The timing of EVE: The Second Genesis is impeccable. Its beta and impending release is uncanny when one looks around the industry. It comes at a time when the much-hyped Freelancer is finally starting to reveal itself. It comes at a time when a similar title about humans and human factions in space is rearing its head in Earth and Beyond. It's almost like the accidental appearance of Deep Impact and Armageddon all in the same movie season. But it comes at a time when the stars and space genre has long been left for the dead, save for a few titles (Independence War, Starlancer and the perennial Battlecruiser franchise). So what, I asked, compelled people to revisit this lost theme or motif? Would fitting MMORPG around the premise suddenly make it fresh again? When you scratch its surface, EVE is similar to some of its forthcoming colleagues. That's an undeniable fact, no matter which way you look at it. But look a little further down the roadmap of Icelandic developers CCP and you'll find they're not just shooting for the stars. They're aiming for much higher than that. Instead of focusing on Earth and everything that revolves around Sol, EVE is about far away star systems and humans who have lived bereft of connection to their home planet for several millennia. The Eve Gate, a star travel device of alien construction, was used by the first settlers but mysteriously collapsed, leaving the splintered humans alone in their new homes. From this, CCP has a selection of races and has provided extensive tools to create a unique identity, from your facial features to tattoos, to ensure that no one is a mere drone in the EVE universe. Even the ships are unique, with different chassis, emblems you can paint on your ship and modularized upgrades (countermeasures, ship systems, armor, weapons, etc.) that ensure ships aren't carbon copy clones of one another. To further develop on this, you can sign up or create any number of corporations that effectively fill the 'guild' void found in other MMORPGs. But CCP has allowed unprecedented scope in what can be done with your hard-earned money in the EVE universe. There are factories you can buy, refineries you can place along lucrative trade routes and the penultimate achievement for budding capitalists is the building of custom space stations throughout the EVE universe. CCP is effectively creating a world that will be shaped by the people inside the world. At any particular docking station, you can access information about corporations, which are plugged in by the owners of the corporation themselves and even now, EVE supports a variety of daily news sources right from the interface of the game itself. No need to visit websites, craft custom homepages or trawl forums; it's all right in the game. That community aspect is what EVE is depending on as its key to success. It's dynamic enough that it doesn't feel like an overly structured Amway effect, as found in Asheron's Call. And despite being late out of the gate, it has an immense homegrown fan base that could potentially be to Iceland what Lineage is to Korea. However, all that is difficult to see in the pre-beta stage. EVE has yet to hit beta and will definitely require a large player base to start its communal functions. The first thing that hits your eye about EVE will be its futuristic interface. Its camera lodges behind the back of your ship, characteristic of the MMORPG motif. Every command you issue is done via the mouse, including camera scrolling, targeting, ship controls and while most MMORPGs have a lot of keystrokes involved (Dark Ages of Camelot comes to mind), there's almost none for EVE. The keyboard is primarily used for chatting only. It takes a good while to get used to it because you have to realize you're not in direct control of the ship, firing the thrusters or anything like that. And your in-game persona has access to features like e-mail, star maps and the like, which are presented in cute (Linux-style) desktop icons; downloaded live from the EVE universe. While EVE promises a lot, there were quite a few mundane and simple tasks to be found in the game, especially since the tutorials, hand-holding and NPCs have yet to appear in the universe. Some quick cash prospects like mining or those that come from combat, like looting or bounties are all seamlessly integrated into EVE with the exception of one thing. They all require some form of connection with another party. You can't just go into a port and unload what you have on them unsuspectingly. Rather, buying and selling in EVE takes a page from the commodities market, where you make an offer and someone snatches it up. Similarly, combat missions will work the same. You can farm out mundane tasks like ferrying cargo from one place to another or order the execution of a fellow player while docked at the various space stations. Economically speaking, it could be one of the most dynamic simulated economies since Ultima Online. With so much going for it fundamentally, CCP still had time to polish EVE into one of the best looking space-oriented titles this year. True, it is not realistic. There are floating nebulae and all sorts of starry effects to keep the scenery from being boring. But the scenery will be duly appreciated because unlike other titles, you can't simply hop on an invisible 'train' or warp or jump from one place to another. The developers are very aware of what's going on in the MMORPG world today. They're aware that the biggest irony in an MMORPG is the fact that you could play for hours without really encountering anyone; almost defeating the raison d'etre of playing online. They're aware that people who spend thirty or forty hours a week with these games are the ones who are going to get access to all the whiz-bangs the game has to offer. Should the more casual players, who pay the same price, be left out? One of the developers I spoke to was thinking of implementing an automatic macro feature to make it easier to hone skills. Things like these put EVE ahead of the curve at a time when many so-called second-generation MMORPG developers have ignored such problems and instead, rely on fixing it ex post facto of the game's release. It's also poignant to point out that EVE is being pitched as an MMOG, rather than an MMORPG. Does that mean there's no role-playing involved-of course not, role-playing is an implied sine qua non when entering into an online world. But it does mean EVE has enough features that will appeal to a larger audience, instead of the zealot crowd found amongst the big three (Ultima Online, EverQuest, Asheron's Call). The technical aspects look spectacular and the scope or vision is definitely there. If the developers and producers are able to marshal EVE towards that ultimate vision, then perhaps, EVE has a very good chance of living up to its biblical namesake and effectively usher in the 'second genesis' of multiplayer titles. Questions or comments about the upcoming release of EVE: The Second Genesis? Talk to us! [ E-Mail Fwiffo ][ Comment in our Forums ]

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