I recently watched a video on YouTube about the top ten most pretentious gaming communities. No. Eve Online didn’t make the top ten. However, we did make it into the dishonorable mentions. Seriously, Eve Online does have a bit of a reputation as being toxic, but to have implied that we are somewhat pretentious, that should be a concern. Yes, I get that there are some elitists within the community who want, and even demand, that things should be a certain way, but that really should be the exception, not the rule. I can not say that I agree with with Eve Online showing up at all, but it really should be cause for concern. I will leave a link to the video for everyone to consider for themselves. I am only sharing this for the sake of awareness.
I mean, we do have that old joke about changes in IQ when an EVE player leaves tobplay WoW…
Couple things. First, you should rather think about the criteria and credibility of a poll before you even consider being affected in any way by the results. A Youtube “Top X things…” list is just…laughable.
Second, EVE is a niche game that used to be known for being hardcore. That was part of the appeal. As more and more casualizing changes are introduced (in an attempt to appeal to a wider audience as the game and its players age) it isn’t a surprise that the players that were attracted to the hardcore concept scoff at the newcomers. Especially when the newcomers start asking for more and more changes catering to them.
So yes, there’s some pretentiousness and elitism. The most important thing about the game is its community and culture, and it reacts harshly towards foreign elements seeking change. It’s almost like an overzealous immune response.
EVE’s target demographic used to be intelligent hardcore players. Of course those of lesser intellect (the majority) believe it’s the game and community that are at fault. It’s the same old excuse / elitist argument people make about every group they want to join but can’t because they just don’t fit in.
Joined because spaceships namely a picture of a vexor:can you believe I thought it was A shaped because of the angle?
Anyway stayed so long because the game seemed complicated at the time but as anything a decade can teach you alot
I think that guy’s understanding of the word pretentious is different than mine. Seems like he means “has rigid expectations of how the game should be played; disdainful of unskilled players; elitists; hardcore.” Not exactly how I understand the word pretentious is used. Anyway I couldn’t really make out what he was going on about.
P.S. I once tried to recruit guys on the Matrix Games wargamer forums to join Eve, form a grognard corp, and conquer the world. I figured hardcore wargamers might be up for the IQ and strategy challenge of Eve. But the universal response was, “No and hell no, Eve people are mean, nasty, toxic sociopaths!” That was about five years ago, though.
I think a big part of the “problem” is unrealistic expectations. In most games, developers provide content to entertain players. In Eve, players are the content - it’s the essential nature of a sandbox.
Because Eve has a player driven economy, there needs to be a balance between production and destruction. Without builders, there would be no ships to fly and without destruction, there would be no customers for the stuff we build.
There also needs to be a risk/reward balance in a player driven economy. Any activity that is truly risk free will have no value. If gankers didn’t exist in highsec, CCP would need to program the AI so NPCs fill that niche - creating risk for miners and haulers.
Because we’re competing with other players, whether in the markets or on the battlefield, Eve has a strategic element that simply doesn’t exist in a PVE game - that’s what keeps me logging in.
