensus was that anything that comes into their sites is fair game. After all, killing other pilots in acts of piracy -- or just for some PvP -- isn't usually personal, although victims may feel otherwise. Do you kill your friends who happen to be in other corps or alliances on an NBSI basis*, or would that be crossing a line for you in EVE? * For those who are newer to EVE Online, NBSI means "Not Blue, Shoot It" -- in EVE you can set standings for different player corps and alliances. If a corp is set to red, they're fair game for anyone in your own corporation/alliance. If they're set to blue, you don't (or shouldn't) fire upon them.
The political machinations of EVE Online
Game journalist and EVE Online player Jim Rossignol has been coming to grips with the idea of conflict in EVE, in a series of articles written for Eurogamer. Rossignol began by looking at "the basic principles of killing people" and progressing to the large scale conflicts between alliances. This week, Rossignol goes a step further by looking at the politics at the heart of much of the large-scale conflict in EVE Online, and how despite all the freedom the developers give players, it was inevitable that power blocs of players would be at each other's throats. "Players plus resources, plus more players, equals conflict. That's the basic mathematics that powers EVE Online. And it's been working for over five years now," Rossignol says.
EVE exploit warning affects corp infiltration practices
War declarations are an essential part of EVE Online. They allow corporations and alliances to fight for control over resources, territory, or simply to get revenge on their rivals. Then again, others declare war for the opportunity to grief in Empire space. Perhaps it's this latter tendency that prompted the latest announcement from CCP Games. They're branding the monkeywrenching of rival corporations during wartime as an exploit. GM Grimmi states: "The practice of insta-joining/leaving warring corporations for the purpose of surprising war targets, or getting them in trouble with CONCORD, is considered an exploit from here on. Reports of this will be investigated on a case by case basis and warnings will be issued at the discretion of the GM. Repeated incidents may result in bans on accounts involved." This doesn't seem to apply to 'normal' corp infiltrations, though it does beg the question of why a corporation at war would even be accepting new recruits at all. What's the protocol in your corp, do you continue to accept applicants into the fold during a wardec, or is the risk of alt spying and sabotage too great?
EVE Community Spotlight: Jade Constantine
Jade Constantine is a veteran player of EVE Online, long known for having a forceful personality and a flair for writing. As the CEO of Jericho Fraction and the head of The Star Fraction alliance, Jade has become a pioneer in EVE roleplay, upholding ideologies of freedom that run counter to some of the very systems that define the game. Along the way, Jade has made some enemies, but clearly some allies as well, having garnered the most votes in the Council of Stellar Management (CSM) election. As Chairman of the CSM, Jade Constantine is a magnet for controversy, but as an elected delegate, is also in a unique position to deal directly with CCP Games and potentially change EVE. Massively recently spoke with Jade on the state of roleplaying in EVE Online, the challenges that the CSM faces, and what it's like to be under the magnifying glass.
EVE dev blog announces changes to forum posting
EVE Online players know what a valuable resource the forums can be in learning about the game or keeping current with what's happening. However, it would be an understatement to say that it's been getting harder to find what you need among all the clutter. CCP Taera's latest dev blog, Forums Refined, announces the forthcoming EVE Online forum revamp, which will go into effect in the coming weeks. The announced changes don't address the search issues that players are well aware of, but rather deal with mergers of existing forum content as well as a few new additions. There will also be clearer descriptions of each forum category, hopefully resulting in fewer moved posts for those who have not trained up Reading Comprehension.A new addition to the EVE forums will include 'Warfare and Tactics,' for PvP and Factional Warfare discussions. Once this section goes live, members of Factional Warfare NPC corporations lose their rights to post in the Corporations, Alliance and Organization Discussions (CAOD) forum, CCP Taera says. An EVE Gameplay Center category is also being added, which will place 'Science and Industry,' 'Missions and Complexes,' and 'Market Discussions' in one section, keeping them all near the top of the forums. It should have the added benefit of keeping it "easier to find specialized conversations on gameplay topics instead of just posting in General," CCP Taera adds.
The high price of trust in EVE
Trust is a rare commodity in EVE Online, and is one of those aspects of the game that makes it at once interesting and frustrating. That friendly person who offers you assistance in a mission, wants to sell you a faction module, or seeks to join your corporation may very well be waiting to backstab you when you least expect it. This might sound bad, but it's not necessarily a terrible thing in terms of enjoying the game. Indeed, some may feel that it adds to the risk inherent in EVE, and thus the thrill. The fact that players can manipulate trust within the rules of the game is one of the aspects of EVE that sets it apart from most other MMOs. The risk vs. reward stakes are raised when trust comes into play with groups of players. Collective action through corporations or alliances will, at some point in time, entail trust. It may be a CEO or director lifting restrictions on access to resources for a member of the corp, hoping that the faith placed in the recruit wasn't a bad move. In other scenarios, the situation is reversed -- a director decides to cut and run, seizing assets and leaving the corporation shocked and understandably enraged.
Leadership in EVE Online applicable to real-world ventures
EVE Online has been getting increased mainstream media coverage. Recently the New York Times covered EVE's Council of Stellar Management (CSM) summit in Reykjavik, as well as the self-styled 'bad guy' alliance Band of Brother's initiative to annihilate their rivals in New Eden, wiping them from New Eden's star maps. A new MMO article at Forbes takes a close look at the corporate paradigm of EVE Online, both in-game and out. The piece touches on the views of Goonswarm alliance leader and CSM delegate Sean Conover (aka Darius Johnson, CEO of Goonfleet) and the real-world CEO of CCP Games, Hilmar Veigar Petursson. The Icelandic CEO states: "There isn't a lot of difference between what you can apply within the game and out of it... It's more about social skills than gaming skills. It's very hard to stay on top."
TurpsterVision: Don't tell Adam but I've been fooling around with EVE
Every Tuesday think "T" for Turpster and take the "a" in "day", capitalise it, remove the little bit in the middle, turn it upside down and you get a "V". Put the two together and you'll have TV for TurpsterVision -- the best Internet video podcast on Massively! (Never mind that business about it being the only video podcast on Massively...)It's Tuesday! Hooray! If you like having intellectual discussions about current political events and their impact on the everyday life of the brave men and women serving abroad fighting for our freedom then I am afraid you have come to the wrong place. I don't have a clue about the wars going on here on planet Earth. What I do know about however, is a MMO universe so vast and EPIC that I makes the petty struggles of this world seem insignificant. That is right folks; today we are flying and fighting for our very lives in the turbulent universe of EVE Online!Join us after the break if you think you are truly hardcore enough to play in a universe where you can Alt-Tab while you are meant to be working.
IBM gearing up to lay off over 100000 American employees?
We'll admit, even we're a bit frightened that immensely intelligent humanoid bots may one day oust us from these seats, but according to whispers going around at IBM's HQ, something just as momentous could be going down as early as this year. Shortly after Lenovo told 1,400 of its US-based employees to politely hop off the payroll, IBM's LEAN plan could call for over 100,000 American workers to be canned in favor of (surprise, surprise) hiring overseas. Already, the firm has laid off 1,300 employees in 2007, but according to a recent report, an ongoing "planning meeting" for how to handle the company's Global Services could eventually axe "up to 150,000 US jobs" while hiring cheaper labor in China and India. Interestingly, this news could actually be sweet music to Wall Street, at least in the short term, but we can't imagine how this logistical nightmare will ever bode well for Big Blue's future.
Wii + UPS = BFF [update 1]
Fearless Joystiq reader Travisty of Justice braved the rain and was on hand in Atlanta today to witness UPS officially deliver the first shipment of Wiis to Best Buy. It's a snoozetastic corporate photo op, but hey ... you're just a few short days away from seeing those in stores. Baby steps.He ventured outside to talk to the folks waiting through drizzle in the PS3 line, but when he asked if they were buying one to keep or to sell on eBay, they gave him the brushoff. Maybe they were afraid this Best Buy would boot them out of line. Release the corporate hounds!Check out the video of the event after the jump. Someone, please start hiring spokespeople with a little razzle-dazzle, okay?[Thanks, Travisty][Update: fixed spelling, d'oh!]
