The Garden Of (New) Eden

I don't ever play mumorpugers. They just don't appeal to me. It's a pointless act, usually no more than a giant timesink, and more often than not a giant timesink that costs money.



I have, however, lately been playing EVE Online, the immersive space sim by Icelandic developers CCP ((They'll be doing the much-anticipated, -fretted, and -worried-about MMORPG "World of Darkness", of which little to no details are known as of yet.)). It's slow, pretty damn atmospheric, and it sure does let you know how giant and lonely space is.

And set it to the beautiful space music.

I won't pretend to be any good (I'm not). My Gallente Diplomat character, Moira Tiberia, she's not yet found what she's really good, or what she's really passionate for. She's a bored spoiled brat, in other words... IN SPACE. For the moment she's doing mining, the least glamorous of jobs, out of sheer simplicity and tedium. Her Navitas, the Halcyon I, is no where as fancy as other ships, too. But it will have to suffice for now.



She's also mining the most worthless and common mineral, the veldspar. A wealthy friend, who formed a corporation with her that she's now Handler for, responded to the news in this way: "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA". Not for nothing, but this suddenly forced humble living was definitely strange and unMoira. Her friend has a battlecruiser fifty times larger than the pitiful Navitas.

In the two days I've been playing EVE I haven't explored much. I've built a marginal amount of skills, slower than someone who knows how to efficiently queue skills. I've mined a small fair bit, but only veldspar, completely worthless and even then protected by the occasional pirate. My wallet is no more than a million ISK.

All I do is warp around, mine, head into and out of docks, and repeat. Yet it's surprisingly... immersive. I wouldn't say addictive, but Steam is already telling me that I've put in 10 hours of play on EVE since I downloaded it two days ago. That, of course, is a lot of hours. Considering that I put in 10 hours on another game, Team Fortress 2 (kindly gifted by Dannis!), that's quite a lot of hours, yes.

Ah, space, to be exploring and mining and shooting and scanning. How slow, how confusing, how difficult. But I'd do it all the same. Twenty days left on my trial account. Perhaps I shall buy?