EVE: The Second Genesis, is a massively multiplayer, online, persistent world game. perhaps even too real to be called a game, but definitely more fun than reality. Played on the Net, it takes place in a world that is alive and kicking every day, every hour. Players are spaceship captains cruising around the universe, trading, fighting and communicating with other players.

EVE is a world far away from mankind's original habitat, planet Earth. How far away, and where, no one knows. Humans got there through a natural wormhole, and gazing upon a sky never before seen, were completely unable to determine the whereabouts of this new world. From the system of New Eden, where the gate of EVE that once led to the old world lies, humans expanded in all directions at a great pace, exploring and colonizing.

Then, seemingly out of the blue, the EVE gate collapsed in an apocalyptic catastrophe of a scale never before witnessed by the human race, ruining the New Eden system in the process. Thousands of small colonies were left in isolation to fend for themselves. For millennia they endured on the brink of extinction and only a handful survived.

Of those surviving colonies, five were to rise up and become the major empires that hold between them the balance of power in the world of EVE today. These are: the Amarr Empire, the Gallente Federation, the Caldari State, the Minmatar Republic and the Jovian Empire, plus several small independent factions and states.

For more than a century the five empires have lived together in relative peace. They've strived hard to maintain this peace, as each of them realizes only too well the grave consequences of a massive inter-stellar war. Recent technological breakthroughs in FTL travel, and the ensuing increase in space travelers, has shaken, but not broken the fragile peace - at least not yet.

Game Chronicles goes inside this massive new online space RPG with an exclusive interview by John Carswell.

GCM:	Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Please get us started by introducing yourself.
Mike Wallis:	Hello there. I’m Mike Wallis, the senior producer for EVE Online. My primary responsibilities are project management, but I also do a little design work, and coordinating & facilitating communication among team members.

GCM:

Have you been pleased with the gaming community’s reaction to EVE Online thus far?

Mike Wallis:

Our subscription retention rate is very high, so I suppose that speaks for itself. The community certainly has been very involved with communicating their thoughts and suggestions for improvements and new game design feature wish lists, which is great. EVE has benefited from a very active player base, both on the boards and with their interaction with the development team. We will continue to release new content and develop the game to further create added value for the players.

GCM:

As you’ve watched EVE unfold and players interact with a very freeform Universe, was has most surprised or impressed you?

Mike Wallis:

We’ve actually underestimated slightly the time it would take players to start producing cruisers and battleships. That just goes to show that players are extremely resourceful and their progress in the game should not be underestimated. I’ve been impressed with the ability for players to come together and work for a common goal, whether that goal is to produce battleships, or to blockade a jumpgate. The organization level of some of these players has been quite remarkable.

GCM:

There were initially some concerns that by creating such a large Universe, player interaction might suffer. Now that EVE has had some time to settle itself, do you feel that all has worked out for the best?

Mike Wallis:

We could always use and support more players—the server cluster technology is still not utilized to its fullest. The sheer vastness of the universe has enabled those corporations (player “guilds”) who want to be away from central systems to realize those goals. They can conduct mining, production, and other operations far from the interference of other players. But those corporations whose business plans call for mass manufacturing of a variety of ships and modules to other players need to be centrally located to player population centers. Because of the expanse of the universe, both types, and all in between, can be attained.

GCM:

Could you please tell us a bit about the community that has developed within the EVE Online Universe and how large has it become since launch?

Mike Wallis:

The community seems to have grown to accommodate about 10 major (100+ member) player run corporations, with many more smaller corporations. Of those major corporations, they are mostly conducting manufacturing operations, complete with mining and defense/security fleet support. These are the GM’s, IBM’s, and Microsoft’s of the universe. A few moderate sized corps have managed to successfully survive as outlaws by blockading jumpgates and demanding money in return for safe passage. These player pirates are very good at player-vs-player combat, and their ships are outfitted with all the military hardware they can get their hands on. We’ve seen player corporations that are self-sufficient, and also those which are focused on one aspect of operations, such as mining or manufacturing.

GCM:

In reading various reviews for EVE Online, I noticed that virtually everyone starts off saying something to the effect of, “I’ll never be able to explain the entire game in a single review.” Above all else, what is the one feature/aspect that reviewers have skipped over that you feel gamers should know about?

Mike Wallis:

The depth of combat. Because we’ve intentionally made combat to scale up with the player’s own skill learning, combat at the beginning of the game will be simple and straightforward, such as click to fire, click to activate shields, etc. But as a player’s ship gets larger, from frigate to cruiser and from cruiser to battleship, more available slots to outfit modules become available. Along with that, the player will have purchased skill packs and as a result that character will have more abilities, such as target jamming, propulsion inhibiting, long range combat sniping, energy or shield transfers, etc. Combat becomes much more involved at the “higher level” of gameplay. This aspect is what most reviewers miss, because they quite often don’t even get out of their little frigates due to review deadlines and such.

GCM:

As for the future of EVE Online, are there any plans to release an expansion pack or introduce new content through patches?

Mike Wallis:

We are discussing our first expansion pack and what we would like to have it include. We don’t want the xpacks to be simply new content, but true expansions, such as additional race(s) and gameplay mechanics. New content, such as graphics or audio, will be done through regular downloads in the form of patches. It’s important to remember that EVE is still new and we want to fully stabilize things (design and balancing, not server code or performance, which is already top-notch) before adding new content.

GCM:

For those already playing EVE, how do you feel about the game’s current balance (PvP, Learning Curve, etc.) and what is the development team looking to tweak in the near future.

Mike Wallis:

PvP is probably a bit too fast, especially if players gang up against a single target. Balancing will help to smooth this out, so that no one weapon type or combination is overpowering. Sort of the rock-paper-scissors analogy. The learning curve is still high, but we are working on that to help indoctrinate newer players more quickly and easily, with better tutorials and by getting the volunteer help guide (players in the Polaris volunteer program) more active. We will also beef up the rewards for earlier agent missions, to make them more on par with mining. I know that some people simply hate mining, but because it is the best way to make money, they were stuck with it.

GCM:

Finally, why has no demo been released so far and are there any plans to release one in the future?

Mike Wallis:

There are no plans to release a demo at this time, but that could change in the future. We’ve seen other games such as The Sims Online, Anarchy Online, and Earth & Beyond release downloadable demos with 7 days free play. We may do something like that in the future as well. However, right now there is no time like the present to get into EVE. And because skill training happens over the passage of real time, the sooner you get into EVE, the sooner your character will become uber.

GCM:	Thanks again for your time. Do you have any last impressions that you’d like to leave our readers with?
Mike Wallis:	It was my pleasure! Thanks for taking time to chat with me. I’d like to add that EVE is what the players make of it. If you want to become a famous outlaw or pirate, you can do it. If you want to be the CEO of a corporation, you can do it. It may sound cliché, but the possibilities are virtually limitless!

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