Downloading Eve Online.. Again

I’m going to give Eve Online another chance. I just created my 14 day MMO free trial account and I’m downloading the game right now. I’m downloading at a cool 3MB/s so my client should be done in 13 minutes. Eve Online is a gave I’ve always wanted to get into, but for some reason never could. Twice I quit the game before finishing its tutorial. Yeah, the game is that intimidating. I’ve read a lot about it on MMORPG review sites and aside from Ultima Onlineback in 1999 it is by far the most ‘open” and PvP heavy pay to play MMORPG ever. Players can kill each other just about anywhere in the universe. Neat huh? Unfortunately even though Eve Online sounds really cool it has one of the steepest learning curves ever.

One aspect of the game I dislike is that older accounts are ALWAYS more powerful than newer one. The skill progression system is pretty random. Players gain skill all the time, even when they’re logged off with no max skill cap. With the amount of skills in the game, it’s impossible for anyone to master them all, so players tend to specialize. I mean, you could master them all, but it would take like 20+ years. Older accounts have ultimately more learned skills than newer ones – no matter what. Most MMORPGs including free to play ones like Gates of Andaron from GameForge,Neo Steam from Atlus Online and even Magic World Online from EnjoyMMO are built so no player late game is more powerful than others. The whole older accounts have more skills thing is pretty silly in my opinion. Luckily though, there are so many skill trees, it doesn’t make sense for anyone to even TRY learning everything. EVERYONE specializes, so a 1 month old player could have more skill in one type of skill than a player who has been playing for years.

Eve Online has so many interesting aspects that I really want to dive into. The game supposedly has one of the coolest in game economies ever. Even more so than Luminary: Rise of the Goonzufrom ijji, which had a stellar in game economy. Heck, I remember reading a big Eve Online bank scandal in The New York Times. How many other big in game scams get published in such a reputable paper? None. Eve Online also has a massive Corporation vs Corporation PvP system. Players can band together and form Corps which are guilds in game. These Corps can band together to form alliances, and alliances can control various outposts and territory in space. It’s not uncommon for thousands of ships to be in one area at once to battle it out. Yeah, Thousands of players. The only other game with that kind of massive PvP is Aika Online from gPotato, which boasts 1000 vs 1000 PvP.

Anyway folks. I’m almost done with my free trial download. I’ll make sure to let you know if I get passed the free trial this time!

MMORPG Balance Doesn't Matter

I feel that a lot of free to play MMORPGs spend too much time worrying about balance. When I play a new MMORPG I care a lot more if the game has lots of playable classes than if they’re balanced. In fact, I could care less if one class is slightly over powered or if one class is slightly under powered. I like games that offer lots of variety. Games like Ragnarok Online and Requiem from Gravity on the free to play front and games like Dark Age of Camelot and Vanguard on the pay to play front. I Feel that if MMO developers spend too much time and energy worrying about balance, they won’t be working on adding new classes and races. World of Warcraft for example is an extremely balanced game, but it has such little variety. I mean, if a game is big into PvP, then balance should be important, but a lot of people play MMOs for the PvE aspect.

Does anyone really care if about balance anyway? I know I don’t. I mean, I do to an extent, but so long as one class isn’t absurdly over powered, balance is not in my top 5 concerns about a game. Just look at the Super Smash Brothers franchise – it has so many characters. Characters like Bowser and Jigglypuff are outright useless. In fact, within the community players have broken down characters into tier 1, 2 and 3. There are usually a few tier 1 characters which the ‘pros’ use and a few tier 2 characters which are also good, but 90% of characters in Super Smash are garbage, thus they’re thrown into tier 3. I think it’s almost universally accepted that Super Smash Brothers is a fun game, which is why I used it as an example. Balance does not equal fun.

Developers should focus on character customization (Think Perfect World), content and features. These are much more important than balance. Sure PvP MMORPGs like Aika Online and Kingdom Heroes would require a bit more attention in the balance department, but I think MMO companies are wasting their efforts worrying about balance when they could actually be improving their games.

I Can’t be the only one who feels this way, but sometimes I do feel this way, as every time I’ve discussed this issue across various forums, people tend to disagree. I’ve noticed though that people who play pay to play MMORPGs seem to care more than those who play free to play games. People who player browser games also preferred variety over balance. Any thoughts? Leave them in the comments below