Post by Morreion on Apr 2, 2010 9:10:58 GMT -5
EVE Online official site
What is EVE Online?
EVE is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMORPG) that takes place approximately 20.000 years after our times in a galaxy on the far end of the universe. When you join EVE you assume the role of a freshly graduated „Capsuleer“, a relatively small group of elite spaceship pilots capable of controlling powerful spaceships on their own from within their capsules. Capsuleers are often referred to as "The immortals" due to the fact that the highly advanced capsules they are connected to from the inside, are capable of instantly dowloading their consciousness to a clone of themselves in the case of physical destruction.
A few things make EVE special amongst other MMORPGs...
* EVE is a single "shard" virtual world. What that means is that everyone who joins EVE becomes a part of the same world and the same community. The industry standard for MMORPGs is to run the game on multiple smaller servers, so called shards, so that each player only has the opportunity of interaction with a few thousand other players even if the number of subscribers can be in the millions. In EVE you have the opportunity to affect more than 250.000 other players in one way or another as all our players are a part of the same persistent universe, hosted on the world‘s most powerful gaming server yet.
* In EVE you are free to choose your own destiny. You start out as a character from one of four races that inhabit the EVE universe but apart from slightly different starting skills you are free to take your character in any direction you want. You are not restricted by predefined character classes or professions. You can trade to make a living, conduct mining operations, market your fighting skills as a mercenary, camp the spacelanes for profit as a pirate, conduct espionage and infiltration, focus on research and manufacturing, or perform increasingly profitable missions for NPC (non player controlled, run by the EVE system) agents. What you choose to do day by day is up to you. You can play alone, form a corporation (equivalent of clan or guild) with a close group of friends or seek entrance to any of the large player run corporations and alliances already established. The EVE Unviverse and its 5000 unique solar systems are yours to explore and conquer.
* In EVE you don‘t level up like in most games. You purchase skills which then train in real time until finished. The skills train even while you are offline. Skills give you a myriad of different abilities. Some allow you to fly specific types of ships or use a particular weapon while others focus more on general things. Each skill has five levels which all give the same percentage bonus to whatever field of your gameplay they affect. Each level however takes increasingly longer to train so that players are always faced with the choice of specializing in one field, or spend the skill training time equally on many different fields.
EVE is a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMORPG) that takes place approximately 20.000 years after our times in a galaxy on the far end of the universe. When you join EVE you assume the role of a freshly graduated „Capsuleer“, a relatively small group of elite spaceship pilots capable of controlling powerful spaceships on their own from within their capsules. Capsuleers are often referred to as "The immortals" due to the fact that the highly advanced capsules they are connected to from the inside, are capable of instantly dowloading their consciousness to a clone of themselves in the case of physical destruction.
A few things make EVE special amongst other MMORPGs...
* EVE is a single "shard" virtual world. What that means is that everyone who joins EVE becomes a part of the same world and the same community. The industry standard for MMORPGs is to run the game on multiple smaller servers, so called shards, so that each player only has the opportunity of interaction with a few thousand other players even if the number of subscribers can be in the millions. In EVE you have the opportunity to affect more than 250.000 other players in one way or another as all our players are a part of the same persistent universe, hosted on the world‘s most powerful gaming server yet.
* In EVE you are free to choose your own destiny. You start out as a character from one of four races that inhabit the EVE universe but apart from slightly different starting skills you are free to take your character in any direction you want. You are not restricted by predefined character classes or professions. You can trade to make a living, conduct mining operations, market your fighting skills as a mercenary, camp the spacelanes for profit as a pirate, conduct espionage and infiltration, focus on research and manufacturing, or perform increasingly profitable missions for NPC (non player controlled, run by the EVE system) agents. What you choose to do day by day is up to you. You can play alone, form a corporation (equivalent of clan or guild) with a close group of friends or seek entrance to any of the large player run corporations and alliances already established. The EVE Unviverse and its 5000 unique solar systems are yours to explore and conquer.
* In EVE you don‘t level up like in most games. You purchase skills which then train in real time until finished. The skills train even while you are offline. Skills give you a myriad of different abilities. Some allow you to fly specific types of ships or use a particular weapon while others focus more on general things. Each skill has five levels which all give the same percentage bonus to whatever field of your gameplay they affect. Each level however takes increasingly longer to train so that players are always faced with the choice of specializing in one field, or spend the skill training time equally on many different fields.
EVE Online Economics – A Q&A with Dr. Gudmundsson (Ten Ton Hammer)
Ten Ton Hammer: First, I think this is the first time we've interviewed a PhD at Ten Ton Hammer. How did you first become involved with EVE?
Gudmundsson: The university that I used to work at had a small seminar on experimental economics in 2004, which was lucky enough to have Dr. Vernon Smith, who had received the Nobel Prize for basically creating experimental economics. We discussed how we could use experimental economics to enhance our research in Iceland.
We also had this guy come from a computer company called CCP. He introduced us to this game that they had just published that had a lot to do with economics, and thought it would be exciting for us to experiment with. When I saw his presentation, I realized EVE Online would be the first online economy that functions on the same basic principles that real life economies do. We can learn a lot about real economics though EVE because we have a lot of data.
Economists never have high quality data, but in this case, we actually do. So that's how I was introduced to the game. When CCP started to look for an economist two and a half years later, I said I'd try it. It's such a unique thing that if I didn't try it, I knew I would always regret it.
Gudmundsson: The university that I used to work at had a small seminar on experimental economics in 2004, which was lucky enough to have Dr. Vernon Smith, who had received the Nobel Prize for basically creating experimental economics. We discussed how we could use experimental economics to enhance our research in Iceland.
We also had this guy come from a computer company called CCP. He introduced us to this game that they had just published that had a lot to do with economics, and thought it would be exciting for us to experiment with. When I saw his presentation, I realized EVE Online would be the first online economy that functions on the same basic principles that real life economies do. We can learn a lot about real economics though EVE because we have a lot of data.
Economists never have high quality data, but in this case, we actually do. So that's how I was introduced to the game. When CCP started to look for an economist two and a half years later, I said I'd try it. It's such a unique thing that if I didn't try it, I knew I would always regret it.
That's really cool that economists are getting involved in virtual worlds- they can try to understand economic behavior in controlled circumstances this way.
TTH: In addition to the obvious benefits to the players from the PLEX system, are there also economic reasons to do it for the game?
Gudmundsson: Not really. This goes a little more deeply into the philosophy of money being used in the system. If people have a lot of money but no stuff to buy, the money just accumulates in the system. You're not earning interest, and the money just sits there. Money doesn't give you anything. It's the stuff you get with money that gives you fun, utility, and happiness. PLEXs help money to flow faster. In economies, it's called the philosophy of money. It increases trade and production because you are buying something that somebody else is producing. In short, it helps the economy.
TTH: Why hasn't CCP gone down the path of opening banks that give out interest and so forth?
Gudmundsson: I think there's a very good reason for that, and we're seeing it in real life. You don't want to have a government-sanctioned banking system because then CCP becomes responsible if something goes wrong. For us to take your money and put interest on it, all that we are doing from an economic standpoint is putting more money into the game. This is because the interest that we would be paying would not be based on economic value within the game.
So, interest in the economy would have to be paid based on other economic activity that is actually profitable. Otherwise you're just printing money. That's basically what governments do: they print money and pay interest by printing money, which is not a good idea. Any economist will tell you that the current stimulus packages [in America] are not a long-term viable solution. It can help in the short term, but not as a long term solution.
Gudmundsson: Not really. This goes a little more deeply into the philosophy of money being used in the system. If people have a lot of money but no stuff to buy, the money just accumulates in the system. You're not earning interest, and the money just sits there. Money doesn't give you anything. It's the stuff you get with money that gives you fun, utility, and happiness. PLEXs help money to flow faster. In economies, it's called the philosophy of money. It increases trade and production because you are buying something that somebody else is producing. In short, it helps the economy.
TTH: Why hasn't CCP gone down the path of opening banks that give out interest and so forth?
Gudmundsson: I think there's a very good reason for that, and we're seeing it in real life. You don't want to have a government-sanctioned banking system because then CCP becomes responsible if something goes wrong. For us to take your money and put interest on it, all that we are doing from an economic standpoint is putting more money into the game. This is because the interest that we would be paying would not be based on economic value within the game.
So, interest in the economy would have to be paid based on other economic activity that is actually profitable. Otherwise you're just printing money. That's basically what governments do: they print money and pay interest by printing money, which is not a good idea. Any economist will tell you that the current stimulus packages [in America] are not a long-term viable solution. It can help in the short term, but not as a long term solution.
Good article if you're an economics geek like me
Step 3) Profit!
