Interviews// EVE Online: The Interview - Part 2

SPOnG: Speaking of Dust 514... How exactly does it interact with EVE Online?

Jon Lander: The two games interact on a number of levels. I can shoot at console players who are battling on the planet from my spaceship in EVE, and vice versa. There’s that immediate gameplay link. The next step is, with the Inferno release of EVE next month, we’re revamping faction warfare. Mercs fighting on planets will have an impact on how the factions are doing in EVE.

Thirdly, if you take a big step back and just look at the universes of both games, players will have the ability to chat across PC and PS3 to each other. You’ll get to be part of the same organisations, and making history together in a shared world. This sort of thing has never been done before. It’s going to be absolutely fantastic.

Kristoffer Touborg: I think the best moment for me, when these games are actually connected, will be the moment when someone on PC screws over a massive group of console players for the first time. That’ll be the real ‘Welcome to EVE Online’ message - the first time someone realises that they’re not just playing Modern Warfare and nobody really gives a fuck what the point of the match is. I think that’s going to be significant.


SPOnG: Are you expecting console players to be led like lambs to the slaughter?

Kristoffer Touborg: Oh, no. I think that it might be a wake up call for some people, but it’s going to go both ways. There’s no doubt about that. People underestimate console players - some PC players think that they’re always facing a bunch of 14-year-olds.

Jon Lander: But we will have the ability to have those quick-fire matches, too. If you want a 15-minute match to just go in and shoot someone, you can do that. But you can step into the persistent part of the game and fight for a cause, if you want the battles you fight to have some meaning.

You’ll fight to own some land, and you’ll get notifications on your PlayStation Vita or something that will inform you whenever another player is about to invade that land and take it for themselves. You become connected in a way that doesn’t really happen with other games.

Can you remember that battle of Call of Duty you had yesterday? No. World of Tanks... I remember the last match that I played, but it didn’t mean anything. It was just a good 15 minutes of fun. Don’t get me wrong, I love World of Tanks, it’s a great game. But this way, everything means so much more to you.

Kristoffer Touborg: I remember that feeling, the first time I killed a Titan. I remember the first time I stole everything from another corporation. I remember the first time I got access to another corporation’s message board. But I do not, for the life of me, remember any of the matches I played on World of Tanks last week. I play a lot of matches, because I really like World of Tanks, but it just doesn’t stick in memory.


SPOnG: Sony’s dabbled with MMO first-person shooters in the past with MAG. Is the link between Dust 514 and EVE your way of maintaining an interest in the FPS part of the experience?

Kristoffer Touborg: Partly. But, there’s a lot of other stuff in there that will hopefully achieve the same result. The progression system, the link with PC players, the fact that we’ll be continually updating it like we do with EVE... I mean, part of the reason I think shooters are so short-lived is because they’re just a ‘fire and forget’ experience most of the time. But if we have a shooter which receives an expansion every three months, then I don’t see why it can’t exist for a long time.

Jon Lander: There’s a link which is a compelling gameplay reason to want to interact between the two games. You don’t have to, but it becomes more meaningful if you do. You get more out of it. You see that typical curve of any game that gets released, where you pile all your marketing money into the first month, because you know after that everyone’s going to be moving on to the next game.

This isn’t just about the game, this is about you having a role in a virtual world. It’s something different, and when you invest your time and emotion into something that’s persistent, you’ll want to keep coming back and playing it. We just need to keep the game fresh and add more things for you to experiment with and decide what you want to do.


SPOnG: Would you say there’s more of an incentive for subscribers of EVE Online to purchase Dust 514, over gamers who have never experienced the MMO before?

Jon Lander: I play a little story out in my head, when I think about this. Imagine the world’s best first-person shooter player. He’s in some heavy bit of kit, all the latest and greatest weapons and gear. There are only two players left on the opposing team, and they’re wimpy little scouts. He thinks, ‘Haha! I will fuck you up, noobs!’

So he goes in with this big mini-gun, but one of the scouts peeks around the corner and calls in an airstrike from some dude up in a battleship. Just nukes the guy - who’s at this point really pissed. ‘Hax! How can you do this? I had all the best gear,’ he shouts, and the scout simply says, ‘I have some buddies up there.’

The first-person shooter player, after he throws the controller down in rage, decides that he needs to get the biggest gun in the game to compete. To do that, he needs a spaceship. And so, he ends up introducing himself to EVE Online and playing that so he can get his own battleship to call his own airstrikes from. He’s got his PS3 here, and his PC there... I hope something like that happens.


SPOnG: Thank you for your time!

Jon Lander: Thank you.

Kristoffer Touborg: Thanks!

Sveinn Johannesson Kjarval: Thank you!