Where da aliens at?
Every race in Eve is descended from the first human stock to get stuck on the wrong side of the Eve Gate. Even the mysterious boogeymen the Jove. (And where have the Jove gone btw? Been a long time since we've heard anything from them!) All the NPC races, all the character races, all begat from those first humans who forgot to check the life-span of the gate they just jumped thru. We are descended from idiots. (True story)
But this expansive universe is seemingly devoid of life. Barren. All these worlds and not one iota of alien life? Ok, it is possible that the Sleepers might, might be alien. I suppose that is a start. Let us hang our hopes on that being the case, but unless I'm missing something (and I am no lore expert) the Sleepers are a branch, spin-off, second cousin to the Jove. And that makes them, once again, human based. Albeit altered and evolved over the last 15,000 years.
The bigger question is this, do we even need aliens in our Eve?
As much as I would enjoy getting a message someday in-game that said:
"Capsuleers! Reports of a large alien anomaly attacking a station in the Hevrice system are accurate. All Capsuleers are asked to rally and defend New Eden from this unknown threat and drive back the alien Space Octopus currently sitting on station six! MAYDAY! MAYDAY!"
It is a rather silly thing. And we don't really need it, do we? I once wrote what I think is the perfect way in which aliens can be introduced into New Eden without messing up the entire thing that CCP has created, you should go read it, it is rather brilliant.
But aside from that, what purpose would aliens serve and do we have a need for them? My honest opinion is that they would serve no purpose and that we have no hole for them to fill. Despite the awesome nature of random alien events like the one I described in the article I linked, having aliens in Eve could potentially be rather horrible.
Remember my opening paragraph? The one you called me a "loon" about? It is crazy and it is brilliant genius at the same time. It was crazy for CCP to create this universe without aliens in it, but it was also pure genius. We are humans, at least I am going to assume so for the sake of this post. We play Eve. We fly spaceships. We are not playing an Avatar based game, despite all the progress over the last decade in that direction, this is still an outer space based universe. Our race has very little to do with it frankly. And aliens would only muddy those waters, while bringing very little to the table.
Personally, I think random alien "mystery" events would be incredible for Eve. Every so often something really bizarre and wonderful happens that no one can explain. I think such events would add an air of wonder and science-fiction realism to New Eden. But I think playable or NPC aliens are for another game.
Aliens are fun little critters. But unless they are handled correctly, they can also be rather silly. Eve wasn't built for them. Eve was built for us.
Comments
Which in my book qualifies as life.
May be alien - https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Slaver_Hound
Alien - https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Lady_Phanca%27s_Pet_Furrier_(Chronicle)
Jove are all dead (read Templar One) which will allow us to enter their space in 2014 (I still think this is where we'll build stargates to)
I agree, intelligent aliens do not belong in Eve. Just look at local chat, we have hardly any intelligent humans!
As to Jove space, I don't think we'll ever get into it. It's there to provide back story and as CCP's play ground.
-Mark726/WebSpaceships
And to be honest, EVE has enough back story to discover - thousands of years of human history buried, waiting to be rediscovered.
TBH, I suspect that sentient aliens would be the final 'its a million-to-one chance, but it just might work' ploy should EVE Online approach the 'end times'. I hope to never see the 'end times'.
And second, EVE certainly does have aliens, it's just that we call them 'corporations'. See Charlie Stross' take on it: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/12/invaders-from-mars.html
[https://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/New_Eden_%28cluster%29]
" Dark Ages
(After the EVE Gate collapse) Over the intervening centuries, the majority of the (original human) settlements died out. A few managed to survive and slowly began to regain their lost technology. The first of these are the people who would come to be known as the Jove. The Jove are notoriously secretive and have shared little of their history. They once inhabited the region known as Curse during their First Empire. Following the contraction of a malady known as the Jovian Disease, they abandoned the area in an attempt to escape the affliction. Roughly 3000 years ago, Miko Bour united them in a Second Empire.
At some other point, at least three other ancient civilizations rose to power. Today, they are known mainly by the artifacts and ruins they left behind, with little knowledge of what caused them to rise and eventually vanish from the cluster's landscape. They are known as the Sleepers, Talocan, and Yan Jung, though the recent discovery of wormhole space has provided tantalizing clues about the fates of the Sleepers and Talocan. A fourth ancient civilization, the Takmahl, arose later as an offshoot of Amarr exiles."
One can reasonably assume the use of the terms, "civilizations rose" and "arose", means 'from the fallen human colonies'... As far as this reads, and to the best of my research, the Sleepers, Talocan and Yan Jung were not derived from the Jove but rose and fell (or just disappeared) similar to the Amarr derived Takmahl.
http://community.eveonline.com/backstory/scientific-articles/interstellar-traveling/
Not sure if this could be a certain proof of "true" alien discovery, but there is some tricky step in that direction. :)