Pages

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

EVE Online In Four Videos

Sometimes I wonder how to explain EVE Online to people. Instead of using words alone, I thought using some of CCP's excellent trailers might make the post more enjoyable. So here are four trailers along with a brief explanation of the points I wish to emphasize.


Origins (released April 27, 2013)



The first video is the opening cinematic to the game. CCP shows new players that EVE Online is a post-apocalyptic universe set thousands of years after a calamity that severed this segment of the universe from humanity's birthplace. The game world, New Eden, is a multipolar world, separated into four NPC factions. As the video shows, a fifth force, the capsuleer, is gaining in power, threatening the status quo among the great powers. The video explains that the capsuleer is different from the regular humans who inhabit the galaxy, explaining why they would win so often. In the game, the player is a capsuleer.


The Prophecy (released May 3, 2014)



The next video shows the medium-term goal of the game. While the inclusion of DUST 514 and Valkyrie in a setting players will never see makes the video the weakest of the set, the trailer shows the fictional, player-run Drekar Alliance standing up to one of the four main NPC factions, the Amarr. Stargates in EVE Online are the permanent structures that allow interstellar travel across vast distances. Players currently have the technology to create shorter-ranged, temporary jump bridge networks. The video gives a tantalizing glimpse into the future. What lies beyond the gates that the empires do not want players to discover?


Emergent Threats (released March 19, 2015)



The third video, Emergent Threats, shows the current situation. The voices in the video are not voice actors but those of actual players trying to make sense of the events unfolding in the EVE universe. Many of the voices come from the Rhea lore panel conducted by the Hydrostatic Podcast. Since Andie (CCP Seagull) Nordgren took over as executive producer of EVE Online last year, not only has the lore become more important, but CCP doesn't put all of the changes in the patch notes, especially where the lore is concerned.

This Is EVE (released Nov 21, 2014)


The final video is arguably the greatest EVE Online trailer ever produced. The video focuses on the greatest asset of any MMORPG, the players. CCP removed the customary CCP graphic displayed at the beginning of every previous trailer to take the focus off of itself. The message of the video is simple, "You not only want to play the game, but you want to play the game WITH THEM." And the veteran players responded to that message. Not only did the video inspire a huge influx of new players to try EVE, but veteran players, for the most part, welcomed those players to the game.

A game as complex as EVE Online is difficult to adequately summarize in just one blog post, even with the aid of YouTube videos. The highlighted videos only give an introduction to one of the most successful MMORPGs in the history of the genre. But sometimes an introduction is all someone needs to take the plunge.

1 comment:

  1. Porbably my favourite part of the "This is Eve" trailer is in the beginning, where it actually sounds more or less like you would imagine a real space battle would sound like.

    ReplyDelete