The Endgame

Gevlon Goblin has a 'meh' post up from Friday.  However, one of the things he says in his post struck a note:

"Instead of endgame, nullsec became niche game."

My first thought when I read that was "Uhm. End game?  What end game?"

In most MMO's, the 'end game' is the set of content designed for characters at max level.  The standard formula for that includes things like 'hard-mode' dungeons, Nightmare levels, massive raids, or top-level, competitive PvP.  The end-game implies "this is why you play the game; this is why you bothered to grind 90-some levels and then spent another two months gathering the exact best equipment and perfected your skill rotation.  Now you are here, now you are at the top of the game."

Frankly, ideas of an end game just do not belong in Eve.  At all.

Granted, there are many areas of the game that use a small and localized progression scale as players invest more skill points and isk: going from running L1 NPC missions in a frigate to L4 missions in a battleship or T3 cruiser, going from mining in a venture to mining in a Mackinaw, starting frigate PvP in an Atron and moving up into an Enyo... however, even things like 'doing solo PvP in a frigate' and 'doing solo PvP in a cruiser' have their own distinct progression, nuances, and 'play area'.  Everything in Eve is about the niche game, and how the myriad of niche games interact with each other, not about everyone progressing from mining in a venture in high sec to flying a titan in a battle like B-R.

There are two places where this "We are the end game" perspective seems most pronounced, at least that I have noticed: Sov Null, and C5/C6 wormholes.  Many groups assume that, since nullsec offers higher rewards and Sov Null is some of the safest space in the game, that and large corporation will eventually want to end up in a coalition in Sov Null.  In the wormhole community, it is commonly assumed that corporations that move into 'lower class' wormhole have an end goal of building up to the point that they can move into and hold a C5 or a C6 wormhole.  These are certainly progressions that some players and corporations plan on taking, but many others are content to find their niche and live in it.  Each class of wormhole offers its own distinct flavor of play, and there are plenty of pockets out in null sec - from NPC null to places like Providence - that are divergent from the coalition mentality.

If you are a newer player, dabble around a bit!  Find something you enjoy, and move into that niche.  It's a lot easier to break into a new area of play than you might think.

o7