Warning: this is a long and nerdy post.

I have been playing EVE again lately, a Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game wherein an average of 25,000+ players mine asteroids, blow up computer-controlled pirates, and most importantly, battle other human players over large swaths of virtual territory. Players come together in the forms of corporations, and corporations form alliances. Player membership in alliances can number in the thousands. I currently belong to a corporation made up (mostly) of Ars Technica players, and in turn we belong to an alliance named GoonSwarm. While the actual active membership of GoonSwarm is unknown, estimates vary between two to four thousand players. GoonSwarm is fighting a huge war with another alliance named Band of Brothers (BoB).

Three events surfaced today that allegedly link employees of CCP, the company who produces EVE, to helping directly BoB or other alliances in the game. When the allegations were made public on the official EVE forums, one of BoB’s most high ranking officers admitted to having CCP developers as friends and/or personal contacts via MSN Messenger.
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Now that winter’s over and riding season is coming up, I’ve re-activated my accounts on EVE Online, the massively multiplayer online role playing game. Yeah, the timing doesn’t make sense, but EVE gives me something to do instead of traverse my deal of the day sites, looking for something to buy.

For those of you not familiar with the game or the genre, EVE is a game where you play a pilot in the far future. That’s about as common as the experience is among players, because after the initial tutorial, the game is pretty much wide open. If you want to mine asteroids all day, you can. If you want to trade heavy water or giant secured containers all day, you can. If you want to raise the Jolly Roger and gank newbs as a pirate all day, you can. If your idea is political intrigue, strategy and command, and forging (and busting) alliances, then EVE has that for you, too.

I’m not sure how long I’ll play this time. I know I said back in July that I was done with MORGs, and that I wasn’t too keen on EVE’s bugginess, but for now it’s a good game for me to pick up and put down when I want. The unique system of training characters in real-time, even when the player is offline, is a real benefit in that regard. I don’t have to worry about grinding out another 1,337 murlocs or tomte to make my next level. I set “Missle Bombardment V” and come back four days later. If I play, great. If not, my character still progresses.

For now I’m out running missions and trading crap back and forth with other players. I’m not sure if I will join another corporation (a group of players), there was a lot of politicking and other b.s. when I played last time. I also don’t want to commit myself to being ready for a player-owned station assault at 5:15 PM Eastern or running security detail for a mining operation. On the other hand, the majority of the game happens “in the corporate world,” and most of the exciting stuff just isn’t possible while playing solo.

We’ll see.

I’ve been playing Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Games for quite a long time. I started with Everquest at launch, then Dark Age of Camelot, then Shadowbane, then City of Heroes, (beta-tested Star Wars Galaxies at some point in there), then World of Warcraft, and finally EVE Online. I played Everquest for about three or four months, then ditched out for Starcraft and a few other games (Master of Orion II comes to mind) until picking up DAOC during launch month in October or November of 2001. I have probably had an active subscription to a MORG ever since.

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