Eve Online: Eve follows somewhat on previous space-trader-pirate type games like Privateer but in an MMORPG environment and more fully developed. It is unique in that there aren't many space games like it in single play or multiplayer. Yes there are other space games, but Eve has some very unique elements. For one, the market system in Eve is pretty interesting in it's concept. Certain areas are not actually developed as one finds out but it still appears to be one of the more involved market systems in gaming. Eve also has the unique concept that skills develop over time and that the skills continue to train when logged off. If other games take this up, well.. Eve was the first. It is this feature that in fact leads towards Eve's most unique aspect. A joke among many Eve players is that it is the only game people pay to 'not play' and this is not entirely untrue. Many players (myself included) spend long periods of time logging in only to start another skill training then log back out. The concept according to Eve designers is to allow people who get diverted from gameplay by RL for a period of time to not fall too far behind their compatriots. I've used it to play a bit at a level, train to higher level and play a bit more so I can 'sample' Eve at various levels of gameplay without having to put in vast amounts of gameplay time. I find it strangely fascinating how the makers of Eve have managed to collect subscriptions from players who put virtually no load on their systems most of the time, and even though I at times feel like I'm being rather stupid paying for something I'm not using for the most part, I and many others keep doing it. I'm not alone in this as many players have voiced the same sentiment over the in-game chat.

The biggest downside to this is Eve's terrible technical support. It seems every major patch has major bugs, at least for the time I've been on. Add to this the fact that the technical support team ignores any emails to them during the time they are working on fixing the problems. When the problems are finally fixed, from what I can tell they send out a mass mailing in response saying 'I see you haven't tried emailing us in the last 48 hours so we assume the issue is resolved.' This happened to me when 'I had' emailed them within 12 hours of that. When I emailed them again immediately after that they never responded.

I've had 2 major issues like this and yet I keep playing, why? Well, for one I have put in a lot of time (and therefore a certain amount of money in subscription fees) building up the character which I'm somewhat loathe to abandon. The game is pretty much unique for another. So I'll 'give them one more chance' as the saying goes. However, my experience is that many people are like me in that when they do stretch out 'giving another chance,' if they get pushed to the point where they finally give up they never come back. Never. No matter how much gets fixed later it seems that group's loyalties have been used up. So that's my take on Eve.

From a design perspective I believe there are many things one can learn from Eve and that's the main thing that's kept me from abandoning it. How does a game maintain loyalties in the face of people not playing and such terrible technical support? It does have some aspects that are well worth noting. I highly recommend anyone interested in game design to check out Eve and take from it whatever they can. From a players perspective, it's unique and the quirks may or may not be a stopper for you.