Why are video games special? With so many different mediums all vying for a slice of your attention, what can video games offer that film, television, literature, or music cannot?
The answer to that question is long and convoluted, it could easily take up an entire day being debated amongst the right people. A simple answer is that video games are the only medium which allow the audience to, not only participate, but to craft their own individual story. Sometimes the tools provided to the player are limited, as is the player’s impact on the game. However, there are other cases where the player(s) are given nearly limitless opportunity. With games like these the stories are not told to players, they are told by players.
EVE Online is a massively multiplayer game set thousands of years in the future, in a part of the galaxy far from the human homeworld. Players command a series of ships and travel the galaxy on missions of industry, combat, diplomacy, and much more. There are varying levels of control in the EVE Online universe, but for the most part developer CCP has let their community forge its own world. With over a decade of natural history, EVE Online has seen some of the most dramatic player involvement of any video game. Players have banded together together to form alliances, corporations, and other factions, working with and against each other for a bigger slice of the intergalactic pie.
With EVE Online’s FanFest being held last week in Reykjavik, Iceland, I started digging into the large world and encyclopedic lore of EVE Online. What I found was a fascinating collection of personal player stories, celebrated by the large community.
One story tells the of how a star pilot let his hubris got the best of him. While tearing through space in a new, top-of-the-line cruiser, lovingly referred to as a “bling fitted behemoth”, the player was caught off guard. Taken by surprise by two enemies looking to seize the moment, he called for help. The player recounts a desperate battle, as he furiously tried to stay afloat, while awaiting rescue from his allies. Stories like these are riddled with lingo and jargon that is difficult to understand, but the detailed passion with which players tell these stories is fascinating.
Whereas MMOs such as World of Warcraft have their worlds dynamically altered by the influence of Blizzard-controlled events (Cataclysm, Pandaria) EVE Online’s major events are mostly player induced. The EVE Online community has its own officials–elected from the players, by the players–that meets with the developers twice a year in Iceland. Another story on the community pages tells about a trade hub in the star system Jita. This has become the premiere commerce station in the EVE Online Universe and it was–you probably guessed–created by players. The story, as told by one of the trade hub’s founders, reads like that of any ambitious entrepreneur. The player identified a need in the EVE Market, created a business plan to accommodate, and set about building the greatest trade hub in the game.
Another game changing event in the EVE Online world was the a war against the most powerful faction early in EVE Online’s history called the Band of Brothers. After losing an early war with the Band of Brothers, a coalition of different alliances and corporations gathered together and launched an assault on the powerful faction. The massive corporation is forced to reform under the title KenZoku. In a conflict fraught with deception and diplomacy one of the biggest, baddest rulers of EVE Online met its demise. The story plays out like some historical battle, and while that is interesting in and of itself, it is again the fervor from the community surrounding this event that makes it truly strike home. People argue about the facts listed, the true intentions of different players, accusing the writers of telling a one-sided story. Even in EVE Online, history seems to be written by the winners.
The EVE Online community share personal stories with each other as well. One players confessed to the community that he had brought his fiance to a real life meet up, figuring that knowing the only girl in a room full of guys would give him access to people it might normally be difficult to grab face time with. Using a significant other for gain in a virtual world should be raising red flags as true “over the line” behavior. But this is a cautionary tale, where the writer suffers the loss of his girlfriend as she left him while he was wrapped up in the digital world. Again the story grants insight to the community, as other players wrote their condolences and expressed similar situations.
Personal relationship are not only lost to EVE Online, they are forged as well. One of the most touching stories I read about EVE Online, was a rogue capsuleer (player), who set out to explore the world on their own. Venturing to empty star systems, seeking to go where few had gone before, this vagabond ran into a mining group, out scavenging the fringes of space. A bond formed between the lone wolf and the mining group as they formed an alliance of sorts, the rogue taking heart in having some company in their solitary exploration. But all good things must come to an end, and the mining group was forced to move to where the money was, offering the rogue an opportunity to follow. This capsuleer was not a follower and declined, but was left a gift from the newly made friends, a symbol of their time together..
The personal stories and historical events of EVE Online have become such an intrical part of the game’s experience that a TV Show has been greenlit to tell these stories. All the stories collected here are told by the players. Is possible they have been exaggerated or altered? Sure. But that is what happens with all legends. What is so amazing is that, true or altered, all of these stories have come from through natural player development. EVE Online is a complicated and specific type of game, for an audience that doesn’t include me. I lack the time, I lack the focus, more than anything I lack the interest. I don’t particularly find a game about space colonization all that fascinating. What grabbed me initially, and what continues to speak to me are these unique, organic tales that have come from this game. No matter how you feel about CCP’s epic space opera, this is a community of fans unlike any other.
Have you experienced the world of EVE Online? Do you have any stories to tell? Or do you feel like there is an MMO with better experience overlooked? Let us know in the comments below.
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