EVE: The Greatest Game I Rarely Play

Though out my postings I will bring up EVE quite a bit. First off because it is unique in that there isn't any online game like it. Also because I think they have shown that a quite few concepts that are tricky to do right can be done, given enough time and dedication.

What did EVE succeed in doing:

1) Create a completely player driven economy. Except for a very limited number of items, like skill books and very basic equipment, everything is player driven. It has either been found/looted by the players or manufacture from other components by players.

2) PvP with meaning. "Never fly anything you can not afford to lose." That is the golden rule of EVE. Because one day, you will lose it. This goes doubly so in PvP. You will lose your ship. It may take a while but one day, someone else will be luckier than you.

3) Free form character growth. You are not stuck in anyone mold in EVE. You can start doing one thing, then over time learn something completely new.

4) Conquest and Player Empires. Over its 5 years, there have been many major alliances and many of them have fallen. At anyone time there are maybe two or three active, and then lots of smaller ones. But over time all the big ones have fallen.

However there is one thing that makes EVE a difficult game to play. It is very slow.

First it takes a long time to figure out what is going on. Fortunately you can't make any mistakes in your first few days of playing that can not be corrected fairly quickly. At worse the skill you though you needed now, you will need later.

Second, it is the type of game where you must think long term. When I log in I not only think about what I am doing today, but what I must set in motion now in order to reap the benefit the next day, week or even month(s). I would spend almost as much time planning what I was going to do as actually doing it.

EVE is not the type of game you can just pop in and do something (other then change skill learning) and pop out. When I was managing a sizable manufacturing operation, I would spend about a half hour a day doing market research, buying supplies, setting up production items and list products. Even then I would still have to spend a few hours one night a week, just to move goods around as needed.

Even my purely combat character. Sure I could just go out and hunt 'rats for a half hour or run a quick mission, but still I would have to spend at least an hour a week doing logistics (suppling, recycling, etc.)

This level of commitment needed to play EVE is also part of its longevity. As you invest more time into the game the more likely you are to want to continue to play.

Every time I think about going back, I look at the fact that it will take me a few hours just to figure out what is going on again and what has changed. Some of that is offline reading, but still it is an investment of time.