On that front, I think that EVE Online is the only true "MMORPG"– i.e. one where the players directly affect the economy, the wars, the alliances, the supply and demand, and so on.

I'm disappointed that we don't see more games taking from EVE, but confident that that's where the future of online entertainment is headed.

Well, it doesn't surprise me. A "true MMORPG" as you are picturing it is a strong natural monopoly. Nobody wants to live a second life in five different games, and the more people you have the more sophisticated the economics etc become.

People would die and if they had their house/tower/castle key on them you could loot it.

I'm sure EVE is at another level, but UO was something special at one point.

The way eve metes out rewards is just completely hostile to some people, (ie. me).

EVE online: "Boy I sure wish I was able to do that, that sure looks like fun"

i recommend not playing.

The most HN relevant things that are awesome about EVE are how open the devs are with data. The developers have released their databases (Items, ships, stations, etc) which I have made some extremely handy apps with. The market is a ton of fun to play with an also has pretty easy to use APIs (Eve-Central). A lot of the files can be read extremely easily, and there is apparently talk of making market orders updateable via API in the future (This could mean full or partial automated trading).

With my ~4 month old character I've explored low-sec, played in worm holes, gotten into PvP fia FW, etc. There isn't much I haven't been able to do and I currently have more ISK (~2B) than I can really lose with the ships that I'm currently flying.

On a similar vein, almost everything in EVE is about money. If you have enough, you can fly wherever you want, and the only thing at risk is your time (which you might not value always) and the ship -- which you have insured, and which you already expect to use and therefore have a replacement ready. Gevlon at the Greedy Goblin did a series of posts on playing EVE, and how one can amass quite a bit of resources in-game simply by playing markets intelligently.

If playing PvP-style things is your bag (it's not mine), then EVE can be very rewarding (I hear) even if you've only been playing a couple of weeks. Just as in real life, there's always someone with more experience or skill than you, but you shouldn't let that be the excuse you use to prevent you from trying.

Thanks :)

I have a lot of fun toying with the market and writing apps to leverage APIs to make me money in game. If I'm station trading (Which I have been a lot- this is similar to playing the stock market in that you sit in one place and buy low sell high) your orders cannot be updated more than once every 5 minutes. I'll usually have EVE up on a monitor but I'm not paying much attention to it. I'll pop over to the game every 20-30 minutes and quickly update orders then head back to my coding project / a blog / etc.

I also have swings of near obsession where I'm really excited to play with something new to me. When I was learning about exploring I spent probably 6-7 hours in a row flying around and tracking down litle exploration sites.

I log in maybe 3-4 days a week, but only get a nice block (more than a half hour or so) of time maybe once a week. I'd say the game is up on a monitor and accessable to me probably 15 hours a week. I'm probably actually spending more like 5 hours a week actively engaged. Honestly I have probably spent the same time coding applications around the game as I have playing.

I started the game solo but have since realized that a couple friends also play but weren't vocal about it. Occasionally we'll play together but I don't have the time or desire to join a permanent group ("Corporation") yet so I've been playing lone wolf for the most part.

I believe you can start the game for free with a 14 day trial. There are also 21 day trials that are available if a current player reffers you. I've never done it so I'm not sure on the details on that though. Either way, you should get a good taste of what EVE can offer you after that period.

In terms of geopolitics, as tragic as the attack in Benghazi was, it hasn't amounted to much. If nothing else, the drone wars in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan are considerably more consequential.

Are you trolling? because "the United States'greatest foreign policy disasters" under GWB far surpassed what happened in Libya. This is being used as political hammer by the GOP, so it's hard to take at face value.

I remember how back in 1990 the US administration was explaining Russians not to bomb Chechnya because "you don't destroy terrorists with bombs and occupation". I remember how in 1990s America was telling Asia that "you don't solve economic problems by printing money". And telling Japan to stop subsidizing "zombie banks" that should let to fail. Etc, etc. It's like you know what to do, but you don't do it and that this makes you weaker than ever. While others in the meantime took all your advise seriously and are building strong economies and societies.

What I'm constantly amazed at is how the media ignores the issue.

On 9/11/2001, George Bush hesitated a few minutes while events were unfolding and he was in front of a class of school children. The press explored every second of the event and Bush was lambasted for just sitting there. Fair enough.

On 9/11/2012, (from what little we know) Obama got one briefing in the early evening on what was happening, gave no orders to mobilize support for those under attack (which was apparently critical), went to bed and didn't check on status until the next morning.

If George Bush had been that lax in handling something, Michael Moore would have had a movie that featured it as a key failing, ABC, NBC, and CNN would be all over it as a major political failing - with story after story and maybe a couple of specials.

When the press basically becomes a mouthpiece for a particular administration or party, we're all in big trouble. The potential iceberg under the water becomes larger and larger.