Hello all and welcome again to the EVE Blog Banter.  This month’s EVE Blog Banter comes to us from Brinelan over at The Shard (http://www.theshard.org). He asks: What drew us into EVE, what keeps us playing the game and what brought us back if we’ve ever left? Below are all the articles that have been published in the EVE Blog sphere :

Internet Spaceships is Serious Business

I was drawn to EVE by my wife.  Yes, not many people can say that their spouse was their ultimate reason for playing EVE in the way I can.  Me and my wife like to play computer games.  I was spending a lot of time playing Star Wars Galaxies, which she did not enjoy.  She came across EVE Online in her search for a new and fun game to play.  She tried it out for about a week and told me that I should take a look.  I downloaded the game client, created a character and mined for a while.  I just could not really get into the game as I was very active in SWG, so, I let the trial expire and went on my merry way.

About 9 months later, Sony Online Entertainment radically changed SWG more than they had before with the NGE product.  I gave it some time and finally just gave up.  I wanted something fun to play.  Again enter my wife.  “I didn’t really like it but maybe you should look at EVE Online again.”

So, I downloaded the client again and reactivated my old account.  I started mining again and got frustrated, truly frustrated.  This game looked beautiful but seemed to lack some depth.  So, I buried my dread concerning game forums (SWG was a much worse cesspool than the EVE forums will ever be) and started to read.  I read a lot and I mean a lot.  I spent the next month not playing, just simply reading and learning all I could.  Then, I created a new character with what I had learned.

This March will mark my third continuous year playing EVE Online with the character I created, Ga’len.  I still have that miner I was frustrated with, he’s become an industrial alt for me.  When I look back over the past few years it is a bit of a marvel to me that anyone could spend so much time playing a game.  I can remember the first time I logged on with Ga’len and traveled to down into the Tash Murkon Prime system to npc rat in the belts.  I still can feel the thrill of letting loose with my guns and the sheer awe I felt when I encountered my first Freighter.  “Wow, that ship is huge!!”

I continue to play EVE for many reasons.

The game itself is beautiful.  Space is a marvel to see.  It’s one thing to look at photographs that NASA has gathered over the decades, it’s another to actually see gas clouds swirl and to watch lightening on play across the surface of a planet.  I will never have the chance to fly in space in real life, EVE is the next best thing.  The ships, regardless of race all have their own style and charm.  To be honest, I have lost a few engagements simply because I was sidetracked by the beauty of the ship I was fighting.  I have yet to find a game that has the same stunning visual effects and imagery that you see all over the EVE universe.

The combat.  PvP in EVE is of course not real, but it does get the heart pumping.  In so many other games, when you loose a fight, you don’t have the risk of loosing your stuff.  You can simply return the the scene of the fight and recover your gear or use another tool in the game to get your stuff back.  In EVE, there is real risk in everything you do.  No other game has been able to recreate the real life mechanics of “risk versus reward” within the same degree that you see in EVE Online.  You are also not restricted to an arena for your combat, you can litterally fight everywhere in the game universe with varying levels of difficulty depending on the security level and location of the system in the universe.

The level of complexity of the game is unmatched anywhere.  You can have a character spend their entire EVE life engaging in commerce and never engage in combat.  The market, the complexity of the in game economy, the sheer number of ways you can make isk lends itself to any number of styles of game play.  Such an open gaming world truly does not exist anywhere else and it’s one of the things that does keep this game fresh even after 3 years.

The potential for greatness is one of the reasons I love this game.  Yes, it’s an ego thing.  EVE is one of the few games where you actually “contribute a verse to the powerful play that goes on”.  Early on in my game play, I chanced to fall prey to a ransoming pirate.  5 million isk I believe was the ransom and I paid the man.  Verone being the honorable pirate from Veto honored the ransom and let me go.  I had heard of Verone on the EVE forums and from others in game.  He was an EVE celebrity and it was something that I had never really encountered before, actually seeing what everyone was talking about.  A fellow with a funny forums signature about “Paying the man”.  Fast forward to today.  I am an active member of the Neo Spartans, a priate corp that has a reputation for having a good time and being ruthless towards our enemies.  We have made a name for ourselves.  Anyone can make a name for themselves in EVE and become part of the game history.  That unique opportunity to leave your mark on the game world is something that other games simply can not acheive.

Lastly and most importantly, the people; players and CCP employees alike.  No where else do you find a game community that is so actively engaging, so dedicated to both playing and making the game a better experience for everyone.  People geninuely interact and do so on many levels, whether it’s in game during a fight, in a chat channel on how to get moon mining setup at a POS to the EVE forums, at player meets at bars and other gatherings including Fanfest and yes, the EVE Blog sphere.  People make this game fun and keep me coming back for more each day.

Other Blogs “Banterin’ Around”:

• CrazyKinux’s Musing: EVE Blog Banter #2: Space, the Final Frontier…
• Ombeve: OOC Blog Banter 2
• 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…
• The Shard: EVE Blog Banter #2

Tags: Blog Banter, CK's Blog Pack, SWG, Why Play

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