The #1 multiplayer 4x game

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For the record, Eve Online is the most interesting and fascinating game ever. I guess it's not for everyone, and I admit it looks very intimidating when you first play it. It's not nonstop action, but when the action does happen, you're on the edge of your seat with the adrenaline coursing. You haven't known excitement until you've seen fleets of hundreds of spaceships in combat, each one piloted by another human being. If you like simple games, or like to be led by the hand from quest to quest, this definitely isn't the game for you. But if you like a challenge, it most definitely is. No "now go kill ten rats" here. You're basically told "Here's a little spaceship and a galaxy of thousands of star systems, with 35,000 other people all playing at the same time in the same universe. Go do stuff." The depth and complexity of not just the game systems but the social systems in the game is astounding.

Want to be an intrepid trader, braving dangers to make a killing? Go do that. Want to be an evil pirate, preying on innocents and taking their stuff? Go do that. Want to build a mega-corporation and eventually an empire? You can. Want to be an economic mogul and corner whole markets? Entirely possible. Want to build shit and sell it? No problemo. Want to be a space miner braving the dangers to bring back that valuable ore? A bounty hunter, a noble pirate hunter, just a kickass combat pilot? Want to be a stealthy spy, flying your cloaked recon ship deep into enemy territory to scan in advance of your Corp's invasion force? Be an explorer, discovering stuff no one else knows about? Definitely. Best of all, you can do all of the above at different points if you want since there are no "classes" or limits on skills.

And best of all, unlike other games, in Eve, PvP means something. It's not "You killed the giant, here's a pretty sword, now please clear the area so the next players can kill it." n eve, if your group wins territory, you win fucking territory. You own it. You can build in it. When you defeat others, you blow up their shit for keeps. You can invade an ruin literally years of work by others. when you make an empire, it stays yours until someone stronger comes along. It's the first truly persistent online universe ever.

Pinback, remember when I said "Civ is like Super Empire"? well, Eve Online is like Super Galactic Civilzations. Or Super Tradewars 2000. Or Super Elite. Or something.

It takes time. It takes learning. It takes persistence. But the relationships you build last for years, and the sense of progress - flying bigger and badder ships, learning new things, figuring out more of the game - is far more rewarding than "Ding! I made level 34!"

If anyone is interested, you can buy Eve Online for just $15 on Steam, or download it free and get a free trial account (though 14 days is nowhere near enough to even scratch the surface." As a special bonus, I'll give 1 million ISK (a hell of a lot of money for a new player) to anyone from the board who gives it a try.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

It fucking kicks ass - it really is the most engaging MMORPG game I've ever played. In addition to what you said, I love the fact that you can continue to power your guy up even when you are not logged in. That was genius of them.

I had to quit playing only because things got too hectic at work and such, but even when you are by yourself drilling an asteroid it does an amazing job at conveying the loneliness of what space travel would be like. Everything I saw in it was gorgeous, too (except for my own character, whose face somehow looked like it was melting. I somehow did a bad job with the character generator).

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I love the fact that you can continue to power your guy up even when you are not logged in. That was genius of them.

It is genius in many ways, but the way I like best is that you're completely free of "grinding". No more worrying about XP. No more worrying about who is higher level. Even new characters can be very effective almost immediately, they'll just get more effective over time.

The only drawback is that you can only progress your skills at a certain pace. You're limited by real time. But that isn't as much of a drawback as it seems at first. Sometimes it sucks waiting for a skill you really want to train up. But for most things you want to do, the total time isn't that long for specific skills. What takes time is developing versatility so you can do many things.

It's also genius on their part because it helps keeps accounts active. Even when you're not playing that much, the tendency is to keep paying your account because you think "well, I'm not playing much now, but if I keep my account and keep training skills, when I get back, I'll kick ass."

I had to quit playing only because things got too hectic at work and such,

I had to quit being super-active just because being super-active does take a lot of time, just like any game. Now I just run my own corp and occasionally do missions. At some point I'll join a big corp again and do all the massive-action PvP stuff. I don't know when you stopped playing, but they've added a ton of news stuff over time, especially the Trinity graphics update, which is amazing. If you thought the graphics were good before...

Plus, they have great long-range plans. Pretty soon you will be able to get out of your ship at stations and walk around, and later on... planets too!

One of the other things I like best is that it's run by one of the coolest companies in gaming, CCP. They are so active with the player community, they have so much communication and feedback, they really listen and pay attention. And their game design philosophy is awesome. I don't know if you heard, but CCP bought White Wolf, makers of the World of Darkness series of paper RPGs, and are now deveolping that IP into another MMORPG. Since I love those games, I'm thrilled. I can't think of another company I would rather have work with that IP because I know they will get it right, and it will be gritty, not cartoony.