Social Considerations In EVE Online (Part One of Two)

Part One – An Introduction to EVE Online

1. Basic MMO Introduction

So I’m sittin’ here while the EVE Online servers go down for maintenance, thinking about massively multiplayer online games.

For the uninitiated, MMOs are online only video games played on a computer, in which you have some sort of persistent connection to a online game world. Typically, this involves creating a character that will represent you in the game world, and then going about participating in the social setting with other gamers. There is a strong “open-ended” theme – with players deciding amongst a variety of paths and corresponding goals for development of their character. Some people like to be the best so you will see them playing twice as much as the average player, devoting all their time to character development and hanging out exclusively with people who share the same goal. Others care more for the social aspect of the game, simply enjoying their playtime with a range of other users in the game world. These people generally care more about making friendships with other players than how fast their character develops. There are many different approaches to these games; these two are just examples, albeit two of the most common.

Now, there are tons of MMO games, the industry having really exploded in recent years. You no doubt have heard of World of Warcraft – Blizzard Entertainment’s ultimate game product, with a population of users more than some European countries. Let me say that again. There are more people playing this game than there are living in some European countries. We’re talking ten million people across the world. That’s unbelievable. Honestly, ten years ago that would would be unfathomable to gamers.

But I’m not here to talk about that game, though the concepts I will touch on here are certainly applicable. I’m here to talk about EVE Online. I’ve recently gotten back into this game, being deterred in the past by the steep learning curve and my friends quitting (*cough* *cough* Kyle Rynerson!!! *cough* *cough*). In my return, I’ve begun to focus on the community – more specifically, getting involved in it.

2. EVE Specific Introduction

CCP, the creators and developers of EVE, have created a world modeled to behave much like our real world. In EVE, you pilot futuristic spacecraft across a galaxy of slightly more than 5000 different star systems – each containing planets, space stations, asteroid belts, and computer controlled spacecraft going about its own business.

Each dot represents a star system. Color denotes security status.

Within these systems, players carry out a variety of functions: flying combat missions, battling other players, building ships and ship modifications (ranging from low-end to huge production lines that require hundreds of players contributions), creating and operating space stations, researching new technologies (literally synthesizing existing “blueprints” for items to make them better), developing and running trade routes, contracting services to other players (including – trade route operations, assassinations, wars, protective services, or anything else they consider worthy), setting up mining operations, and fighting grand wars over control of star systems. Some of these activities can be done alone, while others require groups of players working together.

With this understanding, CCP created corporations – player created and managed organizations, who’s purpose is to unite players with common interests and goals. There are industrial corporations running massive manufacturing chains. There are mercenary corporations, contracting out war services to anyone with enough cash. There are bands of pirates, roaming the dangerous areas of space, seeking to overwhelm players of all sorts for ransom. There are also massive alliances consisting of many individual corporations under one banner, engaging in the world’s largest online wars.

EVE Online boasts an economic model second to none in the games market. Every single ship, ship modification, round of ammunition, space station component, or piece of research equipment is created by the players. Beginning from the basic acquisition of raw materials through asteroid mining, players refine the minerals from them, combine them along with supplied blueprints, and create items. Some more advanced items, such as ships, require many different components to first be manufactured, and then combined by one player to manufacture a ship. Players then list their created items on the market for others to buy. If you want to buy a certain ship you just received the rights to fly, you have to open the market interface and browse for a sell listing created by another player, purchase the item for the listed price, and then fly out to the station the item was listed at to pick it up. In this way, the EVE economy follows a chain of supply/production.

A popular PvP ship - the Hurricane - in the market browser.

CCP has taken a mostly hands off approach to the economy, which has led to some startling things. The economy operates just as a real world market economy does. In fact, CCP has an economist work at their offices in Iceland, who specifically interprets and oversees the economy of this game.

Price history page of a ship.

The 5000 systems in EVE are linked together by a system of warp gates, devices that players can approach and activate to instantly teleport across space lanes to other star systems. These lanes are clearly defined however, so you must follow specified routes to get anywhere. It can take a long time to move assets if you have 30 warp gate jumps to make. Each star system is also categorized by a measure called security status. Ranging from 0.0 to 1.0, this number signifies how “safe” a system is. If the number is 0.5 or higher, any players who instigate unprovoked attacks on other ships will soon be swarmed by tons of computer controlled ships who will not stop until they destroy the offender. Economic incentive to preserve your assets is the motivating force that keeps this place relatively safe, because once you lose a ship in EVE that’s it – it is gone forever. All of the items you purchased to enhance it and the ship itself are now dust. What if it was your last ship and you don’t have any money left? While there are systems in place to make sure you can get back on your feet, but the general response embraced by the EVE community is “Too bad, the world of EVE is harsh”.It is important to note, however, that while this system is in place and violating these rules will most likely end up with your ship being destroyed, there is nobody preventing you from carrying out such an attack. If you are extremely powerful and have the ships to spare, you can fly right into a new player zone and blow a brand new captain out of the sky. He’ll lose his only ship and you’ll lose one of hundreds. And that’s in the safest of areas!

Depiction of the space lanes connecting star systems.

If the system is ranked at 0.5 or lower, down to 0.1, it is considered low security space. Here there are no computer ships to protect you. If you are flying around in these systems, anyone can attack you and you can attack anyone. These systems still have infrastructure though, containing space stations that any player can dock at.

If the system is ranked 0.0 it is considered “zero zero” space – the wild west. Out here you are left completely to your own devices. Players construct their own space stations, manage their own resources and supply lines through low security space, and defend themselves from would-be aggressors. In addition, and most important, these systems have sovereignty – allowing player corporations and alliances to literally own star systems. It is out here that politics are put into practice and grand wars are raged between mega-bloc alliances. Some of the rarest resources exist out in 0.0 space, providing the incentive behind such brutal campaigns.

Displays the control status of controllable systems in EVE Online

In the next installment, I’ll get to the meat of my thoughts, discussing how we can learn important things from observing the social interactions of EVE Online players – things that can be applied to the real world – and also, simply remarking on what is truly one of the most amazing online communities ever.