Again, these are my own personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Eveoganda Incorporated or its affiliates, employees or stakeholders. Any opinions expressed herein are strictly self-inflicted and hopefully insightful and illuminating. Or entertaining. And never dull or boring.
In some type of order. They could be in any order, but this is the order they are in.
1. CAMARADERIE
When the rubber meets the road Eve is about the people in it, you, me and all those other knuckle heads who are ignoring their friends and family to play internet spaceships. The game can certainly be played solo and alone I suppose, but that is simply sad. In my nearly three years of playing Eve I've met a ton of truly good people from around the world, England, Australia, Crete, India, Russia, France, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Whales, and dozens of other countries (and places like Canada) that I wouldn't have met any other way. I'd like to think that in some way, virtually or otherwise, that they are all friends. This is the heart of Eve in my opinion.
2. SPACESHIPS!!
C'mon now, we get to fly spaceships! I don't know what it is about Eve, but it is unlike any other space video game or MMORG that I've seen or experienced. For some reason beyond my reckoner to reckon, it doesn't feel like I'm driving pixels around, it feels... better somehow. The experience is well and truly great in space, the beauty of the universe, the worlds, the ships, it all works and it drives me to undock and enjoy it.
3. THE TRAIN
As much as I hate it sometimes, the long skill train in Eve is friggin' brilliant and whoever is responsible for setting it up the way they did deserves a bronze statue in Iceland. Skill training is the great equalizer and also the most equatable and fairly considered method of growing a character over time that I have knowledge of. It isn't perfect and no one rails against those imperfections as much as I do, but it is amazing and deserves to be on the list. It is truly the backbone of Eve. A strong foundation that keeps us all on the same playing field. Brilliant.
4. IT WORKS
I am constantly amazed that the damn thing even works. It is Global, it is insanely complicated, it delivers amazingly detailed 3D imagery and game play around the world almost 24/7, it involves thousands upon thousands of people, and despite our bitching it usually manages to do all of that with little or no serious problems. Consistently, day after day. From a single server source. Whoa. The whole thing might as well be magic as far as I'm concerned, but the fact that it works is deserving of some praise.
5. THE COMMUNITY
The out-of-game version of the in-game comaraderie I mentioned above, the Eve Community is an amazing and wonderful thing and I am proud to be a small part of it. My fellow Bloggers, Pod-casters, forum directors, twitterites, facebookers, or however else they manage to contribute, are an amazing bunch of characters. I enjoy them almost as much as I enjoy playing the game.
6. Player Vs. Player Combat
You might be surprised that I would rank my favorite thing about Eve so far down the list of the most Amazing things about Eve. But you shouldn't be. PvP is my favorite thing, but that doesn't make it as amazing as the others above it. But a good fight is a rare and amazing thing to be cherished. Goodness knows I've talked enough about the ballet of battle, of the huge fleet fights and the solo 1v1 combat and everything in-between, so I'll just leave it at that for now.
7. THE ECONOMY
The Universal economy of Eve is simply amazing, the complexity, depth and vastness of every aspect is incredible to consider. And it works pretty damn well. Resources are harvested, converted and consumed at an amazing rate and given the breadth of its services and goods, it manages to drive a vibrant and rich tapestry of events and universal exploits. For vast Alliances, Corporations and the individual pilots. Amazing.
8. OPPORTUNITIES
It is constantly amazing to me that more people aren't pirates. lol. Seriously though, Eve presents to each player an amazing and rich selection of possible career paths, from industrialist to wormhole explorer to miner to builder to warrior to scout to solo roamer to pirate and beyond, the choices are vast. The breadth of that open world, and the fact that people actually choose some of those paths for real, is simply amazing.
9. THE SANDBOX
Originally I had this ranked higher on the list, but I decided to move it further down. To me it is probably the foundation of all the others above it, but the fact that Eve is such a sandbox perhaps isn't, on its own, amazing enough to warrant a higher ranking. The fact that I can log on and do whatever I want is pretty amazing, in fact, I could log on and do nothing at all. If I wanted. Or I could get in my ship and fly all the way across the universe park in a system and mock people in local all day, and that would be ok. lol. And don't think for a minute that I haven't already done that a few times.
10. CCP
I do my share of bashing these guys when I think they deserve it, so it is only fair that I give them credit when they deserve it. Without CCP all of the things above would have been impossible, in fact they wouldn't even exist. I'd be writing a blog about something else and my innate need for 3d internet spaceships would probably be going unfulfilled right now. And that would be sad. So to all the folks at CCP, thank you. You guys are amazing and we appreciate you.
I was kidding about Canada.
What are some of your most amazing things about Eve?