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Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

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11–20 of 202 posts

Re: Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

#11

Anyone on here plays this game? Is it worth it? Dropping everything in life for that one perfect game will always be a temptation... ;)

It’s absolutely worth it for the people you’ll meet playing the game. I’m in Iceland right now for the annual player meeting and it’s been a blast. Many alliances have internal tools which interface with the game and external crowdsourced market data, and it’s common knowledge that those tools are better than real world logistics software, so working on them is a great way to learn how to build relevant products.

" and it’s common knowledge that those tools are better than real world logistics software"

I don't know if this is true, but it would tell a lot about this world we are living in.

Re: Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

#12

Anyone on here plays this game? Is it worth it? Dropping everything in life for that one perfect game will always be a temptation... ;)

Used to play EVE a long time ago in a known alliance. The game mechanics were not that good. What made the game shine was that it's an extremely complex sandbox game, where almost anything goes. This leads to a very complex game that is almost entirely governed by how the other players react to your interactions with them. The drama, dreams, hopes and despair that comes with playing the game is the real reward.

It used to be that the game was really harsh when you screwed up, which made the adrenaline pump when you did something you knew was dangerous. For me as a hardcore gamer at the time, that was the initial kick. Now a days I believe they have lessened the harshness a bit, but it should still be one of the few games where you can lose literally hundreds of hours in investment by losing everything you own in the game.

Re: Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

#13

Anyone on here plays this game? Is it worth it? Dropping everything in life for that one perfect game will always be a temptation... ;)

I used to just solo explore nullsec. Found something very zen about planning routes, scanning and sneaking past players to not get blown up (still happened a lot).

Ended up joining a newbie corp as the return trip to sell stuff often wasn't worth it. They had a hauling corp that offered buyback for most items. Still played solo for the most part.

People kept telling me that I'm playing the game wrong FWIW but not participating in the social aspects freed me up to boot up the game for an hour whenever I wanted. Haven't played for a few years but I did enjoy it.

Re: Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

#14

Anyone on here plays this game? Is it worth it? Dropping everything in life for that one perfect game will always be a temptation... ;)

I played it from launch until around 2010 or so.

Is it worth it? No. Is there a good alternative? No. EVE Online always had an element of spreadsheets to it. It was designed that way. The original game design was done inside excel.

Personally I find it fascinating that CCP didn’t build their own spreadsheet functionality into the game considering how many players used spreadsheets to calculate mining yield returns, industrial runs, research and BP copying. The only area of EVE where spreadsheets go out the window is war.

I have probably 20,000 hours in the game. I lived on EVE from 2003-2010 and then would log on every once in a while to get my space fix.

The one thing I will say about the game, it inspired me to try to create my own back in the day. It was too much work for me but I did manage to get a demo of flying around from Star system to star system using an EVE-Online like warp and scene management.

The artwork of EVE is fantastic. The space environments are A+. The actual gameplay though is a bit stale to todays gamers. It’s more a kin to old school rpg’s where you target something and let the auto attack do it’s thing.

Re: Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s absolutely worth it for the people you’ll meet playing the game. I’m in Iceland right now for the annual player meeting and it’s been a blast. Many alliances have internal tools which interface with the game and external crowdsourced market data, and it’s common knowledge that those tools are better than real world logistics software, so working on them is a great way to learn how to build relevant products.

" and it’s common knowledge that those tools are better than real world logistics software" I don't know if this is true, but it would tell a lot about this world we are living in.

I actually got into software/systems engineering working on internal software for "minor" player groups in EVE. The level of integration[0] those orgs had 10+ years ago outranks 80% of my current real-world clients in terms of discoverability, documentation and depth.

I mean that's what you get from a bunch of eve-playing nerds committing to a labor of love. Best projects I've ever had.

[0] Real time updating mining & trading boards by location, 100bn+ ISK inventory tracking down to the cent across many corps, characters, inventories & contracts, ... Killboard & market data feeds, risk evaluation, resource allocation optimisers... Absolutely impeccable archives & backups going back 5+ years, on top of postgres & flask iirc.

edit: And audit logs EVERYWHERE. Seriously, I've seen better CYA/KYC/chain of responsabilities from eve recruitment corps than some actual for profit entities.

Re: Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s absolutely worth it for the people you’ll meet playing the game. I’m in Iceland right now for the annual player meeting and it’s been a blast. Many alliances have internal tools which interface with the game and external crowdsourced market data, and it’s common knowledge that those tools are better than real world logistics software, so working on them is a great way to learn how to build relevant products.

" and it’s common knowledge that those tools are better than real world logistics software" I don't know if this is true, but it would tell a lot about this world we are living in.

I work in logistics right now and I can confirm, it’s not pretty.

Re: Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" and it’s common knowledge that those tools are better than real world logistics software" I don't know if this is true, but it would tell a lot about this world we are living in.

I actually got into software/systems engineering working on internal software for "minor" player groups in EVE. The level of integration[0] those orgs had 10+ years ago outranks 80% of my current real-world clients in terms of discoverability, documentation and depth. I mean that's what you get from a bunch of eve-playing nerds committing to a labor of love. Best projects I've ever had. [0] Real time updating mining…

Also, the combination of (mostly) player-run economy + substantial no-consequence PvP zones + large player organizations seems to attract a different sort of person.

There are still your average gamers, but EVE had a much more adept playerbase (in terms of real world skills) than any other MMORPG I've played.

Re: Eve Online fans cheer Microsoft Excel features at annual Fanfest

#20

Anyone on here plays this game? Is it worth it? Dropping everything in life for that one perfect game will always be a temptation... ;)

I played it from launch until around 2010 or so. Is it worth it? No. Is there a good alternative? No. EVE Online always had an element of spreadsheets to it. It was designed that way. The original game design was done inside excel. Personally I find it fascinating that CCP didn’t build their own spreadsheet functionality into the game considering how many players used spreadsheets to calculate mining yield returns, i…

The X4 series is a comparable (but weaker given the lack of human element) single player alternative experience.
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