Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Paper 2


The ultimate goal in EVE is power.
- Official EVE Online Website

EVE Online is almost completely differentiated from the myriad of other massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) available in the market today. The game assumes a “harsh reality” and is unforgiving even in the early stages of “NOOB” play. The galaxies of EVE are reminiscent of the lawless, money-driven, “Wild-West” galaxies of the Ferengi from Star Trek or the Hutt-run galaxies of Star Wars. EVE presents an interesting universe, one in which the story is but a novelty, and the narrative becomes almost entirely player-driven. Despite the lack of a traditional graphic avatar, EVE provides a large amount of flexibility in the amount of role-playing one wishes to do. However, the entire universe of EVE revolves around and is completely dependent upon the extremely complex, realistic, and volatile virtual economy. “The ultimate goal in EVE is power,” and in EVE economic power reigns supreme. EVE supports a multitude of play-styles, however, the matter which style one prefers, economics will play a vital role in their survival. With this in mind, EVE offers a truly unique avenue for digital identity in that your reputation and identity is not measured by your appearance or speech, but instead by your economic standing and business cunning.

EVE Online employs a heretofore unseen level of economic complexity. Every sale, every purchase, and every ISK (Interstellar Kredit: the base monetary unit of EVE) must be analyzed and weighed against other options. For example, the opportunity cost of mining ore for 2 hours could far outweigh the cost of buying it for 3.01 ISK per unit. In fact, EVE’s economic forces are so powerful that CCP (the developer) publishes a quarterly economic newsletter giving growth rates, inflation/ deflation rates, consumer price index, and gross user product, to name a few. In their newsletter, CCP states, “our knowledge of the economic forces in EVE is increasing, guiding us closer towards the ability to make short-term economic forecasts for macroeconomic variables in EVE.” Although intimidating at first glance, the universe of EVE allows for easy access to the economic statistics for your particular region. This enables the player to approach an economic transaction in several ways:

1. Find the average region price and sell at the same price or cut into your profit and undercut the lowest seller.

2. Charge a premium, or “convenience fee,” for being the exclusive seller of an item in a farther system.

3. Keeping an item in hopes that someday you will be able to afford the skill, train it, and finally try to use the item only to find out your ship doesn’t have the capacity.

In addition to the obvious market transactions of buying and selling, EVE also allows the player own corporate stock, create contracts, manufacture items from blueprints, research new items, and earn ISK through bounty hunting NPCs or player initiated bounties. It is during these activities where the players’ reputations truly become paramount. The most notorious players have the highest bounties on their heads, and the best mercenaries receive the high-paying contracts. Due to the economic nature of the game, I believe EVE gives the player more freedom to be themselves throughout the virtual experience.

The corporate structure of EVE creates a rewarding experience for the socially-tuned player. Corporations offer protection, coordinated mining endeavors, price fixing, and a source of pride. On the other hand, unlike some MMORPGs, EVE can be a very rewarding solo experience. Solo adventuring can build confidence and wallets. Many corporations identify with a single task at which they claim to be experts. These include mining corps, fleets for hire, manufacturing corps, etc. The corporation to which a player owes his/ her allegiance is another source for in-game reputation. These corporations can become so large and exert enough influence to control the ebb and flow of the economic tides. There have been stories of weeklong blockades, corporations fizzling out due to economic miscalculations, and the infamous “Heist.” The corporation actually plays a bigger part in the role-playing aspect of the game than the character’s race or sex. Striving to be bigger, better, and richer is what makes players stay in the game.

EVE Online employs an interesting dynamic not shared by many MMORPGs: the universe can make you feel insignificant due to its overwhelming size (EVE comprises of over 5,000 systems totaling countless KM2 of virtual space) but CCP goes out of their way to include the players in decision making processes. I believe that this adds greatly to the enjoyment of EVE and does much to fuse the player with his/ her digital identity. CCP was quoted as saying, “Eve Online is not a computer game. It is an emerging nation, and we have to address it like a nation being accused of corruption,” after being accused of favoritism. This is a powerful statement showing the true feelings the developers and many players share about EVE. CCP also uses technology to uniquely add to the engrossing nature of this game. All 200,000 players are housed on one super-server, thus allowing a large, permanent virtual-community to establish itself in the Eve universe.

CCP has created an opportunist’s paradise, one in which economics and market forces rule all. Eve is a vast, cold expanse filled with dreams of economic superiority; a place where one man’s unfair monopoly is another man’s cash cow. CCP has created a universe in which the players make the decisions, drive the market, and make trades across billions of miles. Business cunning, political savvy, and guts are the tools of the EVE role-player as they try to carve out a piece of this place to call their own.

If you want to see the economic report go to http://ccp.vo.llnwd.net/o2/pdf/QEN_Q4-2007.pdf.

5 comments:

Brian Smith said...

A lot of times when a game tries to drive itself by its market, it crashes by massive inflation, I'd be curious to see what your opinion on how EVE has kept from doing this is.

kpenn said...

I had no idea their are games that are so in depth. It may truly be like he said, it is not a game but a nation. The complexity is amazing.

Cow Nose the 50 Pound Cat said...

@Brian smith

The answer to this, is amazingly simple! And that answer is: PVP!

In EvE online when you get your ship blown up, thats it. You don't get it back. This is what drives the economy from EvE and this is what keeps inflation down.

(The good Dr. has not mentioned this fact, but he has stated that inflation is actually down not up. I think this is likely the reason)

Another interesting fact is, the doctor said in an economy inflation is bound to happen, but that isn't a problem as long as peoples abilities to make money increase with that inflation (ie: missions runners get screwed and manufacturers get all the cash)

Simple, yes, but its a good reminder.

Michael said...

Yes, that is correct in a way. The consequences of EVE's PvP environment create a draon for in-world currency. The reason that many online economies do not last is because they have no means for investment and no drains. A drain is paramount to any economy for removing excess money from circulation which helps reduce inflation.

Michael said...

You generally DO NOT want to increase the money supply to deal with inflation because that actually causes more inflation.