Immersing Yourself in EVE

For many years the word "immersive" has been widely used in the digital industry; more notably in the video-gaming world.  It is an important property which contributes to the playability of every game.  Defined as "noting or pertaining to digital technology or images that deeply involve one's senses and may create an altered mental state".  This altered mental state can be one of the chief reasons why many people choose to play video games.  These digital worlds in which we immerse ourselves become an escape or exciting alternative to what we experience in real life.

While it is near impossible to boil down our desire for gaming into a few simple words and explanations; you can not deny that the immersion factor plays a huge role in almost all forms of media.  From books to music, first-person-shooters to documentaries;  we live in a world where our mental state is constantly shifting and adhering to the media we choose to consume.  Without getting into the psychological, physiological, or philosophical implications behind all of these "mental states",  I believe it is safe to say we all possess a degree of control over our varying immersion factors. 

When it comes to EVE Online, there are many ways we can do this.  I see it as an arbitrary spectrum:  At one end we have the hardcore role-player that never leaves character; this person has read every EVE chronicle and novel ever published, they have also written some of their own fan fiction.  They are fiercely loyal to their faction and can be seen shouting proclamations in local chat.  At the other end of the spectrum we have the ultra meta-gamer.  This player spends more time using third-party tools and spreadsheets than they do in-game.  They are heavily involved in EVE politics and scrupulously research the market and game mechanics to ensure their in-game superiority.  I am not saying their is not any cross-over between the two ends of this imaginary spectrum.  I know numerous people, including myself, who partake in multiple parts of the game.  Although, as diverse as our interests may be, we tend to get comfortable in our play style.  It can end up becoming too routine.  This can lead to disinterest and the inevitable "break" from the game.

I believe to fully appreciate all that this game has to offer, each of us should expand our horizons and try the different facets of EVE that have never held much sway over our gameplay choices.  By exposing ourselves to these different areas we will get a well-rounded experience that will increase our immersion, and thus result in more enjoyable gameplay.  I encourage you try some of these different areas of EVE.  Join an RP channel, tinker around with EFT, read a chronicle, go exploring, put a chunk of ISK towards some risky investments; whatever you do, try something different.  Wherever you fall on my arbitrary "immersion spectrum", know that all of us have a commonality in our interest of science fiction and internet spaceships.  If a person enjoys one aspect of this game, chances are you will at least be able to appreciate that aspect and gain some knowledge along the way. 

One last thing.  If you haven't heard the old EVE soundtrack in awhile, or have never heard it before, I think it's well worth a visit.  I played the whole thing while on an exploration session the other night and it was pretty awesome.  You can find it on SoundCloud here.

Late Boarding on the Sov/Structure Changes Hype Train, Pt. 2

In part one of this entry I eagerly wrote of the many changes that are coming to the sovereignty and structure elements of EVE Online.  These topics are thoroughly covered in the semi-recent dev blogs posted by Fozzie (sov) and Ytterbium (structure).  By internet standards this is old news, but I'm still surprised to not see more elation and chatter about these topics.  The never ending assault on POCOs and POSs continues, sovereignty wars rage on, things are persisting as-usual.  Seemingly unbeknownst to the majority of players, change is coming.  The old ways of structure bashing and lengthy sovereignty takeover will be snuffed into ash, and like a phoenix; the new system will gloriously rise in an inferno of change to purify the lengthy and monotonous system which we presently take for granted.

If you haven't figured out by now, I abhor structure farming, the mere mention of POS bashing sends me into a fit of disinterest.  The EVE experience I was so hoping to log-in to becomes bile in my mouth.  Admittedly, many times these events turn out to be something worthwhile.  They can result in decent escalation and fantastic fights, but equally likely they result in cat-and-mouse games with nothing being accomplished other than a reinforcement timer or single explosion, followed by an order being given to set destination to "home".  I also detest POS management and moon mining, need I explain? With these two new systems being integrated in the near-future, we can say goodbye the humdrum and move on to more meaningful gameplay.  You're probably still not as excited as I am, but that's alright, I'm prone to enthusiasm...  

Instead of delving into every detail of the upcoming structure changes,  I'm going to highlight a few aspects which I found most interesting (all of these are clearly designated by CCP to be a work-in-progress and are therefore subject to change):

Custom Fitting:

No longer will you have to anchor multiple items inside of a POS to carry out the desired function.  All of the functions will be determined by what you fit on your structure.  This should result in an easier management system and will probably (hopefully?) come with some interesting visual differences between each structure, much like what we see with strategic cruisers.


Visually Captivating:

Each type of structure will come with a much more distinct look and feel.  Not to mention they are also going to be much larger than what we are currently used to seeing.  I imagine with the increased polygon count which CCP is striving for, these new structures will be a sight to behold.  Also, the new visual effects for anchoring structures looks marvelous.

Choice of Designating Access: 

It will be your choice as to who has access to each structure which you deploy.  No longer will your structures have to be bound to your corporation or alliance.  By all means, help your fellow corp and alliance mates as much as possible, but nothing is keeping you from anchoring an industry or research hub for public access and profit.

Side note:  

The dev blog seemed to be eluding to the goal of replacing the current NPC infrastructure with player owned objects.  This is further hinted to in an image on the dev blog which shows a mock-up structure management window that displays player owned structures in 0.8-1.0 systems.  It is currently impossible to anchor starbase structures in systems with security 0.8 and above.  Perhaps this restriction will be lifted or reduced and we will indeed see the majority of structure use migrate from NPC structures to player owned structures.

I am still curious for more details surrounding the implementation process and how the transition will take place.  Even with a smooth transition I believe we'll see yet another sharp rise in mineral prices (miners rejoice!).  Since mining really isn't my forte, I'm more thrilled to see how these changes will drastically morph player interaction.  Pretty cool stuff!  I will now step off my hypebox and patiently wait for more information on these prodigious changes to this amazing game.