Massive Multiplayer Online. Massive entertainment, massive lessons.
One of the wallpapers available from the Eve-Online website. Note the fleet formation and the size discrepency of the ships. Each one of the ships is piloted by a real person logged into the game.While looking through Gamespot the other day, I noticed the side banners proclaiming the release of the new Eve Online expansion. I've always been a sucker for space themes (Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica and Homeworld), so I decided to find out more about the game. Eve Online is one of the many MMOs out there. Of course, the most illustrious one at the moment is Second Life, which mimics the real world by giving people occupations and entertainment and dating options. Another widespread gameworld is that of Azeroth in World of Warcraft. However, while many of the MMOs are set in fantasy realms, Eve Online is one of the few set in a sci-fi background, which really irked my interest.
In Eve, you play one of 4 races who are remnants of human space explorers in New Eden. New Eden was cut off from the rest of human civilisation when the wormhole connecting the 2 main pockets of human colonisation collapsed. Much of the game revolves around you training yourself up to command different kinds of ships. As you progress into the game, you begin to specialise in several occupations: warfare, trade, mining, bounty hunting and the works.
What really intrigued me was how complex the game world is. Training in the game occurs in real-time and works offline too. For example, you can begin to learn "how to operate a capital ship", log off and when you log on again, you can be halfway through that training. Also, there are huge markets for players to trade raw materials, finished goods and blueprints. While such items can be bought from NPCs, many of the high level items require player interaction to create. Thus, you can only buy them from other players.
As such, Eve has a vibrant open economy. There's lots of trade going on throughout the gameworlds represented.
Eve also features large corporations. That's when players band together and recruit more and more players into their corporation. Each player in that group can specialise in whatever he wants; there is a use for everyone. Thus, the corporations earn wealth from the miners and merchants. Meanwhile, the individual merchants benefit from the economic and political clout the huge corporations provide.
Warfare in Eve comprises of dozens of players, each controlling his own ship, engaged in fleet actions. Each ship serves a function in a battle. The scouts report enemy fleet strength. Black Ops sabotage enemy operations deep within their lines. Frigates jam enemy electronics and increase their lock-on times. Battleships engage one another with massive turrets. The massive Titans destroy entire fleets with a single shot from its cannon. It is a fleet battle on a massive scale. Each ship contributes in some way. Each ship is controlled by one player who happens to be logged on through his computer terminal somewhere in the world.
So why is this enthusing about some online game that I don't even subscribe to over here on a blog that offers food for thought? Well, the world represented in Eve links to the subjects I'm currently studying: Economic development.
Much of economic development arose from specialisation. When farmers were working for subsistence, the nation was generally poor. But throw in technological advancements and they sow more crops than they could eat. So they began selling the crops. People began to move away from farming because they knew that the farmers will sell their excess. With the time people saved from not subsistence farming, they began to work on other things, like research, or trading, or smithing. This led to specialisation and became an economic multiplier. Scientists discovered new technologies that could be exported, or used to improve current methods. This meant blacksmiths could produce more than they originally could. More goods can be exported. The traders were more than happy with the increased volume of goods changing hands.
In a condition where people know that they will be given due credit for their work, trade flourishes. The blacksmith can continue working on his metals without having to touch grain or wheat because he knows his smithing is valued and that gives him money to buy food from the farmer. The farmer plants more than he can eat because his excess crops are of value to others. He needs the money to buy better tools for farming.
This is why I find MMOs with open economies and diverse occupations intriguging. Each player logged on does something he enjoys, but he is contributing to the overall well-being of the corporation he belongs to. The politicians will act to put their faction in a favourable light in the eyes of stronger factions. The tacticians will plan strategies to gain territories that are rich in resources. The navy will fight to gain those territories. The researchers will come up with new designs to increase the fighting strength of the navies. The miners will dig more raw materials to trade and build bigger ships with.
The best part is that you get so much more from the game than if you do everything on your own. For example, the Titan class ships are so massive a person playing on his own will never be able to build one in his lifetime. (Well, prolly not in his lifetime.) However, the corporation has enough resources to build one. And similarly, the corporation has enough resources to improve the mining tools you have, or the research facilities you have access to. And that one lucky person who gets to pilot the Titan gets to show off his fancy new toy. But that person has a responsibility too. The titan is a tool for power projection. You don't mess with a corporation who owns a Titan because that's folly. (Unless of course you have a Titan of your own.) That person has a duty to command the Titan well so that it does not get destroyed in the line of battle.
This is why MMOs are not just games. It's real people using their people logic in a virtual setting. Much can be learnt about the economy, or how technology is diffused or how political clout affects neighbouring factions. All these are real-world issues. All these can be studied in the "laboratory" of MMOs. In fact, Eve Online has a real economist in its payroll studying the statistics the servers capture about New Eden's transactions.
It's not real, it's just a game and there are bound to be erratic behaviour from certain players. However, MMOs still provide a treasure trove of information on human behaviour relating to real-world issues. And that's fascinating. -Jimmy
In Eve, you play one of 4 races who are remnants of human space explorers in New Eden. New Eden was cut off from the rest of human civilisation when the wormhole connecting the 2 main pockets of human colonisation collapsed. Much of the game revolves around you training yourself up to command different kinds of ships. As you progress into the game, you begin to specialise in several occupations: warfare, trade, mining, bounty hunting and the works.
What really intrigued me was how complex the game world is. Training in the game occurs in real-time and works offline too. For example, you can begin to learn "how to operate a capital ship", log off and when you log on again, you can be halfway through that training. Also, there are huge markets for players to trade raw materials, finished goods and blueprints. While such items can be bought from NPCs, many of the high level items require player interaction to create. Thus, you can only buy them from other players.
As such, Eve has a vibrant open economy. There's lots of trade going on throughout the gameworlds represented.
Eve also features large corporations. That's when players band together and recruit more and more players into their corporation. Each player in that group can specialise in whatever he wants; there is a use for everyone. Thus, the corporations earn wealth from the miners and merchants. Meanwhile, the individual merchants benefit from the economic and political clout the huge corporations provide.
Warfare in Eve comprises of dozens of players, each controlling his own ship, engaged in fleet actions. Each ship serves a function in a battle. The scouts report enemy fleet strength. Black Ops sabotage enemy operations deep within their lines. Frigates jam enemy electronics and increase their lock-on times. Battleships engage one another with massive turrets. The massive Titans destroy entire fleets with a single shot from its cannon. It is a fleet battle on a massive scale. Each ship contributes in some way. Each ship is controlled by one player who happens to be logged on through his computer terminal somewhere in the world.
So why is this enthusing about some online game that I don't even subscribe to over here on a blog that offers food for thought? Well, the world represented in Eve links to the subjects I'm currently studying: Economic development.
Much of economic development arose from specialisation. When farmers were working for subsistence, the nation was generally poor. But throw in technological advancements and they sow more crops than they could eat. So they began selling the crops. People began to move away from farming because they knew that the farmers will sell their excess. With the time people saved from not subsistence farming, they began to work on other things, like research, or trading, or smithing. This led to specialisation and became an economic multiplier. Scientists discovered new technologies that could be exported, or used to improve current methods. This meant blacksmiths could produce more than they originally could. More goods can be exported. The traders were more than happy with the increased volume of goods changing hands.
In a condition where people know that they will be given due credit for their work, trade flourishes. The blacksmith can continue working on his metals without having to touch grain or wheat because he knows his smithing is valued and that gives him money to buy food from the farmer. The farmer plants more than he can eat because his excess crops are of value to others. He needs the money to buy better tools for farming.
This is why I find MMOs with open economies and diverse occupations intriguging. Each player logged on does something he enjoys, but he is contributing to the overall well-being of the corporation he belongs to. The politicians will act to put their faction in a favourable light in the eyes of stronger factions. The tacticians will plan strategies to gain territories that are rich in resources. The navy will fight to gain those territories. The researchers will come up with new designs to increase the fighting strength of the navies. The miners will dig more raw materials to trade and build bigger ships with.
The best part is that you get so much more from the game than if you do everything on your own. For example, the Titan class ships are so massive a person playing on his own will never be able to build one in his lifetime. (Well, prolly not in his lifetime.) However, the corporation has enough resources to build one. And similarly, the corporation has enough resources to improve the mining tools you have, or the research facilities you have access to. And that one lucky person who gets to pilot the Titan gets to show off his fancy new toy. But that person has a responsibility too. The titan is a tool for power projection. You don't mess with a corporation who owns a Titan because that's folly. (Unless of course you have a Titan of your own.) That person has a duty to command the Titan well so that it does not get destroyed in the line of battle.
This is why MMOs are not just games. It's real people using their people logic in a virtual setting. Much can be learnt about the economy, or how technology is diffused or how political clout affects neighbouring factions. All these are real-world issues. All these can be studied in the "laboratory" of MMOs. In fact, Eve Online has a real economist in its payroll studying the statistics the servers capture about New Eden's transactions.
It's not real, it's just a game and there are bound to be erratic behaviour from certain players. However, MMOs still provide a treasure trove of information on human behaviour relating to real-world issues. And that's fascinating. -Jimmy
posted by Jimmy at 12:18 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home