What’s Ahead For Eve Online?

In 2003, an upstart company in Iceland called CCP launched a science-fiction themed MMORPG with the title Eve Online. It was a gutsy move because they were going head-to-head with Electronic Arts‘ Earth And Beyond.

EA’s game has been history since going the way of the dinosaur in 2004. EO, on the other hand, has grown tremendously, now boasting well over 100,000 players. Currently they are beta-testing a version of the game in China.

CCP producer Nathan Richardsson recently spoke about what the future holds for EO:

“The first ambitions were quite high, but along the development time the expectations became more realistic. After we acquired the publication rights back and started online distribution of the client, our numbers started growing again. WeÂ’ve so far exceeded our expectations year after year and hope it weÂ’ll continue to be pleasantly surprised.”

Richardsson thinks the idea of having one large world for the players is better than having a “splintered” number of communities. “We believe itÂ’s far better to do, not only from an operational perspective, where the whole team is focused on the same game world,” he explained. “The social networks that emerge are amazing and we believe this increases considerably the average time in which people stay with us.”

One potentially ugly issue that has been raising its head more and more in the world’s money-obsessed culture is the effort of third parties attempting to sell virtual items in the MMORPG world for actual legal tender. Richardsson believes this is workable, but adds a caveat: “Many games can be really hurt by it if itÂ’s rampant and uncontrolled, where the game makes it easy to convert real cash into advancement. Then you really start to diminish the efforts of players which have spent time for that advancement.” (Rather like the real world where more and more incompetent – but well connected – individuals fail “upwards…” hmmm…)

One aspect of EO that everyone is drooling for is the upcoming graphic upgrade. Feast your eyes on these screenshots, and you’ll understand why (click the thumbnails to view them in all their hi-resolution, 1920X1200 pixel glory).

In 2003, an upstart company in Iceland called CCP launched a science-fiction themed MMORPG with the title Eve Online. It was a gutsy move because they were going head-to-head with Electronic Arts‘ Earth And Beyond.

EA’s game has been history since going the way of the dinosaur in 2004. EO, on the other hand, has grown tremendously, now boasting well over 100,000 players. Currently they are beta-testing a version of the game in China.

CCP producer Nathan Richardsson recently spoke about what the future holds for EO:

“The first ambitions were quite high, but along the development time the expectations became more realistic. After we acquired the publication rights back and started online distribution of the client, our numbers started growing again. WeÂ’ve so far exceeded our expectations year after year and hope it weÂ’ll continue to be pleasantly surprised.”

Richardsson thinks the idea of having one large world for the players is better than having a “splintered” number of communities. “We believe itÂ’s far better to do, not only from an operational perspective, where the whole team is focused on the same game world,” he explained. “The social networks that emerge are amazing and we believe this increases considerably the average time in which people stay with us.”

One potentially ugly issue that has been raising its head more and more in the world’s money-obsessed culture is the effort of third parties attempting to sell virtual items in the MMORPG world for actual legal tender. Richardsson believes this is workable, but adds a caveat: “Many games can be really hurt by it if itÂ’s rampant and uncontrolled, where the game makes it easy to convert real cash into advancement. Then you really start to diminish the efforts of players which have spent time for that advancement.” (Rather like the real world where more and more incompetent – but well connected – individuals fail “upwards…” hmmm…)

One aspect of EO that everyone is drooling for is the upcoming graphic upgrade. Feast your eyes on these screenshots, and you’ll understand why (click the thumbnails to view them in all their hi-resolution, 1920X1200 pixel glory).