Why you should be playing EVE Online: One server, one universe
by Seraphina Brennan 
Jul 20th 2009 at 10:00AM
Filed under: At a glance, Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Economy, Game mechanics, PvP, Opinion
It's been dead for too long, but now it's back. The ultimate opinion column, "Why You Should Be Playing," is making a triumphant return to the pages of Massively! For those unfamiliar with this feature, this is the space where the Massively staff gets to tell you why we play our favorite games. We try to spread the love of MMOs unknown so you get to see some of the great features of MMOs you may not play.
Today's feature has all guns locked on EVE Online and the power of the Tranquility server. EVE has a vast universe of countless star systems and now even sports gigantic areas of uncharted space, but did you know that all of that world is housed on multiple servers that act as one?
Tranquility is the only server that EVE Online needs. The system can hold a countless number of players online at once as multiple IBM blade servers work together to sustain the entire universe. Don't confuse this with instancing, like Guild Wars does with their cities and such. Players are never on different "channels" or separated by instancing of the universe. Everyone is always in the same space.
This creates both good and bad circumstances for the universe of New Eden and it's 50,000+ concurrent online inhabitants. One of EVE's more noticeable problems, thanks to the high concurrency, is the crippling lag that seems to sweep over certain systems in the universe. Jita, the trade hub solar system, is one of the beasts that the Tranquility server wrestles with each day. As more people stack in to trade with one another, the system turns into a veritable slide show at peak times. Fleet battles sometimes perform the same way, as huge groups of players enter the same system to do war with one another, however now fleet coordinators can call in computing power reinforcements thanks to EVE's fleet reservations. Declare your battle ahead of time, and CCP will make sure your system has enough computing power to resist the nuclear bomb of lag.But the good circumstances almost always outweigh the bad when it comes to EVE's server architecture. One server means one world, and one world means all actions have an impact. This is part of what makes EVE so darn interesting to read about, as all events have the ability to change the face of the game.
Take, for example, the story we did on the GoonSwarm alliance successfully infiltrating and defeating their long time rivals, Band of Brothers. If GoonSwarm and Band of Brothers were on an EVE server that you weren't on, would you have cared as much? It wouldn't have been as much of an accomplishment if EVE was split into multiple servers. "So what if another alliance goes down, they go down all the time on my server," we may have thought.
But that act of destruction changed the flow of power and wealth in EVE. Did you know that some of the spoils of Band of Brother's gigantic budget reached down into the newbie zones thanks to GoonSwarm, as one player flew around handing large sums of money to new pilots after they stole from BoB's ISK wallet? Or did you stop to consider how many alliances would fly into the regions that use to be controlled by Band of Brothers just to get a slice of the resource pie, causing all out war and havoc?
One server that houses the entire game's population is more than just a technological feat and a feather in EVE's cap. It's a major defining factor of what makes this game so amazingly intricate and complex, and that's why you should be playing it.
[Editor's Note: We were contacted by CCP who had this to say about the lag issue mentioned in this article: "Since the release of Apocrypha 1.3 this is simply not true anymore. This was quite true before we released StacklessIO in Sep 2008 and perhaps during some big peak hours after that. But since Apocrypha 1.3 in June 2009 there is no lag in Jita."]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Arkanaloth said on 10:24AM 7-20-2009
if only it weren't so insanely PVP centric.. beautiful game, but not my cup of tea.
Reply
Venekor said on 10:27AM 7-20-2009
I think the skill system is flawed and needs to be changed to have a cap but the skills train faster and when you die you lose a skill. I'd much prefer this because it prevents the 100 million + characters and puts everyone on a level playing field without putting off new people. Also it means newer players can train faster and if they arn't happy with what they trained they can drop skills and train into others without punishing too much.
I also think Capital Ships need to be taken out because 0.0 has just become about whoever throws the most capital ships at someone wins. Motherships are the new Battleships of old like when everyone was in a Raven. They also look clumsy when they fly because they turn too fast for their size and animate really poorly. If it's meant to be a space sim anyways these ships wouldn't be able to make these kinda fast turns, specially one of that size.
Reply
Xugu Madison said on 11:08AM 7-20-2009
> If it's meant to be a space sim anyways these ships wouldn't be able to make these kinda fast turns, specially one of that size.
If it's a space sim, ships shouldn't have a maximum speed (well, apart from the speed of light, anyway), shouldn't stop unless they fire their engines against the direction of movement... good grief, I don't even know where to start with the list.
newskooltrooper said on 10:38AM 7-20-2009
I've always wondered why smaller MMORPGs use multiple servers. I've never seen any upside to it. More hardware maintenance, a fractured player base, and server merges if populations dwindle on certain servers. There's typically no performance upside either, since the performance problems in most games are the result of crappy client/server code, not the hardware that code runs on (WAR, I'm looking at you). Buy a gargantuan IBM or Dell bladeserver, grab VMware ESX Server and VirtualCenter, toss all of your blades into one resource pool and be done with it.
Obviously this wouldn't work for World of Warcraft, but it's great for any MMORPG hovering around the 300k subscription mark like EVE.
Reply
Xugu Madison said on 11:10AM 7-20-2009
> I've always wondered why smaller MMORPGs use multiple servers. I've never seen any upside to it. More hardware maintenance, a fractured player base, and server merges if populations dwindle on certain servers.
I'm not sure you can easily get that many people into a single server. EVE does it by partitioning known space into very small isolated "systems" with defined transit points between, and even then they've done some fairly impressive stuff to get that many uses into a shared system...
For a nice comparison, see Second Life, where the grid spends most weekends screaming under the load...
InfamousBrad said on 10:38AM 7-20-2009
Yeah, but everybody being on the same server also means that there's nowhere you can go to avoid people you hate. It's funny you should mention GoonSwarm. I have friends who were victims of real-life seriously hateful attacks, completely unprovoked, by the Something Awful Goon Squad, people whose lives were seriously harmed. Having to play on the same server as the Goons would ruin any game for me, because even if I spent my whole game experience avoiding them (and how much fun would that be, since nobody on the entire Internet is better than they are at organizing bullies in order bully someone much weaker than them for the lulz?), every time they came up in conversation I'd be fighting the bile in my throat.
Maybe you're okay with the GoonSwarm, maybe it's some other subculture or clan or whatever that you don't want to have to deal with. If you don't like my example, I'm sure you can name your own. The fact remains: all-on-one-server MMOs mean that if someone is determined to ruin your fun, or someone that grosses you out that you'd just rather avoid, there's nowhere you can go that they aren't there.
Yes, yes, a million times yes players should be able to influence the direction of the story in an MMO; I fully support (for example) Trion's commitment to the idea. But doing it via PvP combat on a single-shard MMO turns the direction of the story over to the biggest, best-organized bunch of bullies, it's a recipe for a brutal story. There's got to be a better way.
Reply
fester said on 1:57PM 7-20-2009
I'd gladly play a game with groups like Goonswarm because at least they don't go around waving their "e-honor" over a video game like it was something valuable. They're also pretty damn funny and make some of the best propaganda art.
It's people like you, on the other hand, that I can't stand playing games with.
wolfsterne said on 12:19PM 7-21-2009
How were there lives seriously harmed? See I keep hearing this BS, but I never find empirical evidence.
I was threatened by the goons last summer. Pro tip: You should never ever threaten anyone unless you know everything about them, who their "family" is and what they are capable of.
Lets just say the Goons are 90% Bullshit 10% hot air. Also folks who have spine about them have let it be known to the mods at something awful that any real life crap the Goons attempt will be paid back twice to them, they are a soft target that has many many enemies.
Bri said on 10:45AM 7-20-2009
It's a game in which I like to dabble in, activating my account for a month here or there a couple times a year. Without getting into a corp, shooting rocks or missioning gets boring pretty quick. I know, I know.. join a corp you say. But I can't in all honesty join a corp when I know I'm just not that serious about playing EVE fulltime.
Reply
Djavulkai said on 11:16AM 7-20-2009
I actually played Eve for many different trials and finally upped.
After 10 days, I was able to get my miner. I grinded the same missions over and over again until I could afford it. Same thing - warp to something, kill it, salvage, warp out. Or maybe I get a courier, which I warp, jump, warp, jump, warp, jump - etc, 15 times before I fall asleep.
I get my miner and go to mining. Yaay! Strip Miner goes very fast. In 45 minutes, I fill a can (27k) of rock. I begin my trip back to get my hauler when another ship warps in. She steals all my rock, and warps out. There is nothing I can do.
I tell channel 'Be careful, soandso is stealing rock'. Several people laugh at me and one complete loser tells me i need an Orca, Hulk and Mothership, like he does, on 3 different accounts to mine properly. No thanks.
I look at pvp centric stuff to outfit my char, since I can't obviously mine (people stealing an hours worth of work and there is nothing I can do) and it will take me almost 34 days to get into a Battleship from where I am. Okay... T2 weapons? 11 days. :/ What do I do until then? Oh, right, continue grinding L2 missions.
No thanks, Eve.
Eve can capture the hearts and minds of gamers all over the world (40k people is most I have EVER seen on) if they do three simple things:
1) Optional PVP
2) Re-work Skills
3) Put in actual PVE content (missions bore after the 100th time you do the same thing)
It seems CCP is resolved to play to the griefers and campers and thieves and scammers and con artists and pushing their players to grind skills for WEEKS on end to keep them playing.
THAT'S why you SHOULDN'T play Eve...
Reply
wraith808 said on 12:19PM 7-20-2009
Unfortunately, agreed. I sooo wanted to like this game. Exploration seems fun, and I wanted a good space sim. But unfortunately, the PvP is a little bit too free... It's just not for everyone, though it seems like many want to pretend it is.
veladio said on 1:23PM 7-20-2009
You've had a very bad experience, and I think perhaps you're looking at the game the wrong way. You don't need to fill cans to mine - in fact, I only ever do that when a friend is hauling. You also don't need to fly a BS to do pvp. I exclusively pvp in frigates, even though I can fully fit a BS for pvp. It takes 3 days tops to fit a frigate from char creation to being competent in solo AND group pvp. It doesn't have to take months to get into EVE.
Tyranor said on 1:03PM 7-20-2009
Why didn't you join an actually fun corp you crazy person?
I did the same thing as you initially: reactivated my account a couple of times a year, found it boring as hell, left. Then I got lucky, found my drug producing and smuggling corp.
A couple of days later, I was busy producing drugs, and smuggling them into Jita. When we weren't doing that, we hunted the damn russian drug dealers who kept wandering onto our turf, or engaging in massive fleet battles for our alliance. My char still only had a couple hundred thousand SP at this point!
Suddenly, EVE had gone from boring and repetitive to awesome. Seriously, find an active corp you like.
doji_wayo said on 2:40PM 7-20-2009
You could have gotten secure containers, you could have blown up his ship, you could have joined a corp and not mine alone or go into a more desolate place. Eve has so many options.
Dark said on 8:48PM 7-20-2009
your problem is not that you don't have an orca, a hulk, and a mothership on three different accounts its that you didn't have a giant secure container, if you had a couple of those with passwords no one would have stolen your ore and you would be rich. (Plus if you just put the GSCs in you hold you get a bonus in the amount of ore you can hold.(the capacity it greater than the volume))
Sean said on 12:02AM 7-21-2009
The simple answer for you would be to join a corp as others have said. Being part of a mining operation with others is a lot more satisfying than trying to make it alone. At least if you enjoy the social aspect at all.
Also, explore other areas. Trying small scale industry or hauling/trade. EVE really is a sandbox; you need to bring some structure and goals to the game to get something out of it. I'd still be playing EVE if I wasn't committed to WoW and had additional time for another MMO in my life.
failage said on 12:03PM 7-20-2009
It takes you all of an hour to do the newbie profession mission chain, which gets you a few mining lasers, 3 or so newbie ships, an industrial ship and a few million isk. Maybe if you didn't suck at teh intarweb spaceships and read some of the popup help windows you'd have failed less.
Reply
wraith808 said on 12:20PM 7-20-2009
Even with doing that, it doesn't put you on parity with the opposition you'll face. I do agree that they jumpstart new players, but that just gets them on a level where they can lose more when the hammer falls.
Promdog said on 12:20PM 7-20-2009
@Djavulkai: There is so much to the game to just Missings, PVP, and Mining. You can just as easily get into trading, freighting, production and manufacturing, etc. . . I think you need to get out of the mindset that you are playing a game that is LIKE all the other MMOs that you've touched. EVE isn't like WoW or EverQuest. If anything, I would say EVE is more like old school Ultima Online.
Furthermore, EVE seems more focused on community versus solo play. I have NEVER had my ore theft when I was starting out. Mining for an hour by yourself is just dumb. You wouldn't sit on a street corner rolling $100 worth of quarters and then leave them there while you go 3 blocks to get your car. Would you? No, you wouldn't. You'd either roll what you could and take it to the security of your home. Go back, roll what you could and take it home. OR you'd call a buddy to come pick you and your stuff up.
Dude, find yourself a corporation and team up with others. No need for you to get an ORCA, Hulk, or Battleship to play the game. If you want to play in the corner of the galaxy BY YOURSELF like a little nerd on a school playground -- be ready to get picked on by the bullies.
Reply
wraith808 said on 12:25PM 7-20-2009
I don't think anyone is saying it's like other games. It's not. And that's one of the reasons it's not for everyone. It is what it is. And some won't be able to get into it. I personally am a casual player that likes the thrill of exploration. Casual player = can't always find someone to share the same schedule. No one is saying it's not a good well-done game. It's just not for everyone- and that is in some cases because of the fact that it's so different. But people don't talk about the differences and the downsides- it's just *the game* that you *should* play. And if you can't get into it, it's because of a problem with *you* not a basic incompatibility between you and the game style.