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Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Bobboau on March 22, 2009, 12:23:12 pm

Title: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Bobboau on March 22, 2009, 12:23:12 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8MuyMlT9hY

with the recent happenings between BoB and GoonSwarm I was inspired to make this animation using the daily generated influence maps from www.eve-files.com. the recent action takes place in the last 6 seconds of the vid, it has nearly two years worth of territorial warfare compressed into a minute.

for those of you not in the know BoB (Band of Brothers, the giant blue blob in the lower left hand corner) is/was the most powerful alliance in the game, until about two months ago when one of their leaders defected to GoonSwam (Something Awful forumites) the second most powerful alliance in the game taking a bunch of ships and cash with him, oh, and he dissolved the BoB alliance, meaning they all lost all of their territorial protection so GoonFleet could jump right into there capitals and **** **** up. BoB tried reforming under another name within a day, but it hasn't worked out so well for them.

you can see the effects of several different wars on a number of differing regions, you can see BoB getting pounded in an earlier war losing nearly half their territory before reclaiming it. in the north you can see a number of different alliances come and go. there is a cool effect in you can track migration of an alliance from one place to another, most notable GoonSwarm's occupation of BoB's old territory, almost completely abandoning their year's old homelands, and just before the fall of BoB you can see the TCF (brown blob) move from it's southern lands into the northeast takeing advantage of the weakened state of the aliances in that reigon. an interesting note is that it seems as though power is collecting into the hands of fewer more powerful alliances.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Ashrak on March 22, 2009, 01:19:44 pm
seriously fed up with eve, waste of time and money you can much better spend on drinking.

then again, bob was arround for well too long aswell, enough.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Bobboau on March 22, 2009, 01:21:45 pm
BTW I don't actually have an account, never played it, just having fun watching these fireworks sitting on the sidelines.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Rick James on March 22, 2009, 01:26:56 pm
I like MMOs where player actions actually affect the political landscape.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Flipside on March 22, 2009, 03:52:43 pm
Gave up on Eve in the end, it's a nice looking game, but it would be a lot more fun to play if it hadn't become statistician porn. Also CCP's vision of what is 'fun' appears to be somewhat different from my own.

Edit: Though I am glad to see some power-shattering, there were far too many big alliances, and, considering some of the CCP Staff were members of BoB, I always had certain concerns regarding their impartiality in matters regarding BoB.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Mongoose on March 22, 2009, 04:50:46 pm
I'd never really be interested in playing EvE, if for no other reason than point-and-click spaceship combat seems incredibly dull to me, but I find it fascinating from a sociological standpoint.  It seems to have become a microcosm of a real-world society/economy far more completely than just about any MMO out there, and the impact that double-dealing and backstabbing can have on the landscape of the game makes for some very interesting situations; I remember reading a lengthy article by an individual who managed to scam gobs of in-game currency out of a bunch of unsuspecting marks by claiming that he was going to buy and share some valuable ship's blueprints (pardon my ignorance of the game's actual mechanics).  I believe I've heard that a few real-life economists were looking into the game's events to see how they could be applied to real-world situations.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Dark RevenantX on March 22, 2009, 05:47:45 pm
EVE could have been the best MMO ever made, if it had layered the game more.  What I mean is, for a game as large as EVE, it should have multiple "shells", so to say, of gameplay.  The highest, of course, is what we are looking at in the youtube video.  And there are some more lower shells that become more localized, such as building ships and and all that.  Piloting and combat take up the lowest shell, and are unfortunately the weakest part of the game.  The lowest shell is ALWAYS the most important in terms of keeping a solid and enjoyable game, so the entire whole is based off of a weak foundation.  If more energy and style was put into the combat (see Jumpgate: Evolution), the game would be much, much better.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Ghostavo on March 22, 2009, 05:56:15 pm
I'd never really be interested in playing EvE, if for no other reason than point-and-click spaceship combat seems incredibly dull to me, but I find it fascinating from a sociological standpoint.  It seems to have become a microcosm of a real-world society/economy far more completely than just about any MMO out there, and the impact that double-dealing and backstabbing can have on the landscape of the game makes for some very interesting situations; I remember reading a lengthy article by an individual who managed to scam gobs of in-game currency out of a bunch of unsuspecting marks by claiming that he was going to buy and share some valuable ship's blueprints (pardon my ignorance of the game's actual mechanics).  I believe I've heard that a few real-life economists were looking into the game's events to see how they could be applied to real-world situations.

EVE is filled with this kind of stuff, makes you wonder how do people trust any other player in the game with their money. Although it's always interesting to read about this. (http://mmorpg.qj.net/Biggest-scam-in-EVE-Online-history/pg/49/aid/62826)
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Flipside on March 22, 2009, 06:21:28 pm
That's my problem with Eve, it's supposed to be a game, and fun for everyone to play, the moment an MMO starts operating in such a way that that you , quite literally, get things like organised crime, extortion, protection rackets etc, I seriously began doubting whether such a game was really any 'fun' any more.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Agent_Koopa on March 22, 2009, 11:33:28 pm
Are you saying organized crime, extortion, and protection rackets aren't fun?  :lol:

Seriously, seeing concepts like this develop on their own, not "get X points for holding up innocents" is so completely awesome that I'd sign up in an instant but I don't like monthly fees.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Flipside on March 23, 2009, 05:35:30 am
Actually, no they aren't, when it gets to the point where you are limited to a certain area of space that spans a pretty small number of systems, and leaving those systems and flying into someone elses space will get you killed on sight, not because you are an enemy, but simply because you are not an ally, you start to wonder why you are paying CCP to maintain thousands of systems when you're limited to about 4 outside of Secure areas.

That sort of thing doesn't really appeal to me, unless you are a PvP player, you can expect to spend most of your life in the kiddie-pool, and I'm not a PvP-er, never enjoyed it.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Roanoke on March 23, 2009, 05:51:04 am
Given how seriously people  seem to take Eve, makes you wonder if there wasn't some genuine bribery (or similar) going on.

Or maybe the fella who defected just did it for a laugh.  :doubt:
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Pred the Penguin on March 23, 2009, 09:21:56 am
EVE... society compressed into a game. :lol:

Very interesting to watch... I don't play MMOs though.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: General Battuta on March 23, 2009, 10:14:03 am
EVE is awesome. I love the stuff that goes down in this game.

Can't stand playing it, though. Last time I got a free trial, I canceled the tutorial, set a course for the frontlines of the BoB-Goonswarm war, and tried to see how far I could make it into nullsec before getting podkilled.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: NGTM-1R on March 23, 2009, 12:46:46 pm
I'd never really be interested in playing EvE, if for no other reason than point-and-click spaceship combat seems incredibly dull to me,

But perversely realistic... :P

Given how seriously people  seem to take Eve, makes you wonder if there wasn't some genuine bribery (or similar) going on.

Or maybe the fella who defected just did it for a laugh.  :doubt:

Apparently the director who pulled the plug was frustrated with the increasing "STOP HAVING FUN GUYS" attitude of his corp and BoB in general. (Lord knows I've seen perfectly good characters wasted because their players joined BoB and quit because they stopped enjoying the game.) So he did the Nuke thing: it sucks, therefore we shall burn it all and laugh uproariously.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Solatar on March 23, 2009, 09:39:15 pm
I tried the free trial for a few days, and didn't really like it. I figured for a person who didn't want to devote a HUGE amount of time to an MMO, one where that was likely to get me taken advantage of wasn't one I should be playing.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Dark RevenantX on March 23, 2009, 10:13:23 pm
Yeah, it's great if the game has all this kind of crap going on, but it should not compromise non-addicted players' entertainment.  Not to mention space combat is kind of fail in EVE...
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Agent_Koopa on March 23, 2009, 10:34:48 pm
Actually, no they aren't, when it gets to the point where you are limited to a certain area of space that spans a pretty small number of systems, and leaving those systems and flying into someone elses space will get you killed on sight, not because you are an enemy, but simply because you are not an ally, you start to wonder why you are paying CCP to maintain thousands of systems when you're limited to about 4 outside of Secure areas.

That sort of thing doesn't really appeal to me, unless you are a PvP player, you can expect to spend most of your life in the kiddie-pool, and I'm not a PvP-er, never enjoyed it.

That puts the "role-playing" bit into "role playing game", I guess. What better way to simulate a lawless world of paranoia and high-powered weaponry than to have trespassers shot on sight? I suppose you could always pay off the corporations if you really want to explore. But if you consider making other players richer just to play the game a waste of time...

...well, life is like that, I guess.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: blackhole on March 24, 2009, 03:02:30 am
I'd never really be interested in playing EvE, if for no other reason than point-and-click spaceship combat seems incredibly dull to me,

But perversely realistic... :P

No, its just ****ing stupid. Real space combat is something like Forever War and is nothing that is even close to playable or fun. The fact that EVE tries to make its space combat seem realistic by making it mind numbingly boring is both incredibly dumb and something that shifts the focus from the action to the politics, so the entire game just becomes a b!tchfest for OCD crackheads.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Flipside on March 24, 2009, 03:23:42 am
Actually, no they aren't, when it gets to the point where you are limited to a certain area of space that spans a pretty small number of systems, and leaving those systems and flying into someone elses space will get you killed on sight, not because you are an enemy, but simply because you are not an ally, you start to wonder why you are paying CCP to maintain thousands of systems when you're limited to about 4 outside of Secure areas.

That sort of thing doesn't really appeal to me, unless you are a PvP player, you can expect to spend most of your life in the kiddie-pool, and I'm not a PvP-er, never enjoyed it.

That puts the "role-playing" bit into "role playing game", I guess. What better way to simulate a lawless world of paranoia and high-powered weaponry than to have trespassers shot on sight? I suppose you could always pay off the corporations if you really want to explore. But if you consider making other players richer just to play the game a waste of time...

...well, life is like that, I guess.

Indeed, but the makers of it have got the whole 'social experiment' jammed so far up their rectum that they've forgotten it's supposed to be a game, and ergo, fun to play, unfortunately, at least for me, that was an aspect of the game that was rapidly dying.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Roanoke on March 24, 2009, 06:27:36 am
Actually, no they aren't, when it gets to the point where you are limited to a certain area of space that spans a pretty small number of systems, and leaving those systems and flying into someone elses space will get you killed on sight, not because you are an enemy, but simply because you are not an ally, you start to wonder why you are paying CCP to maintain thousands of systems when you're limited to about 4 outside of Secure areas.

That sort of thing doesn't really appeal to me, unless you are a PvP player, you can expect to spend most of your life in the kiddie-pool, and I'm not a PvP-er, never enjoyed it.

That puts the "role-playing" bit into "role playing game", I guess. What better way to simulate a lawless world of paranoia and high-powered weaponry than to have trespassers shot on sight? I suppose you could always pay off the corporations if you really want to explore. But if you consider making other players richer just to play the game a waste of time...

...well, life is like that, I guess.


Indeed, but the makers of it have got the whole 'social experiment' jammed so far up their rectum that they've forgotten it's supposed to be a game, and ergo, fun to play, unfortunately, at least for me, that was an aspect of the game that was rapidly dying.

"Second-Life in Space" ?  :doubt:
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Pred the Penguin on March 24, 2009, 08:55:25 am
More like half-life.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: NGTM-1R on March 24, 2009, 10:18:58 am
No, its just ****ing stupid. Real space combat is something like Forever War and is nothing that is even close to playable or fun. The fact that EVE tries to make its space combat seem realistic by making it mind numbingly boring is both incredibly dumb and something that shifts the focus from the action to the politics, so the entire game just becomes a b!tchfest for OCD crackheads.

I tries to do nothing of the sort, it simply ended up that way by accident. That's why it's perverse.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Roanoke on March 24, 2009, 05:38:28 pm
I wonder why GS migrated into the BoB area rather than expanding ? I have no idea how eve works but I guess because they couldn't control both zones and had to inorder to take advantage of the situatiuon ?

How come the inner zone remains untounched btw ?
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Scotty on March 24, 2009, 06:53:27 pm
Quote
Real space combat is something like Forever War


Did you just?....

*Facepalm*
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: NGTM-1R on March 24, 2009, 08:00:33 pm
How come the inner zone remains untounched btw ?

Highsec and lowsec rather than nosec. NPC-owned space, you can't take stuff from the empires. (Although since FW you can change the color of the dot.)
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Roanoke on March 25, 2009, 04:55:40 pm
Oh so there are CPU empires alongside player/player-clan empires too ?
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Bobboau on March 25, 2009, 09:52:13 pm
I wonder why GS migrated into the BoB area rather than expanding ? I have no idea how eve works but I guess because they couldn't control both zones and had to inorder to take advantage of the situatiuon ?

two reasons, 1) apparently it's got by far the best resources of any region, 2) LuLz
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Blue Lion on March 25, 2009, 10:49:38 pm
So did BoB lose all their systems?
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: NGTM-1R on March 26, 2009, 07:07:21 am
Oh so there are CPU empires alongside player/player-clan empires too ?

Sort of.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: General Battuta on March 26, 2009, 08:39:32 am
So did BoB lose all their systems?

BoB is gone, and Goonswarm owns the name now. BoBs' remnants reformed as Kenzoku (aka Kenny) and are attempting to hold a few pockets, but it doesn't look good.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Roanoke on March 26, 2009, 03:45:00 pm
Cool. Reminds me of the fall of the Jedi lol!
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Pred the Penguin on March 27, 2009, 09:11:23 pm
How are other clans/players reacting?
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: General Battuta on March 28, 2009, 12:14:42 pm
How are other clans/players reacting?

Knowing EVE, opportunistically.

Lots of corporations (they're not called clans in EVE) make up an alliance, and BoB had a whole nest of ally corps called the 'Greater BoB Community'. I believe they've largely disintegrated.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: chief1983 on April 06, 2009, 11:04:54 am
How is the game not layered?  The number of actual job opportunities is probably higher than that of any other MMO out there.  EVE's _strength_ is that it can reflect real world behavior so well.  Sure, you might think at first it's supposed to get you away from that, but the difference here is the lack of real world consequences.  You can be the criminal mastermind or the knight in shining armor and still sleep at night without worrying about your nemesis putting a knife in your back (unless you parked your Navy Apoc in a 'safe' that someone could find in < 15 minutes).  There's no other MMO that let's the players use the universe as a sandbox in the way that CCP does.  How many other MMOs can cater so completely to warlords, CEO and beancounter types alike?  WoW doesn't come close to approaching this on the same scale as EVE.  So you can knock it for being 'too real' all you want, I'm not saying it's for everybody, but that's the point.  If you need a simpler game there's plenty out there.  It really is the thinking man's MMO.  Have fun slaying rats otherwise.

Edit:  Also, that last comment reminded me.  It was damn easy to make the game interesting during just a 2 week trial period.  I was out in 0.0 security as soon as I finished training and a couple of easy missions.  Took my Velator out with some drones and starting going through systems with a recent high body count, scavenging for any wrecks I could loot.  Fun times honestly, considering how noob I was.
Title: Re: the political landscape of EVE online
Post by: Darkmist on April 11, 2009, 07:39:21 pm
So did BoB lose all their systems?

BoB is gone, and Goonswarm owns the name now. BoBs' remnants reformed as Kenzoku (aka Kenny) and are attempting to hold a few pockets, but it doesn't look good.

After that they were Bob.R (Band of Brothers Reloaded) for a bit after they petitioned CCP to get their name changed. But after a public outburst of yet another favoritism act CCP changed their name back to Kenzoku.