EVE Online: Back Into The Void

About three years ago I wrote a cblog guide about how to get into EVE Online, despite some inaccuracies, the guide helped several people with learning the game and loving it like I do now.

Over the past few years I have gone through many different parts of space, taken a break from it and resubbed several times over. Something about this game keeps me hooked, no matter what I try to do, no matter how hard I try to get back into my bread and butter of gaming (first person shooters) the crys of New Eden keep me from leaving. So here I am again, doing my little spin to shed some light on why you should be playing this game.

In my previous article I wrote about how EVE is an unforgiving universe, how the entire universe is built by the players, and its future determined by them as well. The past year or so the gaming community has seen clear examples of that. Ranging from the Jita Riots, to the Burn Jita campaign. The pilots of New Eden have formed an living, breathing society that is just as powerful, and just as Corrupt, and just as deadly(virtually) as our real life societies today. Sure to some EVE is just a game, but to those who have invested time into this wonderful virtual world it is more than that.

EVE is without a doubt one of the greatest social experiments to ever be conducted in our lifetime. Scoff at that statement all you want, but there is something magnificent at what this game has accomplished over the past several years. The amount of work players have invested into this game, the communities they have built, the amount of friendships won, and friendships lost over this game has baffled many. The scheming, the actions, and the passion everyone has for this game far exceeds anything I have seen in any other game.



A good friend of mine that I've known in 'the real life' for quite some time plays EVE with me, we are both in the same corp, and have never been able to really escape from this game. Every time we talk about the game, or talk about things going on, I feel like I'm having a political discussion or talking about our real lives and how it is being affected by the chaos going on in the world. But at the end of the conversation you come back to reality and realize New Eden is only virtual, the politics we were just talking about so passionately was just in this game. The investment that your emotion has on that moment is truly mind blowing. Aside from its emotional implications, theres an "economic study" of sorts that goes on with many EVE Players. When I ask my friend how much ISK he has made today he would tell me how he might not have made much, but he has been reading these market reports from New Eden and sees a spike in a certain raw material and tells me how hes going to take advantage of that influx to make more money by the end of the week. He ends up pulling in double what he made the other day.

How many games out there can you say you have approached them with the same passion as you do with things in the real world? If you would have told me back in 2001 that I would soon be playing games where the players would build their own government structure, they would control vast territories, form alliances with other players, have diplomats keep peace between those alliances, have players become someone who can study the financial market of a game so that they could become billionaires. Or have players that would spend their time to make friends with people in an alliance, only to end up stabbing them in the back a year later, destroying years worth of work..If you told me this back in 2001, I would have laughed at you.

But its here, its real, and people including myself, are invested in it.



Over the past several months I have rejoined my friends in the CIRAD Corporation in the FCON Alliance, which is part of the Clusterfuck Coalition (CFC).. which has other alliances in it such as TEST, GOONs, TNT, Razor, and more. Since ive been back, so much has happened, so much has changed, so much destruction and so much rebirth. I took part in actions that destroyed an entire alliance within a week through the means of total war, and I have witnessed the vanquishing of innocence in a section of space that everyone thought they would be safe in. Just recently I drank the tears of some poor sap who was dumb enough to bring this into battle. Yes, you see that correctly... that is a 3.1 billion ISK pod kill, and that was in a PVP fight. Apart from causing tears I am currently building up a propaganda machine for my alliance and our coalition that has captured the attention of the CFC leaders. My wonderful way to make ISK is by making posters in photoshop for my glorious leaders. Welcome to EVE, a game where even propaganda serves a strong purpose.

This sounds fucking incredible, but the game is so complex!

This is the nature of EVE unfortunately, its greatest strength is its complexity and its player driven universe, but it is also its weakest link. How do you get a new player into a game without removing complexity? Without restricting other players their freedom to do whatever they want, wherever they want? That is a question CCP and the community of EVE online has been struggling to answer for a very long time.

But, there is a way...




If you truly do desire to explore the world of EVE, and you really want to take a crack at it. The best way to go about this is to do one of two things:

OPTION 1: Know someone who plays EVE, and can show you the ropes: This can be extremely helpful, and can definitely get you on the right foot; guides and tutorials can only do so much.

OPTION 2:Join EVE, Do the 3 core tutorial agent missions, Join EVE University: This is probably the best option for those who have no friends in EVE or no friends in general. EVE University is a neutral alliance that helps new players get into EVE Online. They will teach you ANYTHING you want to know about the game, it costs you NOTHING to join. And they will supply you with materials and goods, and lend you ships so you can learn how to play EVE the way YOU want to play. From nullsec pvp, to high sec market trading, EVE University has been the saving grace for many new EVE Players. And here is the best part, you go at your own pace, you can go for a month, or you can go for 3 months, it all depends on how much you want them to teach you, and what it is you want to learn. You want to see everything that EVE has to offer? Then EVE-Uni is for you!

Prepare ahead of time, Grab the essentials!
The following are a list of community developed tools (which CCP Backs completely) and communication tools that will do SO MUCH for you on your journey into EVE. These tools will also most likely be used through your schooling of EVE University, so grab them now so you're ready to go!

Teamspeak 3 & Mumble – A majority of the EVE Community uses either Teamspeak 3 and/or Mumble for voice communication. So grab it, install em both, they will be used by you on a regular basis, especially for EVE Uni and any other major alliance you may end up joining.

EVE Fit Tool – This tool will allow you to plugin your character API which will take all the information about your character (skills you've trained, ships you can fly) and will let you know how well you can fit a ship with your current skills.

EVE Mon – This is going to be your swiss army knife of EVE Online, this tool will allow you to build skill training plans depending on what you want to do, what ships you want to fly, and what weapons you want to use. You put together a ship, with good fittings, and then you can take all the 'required skills' it has listed and slap them into a Skill Plan.. this skill plan will tell you the best approach on what skills to train first, in what order, and what your character attributes should be set to for more effective training times.



The Future

So you have some basic understand of how to get started into EVE, and what route to go that will truly help you in the best possible way. Be bold pilot, a world of hatred and love awaits you.

You will go through many trials and tribulations, you will become swallowed by both, and you could become drunk with so much power to the point where you will longer have mercy in your heart. But that is only the beginning. Our world is about to expand drastically in the coming months. War is at hand, and no longer will we be only fighting in the vacuum of space. War is coming down to the dirt. Mud and rock has returned to the palms of those who wish for more territory. What will happen when the DUST settles?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI53ydJaus8

It's right around the corner, the next major advancement in the EVE universe, DUST 514 is soon to bring war to every edge of the galaxy. And soon our PS3 companions will be doing our biding, and will also suffer from our acts of betrayal ;).

This great social experiment is about to expand beyond our wildest dreams. Are you ready?

http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/05/18/dust-514-welcome-to-new-eden-part-1


-WastelandTraveler of Fidelas Constans (FCON) – Shield of the Clusterfuck Coalition