Destiny Corrupted
Deadly Viper Kitten Mitten Sewing Company
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Posted - 2011.12.02 13:46:00 -
[1] - Quote
Poetic Stanziel wrote:What makes EVE Online real for its players is that there are consequences to the game play. In other games, loss translates only to time. You lose a boss fight in a game like World of Warcraft, all that you've lost is the time it takes to make your way back to the encounter. You lose to a fellow player in EVE Online, you lose not only time and items, but pride and ego.
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What makes EVE Online real for its players is the meta-game. In other games, the accomplishments of the players are insular; what you accomplish has no bearing or effect on anyone else. In EVE, what you accomplish has effect on the entire game world. In other games, the game itself exists only while the client is running. In EVE, the game exists well outside of the client. Accomplishments in EVE require planning, politics, subterfuge, which, by necessity, are mostly achieved away from the pixels of spaceships. People think EVE well after they've turned their monitors off.
No, in other games, loss doesn't*** translate only to time. I've been playing this game for almost a decade, and you'll be hard-pressed to find a bigger fan, but this needless trip to inflate its ego is unnecessary. You're doing EVE a disservice.
I've played WoW for quite a long time as well (recently stopped), and I can tell you as a matter of fact that WoW raiding guilds can pretty easily break apart on just a few extra wipes. Guilds that do well command the same respect that the upper-tier alliances in EVE do, and that's just server-wide. The top-ranked guilds that get world-first achievements are recognized by tens of millions worldwide. Your raid achievements, gear, and arena rating, are all a source of competition. The same pride and ego exist in WoW, as they do in EVE, and can just as easily be shattered.
About the only argument I agree with is the insularity of WoW achievements; your actions in-game don't affect the game world itself. However, the game definitely exists outside of the game client. Being the best means devoting time, thought, and discussion to strategy, for both pve and pvp. Some of the user-side calculations for things like optimizing dps put EVE math to shame.
Am I saying WoW is better than EVE? No, not at all. But I'm not saying it's worse either. They're two separate games, catering to, for the most part, different demographics. But, because they're both MMOs, they also share some similarities. One of them is the concept of a persistent game world that translates into a sense of "reality" beyond it. And if you don't want to take my word for it, go lose a loot roll to a Hunter. You'll quickly understand just how "real" things can get.
By the way, this whole argument isn't just limited to WoW. WoW is simply the game more people are familiar with, and serves as a good base for a comparison.
*** Or rather, loss translates to time in all games. No matter how you rationalize things, I can at most lose in EVE what I've gained from the first minute onwards (RMT meta-spending not included). I started with a Velator, and try as you might, you won't be able to decrease my holdings beyond that point. |