Quick point about the EVE story post from yesterday: whether the story is true or not is not all that important. What is important is that it’s POSSIBLE in EVE. Maybe this guy did what he says he did. Maybe he didn’t. But someone has. Someone has had an ‘epic story arc’ that spanned years and involved/affected thousands of other people.
That’s truly massively beyond the total capacity of most MMO servers and their projected lifespan.
That’s what MMOs are supposed to be about.
Hardcore Casual 
MMOs are different things to different people.
Not to dismiss the significance of that story. I agree, whether it’s true or not (I suspect not given the context and presentation, but it could be true) whether it’s true or not isn’t really relevant. It’s very cool that EVE (or any game) can support such a play style, that the player-base it supports can experience that sort of thing. One thing EVE does very well is that it feels massive..and it’s not due to artistic efforts (e.g. Star Wars) or artificially inflated travel times (and disappearing boats, e.g. WoW)…it’s purely due to scope. It’s very good. That’s what a good sandbox is all about.
For those that want a game with lots of people with remarkably different presentation (less inter-player competition, more predictability, an overall easier time) theme park MMOs exist for that reason.
I actually enjoyed the Mittani’s interview with “Darwin’s Accelerator” (referenced in Jester’s article) a great deal more than that story.
No article about how hard TOR is failing today eh? Not saying it will be a raging success for years but it’s held onto 1.7 million subs which I’m pretty sure beats the crap out of your endless posts of failure.
It is especially suprising after the reports coming out that SWTOR is crashing computers – even when it is not being played. There is a huge threadnaught launched since Bioware’s “It’s not us, it’s you” response hit. People are already speaking of another sony-esque root-kit drm disaster.
Two posts down champ.
Oh see the post where you completely dodge the numbers and just claim failure further down the road versus your earlier predictions.
Ya know I love the blog when you talk about the games you love, just stop bitching endlessly about the games we know you hate and want to fail. There is a market for both type of games even though you don’t seem to want it.
Welcome,
You must be new here.
Held on? Those numbers were for December. Learn to read.
The articles I read said subscribers so I presumed it was after the 30 days seeing as how 2 million boxes were sold and they have 1.7 million subs. If I misread that then my bad.
If you follow the articles to their source, right in EA’s own document to its investors it explains that “active subscriptions” include accounts that have not completed the 30 days.
Agreed. It is possible, and that it is possible is epic. This particular story’s truth is irrelevant.
That aside, this isn’t a particularly good story. Most stories written about the exploits of mittens is more epic.
An example of this is the Ice Interdiction of winter 2011.
I always prefered the classic corp theft/betrayal story of the Guiding Hand Social Club. Had all the intrigue and ended in firey death at the hands of a rare shiny.
Please don’t stroke mitten’s ego, the ego is bad enough.
I doubt he has much of an ego. He’s just famous because he writes, is connected to 00 politics with an alliance that is known to be vocal/extreme and has a good recruitment policy.
He really, really does. If you listen to him talk his ego is extremely prevalent.
He is however an extremely successful fellow so he can;t exactly be blamed for having a slight ego.
Agree that it’s an awesome story. But to say that it says the same thing about the game of Eve whether true or not might ring true to a fan of the game, but not to a bystander.
Remember James Frey the author of “A Million Little Pieces” who admitted that he made up the details of his supposed true account?
Addiction counselors defended the superbly written book in that it was entirely plausible, but the fact that he was caught trying to pass it off as nonfiction was hubris and diminished his effort, some argue it even hurt the cause of drub rehabilitation.
Truth has value that can certainly be squandered.
“Truth has value that can certainly be squandered.”
We are still talking about computer games?
Still trying to compartmentalize your life into oblivion huh. Learn that gaming is a part of life. Otherwise stick to your little X-Box.
I’m talking about writing, identity, and the value of truth. If you lie about your experience in a video game, are you less a liar than if you lie about any other experience?
All the stories in Eve boil down to “Hey, I’m a spaceship! Pew pew!”.
That’s why I can’t play it, even if I’d really, really want to. In any RPG I need a ROLE that I can be PLAYING in the GAME. A fracking ship is not a “role” that I can play.
Lol, horribly uninformed. Eve totally has no roles…
All the stories in [insert fantasy MMO title] boil down to “Hey, I’m a human(oid)! Hack slash!”.
That’s why I can’t play it, even if I’d really, really want to. In any RPG I need a ROLE that I can be PLAYING in the GAME. A little awkwardly-animated man on the screen is not a “role” that I can play.
Only those who have never played EVE think that the game boils down to being in a spaceship. How could you understand the roles played without leaving the space station? The roles that are played by never turning on the game client?
I know about the metagame that’s included with the deal, but I’d prefer a game where the game happens within the game. And I do need an avatar in a roleplaying game that I can use to interact with the environment and other players, not just some souped up irc chat.
These are just my personal opinions and I’m happy for all the people who enjoy playing Eve. Enjoy your pew pewing and space-shipping. I was just looking forward to playing the WoD game they were doing, too bad CCP and White Wolf screwed that up.
Let me tell you a story of an imaginary guy who infiltrated every Top 5 WoW raiding guild since 2004. Fed them misinformation, sabotaged their World First kill attempts. He was even instrumental in the disbanding of Death & Taxes!
Nothing you have described makes this any different than any other MMO with a community and an AH.
EVE has a lot of important, unique qualities. You can’t take over portions of space in (many) other MMOs. Ponzi schemes and betrayals are bannable offenses in other MMOs. But the possibility of having one guy influence things from the top down, behind the scenes? Welcome to basic human interaction.
If someone actually did it, that would be something else entirely.
But see your example is pure fiction. The EVE example is not. Kinda makes my point really.
The only point I can see is that some people find this kind of stuff interesting and some don’t. Then there’s a sub-point that within the group that finds this kind of thing interesting, some people find this example interesting and some don’t.
It’s entertaining to read the degree that the people who are discussing it express themselves entertainingly. I didn’t bother to read the actual story but I enjoyed the comment thread.
Your point is the mere POSSIBILITY of it being true is what’s important. Since my scenario is equally as possible as your own EVE (fantasy) story, they are of equal value.
Your point is understodd, Azuriel. All the same, I think it would be safe to say that the balance of probabilities are in favour of this having probably happened in Eve, in one form or another, and very unlikely to have happened in WoW.
You are confused again. This particular EVE story may or may not have happened. Something like the GHSC did happen. The fall of BoB did happen. MoO happened. T20 happened. Mittani is happening.
Now maybe those WoW guild spies are so good they have yet to be revealed, and are still plotting how to mislead 10/25 people vs a script. Like you said, perhaps it might be possible, and maybe someday we could hear about it. Until then, it’s fantasy land.