Eve Online is a great example of a player base committing lots of personal time to learning the details of a game.
EVE Online is a hugely complex player-led video game, a virtual spaceship sandbox where spreadsheets are as powerful as space fleets. Its complex history has been written by its players, with numerous fascinating tales of wars, betrayals, and heists. Because the developers of the game rarely interfere, EVE is an experience that often feels less like a video game and more like a libertarian social experiment. As such, it attracts an intellectual – and extremely driven – player base.
For many of EVE Online’s 50 million players, this complex virtual world is simply another space to succeed in. Real-world experience of stock trading, marketing and graphic design make you a powerful asset to player-run corporations – and a large section of EVE’s player base are hugely successful outside the game
EVE Online’s most influential players often find that this complex, alluring virtual space slowly starts to claim more of their real-world time. “It’s about that balance between relaxation and responsibility. In the morning I spend 45 minutes to an hour just checking on my EVE Slacks and Discords to catch up,” Dinkle says. “I go to work, come home, and for two to three hours, I log in. When it’s a big battle, we’ll be up all night.”
For Dunk, it seems the appeal of EVE is that it isn’t just a brief distraction, a way to unwind for a while, as video games are for most players. Instead, it’s a place where his professional skills are keenly rewarded. “A lot of those skills of being a corporate executive – going to events, conflict management, resource allocation, spreadsheets – you use in EVE,” he says. “In your professional life, it’s hard to feel those wins on a regular basis. If you’re a high achiever, you want that reward system. In television, it’s a never-ending treadmill. You always need another promo. In EVE I built this gigantic thing that not many people can. I feel a sense of accomplishment. I get that feeling in my career, sure, but not once a week.”
While EVE markets itself on jaw-dropping space battles, for the finance bros who flock to the game it’s the sophisticated simulated economy that’s the real draw. EVE is often self-deprecatingly called “spreadsheets in space”. During this year’s Fanfest, CCP announced an official partnership with Microsoft Excel, to rapturous applause.
“EVE feels like trading,” says investment guru OZ_Eve, AKA the Oz. “I can pull the data, look for trends, build tools around it … I have a big Bloomberg terminal-type tool that I look at in the morning to see where the market’s at. There’s no other game where you can do that. [Regan, Tom]
EVE Online has always been an intriguing game and community to me. At first glance, it doesn’t seem all that appealing for a video game. Spending hours knee-deep in spreadsheets and market research on a fictional economy does not sound like a good time to me. Yet EVE Online has an enormous player base and these players aren’t just your average “gamers”, they are intensely committed and dedicated to it. EVE Online may be the most realistic finance simulator. Numerous testimonies ring with a similar theme, and it’s that EVE Online uses and develops real-world skills. One player says:
“When I was younger, I was quite shy, and now I’m on stage in front of hundreds of people and doing tournaments that are streamed to thousands. I’ve discovered that I’m very good at it, and I wouldn’t have had any chance to experience that if it wasn’t for EVE.”
People can practice real-world financial skills in this game with 0 consequences. Players can learn from risks taken in the game that they’d otherwise never take in the real world. I believe there’s an opportunity to broaden the scope of skills and learning that can be done in the format of games.
