Ecliptic Rift

CrazyKinux asks a very good question:

Whether you’ve logged into the game every day since its launch in 2003, or you’ve taken one or several sabbaticals from your capsuleer career, you’ve always come back to New Eden don’t you. Why is that?

We know the EVE Online Community is unique in so many ways, and that EVE Online is like no other MMORPG out there. But what makes the game special for you?

What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see a continuous growth in its subscriber.

To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online so much?

I don’t have one single, simple answer. So I thought I’d try something new, because New Eden is just awesome.

New Eden is just awesome


I love the wormholes
I love our avatars
I love the scammers
I love the epic arcs

I love our spaceships
And all the ways we fly

Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da

I love Syndicate
I love cloaky ships
I love Metropolis
I love those sensor scripts

I love the forums
And all our flaming threads

Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da

I love space opera
I love post-cyberpunk
I love PVP
I love to salvage junk

I love New Eden
It’s such an awesome place

Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da
Boom dee ah da


The first banter of 2010 comes to us from CrazyKinux himself, who asks the following: As we begin another year in New Eden, ask yourselves, “What Now?” What will I attempt next? What haven’t I done so far in EVE? Was it out of fear, funds, or knowledge? What steps and objectives will I set myself to accomplish in order to reach my ultimate goal for this year? EVE is what you make of it. So, what is it going to be for you?

Destination : Future by gilderic

I’ve had a rough idea of how I would like 2010 to go (EVE-wise) for a while, at least in some senses though not necessarily others. So let’s take a look…

Read more »

NB: This post largely derives from thinking about what my good friend Escoce has written at least twice on the subject of alts, some time ago in relation to a Blog Banter on metagaming and then again recently with a HTFU tone.

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that, like most EVE players, I have several alts (some public, some not). Generally, I try to use them for alternate play styles rather than directly supporting each other, but that hasn’t always happened for any number of reasons. I just can’t resist the temptation to reach into the toolbox when I know I have a screwdriver in there already. So I end up using an alt for additional trade orders, or research slots, or to get around other skill restrictions.

By staying alt-free, then, I can accomplish several desirable results:

1. Provide more opportunities for other players. Instead of trying to do four different things myself, I can work with other players to get what I need and thus create additional relationships and social structures (a valuable play style in itself).
2. Strengthen my own corporation. As a consequence of the above, rather than try to use alts for (say) extra S&I slots, why not recruit additional engineers and scientists? That has a follow-on networking effect, as these players interact with the other members, thus strengthening BKAT. Then they bring in friends through word-of-mouth recruiting
3. Focus specifically on the character I enjoy the most. Not that my other characters don’t have their appeal, but in truth, Casiella gets 90% of my time in-game. I don’t think the other 10% really provides enough value for the effort. And when I do play them, I spend a lot of time feeling that I really should get back onto Casi to accomplish something there.
4. Save cash. Maybe CCP would like me to have a lot of alts, for obvious business reasons. But I don’t have an obligation to prop them up, and in reality, if I can help other players stay engaged and connected, then I’ve helped CCP just as much as I would have, while still taking it easy on my meatspace wallet (or my in-game wallet, if I pay with PLEXes).

If CCP does in fact revamp factional warfare next year, I might re-activate Ghost Outrider, of course, because experimenting with wholly different play styles in ways that don’t interact with Casiella holds a bit of interest for me. But apart from that, I plan to stay alt-free in 2010

Image credit elvis_payne

I’m not part of CrazyKinux’s EVE Blog Pack, but that shouldn’t stop me from posting on the current blog banter on metagaming, right?

This month’s topic comes to us from Mynxee of Life in Low Sec. She asks “Alts and Metagaming: Is playing two accounts who are logged in at the same time and work together (hauler/miner, explorer/combat associate, trade alts in trade hubs) a form of metagaming that is ‘ruining the game’”?

Everyone else has explained in detail what metagaming really is and how it works in EVE, but I want to examine the issue from a role-playing perspective rather than a purely game-mechanical one. Fortunately, EVE binds these two very closely together, as RPGs should.

So when does taking action based on information we possess as players but not as characters cause problems?

In roleplay, this varies because it depends on the impact on other players. A friend of mine from SWG used to say, “if you’re not metagaming, you’re not trying”. This really was a joke, but every joke contains a kernel of truth. In this case the truth is that we all metagame sometimes. Getting online when you know your friend is playing, convincing your RL brother to play, all these things are metagaming to one extent or another.

But when we’re talking about purely IC interactions, it can cause real problems. For example, I know OOC that Mynxee and Roc Wieler (the characters) have some sort of relationship. That’s cool and entertaining and fascinating to me, the player. But if Casiella ran across Mynxee in Molden Heath and asked her about that relationship, it would be very uncool. That’s the dark side of metagaming.

The great thing about a real sandbox like EVE is that even when it happens in game mechanical terms (ref. the BoB defector that disbanded the alliance), you can find reasonable IC explanations. Why can’t we assume that the actual character turned on his old alliance? He took the action to kick the corps and thus disband BoB, so there’s no reason for our characters to have trouble grasping this if they have any knowledge of the entire affair. The fact that it involved his play on another character and deciding he liked GoonSwarm better really doesn’t matter.

Like a lot of things in life, the answer comes down to “it depends”. If you’re using OOC knowledge to benefit your character in a way that hurts other people and defies what should be realistic in the confines of the fictional universe (moving into godmoding), then that’s a problem. But if you’re doing so in a way that results in more fun for everyone involved, then it’s a bonus due to the ingenuity and creativity of players. That can mean just increasing gameplay like the fun people have had in Delve over the last several weeks, or it can mean using alts to fill in holes when you don’t have other folks to accompany you on a low-sec run or for a role in a given storyline.

UPDATE:

• Epic Misadventures, This is my Alt – There are many like it but this one is mine.
• Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah, I Missed This Month’s Blog Banter!
• A Mule in EvE, Meta what? Is it hurting EvE?
• Morphisat’s EVE Online Blog, Me, Myself and I
• One Man And His Spaceship, Me and My Shadow
• Ombeve, Blog Banter edition 5
• Diving into PsycheDiver’s Psyche, CK’s Blog Banter #5: Everybody Needs Somebody
• Dense Veldspar, Blog Banter
• Ecliptic Rift, OOC: Blog Banter #5 Metagaming
• The Ralpha Dogs, Me, Myself and I
• Mad Rant, “Blog Banter – It’s my party, and I’ll alt if I want to….”
• EVE Chick, The Handicapper General
• The Wandering Druid of Tranquility, “…you see mate, it’s a matter of leverage, savvy?…”
• New Eden Diaries, It’s only a game
• Oz’s House of the Evil Dead, If You Can’t Ride Two Horses At Once, You Shouldn’t Be In The Circus
• Diving into PsycheDiver’s Psyche, Everybody Needs Somebody
• CrazyKinux’s Musing, Leave what you know at the door please!
• Diary of a Pod Pilot, [OOC] EVE Blog Banter #5 Metagaming
• Roc’s Ramblings, February Blog Banter – Meta Me

I’ve also linked the main post at the top here. Will update if I see more!