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An Introduction To The EVE Online Game – What Are The Essentials

Even If you have just gotten started playing EVE Online, you are already probably aware of the existence of EVE Online ore. Mining for ore is one of the best ways to get ahead in this complicated, versatile game, and you’ll find that with just a little bit of work and some basic information under your belt that you’ll be in good shape to understand ore, it’s place in EVE Online, and how you can make the ore you mine work the best for you!

As several awards and more than 220,000 active accounts, it is easily seen that the EVE Online game is one massive multiuser online role playing game that you want to get into! This game, created by the Icelandic company CCP, has been active and popular for the past five years, and continues to grow at an impressive rate. You’ll find that with a little bit of knowledge about this poker online game and brief idea of the game play, you’ll be ready to get started and see what this fascinating game world has to offer.

The general premise of the EVE Online game is one where the Earth as we know it has been depleted of usable resources, and due to this, people were leaving the planet to colonize space. In the EVE Online game, people spread throughout the Milky Way and through out the galaxy, until resources were once again contested and wars broke out. The solution to this problem was a natural wormhole, through which another galaxy could be found. The EVE Gate, an artificial wormhole was constructed to link the galaxies when it was discovered that the natural wormhole was unstable.

The first thing to be aware of is that ore is a basic material that can be found in the asteroid fields that you will encounter in EVE. There are various types of ores, but they are unusable until they have been refined into the minerals that compose them, much like mining in real life. The minerals that result can be very valuable when it comes to things like the manufacture of ships and weapons, and this is how you can get a lot of money through this endeavor.

When you go looking for ore, remember that you want to start off in an area that has fewer than 60 pilots using it. You’ll find that competition can be fierce, and when you are starting out, you might need to in a quieter area to make the most of your opportunity. Try to make sure that you are mining in an area that has a refinery nearby; as soon as your hold is full, make sure that you get the ore refined and taken in for ISK, the game’s currency, as soon as possible!

When you are looking at ore, the best rule to keep in mind regarding whether the ore you’ve found is valuable is that the closer it is to A in the alphabet, the more valuable it will be. There are exceptions to this rule, but you’ll find that it generally holds true. Also remember that the more valuable the ore, the less you will need of it to refine an amount of mineral that will net you a good profit. It is also fair to say the the more exotic and valuable ore will require some traveling to get to.

The first and most advanced race that can be played are the Amarr, who were the first of the colonies to rediscover space travel. They were on a crusade to spread their thoughts and ideals to the rest of the galaxy and in this, they were aided by the Minmatar, who were more primitive and not so advanced when it came to interstellar travel. After a confrontation with the Gallente and the Jove (the later being the non-playable race), the entire Imperial Navy of Amarr was destroyed. The Gallante were at war for almost a century with the Caldari empire, and tensions between them continue to this day.

This is the general layout for the world of the EVE Online game and into this world, you create a character who can become a miner, a trader, a messenger or even a pirate. These are only some of the options, and you’ll find that there are many different things that you can do to make your gameplay enjoyable. There are many different worlds to explore, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

In the world of Azeroth, life can be cheap but saving up for that much desired epic mount can take months of labour. Welcome to the World of Warcraft, currently the worlds largest MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). In the World of Warcraft, the auction house presents the avid window shopper with a cornucopia of wonders, from fabulous swords to armour guaranteed to make you the hardest elf in your neck of the woods. To purchase such wonders, the player needs gold, something that requires quite literally hours, days or weeks of in-game labour. However visit Ebay or Eye on MOGs, a price comparison engine for virtual commodities, and you have the opportunity to convert real life earnings into virtual gold, platinum, ISK or Credits, depending on the virtual world that you alter ego(s) inhabits.

The world of Real Money Trading has come a long way since its fledgling days when gamers departing from a virtual world would use websites like Ebay to convert their in-game assets into real world money. Today it is a multi-billion dollar industry, with industry insiders like Steve Sayler of IGE estimating that as much as $2.7 billion will change hands within this secondary market during the course of 2006. This lucrative industry is now catered for by companies like MMORPG SHOP, Mogmine and MOGS, which have entire infrastructures set up to farm for in-game gold and valuable items. Not only can you purchase in-game spending power with real world money from such sites, but many are service driven, for example offering power levelling to fast-track your avatar to new heights of maturity, turn you into a master craftsman in days rather than months, or boost your reputation within the world you inhabit. Sites like Mogmine offer specialised services like fruit picking, specified item farming, or will take your character through that instance thats been weighing so heavily on your mind.

What we are experiencing here is a whole new type of economy where the border between the real and virtual world is blurring. There are currently hundreds of companies catering to this phenomenon, with some virtual items being sold for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Virtual real estate is earning real world money, with people like 43-year-old Wonder Bread deliveryman John Dugger purchasing a virtual castle for $750, setting him back more than a weeks wages. According to Edward Castronova, an economics professor at Indiana University who has performed extensive research into online economies, Norrath, the world in which EverQuest takes place, would be the 77th richest nation on the planet if it existed in real space, with players enjoying an annual income better than that of the citizens of Bulgaria or India. A visit to GameUSD indicates the current state of virtual currencies against the US dollar, demonstrating that some virtual world currencies are currently performing better than real world currencies like the Iraqi Dinar.

Real Money Trading and gold farming are met with mixed feelings in the gaming world, with some gamers criticizing the fact that real world wealth can affect in-game prestige and capabilities. Critics of the secondary market believe that such activities within the virtual economies intrude on the fantasy and provide the more economically empowered with an unfair in-game advantage. However this ignores the real world fact that earning money and advancing ones character within a virtual world takes a good deal of time, and some gamers have more money than time on their hands. The average age for gamers is 27, and approximately half of all gamers are in full time employment. For a group of friends playing together, it can thus be relatively easy for the cash rich to fall behind the time rich in terms of gameplay, as they are obliged to spend the lions share of their time working their real world jobs while friends are spending time levelling their characters. For such individuals, for whom time translates into money, a few dollars is a small price to pay to idn poker online ensure virtual survival the next time they enter an instance with their high level friends.

Companies set up to farm virtual commodities are furthermore criticised as being little more than sweatshops, an attitude encouraged by the fact that many of these companies reside in low wage economies like China. However, pay and work conditions in such companies, where workers are paid to spend their days playing enjoyable, stimulating games, cannot compare to that of their compatriots who spend their days mindlessly producing the components that go into our computers, or the trainers that we wear while playing. Essentially the objection is a moral one, with many Westerners objecting to low wage economies catering to this type of leisure activity. Often workers are paid partly in kind, with food and accommodation included in remuneration packages, with the pay received thus presenting largely surplus. While pay may not equate to Western standards, this type of economic activity reminds us that we are living in a continually globalising economic environment where quality of life and spending power should be taken into account as much if not more so than say a straight dollar for yen exchange rate. Companies like Mogmine provide their staff with health benefits, holiday pay and share options, along with the chance for advancement within the organisation. Brian Lim, CEO of Mogmine, comments that many mid- and high-level management started out as gamers and now they have equal or more pay than respectable managers in more conventional businesses. Within these lower wage economies, these thus represent desirable jobs.

Other complaints centre around the negative effect of such farming activities on in-game economies. At Mogmine, Brian Lims gamers play the game as it is meant to be played, but hone good techniques for gold generation along the way, thus ensuring that the work remains interesting to staff. Jonathan Driscoll comments that competition for resources has always been a feature of gameplay, and points out that his World of Warcraft farmers do their work within instances, and thus do not impact on others gaming experiences in the least. Complaints that farmers are responsible for in-game inflation smack of sour grapes when compared to common factors like players with high level characters acting as benefactors for their low-level alts, and thus facilitating the unrealistic in-game spending power of such low level characters. While some developers do not condone real money trade on their servers, others like MindArk, with their game Project Entropia, have included the secondary market as a part of their services. Even Sony Online Entertainment, who until recently stood staunchly against real money trade, have jumped on the band-wagon with the release of their Station Exchange service, actively facilitating Real Money Trading in Everquest 2. Other games, like the upcoming Roma Victor, embed the secondary market as part of their financial model rather than relying on the common subscription model, with players purchasing Sesterces to play and advance in the game.

Such trading of virtual goods for real world money is potentially just the tip of the iceberg for the development of virtual economies where people come together within virtual worlds to promote and trade real world products. Games like The Matrix Online already sell advertising space to real world companies to promote their products to gamers who spend their leisure time within the world.

We are thus embarking on an entirely new type of economic activity, where real and virtual worlds are meeting within an economic sphere. As a fledgling economy, it is difficult to chart where this phenomenon may take us, but the sheer weight of currency being spent and earned within these economies and the development of services to monitor real to virtual exchange rates and market prices indicates that they are here to stay.

Buying multimedia these days is a confusing process. When you want a sight-and-sound program to tout your company in person or on the web, what do you ask for? Probably a Flash or a PowerPoint. Problem is, thats putting the cart before the horse.

Todays audiovisual world is filled with possibilitiessome are found in the way shows are shown; others in the way they are created. One thing should be sure– video will be a part of your presentationat least if you want to make a real splash.

This article looks at the multimedia/video/presentation buying process and offers ten considerations you need to make to successfully commissionor produceyour next major audiovisual communication. I hope you will adopt them.

1. Flash? PowerPoint? Video? Dont Rush to Conclusions.

When youve got a story to tell and it requires sight and sound, be careful not to prescribe the solution too quickly. One mans PowerPoint these days is another womans video. When people need something to run off of their computer, theyre quick to ask for a PowerPoint show or one of those FLASH things.

Right idea, but not necessarily the right spec.

Flash is considered hip, and PowerPoint is considered a must. But PowerPoint and Flash often are just containers for VIDEO, just as a VHS tape and a DVD are containers for video.

SO, just because you want your project on the web or on computer CD-ROM, doesnt mean it shouldnt incorporateor bevideo. Video is what the big boys useoften, even in major documentaries and motion pictures.

Dont choose the production method solely on the distribution method.

2. Sound Is the Secret Weapon.

Whats the first thing you remember about Star Wars? Dah-dah, da-da-da dahhhh-dahhh!

Yup, the music. And the sound effectsthe hum of the light sabers, the drone of the Death Star. Can you imagine Star Wars without music?

Even in corporate videos, music plays an extremely important part. But youd be surprised how few producers actually realize that. Theyll let a narrator blab on and on, and, to add insult to injury, youll hear the same piece of music looping for the entire length of the show! (Flash presentations are notorious for this.)

Sound tells your audience how to feel; how to distinguish whats important; when to react and how.

A picture is worth a thousand words? Music is worth a thousand emotionslike loyalty, belief, trust, enthusiasmall potent predictors of productivity.

3. Create for the Environment.

Ever see an IMAX film on home video? Is it the same as in the IMAX theater? Ever see your favorite movie on a 4-inch LCD? Was it the same as in your home theater?

No, of course not. IMAX movies and major motion pictures (especially science fiction and thrillers) are created for LARGE screens, in rooms where people are quiet and the sound has impact.

Commercials played in sports arenas on those big jumbotrons generally feature very little dialog. Whod hear it? You can barely hear the music.

When a video communications project is strategized, the environment in which it will be played is an important part of deciding the style and intensity of production. If your CD-ROM is never going to make it past a laptop, running out and shooting sweeping panoramas of the countryside may not be necessarybut plenty of close ups will be.

Play to the room.

4. How Long Should It Be?

Attention spans are short! Shouldnt all videos be short? Well, theres short, and short. Theres real time, and perceived time.

A boring video goes on forever. An exciting video ALWAYS seems shorter than it is, and often bears seeing a second time!

Audiences arent stupid. They dont have short attention spans; they just dont like to be bored. A good story will transcend time. It will seem shorter but last longer in their minds.

5. $1,000 a Minute? $200 per Slide? $3.99 a Pound?

Pricing is always liable to a lot of subjectivity, and so over the years people have tried to quantify the production of multimedia materials. A thousand dollars a minute has been quoted since the late 1960sfor film!

But lets shatter some illusions. Video production (in fact, many creative activities) can not be judged entirely on the running time. It takes $2 million and 9 months to produce a single 24-minute episode of the Simpsons. Ive seen industrial training tapes that ran 90 minutes and grossed the producer $2,000.

Shouldnt he have gotten $90,000? Not for pointing a camera at a podium and hitting record, and editing out awkward pauses!

It is MUCH tougher to produce a great five-minute video that will rouse an audience and get specified results. To keep up a broadcast-quality pace, to have situs idn poker online the right music, to shoot in various locales, to create high-quality 3-D and other animations… well, itll cost more than $5,000, I guarantee that. Sometimes, not much more, but other times, 10 times that amount. Your producer should be willing to write a proposal, tell you what she plans to do, and give you a specific quotation for that exact effort.

6. What Style Should It Be?

On the surface, communications styles change often. After all, audiences like what is current and hipto them. But different audiences come from different age groups, economic backgrounds, regions; so what is hip to a 22-year-old web designer in Atlanta might not be hip to the 45-year-old engineer in Dallas.

Your producer needs to think like a chameleon. Yes, we all have our own strengths and styles, but we are working for you. And you have a corporate style and a defined audience. Too slow a pace, not enough hip animation, and maybe the twenty-somethings will snooze. Too kinetic, too flashy, too loud, and maybe the chairman of the board will have your head.

Maybe youve never seen American Idol, but that doesnt make it unpopular with a large part of the population. If youre not hip on the likes of an audience, trust someone who isyour producer, or that DJ-wannabe who can name everything ever produced by

Jay-Z.

Uh, who?

7. Can I Have That Tuesday?

If its your dry cleaning, yes.

If its the multimedia project or video that is going to convince 5,000 that downsizing is good for them, well, no.

Good video takes time.

How much time? A well-designed, strategized, outlined, planned, written, and produced project (already it sounds long) takes time. Heres a planning guide for a typical 10-minute video:

Write proposal–1 week

Script–2-3 weeks

Production planning–2 weeks

Shooting–2 weeks

Logging and digitizing tapes–1 week

Music selection, voice tracking–1 week

Rough cut–1-2 weeks

Review time (script, rough cut)–1 week (its up to you)

Final edit and effects–1.5 weeks

Duplication–2 weeks

With overlap, overtime, and some real sweet talking from you and me to the hard-working staff, maybe we can cut that down or work some things in parallel. But dont kill the messenger. Allowing sufficient time for the project will get you one hell of a program In the long run, when you do it right, it shows. And the spin-off benefits are enormous.

8. Use Interviews for Believability

Interviewswith your customers, employees, suppliers, even youcan have a dramatic impact on the credibility engendered by your video.

This is especially true for softer subjects, such as fundraising, public opinion, HRD company introductions, tributes, etc.

Interviews are not what they seem. They appear candid (and are); they seem unscripted (and are); they seem easy to do and a way to skip scriptwriting (they ARE NOT).

Interviews require researchwho has the best stories, attitude, presence. Interviews require testinga pre-interview. And they require scripting, if only as a target goal to help the interviewer frame the right questions.

Never let your producer put words into peoples mouthsa pet phrase, an endorsement, a rah-rah statementunless the interviewee came up with it candidly. Theres no faster way for all of you to look boneheaded.

And I dont think THAT was the purpose of the video.

9. Videos Hidden Value

Many big videos and presentations are created for meetings. They unveil the theme, set the stage, introduce a new product, whatever.

But when management realizes they will be used only once, they often become unnecessary. Staging, projectors, production coststhats a lot of cabbage for 500 sales people. Couldnt we add a second entre at the awards dinner?

Fact is, I agree with your bossto the extent that everything should have a repurposing value. And todays video does. Plan it right, write it right, and in no time your videoor at least scenes from itcan be used on the web, on CDs and DVDs, and in your salespeoples PowerPoint presentations.

Now you can justify the purchase and sleep a bit easier.

By the way, even WITHOUT a reuse value, there is nothing like a rousing video opener at a big meeting to set the tone, redefine a company, begin the change process, and build a roaring fire under your sales teams butts. The difference is seen in sales; they have the energyAND new video tools to take with them. The increased revenue more than pays for the cost of the video.

10. A Good Video Producer Knows Sales

And not just because he sold you a project.

Video done right is a form of persuasion. It follows all the good rules of sales (with some exceptions).

First of all, videos must get audiences saying yes. We have to start with common ground and then build our case.

Video incorporates logic. If, then, and after that, then

And video promotes emotional connection. Add the emotional punch, and now youve got a sale.

If a video producer doesnt know this, then hes not a producerhes a craftsman working at some aspect of our trade. And that is fine.

But those who can sell audiencesthey are few and far between.

The care and consideration that goes into producing your companys video overview, sales presentation, or funding solicitation is no less important than the wording of a direct mail piece, the design of your ad campaign, or the development of a corporate identity. For, indeed, a video presentation becomes your corporate identity.

Use these ten tips and youre on your way to perhaps the most successful communications project youve ever undertaken. That just might mean a raise, a corner office, or at least a slap on the back. And thats all good.

Basic Mob Hunting

You’ll normally collect more adena if you were to hunt solo rather than grouped. The amount collected is usually less unless your character is really gimp and are unable to solo mobs on its own. Ideally you should target gree/blue con mobs. Although they give you much less SP they do provide a good amount of adena for the time you would take to kill them. Make sure the mobs you are farming are not too tough and that you do not have much downtime. If you are caster, assure that you’re able to kill the mob with out having to use too much power. If you’re a tank, try not to lose too much life or you will end up sitting majority of the time you are farming. Find areas where there are less players and is loaded with mobs. Having to wait for respawns can waste alot of time. You also do not want to run into too many players farming the same mobs as you, hence it’ll reduce the amount of mobs for you to farm. Avoid using soulshots as well, they can cost alot of money and should only be used when you’re in danger of dying.

Questing

There are some quests that are actually worth doing but here are some basic questing tips you should keep in mind while completing them. Always try to complete the quests that provides the highest amount of rewards for adena and/or offers a very valuable item. Always accept quests that involves killing alot of monsters. It helps you level along with some good loots from time to time. You can also combine certain quests if they are within the same area, being able to complete multiple quests within the same route is much better than completing them seperately. Avoid traveling long distances because they take up alot of time, travelling time can be converted to farming time. Always keep a “scroll of escape” around. Good to use when in danger and good to save yourself time from travelling long distances.

Drops

There are many mobs that have good drops, but that doesn’t mean you should solely focus all your time on them. Drop rates are by chance and chances are you will spend more time killing them for nothing than actually being able to get that specific item. However, if you are farming an area with a bunch of mobs and situs idn poker online there are some with good drops you would of course choose to hunt those first before the rest.

Buying and Selling

Avoid buying from NPC merchants. They usually tend to cost more than buying from another player in the game. If you are planning to purchase a new set of equipment or any other item, buy them from Giran. Taxes there are only 10% and when you buy in large amounts you tend to save alot more. Do not sell off your loots immediately. Try to find the best bargen for them. Look around for players who are spamming “WTB…”. They tend to offer a higher price than normal since they probably have important use of it. Private stores can be one of your biggest assets in the game. You can easily browse through a wide selection at various prices, although it may lag alot but sometimes it can be worth the time spent. You may also want to setup your own store as well when you want to sell off your items. Would be ideal when you go AFK for a long period of time or planning to go to sleep. Don’t start your store and stare at the screen though, that’s just silly and a waste of time. Avoid selling more than 3 items at a time, set price 5-10% below shop price. You should be able to get a good return within 1-2 hours.

Travelling Merchants

If you have extra adenas laying around and you tend to travel a bit for whatever reason, you can be a travelling merchants. Getting to Giran can take a while and lot of players would rather not travel there to purchase stuff unless neccessay. You can always buy a stock full of some items that are demanded within certain areas and sell them off at a higher rate than being sold at Giran. Arrows, healing potions and soulshots are commonly bought items throughout the game. Ideal to stock up a bit on those and setup a store in caves or where ever when you need to go AFK. From time to time if you know the market well enough, there are players who are in desperate need of adena and will sell their item at a much lower price than normal. You can easily buy that and resell later at a higher rate.