Hilmar Petursson, CEO of CCP Games

There're two types of MMORPGs at present. One is the relatively popular "Theme Park" MMOs with WoW and The Lord of the Rings Online as its representatives. Such game is usually set in a profound background, and has players adventure around the gaming world as bystanders of the whole storyline. Though something in such game can be affected by players' behaviors, the game's main storyline actually depends on the settings of the game designers, and players only act as spectators. The other type is carnie-styled games with EVE Online as its representative. Such game is usually set in a story background not that complicated, and the whole gaming world consists of some basic rules. Within the scope of the rules, players in such game can make friends or fight with each other, and enjoy their own gaming life. EVE Online just strives to enable players to enjoy the fun of self-development and experience new gameplay content without stop.

Hilmar Petursson found an interesting phenomenon in EVE Online, i.e. in a group composed of an amazingly great amount of individuals able to affect each other, like lots of fish and bees get together and form a voluntary, large-scale organization, complicated but stable. The relationship among the individuals is unclear. They just get together. And players build their own sandcastles, like a group of bees. This just shows us the group significance. Such non-linear social relation connects different regions, and enables the regions to interact with each other. Game developers can only control the combats at the very beginning, but cannot control players' voluntary acts as players grow up. They just offer tools for players to change and control the world in different ways so as to bring forth a new world. In this way, game developers give more rights to players. What they do is create more tools to help players set up their own social mechanisms like the guild and market systems, in-game TV stations and socializing channels. Meanwhile, developers strengthen players' interaction in the way similar to that adopted by the socializing site Facebook, connecting players' real life with their gaming life and integrating some valuable elements found in real life into the gaming world for the sake of more harmonious and natural social relations.
 

The important reason why WoW and EVE Online, which are both among the most successful online games in the online game history, can enjoy an increasing number of gamers over the years of operation (according to latest news, the number of EVE Online's simultaneous online gamers has hit 400,000.) is that both of them have always been working hard to introduce new game content, update game engines, make delicate graphics, add new gameplay content, etc. In addition, to establish a stable player community and have players experience more interactive content, EVE Online's development team has also designed an online socializing system called "EVE Gate", which allows players to interact with others after gaming and obtain the latest game info as well.

Finally, Hilmar showed the audience a video related to DUST 514, under development in CCP's Shanghai studio. DUST 514 is closely bound up with the EVE Online world, striving for an expanding universe. EVE Online gamers will be able to connect with DUST 514 gamers and make the planet connect with outer space, thus expanding the community for a broader universe based on the same universe and same communication platform.

As Hilmar Petursson said, it's necessary to rely on the personnel to make a game in a long period of time, which is actually a process of continuous development. Uniqueness can only be achieved with the establishment of a social system and continuous development. And EVE Online can never be permanent without being developed continuously. Also, players' changing demands have to be taken seriously during the process of weeding through the old and bringing forth the new.

About CGDC

China Game Developers Conference (CGDC) is one of the world’s leading game development conferences. Each year, CGDC attracts over 3,000 professionals in the game development field to attend and learn. Over 70 global top-notch game designers and developers deliver speeches there and share their experience in the 3-day event. http://en.chinagdc.com.cn/

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