EVE Online and Second Life

[tomster2300]

EVE caught my eye while browsing IGN this morning...it looks like a mmog of Homeworld by the screenshots. I did a search here in the forums for it and found nothing but an older thread (about mmorpg's) in which pam123 said she was considering trying Second Life. I went to its site and it looks very interesting as well. (I like building things). What about the Sims Online, is that any good?

Has anyone tried either of these two games, and if so, what do you think of them? They worth the monthly fee? (I've never payed for a mmorpg before, and I'm not sure if it's worth it).

[pam123]

If you think you've got a future as a 'cut-throat capitalist', or just want to try out the role, then go for Eve.
As for what you're letting yourself in for with that game, read this : http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/19/23

I haven't played Second Life yet though membership is now free.
It's the more civilized of the two games but there's still money to be made, virtually.

edit : I was a beta tester for Eve, the game looks fantastic and it will play just fine on your ste-up.

[tomster2300]

Dern, EVE sounds vicious. You still think it's worth trying? They're offering a 14 free trial so I'm going to give it a whirl I think. It just looks like a great game, especially the thought of being a pirate (although the points highlighted in that article are kind of intimidating).

It said that CEO's money came out to $16,000+ on ebay - I thought this was all just game money...you can actually sell ISK for real cash?

Also it said 12 months, is that 12 months in game time or in actual real months...because that's a lot of dedication if it's real.

[pam123]

If you really annoy someone while playing Eve you better watch your back.
And yes they're talking standard time.
Now that "gold farming" is bringing down the wrath of the gamer community trading virtual money for real cash is getting harder but it's still possible, especially with a game like Eve.

[tomster2300]

What is gold farming? Exactly what it sounds like it is?

EDIT: Also, do you see EVE lasting for a couple of more years? What's the typical life of a mmog?

Thanks for the help so far pam.

[pam123]

Eve was set for a 7 year run though given it's popularity it may, like Everquest, last a good deal longer.
In any case you're set till 2010.
Gold farming, mostly associated with WoW, is the selling of virtual goods for real world money (You want the 8+ plus sword of invincibility but don't have the time to get in the play hours? Buy it on e-bay for cash courtesy of the overseas gold farmers, mostly in china, who played the 200 hours or more for you.). In effect the exchange of virtual gold (but real time) for real gold (but virtual time).
What it does is distort the game economy and unbalance the player classes and generally ruin the game for all the other players.
The gold farmers used to advertise in all the gaming magazine and sites but one of the things that's happend is that many, like PCGamer, will no longer take their advertisements as a matter of policy.
This doesn't mean some guy with a 70+ paladin can't escort some cash rich newbie (and how did the newbie get the cash?) through a dangerous bit of territory he couldn't get thorugh on his own in return for payment, bodygaurds are legal, but the gold in this case would have to stay virtual.
If they catch you gold farming or buying farmed gold/weapons/jewels/etc. on WoW they close your account, same with other games but not all.
Games like Eve lend themselves to it because you can't hog spawn points like you could with another sort of MMORPG and because if you're to hold together a corporation, Eve equivalent of a guild, you will be putting in alot of time. So while the game doesn't exactly run on real world exchanges, it's tolerated, sort of ( I've no idea where the line is but given how the game is set up one of those corporations will try crossing it.).
So the Guiding Hand Social Club really could have cleaned up nicely in real world terms though I don't know that they did.
In case you're wondering, there's nothing in the game rules that prevents you from getting together a group of friends to kick some corporate butt or start a little interstellar warfare if you get that "put upon feeling", it's just the sort of thing they want to encourage.
The game, except for patrolled newbie areas, is player vs player all the time and as long as it isn't an exploit, it's legal.

[tomster2300]

Well that sounds like it could be frustrating, but it also sounds like fun to an extent. I'm trying to get on now but I'm having some problems finding the 14 day free trial advertised on IGN. I sent you a pm about it with more info and I also sent EVE's customer service an inquiry, but who knows where that will end up.

Thanks for all in the information, that's interesting that people would actually spend money on items and such. I kind of look at it as being just a game...the fun part is getting all that stuff on your own, though I see why some would pay when it takes 200+ hours to get it.

[tomster2300]

Alright, I thought I'd give an update on Eve-online since I've been playing it for a couple of months now. This on top of college is why I haven't been posting as often as I usually do here at the mech.

First of all, everything Pam mentioned is true, and then more. Here's a quick rehash of everything I've been doing from start to present. Hopefully this will help some of you guys decide whether to take the plunge or not like I did.

You begin in an NPC corporation (guild) at the start of the game in a specific section of the empire, depending on what race character you choose. This initial corp is basically useless but allows you to begin doing missions with the numerous agents you find outside/inside space stations. You have to be semi social in this game to get anywhere. Even if you read the entire forum at www.eve-online.com you still won't truely figure out what you're doing unless somebody helps you. They have an in-game chat channel, but it's typically flooded with newcomers all throwing their questions in and hoping the handful of knowledgable people there can help you.

In-game you have an map of the entire galaxy, including the literally thousands of solar systems in the game for you to visit. The majority of the map is Empire controlled territory, with each of the four (maybe five) races owning a portion. Big chunks are called constellations, which are then broken down into regions (this is really the first important chunk since constellation names are pretty much useless), then within your region you have hundreds of individual solar systems each with a number of asteroid belts, planets, moons, and NPC space station, and more depending on the security rank of the system.

Each system inside the empire has a security rank of .01 - .1 with .1 being the safest. From .05 - .1 Concord (the game's NPC police) will warp in and save you if somebody decides to fire on you, but in .05 and lower there's only turrets at the jumpgates (jumpgates provide the entry/exit to each new system - you must go through these to get from one system to the next...each jumpgate only leads to one system so there's usually a handful in each system, all leading to adjacent systems). If you get attacked (ganked) by anybody within the system away from the gates in low sec, you're on your own to defend yourself. The attacker will lose standing each time they attack somebody within empire, meaning if they do it enough times their own sec standing with whatever race's territory they're in will fall until they're not allowed into specific stations / gates (they will automatically be fired upon as they approach). Being fired upon by Concord hurts...and you die pretty quickly.

This game is violent and brutal. PvP (player vs. player) is a main part of the game...and legal. You're usually safe in empire (unless another corp declares war on your corp, then you can be attacked anywhere). The area surrounding the empire is called 0.0 space. Out there, anything and everything goes. There you'll find your main, enormous corporations and alliances (groups of corporations banded together to help control a certain part of ever changing 0.0 territory). Out there you have alliance wars that involve huge fleet battles (something I have yet to witness) and the majority of your player owned stations (pos's) and outposts (player owned stations, but they're the huge ones that are truely a station - pos's are basically individual structures floating in space with a shield and guns around them). It also contains the best ore in the game, and also the true pirate groups who terrorize everybody.

With that being said, you don't have to ever train a single combat skill if you don't want to. You can pursue the path of a miner, a trader, etc. and stay within empire your entire game career. You can do whatever you'd like.

You have a NPC controlled market which can be accessed from anywhere within empire, then you have a black market (player controlled) which sells everything and anything players make. There's no penalty to using the latter but there is a risk that your product won't arriive as advertised, and there's no compensation if it turns out to be a fraud (hence the black market name).

You upgrade your player through the purchasing and training of skills. You can only train one at a time, and each basic one has five levels to it. Each level's time to train increases as well (lvl 1 = 30 min - 1 hour, lvl 2 = 1 hour 30 min - 2 hours...lvl V = up to a week or more depending on your learning skills). You can train learning skills to help decrease the training time needed for skills - learning skills enhance one of a number of attributes which then shortens the time for any skills who have that attribute as their primary.

All in all, this game is pretty decent. It has about a month learning curve to really get your bearings and begin being able to make enough money to somewhat support yourself. Joining a well establish corporation in the beginning is crucial to keeping you hooked since it takes a long time and a lot of money to get to the point of self sufficiency...something that I'm just now getting to after having played for a couple of months. The most annoying part is having to wait for skills to train before being able to do anything new. This isn't like other mmorpg's where you must consistently do a task to boost your skill level...you simply tell it to train; whether you log out then log back in when it's finished a week to a month later makes no difference (skills continue training even when you're logged out). You can even set a long skill to train, quit paying for eve for a number of months, pay again/log back in and it will have trained. I find this good and bad, with the bad meaning a lot of downtime until the next thing finishes, and the good being you can continue moving forward in the game even while on vacation or if you decide to take a break from the monthly bill (which is $20 activation fee - first month - then $15 every month afterwards).

I guess to conclude, you basically get out what you put into this game. It can be very fun, or it can be extremely boring. If you have any specific questions please post below or pm me. I'll be happy to help you out both in-game and out.

[tynowlan]

that game looks cool as hell, i joined a few months ago not knowing that my worthless old pc couldnt play it. im almost finished with my comp build and eve will be the first game run to..

[tomster2300]

Good, give me a shout in game. My character is Lord TMac - I'll hook you up.