EVE Online
- Platform: PC
- Published by: CCP Games
- Developed by: CCP Games
- Release Date: May 6, 2003
- Genre: RPG
- Multiplayer: Yes
- Online: Yes
EVE Online Interview Continued..
-- September 21, 2006 by: Marek Bronstring
Shack: Just to play devil's advocate: are the players sometimes wrong, let's say about balancing issues?
Magnus Bergsson: Of course they are.
Shack: What do you do then? ...To make them happy?
Magnus Bergsson: See, we don't go out to make people happy just to make them happy. We want to do things right. If they are unhappy about this, it is something they have to deal with, because we can't just be pleasing everybody. We are always going to have some people that are not happy with some change; hopefully we will have more people happy than unhappy. We created this game because we thought it would be the right way to create and play a game. If other people like it, then that's good.
Shack: You said earlier that EVE is very different than World of Warcraft. Can you explain for those who haven't tried the game how EVE is different from other MMOs?
Magnus Bergsson: The best comparison to make is to compare a game like World of Warcraft with a theme park, like Disneyworld. You go there, you can choose which rides you want to go on, then you go on the ride, you sit down, and stuff happens to you. You are somewhat a participant but it is a very constructed environment.
EVE Online is more like a playground. We have created the tools for you to play with, but you are actually doing everything. There is no structure that controls your game experience. It is a very freeform type of game, it is a very open world, and people really have to bring something with them to the game. They cannot mindlessly sit down and start playing, because it's not that type of game.
Some people are saying -- well, even we are saying -- is EVE really a game? It has become so big -- you know, one world. And it's not really created by the normal designer rules of games. It's more like a virtual world than an actual game. So people have to realize they actually have to bring something to the table when they start playing. They have to make choices and we are not going to help them a lot.
It's often very difficult, when you just get in, to realize what the game is about. You just don't really see it in the beginning. This is why it is so critical for new players to join a corporation right away. The other players will actually help them.
Shack: But are there still quests in the game?
Magnus Bergsson: There are missions, yeah. All of that stuff, if you want to.
Shack: So these missions teach you the basics, or... ?
Magnus Bergsson: Yes, but they are just things to do. It is like in real life, like going to a movie. You still have to live your life after the movie is over. So after a mission is over, you have a life in EVE; you are building a reputation, you are going to be working for a corporation, and this is what it's all about. You want to gain power. It is all about power anyway.
Shack: I saw some of the skill trees and character options and they are indeed very open ended. Is balancing a goal for you guys? Or do you not balance the specific skills against each other so much as just giving lots of options and let players figure it out?
Magnus Bergsson: We have some people ... I don't know exactly how many dedicated people we have in balancing, but it's quite a few. We try to balance everything and we want to make sure that everything is flowing properly in the grand scheme of things.
Shack: With the game's enormous complexity it is still possible to put everything in spreadsheets and actually calculate the balancing, or is it something you are doing more intuitively?
Magnus Bergsson: You can pretty much put everything in spreadsheets and work it out.
Shack: You have people just mining the data?
Magnus Bergsson: Oh they are crazy mathematicians, and they are big players as well so they realize ... they do have a good sense for the game as well. Balancing is still more of an art than anything else. How do you actually balance a new ship that comes into the game? It's more of an art than a science.
Shack: Right. It must be very hard since the game is constantly changing. Not just the updates but the player's behaviors as well.
Magnus Bergsson: Yes, so they have to think of countless possiblities for any item coming into the game. When we put in new things like the POSes, the Player Owned Structures, we make them very expensive and very limited. That's because it's much easier for us to make them better than to make them worse. Also, because everybody is playing on one server, the effect when we do something wrong can be dramatic. You will have so many people jumping onto that. If we would bring a ship out that would be much better than any other ship, can you imagine potentially hundreds of thousands of people buying that ship?
Shack: So with each update, you create new layers on top of the existing game. Have you had to go back and reverse things that were already in there but you were unhappy with?
Magnus Bergsson: You mean like nerfing? We had to nerf a lot of things and we are not shy of doing that. If we think something needs to be changed, we will do it.
Shack: I was at a lecture here at Nordic Game by Jorgen Theraldsen of Funcom and he said the average time people stay in an MMO is ten months. I don't know if that referred to Anarchy Online or the industry in general, but how do you experience this in EVE?
Magnus Bergsson: 25% of the people who bought the game when it first came out are still subscribers. The average age of an EVE player is always increasing and it is a lot more than ten months.
Shack: Do you know how many months?
Magnus Bergsson: I think we are now at 14 months and that number just keeps increasing as the game gets older.
Shack: Alright, here is the big question: if someone starts playing today, will it be very different from someone who started two years ago? Will they interact at all with those veteran players?
Magnus Bergsson: It is a very common question. People often think they are "too late" to enter the game. EVE is not like that. Anybody can have a purpose in EVE, just like in real life.
It all revolves around how your corporation is doing. And if you are in PvP, even if you have very limited skillsets, you can be a critical part of a gang. You can go from being a tackler [holding a ship in place so that others can destroy it] on a tech 1 frigate that costs like 200.000, to working with people in you know battleships worth 500 million.
A big part of the experience is the growth and everybody else has gone through it. You won't have the same ships as they do, but then again, if you could get everything they have, why would you continue playing? You want to grow into these things. That's the game. You want to experience everything they experienced. So it makes absolutely no sense when people say [they're too late]. You can be a huge and very important part of the corporation because a corporation needs to get a lot of things done. It's just like in real life.
Shack: So even those higher level guys can use the lower level guys for certain jobs?
Magnus Bergsson: Absolutely, cause they don't want to be in tech 1 frigates and tackling. They've done that. Someone has to fulfill that role now. This is why corporations and players in EVE are so welcoming of new players, because they need them.
Shack: Where do you think EVE will end up in, say, five years? Will you keep making new expansions forever, or will there be a point where CCP has to decide on a new game because the code gets too big or the graphics engine becomes outdated? Basically, what's the long term future?
Magnus Bergsson: We will continue developing EVE. We will continue until people stop playing it. That's basically our commitment to EVE. At the same time I can tell you that CCP is not going to be a single game company. We will have a seperate team working on any other titles that we will be... uh, maybe we are actually working on one right now. Who knows.
Shack: Hmmmm...
Magnus Bergsson: (laughs)
Again, we are extremely committed to the continued development of EVE. We have so many things planned that many people will be surprised to hear about and we will announce some of these things at our fanfest in November, which will be in Iceland. It's the third time we're doing it. Last time we had 350 people and we are going to have a lot more this year. We love meeting the players. Everybody knows everybody because they are all on the same server. So you actually have some celebrities.
Shack: You are talking about players?
Magnus Bergsson: Yes, there are players with a lot of power. They might have an alliance with 4000 people.
Shack: When they meet members of the team do they try to sort of lobby with you?
Magnus Bergsson: They are actually very friendly when we meet them. (laughs) They might scream and shout on the forums, but when we actually meet them, it's totally different. Because these are not kids. People under 18 don't really play this game. You have to have a certain attitude and maturity to understand the principles behind EVE, which is why the average age of all players is 27. That's quite high.
Shack: You are known for not having any seperate shards, though for a while now you have had a seperate one for China. Are you planning to start more shards for certain specific territories?
Magnus Bergsson: We had to do it in China. The laws there require we do it. In China it's forbidden for Chinese players to subscribe to online games that are operated in other countries. You actually have to operate the servers in China.
Our main server will hopefully make the top 500 super computer list soon. It's already the largest server cluster in the game industry. We will keep expanding our main server which is located in the UK, which has a good connection to Europe and a good connection to the US via Ireland.
Shack: Ah yes I was thinking Iceland itself might not have the capacity...
Magnus Bergsson: No, no, no. (laughs) We would drown the Icelandic link. People in Iceland would have to wait three days to get their e-mail.
For more information on EVE Online, or to grab a trial version, check out eve-online.com.