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About the game

Launch date: May 06, 2003
Developer: CCP Games
Publisher: CCP Gams
Genre: Sci-Fi

EVE Online is the wild-wild-west in a futuristic space-setting, the world is PvP-based, you can PvP anywhere. Certain regions have guards (high-security space -- newbies start out in "Empire" space) that will attack any player who attacks another player, and other places in space that are usually controlled by players anything goes with no repercussions (low-security) space.

Players create an avatar portrait during the initial character creation process and choose from one of three races: The Amarr, The Gallente, and The Caldari. Ships and modules are tailored and grant various bonuses and strengths for different races, so one race may be suited at a particular role than another. IE: shield tanking versus armor tanking. It is important to note that players may train to fly any ship regardless of what race you pick. Players don’t control a humanoid avatar as most other traditional MMORPGS and instead control a ship. All in-game activities, and objectives are completed in a ship-like vessel. If you lose your ship in battle or abandon it, your vessel is a life-pod. If you lose your life-pod you will respawn in another life-pod at a cloning station. CCP is planning humanoid avatar based play inside stations in an upcoming EVE Online expansion.

Players don't advance via traditional experience points and levels like in most other MMORPGS, but advance through a skill training over real-time system. This is a passive process where players may have one skill training at a time and each skill has a time allotment that needs to be completed before that player learns that skill. A player can be training skills for years and never max them all out. Most skills are structured into 5 tier with the higher tiers requiring a higher time investment. Players may not speed up how fast their skills by killing monsters or tin the traditional power-leveling sense; howerver, other skills in the learning field and certain implants yield a bonus reducing the overall required time. Only one skill per account may be training; skills are not queued; skills will continue to train when a player is offline or even if their account is inactive.

What makes EVE truly unique and massive is players congregate on one global server except for a few exceptions. Those being: China players are on their own server, and in addition to the NA/UK play server, Tranquility, there are two test servers. This one massive play server differs from the norm as other MMORPGs employ dozens if not hundreds of servers that only sustain an average of 3-5k players, truly making EVE Online a persistent, living and breathing game world where one's actions can have a deep impact on the world. EVE Online’s enormous world consists of several thousand star systems and regions that all connect to each other through jump gates. Anywhere from 5k to 30k thousand players are online at any given time.

EVE Online Expansions

(Most EVE Online Expansions are more like major content patches and are available for digital download at no cost)

[Second Genesis: May 2003]
EVE Online launches with over 100 different player ships and over 3,800 different modules.
[Castor: December 2003]
Castor introduced the first Tech 2 elite versions of components and ships. Player Conquerable stations in 0.0 (low security space) and deep space regions were implemented. The agent mission running system was also introduced, along with research agents, and many other features. 
[Exodus: November 2004]
This expansion focused on content and interface advancements.
[Cold War: July 2005]
It signifies the start of hostilities between the empires and new coalitions forming, it also introduces the empire into the outer region by adding system sovereignty, outposts, new ships to help with the logistics and much more.
[Red Moon Rising: December 2005]
A galactic arms race that forges the most effective weapons by man. A huge expansion that introduced Titan ships. The most costly and difficult ship to acquire in the game. All sorts of new space gadgets for space miners and a myriad of other changes and advancements.
[Revelations I: November 2006]
Space expanded and new unexplored regions. New battleships, upgraded battle cruisers, salvaging, contract and much more.
[Revelations II: June 2007]
Advancement in structure warfare, also introduced was new player tutorial.
[Trinity: November/December 2007]
Confirmed: New Tech II ships, graphic engine update, new ship models, and 100 plus new agent missions.

Interviews

EVE Online Community Spotlight: a Q&A with Chribba Among the most trustworthy in EVE Online is Chribba, a player who's very active in the community and provides a number of services to EVE fans, free of charge. Helped by Chribba's efforts, EVE Online has expanded into a game where players become auteurs, creating videos and sharing their in-game pursuits with others, either for their own glory or their organization's propaganda. Of course, his contributions don't end there, as most everyone in the EVE community knows. Massively recently caught up with Chribba and asked him to share a bit about what he does for the EVE player base, and why he does it.

Inside the War Room: video interviews with key EVE Online developers The devs at EVE Online have been busy of late. They rolled out a new expansion, released a CG video for Empyrean Age, organized EVE Fanfest 2008 and now they've put up video interviews with four of their key developers. CCP Games gives these highlights of the clips:

Hands-on

Anti-Aliased: Dr. Podlove, or how I learned to stop worrying and enjoy EVE Online I've really been stuck in a rut lately. The only game that really appeals to me anymore is World of Warcraft because of the polish and spit shine that Blizzard put into it over the past few years. When you look at the pinnacle of game design that is WoW, most other games sadly pale in comparison. That, or they blatantly rip off of WoW in such a spectacular fashion that it makes the game almost unplayable due to the fact you will constantly compare it to the original, better source material.

Guides

	EVE Evolved: Mining, the forgotten profession Five years since launch, space-faring MMO EVE Online is still going strong. Over the years, the game has evolved from its simple roots into a complex game packed full of content. Virtually every element of the game has drastically changed since launch to keep it new and interesting. Every free expansion brings new ships, modules and missions for all players. Some expansions have even brought us impressive new gameplay elements like the faction warfare system. One thing that unfortunately hasn't changed significantly over the years is the Mining profession. But why hasn't it been updated?
	Rogue Signal: Tackling tackling In Rogue Signal last month, we discussed some of the raw basics for fitting your ship for PvP in EVE Online. Today, we'll be discussing the most basic role in fleet combat, the tackler. Knowing your job, and the jobs of those around you, can make a big difference in which side ends up scooping the loot at the end of a fight, and Rogue Signal is here to help you understand those roles, starting this week.The role that most new players will find themselves shuffled into first is that of tackler. Tackling is the art of stopping the enemy from running away, or from using range to their advantage in a fight. It is often a new player's first combat role, due to the relatively low skill requirements involved. Essentially, all you really need is a Tech 1 frigate and tackling gear. There are more advanced forms of tackling that will be addressed further on, but first, let's get a rough idea of what exactly tackling entails.
	Rogue Signal: The wonderful world of alts With EVE Online's time-based skill system of character progression, multiple accounts are pretty commonplace amongst the hardcore and even semi-casual player. CCP even occasionally holds special discounts for the opening of new accounts, called the Power of Two program. EVE is unique in the way that it handles alts, in many ways. Since only one character can be training at a time, and, unlike other MMOs, there is no real end to the training a character will do, if you want to start something new from the ground up, you're going to need to either scrap your existing character, or open up a new account. Today, we'll take a look at how to go about creating an alt.
	Rogue Signal: The Basics of PVP Fitting PvP, though pervasive in EVE Online, can be a frightening prospect at first, be it as a fresh-faced cadet, or a deep-space miner taking up arms for the first time. The continued discussion of The Empyrean Age no doubt has even more new and old pilots seeking advice for that first PvP encounter. For the newcomer to EVE's PvP, one of the most daunting challenges comes long before undocking. You have your shiny new war ship, and you know you are going to fight with it...now what? While ships in EVE, like flat-pack furniture, come easy to assemble, they are also missing key components (also like most flat-pack furniture). This week's Rogue Signal will deal with filling in those bits needed for combat, and getting you ready to contribute to fighting the good fight.
	Have Clone, Will Travel: 3 Essential Tools for Capsuleers With Empyrean Age finally released, I wanted to give it a try to get this old Carebear in some pew pew action. Since my main character, Treenara Mazouk, was part of an industrial corporation that wanted to remain neutral throughout this war time, I decided to create an alternate character (Alt) to test out Factional Warfare.
	EVE Evolved: EVE's skill system demystified, part 1 Most MMOs, among them the popular favorites World of Warcraft and Everquest, employ a level-based character progression system where your player accumulates levels during play. Killing enemies and completing quests reward the player with experience points toward their next level. As the player's level increases, they gain access to better skills and equipment. Alternative systems of accumulating points in various skills have been used successfully in games like Ultima Online and Runescape. These systems still share the familiar idea of your character progressing in their abilities by practicing.
	EVE Online: Jetcanning for beginners I have to say that I'm a relative noob still at EVE Online-- lots of people have been playing for a lot longer than I have, and so I don't purport to know any more about the game than they do. But it's a tough game to get into, and considering that there are probably a few newer people than myself out there in space (mostly on OS X and Linux), I thought it might be useful to tell you something I do know about: jetcanning. Here's a short guide to how you can pull in as much ore as possible, even if you're by yourself and only have a short time to play.

Event Coverage

	EVE dev blog: Council of Stellar Management Summit recap The latest developer blog posted at the EVE Online site is a brief report to the community about last week's Council of Stellar Management (CSM) Summit, the first meeting between the player-elected council of representatives and CCP Games. The CSM Summit gave the delegates a chance to discuss, face-to-face with CCP, how the players they represent would like the game to change. CCP Xhagen reports that CCP views this first meeting as being a 'resounding success.' The CSM delegates were well-prepared and clearly put a lot of time and effort into the topics on the agenda, Xhagen says.
	Rogue Signal: The unwritten communication rules of EVE PvP Perhaps more than any other MMO, EVE Online's gameplay relies very heavily on communication between players. I have recently returned to World of Warcraft and gotten a character into Outlands. 62 levels after coming back, it still grates on me a bit that very few people utilize voice chat for both PvE and PvP content. Sure, WoW's in-game voice codec is terrible, but it certainly beats having nothing. I have come to realize that players coming from the opposite perspective are sometimes surprised and occasionally uncomfortable with the mentality of EVE players when it comes to text and voice communication. This guide aims to instruct a new player in the ways of communication in EVE.
	Rogue Signal: The unwritten rules of EVE PvP, part 1 EVE Online is a PvP driven game. It is not merely PvP oriented, nor does it only contain strong PvP overtones. The game, its politics, and its economy, are all controlled by the ever-present PvP that takes place. No matter your path in EVE, you are participating in PvP, be it through market competition with another trader, competition for ore rights with another miner, or the time-honored tradition of turning your opponent into space dust. Staying out of the PvP environment requires a conscious effort. Even the most casual PvE enthusiast is contributing to PvP by selling loot or minerals, and may well become the target of some non-consensual combat.

More features

	EVE Evolved: Faction warfare unleashed When talk of how Faction Warfare was going to work began, the goals it hoped to achieve were laid bare for all to see. EVE Online developers CCP wanted to encourage small-scale PvP combat and make the experience easy for even new players to get involved in. Now that Faction Warfare has been live for several days, the dust is beginning to settle and the question of whether or not those goals have been achieved can be examined. In this article, I will examine faction warfare based on my experiences of it since launch.
	Anti-Aliased: Crime and punishment in MMOs You're grinding in World of Warcraft's Stranglethorn Vale (voted most ganktastic by our friends at WoW Insider) when a level 70 druid finds it hilarious to moonfire your lowbie buttocks and camp your corpse for the next eight hours. You're grinding in Lineage II when suddenly someone completely rips you apart with Demon Sword Zariche, and the proceeds to do it over and over again.
	Rogue Signal: Where can CONCORD hear you scream? When crusty old EVE Online vets give advice, sometimes the simplest questions are the ones that go unanswered, not because we don't know how to respond, but because they're not often asked, and cover things so blindingly obvious to us that we have forgotten that there was ever a point that we didn't know. This article covers one such instance. One of the uncertainties that plagues a lot of new EVE players is never quite knowing where you're safe. Often, when a shivering noob sticks his or her head out into the Rookie Help channel, or into their noob-corp chat, and asks where they are safe, a horde of jaded veterans come back with "NOWHERE!!!"
	EVE Evolved: To blob or not to blob To blob or not to blob, that is the question. Blobbing in EVE Online has always been a hot topic for debate on the forums and a tough issue to tackle for developers. At its simplest, blobbing is a PvP strategy in which massive fleets are used to completely overwhelm the enemy. Although the term blob usually has negative connotations, fleet warfare is a strongly advertised aspect of EVE and is required for 0.0 alliances to take and hold space. When two or more sides in a conflict can field massive numbers, huge fleet battles can ensue.
	Have Clone, Will Travel: An EVE Online Wish List With Empyrean Age and and Ambulation just around the corner, CCP is about to make a lot of its EVE Online subscribers very happy, including yours truly. The idea of walking around in a space station has been a wish of mine for quite some time, ever since I got word that CCP was looking at doing something like it.
	Rogue Signal: EVE's Empyrean Age and factional warfare For the first time in a long time, EVE Online managed to send chills up my spine. It wasn't a fleet battle, or the disbanding of the Mercenary Coalition, my former alliance that made me stare in slack-jawed wonder at the screen. The thing that made me look at EVE with new eyes after 30 months of playing was the simple trailer, not even a minute long, for the Empyrean Age expansion, due this summer.
	EVE Evolved: The nano problem Whether certain tactics and ship setups are balanced is a topic that's been constantly debated on the EVE Online forums for as long as I can remember. The argument itself is as old as EVE and is repeated daily on the forums like some kind of popular EVE Online screen play. The script of this play doesn't always follow the same format but the same roles are always filled by the players participating. On one side, we have people who think a certain tactic is unbalanced and should be fixed by CCP in a balance patch. On the other side, we have people who rely on the tactic being discussed that are afraid it might be changed. Everyone else with an opinion falls somewhere on the spectrum between these two extremes.
	Rogue Signal: EVE Online's gear progression For players coming from other MMOs, EVE Online can sometimes be a bit unsettling. The lack of classes and levels gives some players the feeling that there is not a measurable means of determining one's on progress in the game. What EVE players use to determine each other's relative skill at a glance revolves around two things: ship type and module tech level. Billions upon billions of ISK get moved around every day in the buying and selling of Tech 2 (T2) ships and modules. As a new player, Tech 2 can feel like the playground of the veteran, but this isn't necessarily always the case.
	Have Clone, Will Travel: Ambulation in the EVE tutorial EVE Online is like no other MMORPG. In this sci-fi virtual world you are your ship, and the ship is you. Indeed, despite the fact that a great amount of time is spent creating a specific look for their avatars, many new players are surprised to see all their efforts being wasted, once they realize that their avatar ends up being nothing but a small head shot. This is one of the major differences between EVE Online and the rest of the MMORPGs. You are not your avatar. But that is about to change.
	The Digital Continuum: Space-tripping with EVE Online I'm sitting in a space station in EVE Online at this very moment. I've been doing this lately, because I find myself quite addicted to much of the music in-game. Between the amazing audio and dazzling scenery I don't think I've accomplished much in the grand view of my EVE career. For many a year I've purchased and played countless MMO for lesser reasons than audio and visuals. Hell, I once I bought a post-apocalyptic car combat MMO simply because of the want to believe it would be something different; something executed well. So yes, I have made some unwise purchases in the past.

Galleries

Gallery: EVE Online Core Gallery

Gallery: EVE Online Five Year Anniversary

Notable Machinima

• EVE Online meets Half-Life 2 in machinima masterpiece
• Video of CCP artist's Ambulation presentation available
• GoonSwarm takes on the Beatles with the "Little Bees" video
• TurpsterVision: Don't tell Adam but I've been fooling around with EVE

Resources

• EVE Online official site
• Crazy Kinux's 10 12 sites for every new EVE Online Player
  • EVE Online Player Guide (online version)
  • New Character Creation Guide
  • Character Attributes & Skills Guide
  • EVEMon - A great tool to plan your skills
  • EVE Fitting Tool - Know thy ship
  • EVE Guides
  • Grismar's EVE Wiki - very useful
  • EVE Ships Wiki - also useful
  • EVE Files - The greatest of all EVE database
  • EVE Tribune - To stay on top of the news
  • Warp Drive Active - Cause sometimes laughing is a great remedy
  • Battleclinic.com - "The" largest and most comprehensive support sites for EVE-Online