EVE Blog Banter #26: You don't get a second chance at a first impression

Sunday 8 May 2011

EVE Blog Banter #26: You don't get a second chance at a first impression

Welcome to the twenty-sixth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week or so to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check for other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

This month's topic was proposed by @KatiaSae of the much praised "To Boldly Go" blog. Katia asks: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. As an astrophotographer, I've found it in the stars and planets of New Eden. Where have you found it? Perhaps you've found beauty in the ships we fly? Maybe it's the sight of profits being added to your bottom line? Or maybe it's the pilot portraits you see in the comm channels? Where ever you've found it, write about it and post an image." Don't be afraid go beyond the simple visual aspects of EVE as well. Is the EVE Community in itself a thing of beauty? What makes EVE the game, the world, the Community, so appealing to you?

I started playing Eve Online in 2007, this was after the upgrade to the ship graphics but before the planet upgrade.

Visually Eve is stunning, especially now, in my earlier days I would sometimes just fly around and look at the objects in the Universe just for the pleasure of it. I'm sometimes envious of the new player who is able to be enthralled in wonder at the environs of New Eden, but as they say you don't get a second chance at a first impression.

I suspect that veterans of the game don't appreciate this visual quality, and I'm probably guilty of this also, as we need to be zoomed out in battles, fill the screen with boxes for chatting or information, and speed from one task to another not stopping to enjoy the view.

The planet upgrade improved the game for me as previously they were a muddy image hanging in an endless sea. Now they add greatly to the appeal of the game, especially with moving cloud patterns etc.

The game design is another area of beauty as it allows a larger than normal amount of freedom. I can fight, trade, travel, mine, manufacture, invent (for a given value of invention), as I see fit. Some limitations exist for all these options but no game is infinite in scope.

Is Eve Online the most visually stunning game out there? I don't know, probably not, but as I'm not able, nor do I want to, play every game out there it hardly matters to me.

Eve Online has a good balance of visual appeal and realistic computer requirements, some games in the past, Crysis comes to mind, have tried far to hard for stunning and have forgotten about the bulk of their potential audience. MMO's need to appeal to a large audience, both in their subject matter and the ability of interested parties to actually play the game, Eve Online does well in both criteria.

What makes Eve Online appealing to me? All of the above to be honest. Essentially I'm playing an improved version of David Braben's Elite, as an MMO with a chat client built in, what's not to love!

The Beauty of EVE lies within its Community.

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Sunday 8 May 2011

EVE Blog Banter #26: You don't get a second chance at a first impression

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