Okay so… have returned to playing CCP Games Eve Online, a Science Fiction game set in the universe of New Eden. New Eden is a pocket of humanity that has lost contact with Earth, and the inhabitants fight for survival in a Universe full of hostile fellow players and aliens. This has always been a difficult game to play, with large groups other players often ambushing you in the depths of space… Killing your starship and looting the remaining wreckage.
It remains one of the most challenging PvP (Player-versus-Player) video games in existence. New Eden is a Dystopian collection of space empires held together by some thin threads of humanity and player agency where players temporarily (mostly) band together to protect their fledgling Space Empires and Space Stations. CCP has long favored the large Interstellar Space Corporations and Alliances over the individual players and this game is legendary for the politics, backstabbing, and betrayals which have brought down vast Alliances and resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses of game assets in mere minutes.
I have never had the aspirations to participate in a large Corporation or Alliance as it requires an extreme commitment of time (and often financial resources) in order to participate. I enjoy the game for the beauty of traveling through the 7,500+ solar systems the comprise New Eden, and for the PvE (Player-versus-Eve) opportunities. With my play style, I prefer forming Independent small corporations and participating in mining, manufacturing, trade, and exploration.
This game is played on a single shard server where up to 55,000 players from all over the world simultaneously login to play. The difficult nature of the game has put off many players, and many have allowed their subscriptions to lapse over the years. The continued favoritism displayed by CCP towards the larger player alliances and corporations has stunted the growth of this spectacular, impressive, and immersive game.
In the coming months I’ll be posting additional reports here on how to succeed and thrive in the dark depths of New Eden. This will include articles on building a Manufacturing Empire, Conducting Exploration, and traveling through the depths of both uncharted and hostile space to retrieve treasures and resources. There are many different ways to succeed in this game, and over the years I have adopted a strategy of avoiding confrontations and focusing on gathering resources and building useful equipment, modules, ships, and implants for myself and other players.
