EVE General Discussion

EDIT: Check my post on page 2 after you read this if you want a more detailed description on how it'd work =).

I recently started this character, but I used to play eve for two years straight quite a while ago.

I remember the most exciting period of my EvE life, and it was thanks to someone. I don't know why he was motivated to act like that, or whether or not his actions were practical or just roleplayish, but what he did was completely awesome.

This person came out of nowhere and contracted me the task of finding and killing specific people he wanted to see dead, from my vicinity. I took the assassination job and surprisingly, I got paid really well. The fact that this "job" had came up from emerging gameplay really made me feel part of something big, and it's a sentiment I'd like other people to experience.

I understand however that this scenario of intrigue required an effort from his part. I suspect he kind of "acted" for me, and I thank him for that.

All this came to my mind when, recently, I was considering interesting or creative occupations for a possible corporation. I thought it would be pretty cool to form a corporation of "actors", whose job is, for a certain fee, to carry certain people (aware or not) through a piece of narrative, an event of sorts.

This supposed corporation could pose as a theatre company or something similar, and it would offer different services in the shape of "plays", with complex plot, surprises and special rewards. Depending on the budget of the "play", more effort could be put into the narrative, more ships could blow up, and so forth.

Of course some of these events would involve actual risk, not only because the plot itself may involve PvP engagements with the actors, but thanks to the inevitable dangers of EvE life. All possible plot branches should be taken into account and the event should be a rewarding experience regardless of the outcome of any particular fight.


This is just a rough sketch in my mind, but I think it would be a beautiful thing to do, and EvE looks like the perfect canvas in which to paint an engaging picture of mystery and intrigue. Of course EvE by itself is awesome when it comes to emergent stories and gameplay, but the idea of having one party working to deliver a compelling experience to another has a great potential (think pen and paper roleplay). Also, since the actors are working for the customers (which may be aware of the plot having paid for it, or unaware if it's a gift from a third person), it's easy for the actors to adjust the level of challenge to the skills of the customers providing a thrilling run to everybody.

So here is my question:

Would you pay for such a service? Would you pay ISK in exchange for experiencing an interesting interactive story, that merges with the EvE lore and takes you through a different experience? If so, how much would you be willing to pay and what sort of experience would you expect? Also, which of the following payment schemes would you prefer?:

a) Paying up front
b) Base amount and then the possibility to tip.
c) Set amount, but only after the experience.
d) Any of the above, plus a significant extra amount to have it recorded and narrated (with your particular corp/ships being the centerpiece of the clip).


Please don't think this is conceived as a money-making method. The idea comes just out of vocation and the possibility of making something beautiful. I'm interested in knowing whether or not people would pay for it because it would likely require a significant budget, and viability is a concern.

Any of your opinions and ideas are of course welcome.

The obvious payment method would be e) Pay some up front and the rest afterwards.

As for whether or not this is a good idea: yes. It is. Do it.

I'm not sure how much business you'd get, though. EVE is marketed as being about creating your own story, so paying someone else to do a fake one for you might not be awfully popular. Personally, I feel that I'm already story'd up enough, so I wouldn't pay for this service. I can imagine myself paying you to do it to an unsuspecting friend, though.

Either way, it's an awesome idea, and just the kind of thing that you can and should try in EVE. After all, if it fails, you've not lost anything, and of it does well then you've created something amazing and original out of this sand CCP has given us. So do it.

Not quite. It's more like a long term thing.

The idea is to immerse the target "customers" into a story, which perhaps merge with the canon EvE lore. Maybe some of the actors could pose for Guristas loyalists (using faction ships and such) and communicate with the customers saying that they've decided to part ways with the band and share the location of some important loot/documents.

Then those actors would proceed to interact with the customers through, say, a week, engaging in battles, events, negotiations, whatever the plot would take.

Like a branching novel, different outcomes would come from the customer's decision. In fact, I think it would be great for every "play" to have a "jackpot ending", a prize that greatly surpasses the fee that must be paid to take the ride, and if a corporation / group of players manages to navigate the story perfectly, they get to take the big prize. What do you think?

I think it sounds like a lot of hard work to plan it and make it work. I'm not sure how much interest you would get from it either, a lot of players have other commitments in game with alliances and such so it could make it tricky to find a suitable time when the customer and your actors are all available. I like the idea though but I think you're thinking a bit too big at the moment. Try doing something on a smaller scale, like the guy who hired you as an assassin. If you start building a reputation and getting more interest, maybe you can start expanding into bigger and more adventurous ideas.

Sounds reasonable. Starting small scale is always good, and I think this could function at different scales so I'll try to keep it simpler for now.

If you build it, they will come.

Nah brah, it's been done before. RPing mercs isn't so much emergent as already emerged, and OP's idea is something completely new.

It sounds like a great idea.

I would probably not be a customer for the "big events" simply because I don't fly with people who'd take much interest in it, but I could definitely see some people being willing to pay for this kind of service. Although RP communities, who'd be the biggest potential target group, usually have their own setup in terms of how they want to run things. Some you might be able to work with I guess.

What I would donate for, and what comes closer to your initial experience, is for a corp who would do these things with unsuspecting capsuleers. Call it emergent if you want.

If you set up a blog, describing the events, get some feedback from the involved people and so on, I think a lot of people would be willing to throw ISK your way, simply to enrich the New Eden experience. It would also be a way to start out small and get the ball rolling.

I really hope CCP will introduce a mechanic to officially support this kind of thing and let people create ther own "missions" for others to enjoy. Like the "Quest Builder" from SWG. For a company who promote emergent gameplay, I don't understand why something like that isn't already in EVE.

So yeah, +1 indeed. I'll look for it. Good luck :)

I like your optimism which is sadly lacking in this game.


Most of the battles ive seen in this game normally depict the Battle of thermopylae, but instead of 300 rock hard Spartans against 200 thousand persians its more like 300 noob ship pilots jumped by 200 thousand titans.



Post what you get up to on this forum as its sounds interesting and ill suspend my trolling status and only post valid comments.


Also +1 for optimism. we haven'e had that in these parts for a very very long time.

Id be up for doing random skits just to see peoples reactions who think whats going on is real...
I would even help you do it, eves been, a bit boring lately... Besides messing with people is always fun.