Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Murder, plunder and betrayal in EVE Online


I took a break last night from my usual time spent in EVE, to do some clean-up in my PC game collection, CDs, boxes and game manuals. I tried re-installing a few just for the fun of it, only to realize that many of them just don't look as good as I remember them, or simply can't display well at my current default LCD resolution (1280x1024).

Looking at all the CD cases, I came upon the original case for EVE Online. The original game published by Simon & Schuster Interactive back in 2003. Looking at it I started reading the text on the back and was amazed at what I saw.

Some of what I read still applies today: Explore a vast Universe - Develop your Character - Choose a Profession - Join the Community - Player Driven Economy. All of these can still be used to describe EVE 5 years later.

Then I read the finer text and realized how blunt and gory they were pushing EVE at the time. This isn't a place where you'd expect to find carebears. It sounded a lot more hardcore PvP to me. Listen to this,
"Immerse yourself in the vast virgin territories of EVE where power is the Holy Grail and the ultimate aphrodisiac. Conceive a new life without boundaries, where murder, plunder, betrayal, and delusions of grandeur will lead you to boundless glory or the brink of ruin. The galaxy is yours to control if you have the brains, strength, and cunning to succeed."
Wow! Where are the miners, traders and other industrialists in this description. This sounds very dark and almost suicidal! And talk about the sexual undertone also - immerse, virgin, aphrodisiac, conceive, life! Who wrote this stuff!!!

Thinking about it, I do recall that way back in 2002, before EVE came out, it did give off a kind of ruthless-cutthroat-industrial-hardcore-spacer feel. It was exotic, different & mysterious. The game also seemed simpler back then. Now, it's become so complex, it's beyond anyone's reach to master it all. I can't believe anyone out there masters everything about EVE.

If you want to see the back of that CD case, I've put it up here on my Flickr account.

So how did you get into EVE? Through the CD or a digital download? Direct download of the game, or through the 14-day trial? And have your initial impressions of the game changed since you became a capsuleer?

I'd love to know!

17 comments:

Kirith Kodachi said...

I love that blurb in the bottom: "Warning! Your new life may become too addictive to leave." How true!

I heard about Eve from friends in my Warhammer 40K community. Being a staunch fan of Star Wars and Star Trek spacecraft, I was intrigued enough to try it as my first MMO using the 14 day friend trial and direct download. Been hooked ever since.

Carole Pivarnik said...

Kirith--that warning is the FIRST thing that caught my eye! Came right here to comment on it, and see you beat me to it.

I discovered EVE while googling around looking for something that could serve as a stand-in to the tabletop RPGing that I was missing. The world of MMORPGs was totally new to me...I had vaguely heard of them but never played any and knew next to nothing about them. I downloaded EVE, started a 14-day trial, met cool people on Day 1, joined a corp on Day 2, paid for my account on Day 3. I knew I was in love from the get-go. Still am. And I'm in love with my two main characters, both of which I created, nurtured in their training, and feel extremely invested in. I have even pondered whether I should specify in my will what is to be done with them if I were to croak while I'm still playing EVE.

Anonymous said...

Well, i came to EVE after WoW became boring at level 70 (surprise, surprise ...). Before that i played Guildwars and Vanguard.
My impression of EVE hasn't changed very much since the start. I still get podded occasionally and i still can try out new stuff to avoid that avery other day. It's still awesome :)

I actually had 3 trial accounts before i turned one of them into a full account because i wanted to try out many things before paying anything for this game to make sure, i like it in the long run.

Anonymous said...

I actually remember the first time i saw that cd, case. Became really tempted by the sweet space feel. I was in London for work and didnt have a pc that i could play games on. And i kind of thought i didn't want to play a game with a monthly fee. I was more of a console player then.

Now, about 10 months ago i finally tried it.

Anonymous said...

I'm a newcomer so never saw the original CD. I'd read a bit about it and I used to love playing Elite back in the day so I thought I'd give the 14 day trial a go. My first character was a Gallente miner but it all went a bit wrong and reading Halada's mining guide put me off the whole thing. Instead I rolled Wensley, found a PvP corp and loved it.

Anonymous said...

14 day free trial FTW!

It got me hooked, but I had no idea what I was doing so I rolled a Caldari Achuera, scientist guy haha, which I rarely use his skills, except when reproducing missiles and other ammunition...

WTM said...

Add me to the 14 day trial group... never seen a case, and doubt I ever will down here.

Like Wensley, I am an old Elite player, so the description for Eve appealed alot.

Also, at the time I discovered Eve, I was playing WOW and had become serious unhappy with the "themepark" design of it.

CrazyKinux said...

Well, it seems that the 2-week trial is paying off for CCP. Well considering that only 1/4 of the current EVE population has been around since launch, it figures that most of you came in through the trial.

Guess these teasers work then. Good for you CCP Games.

Anonymous said...

I was an original box purchaser from Simon and schuster :). I should still have the original CD's somewhere, although the box is LONG gone, I think CD's are packed away for sure.

AnthonyRusso said...

I was following EVE since it was being developed still. I got into the actual Beta before release too. Over the years I floated out and back into EVE about 4 times. I'd bore of it, and then read an updated review after a major expansion and get drawn back into it. I'm in it for good now and happily. Still kills me that I could have a gazillion skillpoints if I didn't keep quitting it.

Sciroc - Miner

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

Damn dyslexic typos...

Having one of them in my corp, I think I know who wrote this: VIKINGS !!! :))

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

And about how I got into this: I actually HELD the boxed version in my hands way back when and told my then-girlfriend "You know that this to me is a billion times worse than crack, right?", and basically held myself from getting it. Years passed, the game evolved, and when Letrange basically quit Final Fantasy and told me "Dude, you GOTTA check this out !!!", I told I already knew about it, sure I'll check it out with you but odds are that if you see me in game it'll be because I'll be single. Pretty prophetic words apparently. So on January 20th 2008, Cozmik R5 graduated from RMS in Ammold, and phoned up Let to ask him where the f@$% he was.

Anonymous said...

I actually have 2 Eve CD boxes at home.. and I can't remember for the life of me why!! I played briefly in Jan 2004, didn't like it, then returned for good in Feb 05.

They do look cool :)

Anonymous said...

I took a glance at eve in beta already. Bought the box (dunno the publisher in germany) and a few game time cards. Unfortunatly I had no internet for quite a while, so I rejoined in 2k5 - installation via box still worked ;) but downloading & applying the patches took a good while..

just remember those times, when after beta the first few battleship pilots were roaming the dark skies of new eden :)

CrazyKinux said...

It's really great to hear all these stories on how we came to play EVE. Thanks for dropping by and leaving comments!

klbarrus said...

I came to EVE via Massively, a site I found because of links to LoTRO articles. After reading about EVE for a while, I thought I would give it a try. I did the one month for $20 promotion (digital download), and am having fun. Even though I'm really new and fairly lost. ;) I plan to join the EVE University, and go from there.

CrazyKinux said...

@klbarrus - Sometimes I wish I could go back in the past to relive my discovery of EVE, when everything was new, fresh and exciting.

If your looking to join EVE Uni make sure to check some of the member's blog we've got listed here.