As for myself, I have been playing EVE for coming up on 20 years. Iāve spent thousands of dollars on this game and probably more than 2+ actual years of my life sitting in front of the keyboard playing it. But do I go and drown my dog in an Arbyās public bathroom toilet just because CCP changed a game mechanic? No, I find ways around it or make changes to my playstyle.
i think, it has something to do with the illusion of being power- and meaningful.
not quite sure about that. but it is possible in EVE, to become very influential.
but it still is just a gameā¦
I think this is a good point. The nature of EVE gives player groups more ability to impact the overall game than is normally the case. And power fantasies are pretty major emotional drivers.
Plus the way EVE ties game results more to real $$ than most games, itās always been a game that encourages higher than normal cash outlay by players.
That said, keep in mind that every game has itsā nutters, and EVE sort of goes out of itsā way to advertise to nutters (āEVE: a harsh universe where you can be the bad guy!ā), and not the nicer ones. So itās likely a combination of several factors that cause certain people to get a little more emotionally invested in an unhealthy way.
And even within EVE playerbase, those people are still an extremely small percentage.
@Okada_Aivoras From what I know, seen and understand, EVE Online is a different kind of game, and thatās exactly why people take it so seriously. Unlike most MMOs, where losing a fight means you respawn and try again, EVE makes losses permanent. If your ship is destroyed, itās gone. That sense of risk makes every battle more intense and every victory more meaningful and real.
But itās not just about combat. The entire universe is shaped by players, from the economy to the political landscape. Every trade, every alliance, every war has real consequences. Some players spend years building up corporations or managing vast supply chains. Others dedicate themselves to espionage, spending months infiltrating enemy alliances just for that one perfect moment to strike. Itās an incredibly deep game where strategy, patience, and ambition pay off in ways you donāt see in most online worlds.
And of course, thereās the human element. People love recognition. ZKillboard isnāt just a stats tracker and intel tool āitās a way to show off, to prove your skills, to build a reputation. Whether itās a new player raging after losing their Venture or a veteran pilot flaunting their PvP record, everyone wants to feel like their time in EVE matters. And in a game where the stakes are real, it does matter.
Thatās why people pour so much energy into EVE. Itās not just a gameāitās a living, breathing universe where every action counts. And for some, thatās irresistible.
If you have to ask, you will never understand and you are not fit for the game.
To put it in simple terms: Itās the time and effort spent on building something up (even for credit card warriors) that is continuously at risk and in the worst case permanently destroyed if things turn bad. It takes days, weeks, months to create certain things but their destruction is usually a matter of minutes or seconds.
It is not just a game. It is a hobby like football (both kinds), like car tuning, like stamp collection, like going to the gym, like restoring old cars. All the effort, time, money you spend on it makes you feel invested and very emotional about your hobby, its outcomes and what happens around it. Tell someone who loves football or restores a car or devoutly collects something while you trash it, ruin it or otherwise besmear it, that itās just a game, a fluke, a random pastime, not important or in any way tangible. You get the same response.
Practical example about the effort: I am under threat of a high sec war because some people want my pocos. I can defend them with friends, so that is not the issue. But I have to spend lots of time to organize ships and to get the necessary alliance assistance sorted. I also have to look all over the place in the vicinity of the attack area and where my friends live for drifter wormholes, which takes a considerable amount of time. And then we have to sit around and hope for them to attack and we have to repair the pocos, which also takes a lot of time. Naturally, if I get my friendsā alliance to assist, the war dec opponents will likely chicken out, which then means that all that effort yielded nothing but a deterrence effect and no kills. I am fine with that, of course, because wannabe tryhards chickening out of an engagement is fun in itself. It is still a lot of effort and time to get this sorted out.
And then you have people who say āEVE is just a gameā. You know what is just a game? Candycrush. You know how invested people are about this ājust a gameā game?
I too am approaching the 2 year mark in this game, but I donāt take itā¦
In the simplest of answers; there was a study done on why children were breaking windows on an abandoned building. Those caught were interviewed by psychologists and it came down to the same answer, āBecause I was bored.ā. They placed a new rec center nearby and the vandalism stopped.
I am a grandma, I play here causally, most importantly I donāt pay for this game. Since spaceships cost some players both time and money, they are losing cash. Losing cash gaming is a predictive result in hostility. The ventures base price in cash is small 0.07 ā¬ but some are rather extreme at more than 5.00 ā¬. The zkillboard reminds the players they are losing money, when they hover over the total ISK lost. Hellās bells, I have seen grown men get upset losing at Monopoly and throw a fit.
Gaming and gambling have no distinct separation in my state legislature. We have a state gaming commission, not a state gambling commission. People will argue this is not gambling because you canāt win money back. Technically the majority of us at the casino donāt win money back either. Gambling is about the winnerās rush, in fact the popular gaming app āFanduelā adverts claim winning is the #1 Feeling. While I disagree with their adverts, it is probably accurate for those addicted to gambling. When my husband and I go to the local casino, I lose $50, playing slots, while he drinks the free coffee. We do this activity once or twice a year.
I fly junk here, so I donāt get upset about it. I donāt pay, although my husband gave the game devs a $10 cup of coffee for their efforts. I am not made out of money, but I do well on my retirement. I think the #1 Feeling, at least for me, my kidney doctor telling me, I need less dialysis days per week. I am just getting ready for that bus again to pick me up.
I hope this answers why some people are taking their game so serious. I do stress some of them and not all.
if you look at my zkillboard, you will see that i have lost some ships too. and this isnāt my first character too, so i know how it feels to lose your time and efforts.
i am curious about what other people think about this. it is not that i do not understand it at all.
I have no problem with zkill, indeed Iām proud of my somewhat lowly stats, but itās a shame that this is the only recogniser of a certain type of playstyle i.e. kills/being killed. PvP in other words.
What Iād like to see is more varied sites showing other achievementsā¦Mining amounts/Products built/even some form of ingame popularity table of individuals.
Even recruitment could be addedā¦how easy it is to join an alliance rated in some form. Some alliances are as snotty as possible about accepting players, whilst others make it an easy, enjoyable business. Name and shame etc.
Just my 2 cents.
What continues to draw me back into this game despite itās multiple short coming is the feeling that the things youāre doing actually matter. Unlike any other MMO on the market your actions no matter how small effect the greater eco system in a significant way. No matter whether youāre running missions and subjected to non consensual pvp or mining in high sec all the way to evicting other corps in a wormhole.
In this game youāre not just doing quests for some random meaningless NPC to get currency or an item. Youāre building something that will last for as long as youāre able to defend it. No other game offers this.
I agree with you 100% but letās not forget that Ship Loss is lucrative for the company. Itās an important component of their revenues.
zKillboard is interesting to me in the sense that I can study fittings from the best EVE players and I can get information on whoever happens to be in Local with me, whether they are fierce or cuddly. I doubt I will ever be able to use it for bragging rights.
That would be something nice to add to the game. Although there was something like that in the form of an activity tracker but it was taken out of the game before I could even explore it. I hope some form of achievement tracker will some day be implemented again.
What stops players from building another tool with for example the mining ledger to track how much ore players have mined?
The only reason this isnāt done yet is because not enough people are interested in such a table apparently. I suspect thatās the case because such info is irrelevant to others as it gives no competitive advantage unlike zkillboard.
I donāt care who is at the top of zkillboard klills and wouldnāt care about a public mining ledger tracker either.
In fact, if I were in the top of that mining ledger it would give me a competitive advantage to not be tracked, as it gives away when youāre out there vulnerable and mining.
Many players donāt use zkillboard for achievement, but as intel tool to gain a competitive advantage. Or as a way to get their SRP requests paid out.
Maybe ask someone to make a third party mining achievement tracker based on the mining ledger?
I am willing to bet a large number of the people claiming to take this game so seriously are just roleplaying to an extent. Putting on an act as the super serious eve player cause it is part of the culture. Or they have to keep up appearances because the social groups they are part of treat the game that way and to call it just a fun little game would be heresy.
Of course you also have sunk cost mindset too. Spend x amount of time and money on something and you start questioning it. So if it is more than a game, if it is a āhobbyā or āchallenging environment used to improve strategizing skillsā, then maybe you can justify all that time ans money spent.
Wish they would realize you dont have to justify it. Just have fun. Relax.
There is a bit of skill involved in gate camps. You will usually catch the unprepared, but not much more than that. Just like ganking in high sec, success depends on your target being unprepared, AFK, or just stupid.
i wonāt say where but i have been with gatecampers for a while.
as long as there is a scout on the other side and a instalocker at gate, there is not much to do for the rest, than lock and shoot.
some ships will escape, insta-aligning frigates for example or some cloaky ships, if they are fast. but most stuff will die to a gatecamp that is well set upā¦ hmmmm okay now that i am writing about itā¦
You know what is just a game? Candycrush. You know how invested people are about this ājust a gameā game? 