EVE Online developer Noah Ward on player drama in the sandbox
by James Egan 
Mar 4th 2009 at 4:00PM
Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Guilds, Interviews, MMO industry
There's been no shortage of player-driven drama in EVE Online over the past few months. The things players can do within the game is a testament to EVE's sandbox design, but also to the developers who allow the players accomplish whatever their devious little hearts desire. It's true that most who play the game don't embezzle virtual currency from player-run banks, engage in spycraft or turn double agent, much less publicly assassinate another player during a PvP tournament, but all players in the game benefit from the risk these activities inject into the game. It all becomes part of the game's setting and ultimately makes New Eden a gritter place.
This is a topic of discussion over at MTV Multiplayer this week. EVE Online's lead game designer Noah Ward (aka CCP Hammerhead) sat down with MTV Multiplayer's Tracey John, to discuss some of the potential within the EVE sandbox. The interview focuses on CCP Games' hands-off approach to what the players are doing in the game. As long as players aren't spouting racial epithets or making real-life threats against one another, EVE's gamers can basically do whatever they choose on an individual or collective level.
Many people first heard about EVE through some of the infamous things written about the game, most notably The Great Scam (largely fictitious) and Murder Incorporated (quite real), which chronicles the Guiding Hand Social Club's in-game assassination of a player, nearly one year in the making. It's exactly this kind of unpredictability about EVE that's a large part of the game's allure, and it even catches the developers by surprise. Ward says, "We could've never scripted that; you would never be able to come up with something like that. It's what the people like, they have this freedom and that's why this stuff is happening."
Check out the MTV Multiplayer interview with Noah Ward for a closer look at the game's player-driven drama and CCP's perspective on it all.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Graill said on 5:26PM 3-04-2009
It really gets tiring to see the words "skill", "risk", and other terms associated with ingame mechanics used in EVE.
The devs are really clueless when it comes to consequence and any type of actual ingame drama, the kind created by the game itself, not the drama created by getting to know someone in real life and then doing what equates to stealing an account password.
The only remote bit of drama was the pvp tourney assaination and that was even accomplished using out of game trust.
Until this game can move beyond Super Mario Cart flight and weapon physics, totally gets rid of out of game mechanics used to steal or influence, it will remain a niche game people will visit, and then leave just as quickly.
Once a game has found to be corrupt at the dev level no player council, and certainly not word of mouth will help it thrive nor save it. Much work needs to be done to make EVE what it should be, to bad no honest devs with balls exist to make that happen, they are simply content with trying to hold onto the tiny amount of subs they have and keeping the Super Mario Cart crowd happy.
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Sobach said on 6:27PM 3-04-2009
Is there even such a thing as in-game trust and out-of-game trust? you either trust the guy or you don't. There are different levels of trust you may place on any other player, but I really don't see how you can classify them into in-game/out-of-game.
and which part of any of those events equate to stealing account password?(which would be a banned offense)
and "totally gets rid of out of game mechanics used to steal or influence"? that's a bit of a paradox isn't it? how can a game get rid of anything that take place out-of-game? meta-gaming is a part of just about every online game, and that's not going away anytime soon.
and yea, eve is certainly dying, just look at how the subscription base has kept climbing for the past 5+ years and records of concurrent log-ins keeps getting broken. Yup, it's going to die any day now :rolleyes: There's no doubt that Eve is a niche game, it has never pretended to be otherwise.
If you have some legitimate arguments, use them instead of the vague whines that managed to say nothing about what you're actually complaining.
SgtBaker said on 11:46PM 3-04-2009
Bitter much? :-)
The old "devs are ruining the game" argument has never held water in any game - it's tiring to see it used as a some sort of blanket "I hate this game and I'm going to tell everyone'" excuse. Try articulating something half-original next time and we can discuss.
Sure there are problems with EVE just like there are problems with any MMO currently available.
And yes, Internet Spaceship game is a niche, I don't think anyone has ever pretended otherwise.
Galendil said on 11:41AM 3-05-2009
They mis-spelled "Traitor" as Trader.
"Look out he's gonna tariff your goods!!! - Run BoB, Run!!"
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