This website publishes a lot of articles about EVE Online. A chorus of writers work pretty diligently to deliver 5 or so articles a week about the game, and for what? We don’t get paid real life dollars. The vaunted multi-dollar media empire never even amounted to that. There might be some residual monies generated from adverts and streaming, enough to pay Morgan Freeman (or perhaps a reasonable facsimile thereof) to do a voice over, but no one is buying A. Lange & Söhne1 watches with the proceeds. So, why do we write all that we do? We love this game.
A Little Perspective
Imperium News has all kinds on staff, from bitter vets like myself, to bright-eyed and bushy-tailed rookies. We have independents, Imperium members, and pilots from alliances currently trying to take over Delve. Anyone who can write to a decent standard is allowed on staff—and I’ve seen some writers that I would put in the sub-decent category. All of us love this game.
I’ve written about role play—that was actually the first article I wrote for The Mittani, way back in the day—to lore focused gameplay, to null sec and everything in between. My first published article was about the Battle of Asakai. A year later I wrote an article on the Battle of B-R5RB that got me cited on wikipedia. In that time, I’ve written about plenty of things that strike my fancy, because I love this game.
EVE is something unique in gaming. Unlike all the other massively multiplayer games, EVE is the only one that feels massive. It’s the only one that forces you to deal with thousands of other players on a regular basis. I’ve played WoW, LOTRO, SWTOR, and while all of them have a multiplayer element, the amount of players that I’ve interacted with in those games, all those games, across all time, pales in comparison to the number of players I will fleet with in a single week in EVE. I’ve met more players from more countries playing EVE than I would ever have otherwise, formed friendships that I never thought possible. I’ve solidified those friendships offline, too. I love this game.
So Why This?
Recently, I’ve written some articles about areas of EVE that I think could be improved. I’ve composed op-eds about the mining changes, the server issues in the Supposed Battle of 49-U, why our coalition name sucks, defensive wars, and why cloaks are breaking the game. I’m sure I could have put that time to other writing efforts, perhaps another novella to publish and get paid actual dollars for. However, I decided to spend my time writing about EVE and how to make it better, because I love this game.
A lot of players look at EVE and we see what it can be, the potential of the game. I feel like a disappointed mother, seeing a report card with Cs and Ds, knowing that EVE can do better. When I wrote about cloaking, I heard from more than a few people that this had all been covered before. And it had been covered before. Most of what I wrote was not ground-breaking insightful. However, it needed to be said. It needed to be said again. See, the turnover of key staff positions at CCP means that they have the institutional memory of a brain-damaged regal blue tang. And it’s sad to see CCP bounce around like Dory from one idea to the next, making and deleting, and remaking roadmaps faster than Google maps when you keep missing turns. It’s disappointing to me, because I love this game.
There are two ways to get better at life: point out the good and encourage more, or to point out the bad and encourage less. Like Gordon Ramsay, I generally prefer to know the areas where I can improve. Five star reviews on Amazon help sales, but don’t help me improve as a writer worth a crap. However, merely saying ‘you suck, go kill yourself’ (actual feedback I have gotten) doesn’t help worth a damn, either. So, I put in the time to give an honest critique of the issues I see and even some ideas of how to fix them, because I love this game.
Eye on the Prize
My articles are for everyone, from players to CCP, to those weird people that don’t play but follow the game like an F1 fan2. I hope my articles spark discussion. Sure, cloaking, for example, might be a well rehashed topic, but writing about it again keeps it fresh in the minds of the players that the mechanic might be broken, but we don’t have to settle for it. We as players, and CCP as devs, should always seek to improve EVE, because we love it, and want it to get better.
The only way EVE is going to get better is if we, the players and developers are honest about what is good and what is bad. It’s important for the players to be vocal about their experiences to CCP3, because the experiences of the players are key feedback for that improvement. While we all love this game, I think I can say with surety that we all love the future-EVE that exists if CCP realizes its potential even more.
- I could have said Rolex, but what am I, a pleb?
- I promise if I could drive an F1 car instead of watching them, I would!
- CCP’s knowledge about the game pales in comparison to the sum total of experiences of tens of thousands of players.