EvE Online: Virtual EPCOT Version 2.0
Sep. 3
Not exactly what Disney had in mind
This morning Eurogamer's Jim Rossignol posted a fascinating article about the politics running EvE Online, and the whole article got me thinking about how MMOs are evolving. There are a lot of discussions about the future of MMOs in the Mandifesto household, largely because we are all gamers, and gamers that love us a dialog about online gaming. Personally I've been wondering about how MMos will change in the coming years, and I have an idea that the next leap in online gaming innovation will come with intelligent AI not only in the monsters you fight, but also in the NPCs you come in contact with.
With EvE Online there are only 250,000 players actively interacting online, however, those thousands all inhabit one server, and it's a server they rule over with corporations and political factions. In essence, EO is a game that has progressed beyond the hack and slash nature of MMOs, moving into the more realistic, and in some ways the more interesting, realm of political PvP. It all reminds me of the vision Walt Disney held for EPCOT, his city of the future. Where Walt made the mistake of wanting to control the government of his ideal society, the developers of EvE Online have allowed the players complete control to run their own society.
Perhaps this sort of freedom is the next innovation in MMO gaming. There's a lot of cahones involved in a dev team comfortable enough to create a game and let the players police it. Virtual societies can be as complex as real ones, and it is this experiment that appears to be thriving in EO. I wonder what this sort of freedom would look like in the more traditional MMOs. Would things devolve into gang warfare if guilds policed themselves rather than the city guards in WoW for instance?
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Comments
"cajones". Pesky Spanish. >:/
I've read some articles that argue EVE has already degenerated into gang warfare, based on the infamous Goonfleet shenanigans. That said, Goonfleet didn't break the game entirely, so there may be a lot more to this model than there initially seems.
The real question is, can a game like this ever become a AAA MMO? Would even half as many people play WoW if they weren't able to opt out of all PvP- interactions completely?
I know I sure wouldn't. I am not a huge fan of PvP (though I will jump in to a battle ground from time to time if the whim hits me), I am much more the exploration/adventure/progression/obtain-cool-new-loot-and-abilities type. Tracking down new experiences is more fun for me then person on person conflict, though I can understand and respect the fact that not all players share my view.
Lynxara: Actually, Cojones.
Cajones is something like 'shelf drawers'
@mazinja: Huh. Learn something new every day.
Phonetic spelling ftw: conveys the meaning without bogging down and confusing non-Spanish speakers.
When I talk about gang warfare, I think you misunderstand the differences between the PvP systems in a game like EvE and WoW. In WoW you can actually duel members of an opposing faction, but the governmental systems are set in place to keep things under control. No player can become king and decide that warlocks should be banned from Stormwind because they are just too evil.
Contrast this with EvE and its player-run governments. The PvP in this game takes place on the political level, so while it can and has degenerated into feuding, there is no "guns at dawn" mechanic. Where the Hatfield Horde in WoW can attack the McCoy Alliance, guild-on-guild wars as you have in EvE or Anarchy Online are incredibly difficult to pull off. Not that I haven't considered leveling hordies on my server to assasinate certain guild leaders.
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