Posted on 06/28/2008 1:52:41 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — This city near the top of the world has a distinguished history of hosting summit meetings. Presidents, prime ministers and premiers have come here to discuss their differences and chart earth’s future.
Yet mere planets were beneath the concern of the nine leaders — warlords, religious crusaders, industrial tycoons, freedom fighters, university dons and banking moguls — who temporarily set aside their differences last week and gathered here under a banner of peace. After all, they had an entire galaxy to consider.
Of course that galaxy does not really exist. Yet for the more than 200,000 players of the science-fiction game Eve Online; for the company here that created it, CCP; indeed for the broader concept of how companies relate to their customers, the inaugural meeting of the Council of Stellar Management was a watershed in the evolution of online democracy.
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Imagine an airline that encouraged its frequent fliers to elect their own representatives to hammer the company about baggage handling, inept gate agents and interminable delays. Imagine a sports league in which a group of fans had regular meetings with the commissioner to discuss salary cap and rules changes. Unthinkable, right? Yet that is just like what is happening in Eve. Dozens of players from around the (real) world nurtured their constituents, presented their platforms, shook every virtual hand, kissed every virtual baby and spread the inevitable unflattering rumors about their rivals as they campaigned for a seat on the council.
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In the end the council reflects the panoply of players who have made Eve the most interesting, serious online game in the world. The council includes seven men and two women (three of the men play female characters). [Three come] from Britain, three from Netherlands, two from the US and one from Denmark.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The difference between EVE Online and other popular MMORPG's is that in EVE, when you get shot to pieces, you lose your stuff. It adds an element of risk that makes things exciting.
Related thread:
All about EVE and getting even [Free Republic].
That sounds like Ultima Online. I hated Ultima Online for precisely that reason.
Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, the list goes on . . . when you die, you just magically reappear with all your equipment. It makes no sense to someone with a conservative bent.
Wait a minute. Are you saying one loses his stuff in UO? I’ve never played.
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