EVE – the name implies grand battles, underhanded politics, theft, betrayal, espionage, literally everything you could expect from any real world governments. That is just how deep EVE Online can be. With players being as patriotic about their corps and alliances and fighting as passionately to protect them as their real life countries and real life families. If you have ever played EVE Online, or at least followed the stories behind the wars and the nullblocs that have lived and died over the past nearly 17 years, you will know just what I am talking about.
Being a part of every war, as a merc fighting for whatever side would give me the most content, I had the luxury of being part of all the happenings that made Eve such a great game and not just Spreadsheet Online. Space battles with thousands. Hundreds of thousands of real life dollars blown up over a short period of time. Leaders being dethroned, alliances being assimilated. These are all things that we want to see in Eve Echoes, but will we?
All of the Eve Online players who are looking to try Echoes are looking for this re-imagined universe. To relive the good ol’ days, as they say. The beginning, where null bloc didn’t exist. Where the Goons were just a twinkle in daddy Mittani’s eye. Where not only could you not dock a Titan. They didn’t actually exist. Or the players that joined much later and heard the old, bitter vets talking of better times, sipping a beer in their rocking chairs.
Can we really expect the same from Echoes? I’d love to think so. I’ve already had dreams of how things will turn out. What mischief we will get up too as time unfolds. But in reality we have a few questions that need answering. Will a mobile device truly be able to withstand the onslaught of thousands of ships in one system? My optimistic side says that Echoes developer NetEase (NE) and CCP will pull something out of the proverbial bag, but my realist side is really worried about this in particular. I know that it was just the beta, but only having around 500 ships fighting in a single system made the game almost unplayable for many. Will they have a way to fix this on their end? Or are we going to have a mobile version of EVE tidi?
Just Because You Could
Buying a mobile phone these days will cost you as much or more than buying a laptop and much more than a console. Unless you boot an emulator to play Echoes, will players be willing to fork out that much for a phone? Maybe. Will players have the same philosophies? Will they have the same drive as we did 17 years ago? We will – the EVE vets – but the mobile players? The hundreds of thousands of players that know nothing of EVE honor, unwritten rules, spending years in espionage to break down the largest alliance only to create their own? I think not, if the beta is anything to go by. If it had a pulse you would end it. No matter what it was. Undock camping was all throughout New Eden. Blowing up someone in a starter ship just because you could.
We have to understand that we are in a different world now. Games have evolved. The next generation of gamers have grown up. Can we teach them? Maybe. But if battle royales and fps’s are anything to go by. We won’t have much luck. Mobile gamers do not have the same patience as PC MMO players, as a majority, they want fast and quick gratification. Now I may get some hate for lumping all mobile gamers into that category, and I know there are many out there who are different. But we cannot deny this fact just look at the top games on Google Play and the App Store.
This is all me just being a devil’s advocate and trying to air some of my worries when it comes to how hyped I am for his game. Which I am as you can probably tell from all my videos and the conversations I have had in the Echoes Discord. I am defending it constantly from people with the very same worries.
Should we expect Mobile Monetization to take over this game? CCP and NE tell us no. But can we really trust that it will NEVER happen?
This is something that I cannot answer right now and I am firm with the belief that CCP and NE will not screw us on this. So let us hope that this is the case. In the end all we can do as a community is speculate, and maybe all of my worries are unfounded. Maybe not. I am still massively excited for this game and am willing to wait to get my hands on it. But maybe we have to alter our mindsets to truly appreciate what we are being given.
