Out of Pod Experience

Guild Wars 2 - Interesting. Just pre-purchased it
Final Fantaxy XIV Re-launch - We'll see
Diablo 3 - Fail
Crysis 3 - Looks good
Warface - I'll have to try
Max Payne 3 - I like it
TES Online - Maybe I'll give it a chance... maybe not
SWtOR - Fail
Black Ops 2 - Let's see...
Dark Souls Prepare To Die Edition (PC) - I'll buy it
The Secret World - Fail
Rift - Fail
Mechwarrior Online - I like it. I'll give it a try
Hawken - Nice graphics. Let's see the gameplay

That's actually really disappointing. Here I was hoping for something innovative and then have to go and do that?

Well, maybe the alchemy system will be broken, so you can make oodles of gold before getting high level.

Frankly, the damned game has ruined me for life.

I've been playing "games" since Hunt the Wumpus on mainframes back before a lot of you were born.

This thing, however, has taken the cake. And the icing. And a damned large chunk of my time, money, soul........etc.

The really sad part?

I wouldn't trade one second of it from then til now for anything.

And that is after freely admitting that I sucked huge cheesy balls at this game when I first started playing and all these years later I *STILL* suck huge cheesy balls.......I amaze myself at the never-ending ways that I find to fail most epicly.

That I continue to log on and subject myself to the torture ( and my opponents to the lulz ) is testimony to the allure the game holds over me.

Or to my stupidity and insanity.........

Take your pick.

I just started playing Ultima 7 for the second time.

Being a thug, pirate, murderer or a thief in Eve is the most exciting part of the game.

Wait a few years and it too will become boring. In reality if you are more or less a casual/semi-solo player in Eve it will become boring quick.

EVE isn't actually a very good video game. In fact, as video games go, it's pretty damn terrible.

However, it's far and away the best MMO that's ever been produced. No other MMO can touch it - heck, no other MMO can even come within light years of it.

Most other "MMOs" aren't really "MMO"s. They're just lobby portals.

Honestly, I don't think how it's played is based upon the original premise for the game.

I think its initial design was to encourage more "tribal warfare" and "empire building" style operations, with people running all over, doing massive amounts of different things in all portions of the game. Building, earning, fighting... All of it in all portions with both benefits and penalties that all sides felt. That is long dead and gone.

Talking to an "old timer" on some of this... Even he stopped and tried to recall when things changed from a "wild frontier" feel, where folks both fought *AND* stopped to help each other out, over to what we have today. (look at that "butterfly effect" video... *THAT* style of play is what was described back then - but any "real player" here will tell you "bunk" on it happening these days.)

Xenophobic and bully mindsets are the majority in this game. It's the more socially conscious types that are the minority here. The current implementation is to not just tolerate but encourage abuse of anything even remotely resembling "ethics" or "morality" or even just "different" from that mode of operation.

No I don't think this was the initial intent nor how most who started early on came into this game.

Now it's down to a large number "stuck" in one chunk of space and anyone that leaves there is supposed to only be out to kill others. The cooperative side has gone to xenophobia and destroying anything and anyone that you can.

The original "clans" and "empire building", coupling cooperation with competition... It's very thin these days. It is distilling down to bigots & bullies looking for victims more so than some "wild west" with the huge mix of activities that should be going on around the game world.

As such, there is a little of that old EVE left. It has thinned out a lot and seems to be thinning more as times advance. As you say, the longer you stick around, the fewer your options are unless you can assimilate the current abusive mindset.

I sometimes wonder if it hasn't become a social experiment: How low will they go if their inner bigots are allowed to run free?

It's just a game after all, so why have any type of ethical constraints on yourself? My answer to that: Don't judge people by what they have to do for a living. Judge them by what they choose to do for fun. THAT is what is at their core and EVE brings that core to the surface very clearly.

No, this isn't a condemnation - just recognition of changing times and ideologies. The player base makes or breaks this game - it tends to attract those with "like mindsets" and tries to force out any that don't follow the majorities credo.

What I've heard EVE was in the early days seems quite different than what it is now - with respect to more than just the technology and "pixelized" toys in it. Multiple accounts being the norm, gankers and camps all over, lopsided penalties due to bloated banks... Static empires that won't ever be challenged from without - just rot from within to fold... Yeah a lot has changed from a "vast, wild universe".

Such is life.

Played wow for over 6 years since closed beta to lvl 80 and I have to say there are far more bullies/grieffers in such samll game like eve then I've ever seen in over 6 years playing wow either pve or pvp servers.

I guess it's a matter of point of view but I'm seeing far more bullies in between 20 and 35 than 10 Yo kids in this game, witch pretty sad.