EVE Online

[Cervator]

So it is no big surprise I play EVE. Although by "Play EVE" I really mean "log on occasionally to build ships for people and rarely ever undock to actually shoot at people"

I came across a very nice article I wanted to share: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/10869361/Space-to-grow-The-continued-success-of-EVE-Online.html

We talked about related topics on IRC earlier today for a bit, like why other MMOs haven't been able to replicate EVE's own unique brand of success. Article mentions Minecraft as being a (small step) toward something more interesting than just another theme park MMO, and we quickly brought up Everquest Next as an interesting upcoming option. Although, who knows how they'll be able to put their MC-like terrain manipulation to use beyond a sandbox builder (how will the gameplay work?)

I've always been fascinated with EVE's setup and I suspect my disillusionment with other MMOs is in part because they're not as novel as EVE. Could be cool one day to adopt some of the concepts for a persistent voxel world

 

[Marcin Sciesinski]

I think the key is one sentence in the article - "provide players with tools rather than experiences", which is a quintessence of sandbox games.

In most MMO games, players are just "answering" the "questions" posed by game developers, while EVE allows players to be pro-active in constructing the game-play, pose "questions" to be "answered" by other players. This is basically going one level up in the game industry, where players become game developers themselves.

This is probably also the reason why Minecraft is so popular with modders - they (modders who are also players) are allowed to ask new "questions" and become game developers themselves.