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EVE Online PVP Tournament Streamed Live
infinitevalence writes "Every few months the good Viking programmers of the north organize and present one of the most geeky e-sports out there. Thanks to them, for three weekends in a row we get to watch player-controlled spaceships fight it out for accolades and unique in-game items available only to the first, second, and third place winners. This year CCP has all of the content live online and streaming in HD for your viewing pleasure. So find a drink, whip up some snacks, watch the shiny explosions, and listen to the soothing words of player experts as they walk you through the action!"
I'm glad to see this. I've been playing EVE lately, but I just can't get into it. The things that make EVE stand out to me are the single player-controlled universe and the lack of XP grinding. But (and I'm not trying to troll, here) I find the user interface to be excruciatingly bad, and most of the time I am wondering what I should be doing. You could argue that a user interface and having a supply of fun stuff to do are two cardinal properties of a good game. It seems EVE is calibrated for players that have been at it for a long time. But for a new player, I'm really frustrated.
EVE players hate it when people compare their game to WoW, but I think there's a lot to learn from other massives like that. When you get a fresh WoW account you're off to the woods killing Kobolds or whatever right away, and maybe it is not totally challenging, but there's always something to do, somewhere to go, and pretty things to look at. But in EVE the first few *days* are mostly doing boring agent missions where you don't really even do anything (at least in WoW you have to click on the damned Kobold) except fly around and learn to use the maddeningly bad UI. For good chunks of time, I set it on autopilot to do some 6-jump mission, go clean the kitchen or play with the dog, and come back in 20 minutes and I might be at the destination, where I will then need to set autopilot to go back to where I came from once I've dropped off the shipment.
But it is interesting to see this tourney going on, because the PvP really does look fun and full of lots of aspects: advance planning, massive social coordination, and straight up pvp videogame carnage.
I'm sure those who would rather not partake will find that the WoW servers are still up.
Before last winter's patch, spontaneous 600-800 man battles were quite playable, and 1200 was doable with a reinforced node. However, something went terribly wrong with that expansion, and we now have crippling lag with even 600 on a reinforced node. The issue is causing a lot of upset amongst the game's space-holding contingency (who happen to provide the majority of advertising for CCP). It's an issue that CCP needs to fix soon, or they face a mass exodus of their veteran players.
One thing that I find extremely irritating is how much TV time is spent televising sports - half the news programs here are about sports, there are many hours of TV time dedicated to sorts, not to mention whole free to air sports channels.
After discussing this sad fact with my girlfriend just this weekend, we came to the conclusion that the reason why there is so much sport on TV versus say, coverage of computer games etc, is that of course sports events offer advertising agencies huge amounts of revenue, with the many ad placement opportunities that exist.
I have often wondered why it is that people who dedicate their lives to playing an absolutely meaningless pass-time, such as playing cricket, soccer or rugby, can become such national heroes, whearas there is no equivalent adulation for someone who participates in an equally meaingless game, such as say, striving to become the top ranked WoW arena combatant.
If there were actual in - game advertisements or places for product endorsement in computer games, do you think there would actually be more coverage, or does the fundamental difference in the games preclude this? Ie. televised sports have mostly been set up for the viewers, whereas computer games are mostly set up for the players.
Except that these videos become a useful recruiting tool. Both for potential customers that happen to stumble into the videos, and also for existing customers who want to show their friends without having to be at their own machines. What's easier? "Hey, I found this great game! Download a gig of stuff, sign up for a trial account, log in, find me, and I'll show you around.." or "Hey, I found this great game! Check out this video of actual game play! *link to youtube*"
If you haven't already gathered, Eve players are among the most rabid of all fans. It's a game that you either instantly understand and 'get' or a game that you become bored with quickly and move on.
Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
I think it's more of a cultural artifact than a reflection of the current state of our society. If look back some 20-30 years, internet was still in its infancy and sports were the only form of entertainment. The people who manage tv and cable networks probably came from that era, and therefore don't realize the strong impact video games have, or for that matter, a tv series with a decent story line. Eventually, they'll pass the reins on to a younger generation who view video games as a spectator sport. This is kind of starting already with Spike TV and Gametrailers.
That being said, I stopped watching TV because they only show sports or some cheap reality tv drama. It's funny because the network's crappy content is probably creating a self-feedback loop. People who watch TV watch sports, while others who watch anything else have moved on. Clearly, this means that they should air more sports because it captures the most attention of their existing customers.
Too bad they're not showing the hundreds or even thousands of hours worth of mining that went into making the largest ships.
Or the 2 years worth of subscription that went into getting the ability to pilot the more advanced ones (learning skills is on a clock using real life time).
Yes, I've played EVE in the past: left when I came to the conclusion it's too much like work, only slower.
EVE has a lot of grassroots advertising above and beyond what it's size would seem to justify because it is fun for the small group you've been there for a long time and belong to one of the player Alliances that control the space with the rarest minerals. It's not really fun for newer players - addictive perhaps, but not fun.
Because of how skills are learned over a period using real-life time (u need not be logged-in for the time to count) a new player can never catch up on an older player.
Also the economy is based around the mining of minerals (used for making ships), the most common (least valueable and used in larger quantities for ship making) are found in safe NPC controlled space while the least common are found only in player controlled space (where if you don't belong to the right group you'll be shot on sight).
Somebody has to spend hours and hours mining all those low level minerals needed for making the largest ships for the players in those player Alliances that control "unsafe" space and who beter than newer players (who cannot go outside safe space without being shot) who are suppose to "work" before they get to have fun in PvP?
It is in the best interest of the estabilished players to get as much fresh meat as possible into the game to do the mining.
If you have several years of EVE under your belt and are in a player Alliance you're probably having some fun fights once in a while (a lot of time is wasted in other things and you still have to do some mining of higher level minerals), but if you're not one of those then the game is much lot less interesting than the fanboys portray it.