Here in North England mining was a common occupation. It’s only natural that I now mine asteroids in a spaceship with lasers.
In a sense mining is the backbone of EVE as it allows things to be built. Without miners we’d all be sitting on a planet, throwing rocks at each other. But thanks to miners and they materials they provide, we’re in space throwing lasers at each others (hooray!). It’s a menial task but a necessary one, and it can earn you a lot of money. I can find it quite peaceful — all alone, orbiting an asteroid — but as an experience, as an in-game occupation, it just doesn’t engage me.
Here’s how it works:
Certain asteroids contain ore. Asteroids in less secure space hold rarer ores. Once you’ve mined a load of ore, you refine it into minerals. Minerals are used (in combination with other minerals) to make things like afterburners or tracking computers. To make these things you must manufacture, which means finding a station with manufacturing facilities.
Me and a friend had to manufacture a few Afterburners for a mission. It was approaching midnight, and we were both tired. We mined and refined the necessary minerals then found a station that could manufacture, but were informed there was an hour wait. At this late hour, waiting sent my friend over the edge:
“What the fuck?” he shouted, ”Thanks for wasting my time, EVE. Why can’t they add more? It’s the future! – who’d know! I mean, why 40 manufacturing lines? Why not 50?”.
I laughed in agreement because did seem silly. Another friend who’d been playing for about three years later told me:
“The thing about his rant: whilst the manufacturing facilities don’t exist, the people using them do. The bigger picture is that there’s a complete economy at work: the flow of money, goods and services between players. The market, the distribution and movement of people from one place to another is, in equal parts, shaped by the economy and helps shape the economy.”
And he’s right. EVE is about the bigger picture, hence CCP’s recent “butterfly effect” trailer where your seemingly small actions are actually part of a larger universe that help shape it. EVE isn’t a game but a world. It requires time and money to be a part of. It requires players to learn and understand many factors — some obvious, some hidden. Like a good book, you’ll understand it after a few reads.
I often get the feeling that I’m merely in a sphere full of objects with a badly compressed image for the background, but behind it is a world alive with transactions, forces and statistics. You either see it as magic or something understandable.
