How did Hilmar Petursson become interested in computers and game development?

His journey began at age nine when he saw an ad for a Sinclair Spectrum. He worked a paper route to save up for it, teaching himself programming and game modification, which laid the groundwork for his entrepreneurial path in the tech industry.

What makes EVE Online's economy unique?

EVE Online features a single-shard server where all players interact within a shared, player-driven economy. Resources are distributed asymmetrically, forcing cooperation and conflict, and its in-game currency, 'ISK', has significant contextual value recognized by its large player base.

How did EVE Online solve the 'cold start' problem for new MMOs?

An accidental distribution bottleneck of 30,000 physical boxes in the early days limited initial players, allowing the first cohort six months to build social infrastructure. This provided a stable foundation for subsequent players to join and find established communities.

What was the 'jet can' exploit in EVE Online and how did CCP Games handle it?

Players discovered a debug feature allowing faster mineral acquisition by using cargo containers. Instead of removing it, CCP Games embraced it, recognizing it as a better gameplay mechanic that fostered trust and player collaboration, demonstrating a commitment to emergent gameplay.

What is the significance of player-created content and emergence in EVE Online?

EVE Online thrives on 'emergence,' where players combine basic 'atomic components' to create complex systems, alliances, and stories. This player-driven approach acts as an infinitely scalable storytelling engine, making the game world dynamic and self-evolving.

How does EVE Online's economy compare to real-world economies?

The game's economy, like real-world currencies, derives its value from collective belief and agreement. The 2007-2008 Icelandic banking crisis is used as an analogy for how economic bubbles can form and collapse when value is not fundamentally grounded.

What are PLEX and their role in EVE Online's economy?

PLEX, inspired by African mobile phone minute economies, can be redeemed for game subscription time. This introduced a formal exchange rate between real-world currency and in-game value, allowing for quantification of in-game economic events like large-scale battles.

What specific design techniques would Hilmar Petursson implement in a new virtual world based on EVE's lessons?

He would focus on making worlds more probabilistic, similar to real-world phenomena, and introducing energy consumption mechanics for actions. These aim to reduce deterministic predictability and prevent botting, fostering more engaging human-led gameplay.

How will blockchain technology benefit CCP Games' new project, 'Project Awakening'?

Blockchain can enhance third-party development through smart contracts, allowing for more composable applications, and legitimize the real-world economic value players create, transitioning it from gray markets to a sanctioned, transparent system.

What core elements of EVE Online does CCP Games want to preserve in new projects?

The ability for flexible organization at scale, enabling tens of thousands of players to form complex alliances and military hierarchies, and the game's capacity to foster deep, lifelong friendships through shared experiences and trust.

How does CCP Games approach onboarding new players to complex blockchain games like Project Awakening?

They lean into the sci-fi theme, making elements like wallets and transactions feel like natural parts of the game world with a cohesive user interface. They leverage 20 years of UX design experience to make the process more intuitive and less jarring.

Mastering Virtual Worlds & Economies (CCP Games | Creators of EVE Online)

a16z

Gaming5 min read73 min video

Apr 7, 2023|6,579 views|191|44

EVE Online EVE MMO Blockchain Gaming Games web3

Save to Pod

Key Moments

On this page

TL;DR

CCP Games CEO Hilmar Pétursson discusses Eve Online's virtual economy, player-driven emergence, and the future with blockchain in Project Awakening.

Key Insights

Eve Online's virtual economy is as complex and sometimes problematic as real-world economies, with value derived from player belief and labor specialization.

Player-driven emergence, where players compose atomic components into new gameplay experiences, is central to Eve Online's longevity and meaning.

Blockchain technology can enhance third-party development, create transparent economies, and manage real-world economic value within virtual worlds.

The success of Eve Online highlights the importance of fostering deep social connections and flexible organization at scale, even with increased programmability.

Project Awakening aims to leverage blockchain for higher stakes, more meaningful gameplay, and improved onboarding, building upon Eve Online's lessons.

Key technological and design techniques for future virtual worlds include embracing probability, adding energy consumption, and fostering intrinsic motivation.

THE NATURE OF VIRTUAL CURRENCIES AND ECONOMIES

Hilmar Pétursson likens virtual currency in Eve Online to the Icelandic Krona, emphasizing that its value is derived from user acceptance within a closed system. Both currencies demonstrate how economic bubbles can form and collapse when artificial value is created without a solid real-world backing. This underscores the principle that value is a human invention, dependent on collective belief and specialized labor, which virtual economies must replicate to achieve meaningfulness.

THE BIRTH OF EVE ONLINE AND ITS CORE MISSION

CCP Games was founded with the mission to make virtual worlds as meaningful as real life, a vision born from early experiences with text-based MUDs and the social VRML browser, which was ahead of its time. The founders recognized the potential for player agency and world-building inherent in these early virtual environments, aiming to update the graphics and scale of these experiences rather than invent entirely new concepts. This focus on player-driven creation and social dynamics has remained central to Eve's development.

THE SCALE AND SOCIAL FABRIC OF EVE ONLINE

Eve Online is set in a vast universe of 7,000 solar systems, designed with a deliberate topology to foster cooperation and conflict through resource scarcity. Players progress from solo endeavors to joining corporations and alliances, engaging in complex logistics, construction, and warfare. With about 20 million unique players over two decades and a consistent monthly active user base, the game's single, massive shard allows for unprecedented player interaction and emergent storytelling, creating a dynamic social ecosystem.

EMERGENCE AND PLAYER-DRIVEN GAMEPLAY

Eve Online thrives on player-driven emergence, where 'atomic components' are composed by players into new gameplay experiences, often unforeseen by the developers. This was exemplified when players leveraged a debug feature for mining, rapidly accelerating game progression and creating new social dynamics based on trust. CCP's willingness to embrace these player innovations, rather than strictly enforce original designs, has been crucial to the game's adaptability and longevity.

THE PLEX SYSTEM AND ECONOMIC QUANTIFICATION

The introduction of PLEX, inspired by African mobile phone minute economies, provided a legitimate way to exchange real-world value for in-game subscription status. This system helped formalize an in-game economy, allowing for the tracking of economic value destruction, most notably the 2014 world record for the largest virtual asset destruction. This led CCP to discuss Eve's economy in terms of country-like scales, highlighting the immense economic activity within the game.

MANAGING VIRTUAL ECONOMIES AND PLAYER AGENCY

CCP's role as developers increasingly involves managing the virtual economy through interventions like scarcity periods to control inflation, akin to a central bank. The game's economy is deterministic and resources don't always procedurally regenerate like in nature, necessitating manual adjustments. The goal is to maintain value for human players, which is a constant battle against botting, by ensuring that time and human effort remain the primary valued commodities.

TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN TECHNIQUES FOR THE FUTURE

For future virtual worlds, CCP focuses on design techniques over pure technological leaps. Key areas for improvement include making worlds more probabilistic, moving away from rigid determinism, and introducing energy consumption as a scarcity factor beyond just time. This aims to counter agency stacking and botting, making human engagement more valuable and creating deeper, more unpredictable environments, inspired by natural systems and player-driven innovation.

PROJECT AWAKENING AND THE ROLE OF BLOCKCHAIN

Project Awakening, a new AAA title using blockchain, aims to improve upon Eve Online by enhancing third-party development through smart contracts and creating a transparent, sanctioned economy for real-world asset trading. This approach addresses issues of gray markets and trusted asset management, making virtual economies inherent to the game's design. By leaning into sci-fi themes, CCP plans to make blockchain integration feel more natural and intuitive for players.

PRESERVING THE CORE OF VIRTUAL SOCIAL EXPERIENCES

Key elements to preserve in future games include the ability for flexible social organization at scale, fostering deep, lifelong friendships through shared experiences and trust, and creating meaningful relationships. Despite the increased programmability offered by blockchain, the goal remains to cultivate human connection. This involves making worlds more chaotic and unpredictable, thereby increasing stakes and encouraging stronger bonds through shared adversity.

HIGH STAKES, ACCESSIBILITY, AND THE FUTURE OF GAMING

Project Awakening is envisioned as a high-stakes experience, akin to 'hardcore mode,' where significant risks foster deeper trust and stronger relationships, inspired by Eve Online's 20-year journey. While raising the stakes, CCP also focuses on simplifying complexity to increase depth, making the game more accessible without sacrificing the emergent gameplay. This approach aims to create a more focused and compelling player experience, blurring the lines between virtual and real-life meaningfulness.

ADVICE FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND THE JOURNEY AHEAD

Hilmar advises fellow entrepreneurs to stay true to their core principles, even when short-term economic gains seem more appealing. He emphasizes using intuition to guide decisions, especially when unexpected challenges arise, and to maintain a consistent stream of thought. This holistic approach, rather than optimizing for immediate returns, leads to more consistent and meaningful outcomes, reflecting the compounding nature of decisions made over a long journey.

Mentioned in This Episode

●Products

●Software & Apps

●Companies

●Books

●Concepts

●People Referenced

Common Questions

CCP Games aims to make virtual worlds as meaningful, if not more meaningful, than real life. This philosophy drives their design, focusing on player-driven narratives, complex economies, and emergent social structures within EVE Online.

Topics

Virtual Worlds MMORPGs Game Economy Blockchain Gaming Emergent Gameplay Player-driven Content EVE Online CCP Games Project Awakening MMO Design Virtual Economies

Mentioned in this video

softwareLost Ark

A modern MMORPG that, along with New World, is cited as an example of games struggling with the 'cold start problem' (empty servers).

softwareSecond Life

A virtual world platform that provides a model for virtual economies through a fiat in-and-out mechanism and robust KYC/AML procedures.

softwareVRML

Virtual Reality Modeling Language, a file format for representing 3D interactive vector graphics, used in the social VRML browser developed by OR Interactive.

productTitans

Massive, capital-class ships in EVE Online, representing significant player achievements and requiring extensive resources and cooperation to build.

personHilmar Petursson

CEO and founder of CCP Games, the developer of EVE Online. He shares insights on the game's development, philosophy, and future projects.

companyCCP Games

The Icelandic company founded in 1997 that developed and continues to operate the MMORPG EVE Online. They are now working on Project Awakening.

personM. Takahashi

An individual Hilmar Petursson met at GDC in 2000, noted as a significant encounter early in his career.

companyOR Interactive

An Icelandic company founded in 1992 that developed a social VRML browser. Hilmar Petursson joined them in 1996.

productCitadels

Large player-built structures in EVE Online, comparable in size to small US states, serving as bases of operations and requiring immense resources.

softwareNew World

A modern MMORPG that, along with Lost Ark, is cited as an example of games struggling with the 'cold start problem' (empty servers).

productStrum

A component used in EVE Online for a period to power certain infrastructure, representing an attempt to add an energy consumption mechanic to the game's economy.

softwareProject Awakening

CCP Games' new title set in the EVE Universe, described as a AAA title leveraging blockchain technology, aiming for higher stakes and deeper player engagement.

softwareElden Ring

A game in the Souls-like genre that successfully integrated open-world elements, providing players with more agency and appeal compared to traditional Dark Souls games.

bookHyperion

A science fiction novel by Dan Simmons, mentioned as a potential inspiration for a level in Elden Ring or a similar game concept involving farming efficiency.

softwareEVE Online

The flagship MMORPG developed by CCP Games, known for its complex economy, player-driven content, and single-shard server architecture. It's often described as the closest thing to a metaverse.

softwareMUDs

Multi-User Dungeons, text-based online role-playing games that heavily influenced the concept of EVE Online, emphasizing world creation and player interaction.

companyMidway

A US company to which CCP Games sold publishing rights for EVE Online to secure funding to finish development.

companyPlayer Auctions

An online marketplace for EVE Online virtual items, referred to as the 'OpenSea of MMOs'.

toolIceland

mediaUltima Online