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EVE Online Player Interviews: Flying Solo - Playing Without a Corp.
MMORPG.com EVE Online Correspondent Thomas Winkle interviews an EVE Online player who, despite popular opinion, has been ale to play and enjoy EVE for over three years without having joined a corporation.
By Thomas Winkle on May 19, 2009
For my first EVE Online article, I decided it would be best to get the perspective of an unusual player who has played EVE Online for quite a long time. His name is Jeregh, and he has quite a bit of experience with the game, and unlike most players, has never joined an alliance. For those out of the EVE Online space, an Alliance can be thought of as a guild that oversees other guilds. Here's what I've gathered from him.
| Thomas Winkle: | How long have you played EVE Online? Is this your first character? |
| Jergeth: | 3 years nine months and change, and yes it is my first character. |
| Thomas Winkle: | What things do you enjoy most about the game? |
| Jergeth: | The open endedness of it, you can pretty much do whatever you desire. Anything from being a lowly dirt grubbing miner, to the master of a galaxy spanning player empire/alliance. You can sit in a station and trade 23/7, or roam the space lanes and pillage the traders and other players for their belongings. Also the fact that it does cater to my play style. Its equaling open to casual gamers or hardcore power players |
| Thomas Winkle: | What makes you choose it over other games? |
| Jergeth: | To be honest, this is the only MMO I have played, I dabbled a little with online games such as C&C but once a friend of mine introduced me to EVE, I haven't looked back. |
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| Thomas Winkle: | What makes it so unique to you? |
| Jergeth: | The fact that everyone is on the same server cluster. So, everyone gets to interact with everyone else. If you get the desire to, you can hunt down anyone online and make your presence known to them. In a good or bad way. Whichever suits your style. |
| Thomas Winkle: | What things would you say would appeal to new players? Both people new to MMORPG's, and new to EVE Online specifically? |
| Jergeth: | That's kind of a loaded question I think. EVE has a rather steep learning curve. If you can get past the first 2 weeks to a month I feel that it's a very rewarding game. The fact that your course thru the game is really completely uncharted, appeals to me. But then again there are a lot of people out there that prefer a more structured environment. |
| Thomas Winkle: | Do you think with missions and specified goals set by a corporation, that people who prefer those structured environments would be able to enjoy the game too? |
| Jergeth: | With the introduction of the epic arcs, CCP may be introducing a factor that could appeal to that player category. but in my opinion and from what I gather from reading the eve-o forums, missions as they are now, are mostly boring and repetitive after you get used to them. I only do them for the standings anymore |
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| Thomas Winkle: | Do you consider the game to be primarily about player versus player interaction; or do you think people who don't enjoy PvP, will still enjoy EVE? |
| Jergeth: | Eve is definitely player versus player in almost all of its facets, however there are a couple of fine distinctions to be made, combat PvP is very present, but it is not necessarily the end all, be all of EVE. |
| Thomas Winkle: | What other options are there for players who don't particularly like fighting other players? |
| Jergeth: | The rest of the game is also very important, industry and market PvP and the rest of it. Just going out and killing your opponents ships is awfully fun, but carrying out a fully fledged economic campaign can be just as satisfying in my opinion. One of the nice things about eve is that those who don't want combat PvP day in and day out don't have to participate in it. Those who do, can. |
| Thomas Winkle: | Do you have any tips for newer players; that can help them in this well-developed and exploratory world? |
| Jergeth: | A couple and a link: The penalty for screwing up is pretty harsh. In the blink of an eye, all that shiny stuff you accumulated over the last couple months can and will go "POOF" the phrase "don't fly what you can't afford to lose" is very applicable. (The player then links to a player's biography, Character name ButterGlee, which can be viewed in game.) |
| Thomas Winkle: | ow difficult is it for you to do fleet-based activities without a corporation? Do you still hold alliances with other corporations on your own? |
| Jergeth: | Depends on what you call a fleet, it is of course harder to play eve as I do. Most of the time I tend to involve myself with a select group of people I have known in game almost since I started playing. This means I get a pickup group of 5-15 people that go do group activities. |
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| Thomas Winkle: | What kinds of activities do you usually do with them? |
| Jergeth: | We were doing level 4 and level 5 missions; they have taken off for wormhole space at the moment. I am doing a side project of my own at the moment, but plan on catching up to them in the near future I hope. As for alliances, since I am in a NPC corporation, it rather limits my ability to have any formally recognized alliance with any player corporation |
| Thomas Winkle: | What kind of project? |
| Jergeth: | I am working on expanding my blueprint collection some more to further my construction goals. |
| Thomas Winkle: | EVE Online constantly has new updates with new features. As a player who has played for so long; do you think there is no one who knows everything there is to know about EVE? |
| Jergeth: | Well I hope the developers know everything about the game. I do have my doubts at times though. As for players, I would imagine with the type of fan sites that Chribba keeps going he might be one of the more knowledgeable players. But as large as this game is, it's hard to keep up with everything going on. It's pretty common for even 3-4 year old players to find something and go "huh, never knew that" |
| Thomas Winkle: | Anything else you want to share with those that may be reading? |
| Jergeth: | Just that, EVE is a very enjoyable game in my opinion; it really does a good job of appealing to a wide range of player types and styles. And if you do decide to join, if CCP ever gets ambulation into the game, look me up, I'll stand you to a few fermented computer pixels. |
From there, I thanked Jeregh for his time, and he went back to his flying. As some might know, and some might not; one of the largest aids to playing EVE, is a corporation. Corporations are the guilds of EVE Online, and are one of the best ways to become successful in EVE Online. With Corporations, you'll get in a 'clique' of friends that can help you with various tasks, such as missions, mining, or manufacturing, and makes the social network of EVE Online complete. So you can see why they're quite essential, and those that never join one, will surely have a unique experience in EVE Online.
The link would appear to be messed up. And you have a typo. Sounds like a cool article.
Yes bad link.
Erf, bad link but interesting news :S
We have now flicked the activate feature switch! =)
Sorry about that!
Dear John Wood.
This article is more typical sub-standard fare from MMORPG.com
So...is it "Jeregh" as it's listed in the header and footer, or "Jergeth" as listed in the back and forth interview?
Proofreading, Jon.
You really should make your people do it.
There is a certain irony to your intro and conclusion... but yes, we'll get that fixed.
AHAHAHA...
There is, isn't there.
Old habits die hard, I suppose.
John is his name.
Jon is mine.
Actually, he's "Jon" too.
Anyway, jokes aside, thanks for pointing it out. We do our best, but sometimes things like this slip through.
I played solo for about a year...it's tough especially when your like me and tend to PO entire corps.....and that can make finding a corp tough........Imagine my shiney new Corps surprise when the had half of Goon Swarm camped out in their sec wanting my head.
Yeah they pretty much gave me up.
Nice simple Q&A, nothing substantial but a fun read. I've only been playing for a month and have already dug myself a comfortable routine (some may say a rut =P.) But this would be a good read for anyone questioning if they should pick up EVE or not.
I loned wolfed it for a while myself. Being a Lone Wolf does give you some advantages as you dont have to deal with petty squabbles or war dec, but its boring.
Yeah, nice simple Q&A, though I would have prefered just a little more indepth, only a nudge.
I haven't played in about a year but when I did (for about 2 years), I was only in a corp for a few months before going back to solo. There are plenty of people who choose to belong to NPC corps for various reasons. My main reason was I got tired of the near-constant war decs going on (and I tried two diff corps).
As a soloer, you'll never control 0.0 space (and may have trouble even flying around in it) but it's not that bad if you don't care about the massive PvP that goes on in 0.0.
Hey guys, sorry for the typo's. I had my format in a different way than the editors wanted; so when they changed it, they added his name before each question, when before, I only had his initial. That's where the typo came from. I hope you guys enjoyed the article, and enjoy my future articles. If you have any suggestions about what you want to read about, just let me know! You can pm me here, or message me in game at TenchiHakubi.
Eve Online a cool game. Though I played it for a couple years, I am not currently at this time. You Q & A was ok but people are right that its weak. For people that might scann all this and want to check out the game give a little more here. The game as stated is on one server. It is a space and corporation (money = isk) driven game. there are a few ways to get isk minning alone or with a corpration,agent missions, joining a corporation then doing what they require of u for the help, Manufacturing goods for sale on market(here to might be better as part of corp). and pirating.Though on one server the game has serveral, serveral star systems for u to explore .They have a secruty rating (1.0 to 0.0) The lower u find yourself the more risk u take , 0.4 below player charactors can attack u , but not just limited here , if they do it right they can gank ya in higher space. They'll just take more concord risk (in game Police)
There no lvls in Eve, which is anther reason to watch where u are. The ablity to do things is determine by skills and the lvl u trian them to or are at. There are skills for everthing and larger ships require certian skills and lvls to open them up for play. The good thing here is they trian in real time, not have be activity. This means after u buy the skill and activate it it'll say a time to lvl (say an hour, u could log of and log on hour later - bing skill at that lvl. )
The game all money. Skill books, ships, modes, weapons and later stuff to make stuff cost money (yeah don't get blowen up if low on cash or no insurance paid on ship the free noob ship takes a long while to get good isk back.) The game has several ways to make money as stated above.
Pvp can be donea few ways as well. You can be a pirate. Take someones stuff and they can attack u. If u jion a corp, a corp can declare war on one anther. This could be just to fight or as part of a scem to make the corp spend more resources(thous weaken its market) or take the area awayfrom them for ur corp operations. Though I have not tooken part in them there is the game run " Fraction Wars". You can aslo be a bounty hunter.
The graghics are cool and there are several types of ships. Some are specialized for like war, minning, cargo, or some specialized support. There 4 different Empires with a story and different look to them. Well I hope if anyone sees this and hasn't look at Eve but found the Q &A interesting gives u that final nudge to look the game up. The game got more info as well- not writting a manual.
I don't want to sound too hars...but what's difficult/interesting/unique about being carebear in NPC corp?
My char is almost 4 years old and still in SWA. I love doing missions in my fully faction fitted Command ship :)
People always ask me "Wtf dude?
For a guy that played Eve for a while you sure as hell have a hardtime dealing with the way other people decide to play a Open ended game.
Do you pay his 15 buck or 300million isk a month to keep his account active?
So many people play eve now, im sorry but 0.0 blob warfare and low sec roaming gangs/piracy arent the only way people enjoy Eve.
It's not like the guy is anti-social he has buddies that he groups with, so what he likes empire and does missions and some indy stuff.
Whatever floats his boat, In eve you could be who you want, when you want, doing what you want.
If you don;t like it tough, I personally feel it was a good write up.
That's not what I am talking about. I asked, why to make and article about something so dull, boring and uninteresting, something how majority of EVE spent their ingame time and present it as unique experience?
Being with no corp can still be interesting, you can do lots of things as a freelancer and you can describe the issues you have to deal with, you can write what deals you have made with those who are in corp to supplemet missing features, etc. There is a ton to write what can you do as a lone wolf but this...?
I found it interesting for two reasons.
One the guy basically tells everyone why Eve is awesome, something that the haters and trolls on the forum have been asking for a while but us fanbois usually just flame them for asking it.
Second, The article highlights a guy that the majority of the forum community here would consider a worthless carebear.
Its like the ultimate Bait thread. Its baiting the haters to come and say how shitty Eve is and the Eve elite also so we could say the guy has never really played EvE LOL!
While I wont personally attack the guy for his choice of play I would freaking kill myself in game for what he does all day.
For mmorpg.com to put this artical up proves that they know Jack about there forum community.
Its basically being posted for reaction, so i find it interesting :)
I think the article was a follow-up to all the previous Eve coverage of "how wonderful joining a corporation is", "how to create an alliance", and the other "corporations are guilds and will make the game easier for you" stuff.
Agreed that the interview didn't relay the challenge of keeping intrigued with a game that mostly sucks up to corporations/alliances.
The Lone Wolf style of play is an extraordinary challenge of crafting a tapestry of experience and focus which you and only you control. Yeah, sometimes you get the equivalent of "writer's block", but it always passes as you get deeper into the personal Eve universe you've created.
For instance, embedding your main and an alt into low-sec space for exploration and runnning complexes, all the while keeping an eye on local (a communication channel everyone has that indicates who else is in the system you're in). Can you pull it off or will the big, bad, piwate players find you and destroy your ship? The logistics alone are daunting, including making runs late at night or just after downtime, to avoid detection. Logging off in space and logging in a few days later, thus defeating the players who just set up a gate camp, confounding them (at least for a bit). And no one has your back, ever.......
1) This is very much not awesomness of EVE. You can do the same dull PVE in EVE as in any other game, and I would say you can do it better out of EVE. There was nothing said that would specify the uniqueness of EVE.
2) He is a worthless carebear and never played EVE indeed :)
I will share with you some of my adventures I experienced as lone wolf:
1) I was roaming low sec and killing NPCs when player entered the system. I scanned the sytem in order to figure out wheter he is a threat, seemed fine and I was continuing my ratting until cynosural field popped in my overview. I warped to close planet and focus my scanner towards the cyno.
The story turned out that cap jumped in and got stuck because cyno pilot got d/c or something and his alt was trapped far away. I offered him my help to get his carrier into 0.0 base.
2) The other day, I was hanging around high sec to check some of my orders when I was convoed by a guy who was in wardec. I ended up being hired for scouting and helped him to get some kills.
3) Or the other day, I was in low sec exploring new region and end up being hunted by pirats. We had some fun while I managed to escape couple of time and we started to chat, my attention dropped after a while and to my surprise they warped in and popped me. I ended up reimburtsed and setting up a trap for other pirate group roaming around.
This can happen to you at your lonely journies. To me, those 3 stories describes what 'Playing Without a Corp' means. A freedom and adventures.
EVE is very rich in player interactions as well as complexity, therefore you can meet very different people and nomad life style as I had, offered me very unique and funny situations.
You don't have to be in corp to experience something great - in fact, being in a corp, you are sort of restricted from such events.
This is what EVE is about, no dumb PVE...
Note: Yeah, I don't get the point of the article nor what you find interesting about it :-/
Honestly its a positive Eve article that could turn certain people on to eve.
That alone as a eve fanboi has me atleast a bit interested LOL!!!!!
What's positive about having more bears in the game? The result are stupid changes like the latest overview change.
While attracting more and more bears, the encounters I described above will become more and more rare since those new players are not attracted by the freedom, complexity and player interaction but fluff and PVE. And the game will logicaly evolve to support the game majority, and logicaly, because you can't please everyone, at the expense of features that made EVE so awesome.
Maybe not, who knows but all changes in last year are supporting this scheme.
You can group and do quest in pretty every MMO out there, can you tell me 3 stories similar to mines that you could experience in other game as well?
I've seen a ton of carebears converted to the darkside.
It's not the carebear shit that will hook them and make them interested its the Idea of Freedom that they could be whatever they want. When I read that guys article all I see is a dude that basically does what he wants and that's appealing to certain people.