Eve Online: Where are the Women?

With my husband so much into Eve Online http://eve-online.com/ I decided to give it a shot. The game is extremely well done and has a depth that I find lacking in other MMORPG's. The average player age is 27 and they are predominantly male. Far more so than in other MMORPG's. Far, far, far more so. In my alliance of a thousand, there's maybe three female players, while there are probably a good 40% female portraits floating in space. I have heard hundreds of voices on voice servers, but to this date, I have only had direct contact with one female. It seems a shame that a game with the depth and quality of Eve would have such a low female showing.

What's so great about Eve Online?
Eve Online is a science fictoin based MMORPG where you outfit and fly a ship into space and among systems. The graphics are spectacular but do not require very expensive hardware. Your character spends real life time learning skills, even while you are away. These skills allow you to outfit, fly, and even make ships. They allow you to mine and make most tings in the game. The economy is largely player driven. Trade and production are significant forces.

Ships are used for travel, combat, mining, trading, scouting, and exploring. There are a large number to begin with that can be fitted to a significant degree of customization. Plyer vs. player combat is present and can be largely avoided or easily sought out. Players can form their own corporations and alliances, build outposts, and hold territory.

Because Eve offers so many options, plus more that I have not even mentioned yet, there are many aspects of the game to choose from. It is easy to find something to like about Eve once you've gotten into it.

But why are females few and far between in space?
Well, here are my thoughts.

It's sci-fi: I guess girls don't find robots and ships (and cars and such) as exciting as guys do. Perhaps it was upbringing. Perhaps it is the mechanical nature. This is not particularly unique to Eve.

It has a steep learning curve: This actually gets a lot of people. Because there are so many possibilities that they want to equip you to handle, the tutorial typically takes over 3 hours to complete. A lot of people, either gender, just never get through the information overload.

It's complicated: In addition to the steep learning curve, while things get easier, there's a lot of things to keep track of. It's not just what are you going to learn next level, and your hp/mana/moves. There's far more to how well you're doing in a fight than if your shields are holding steady. This game takes a considerable amount of concentration and not so much the relaxing mindless slaughter one may want after a hard day at work.

It's technical: Some of the things they speak about remind me of guys discussing stats on cars and what they will do to modify their ship to make it run faster or whatever. People who aren't all that interested in the specs on a car are probably not going to be as interested in the specs on their spaceship either.

It's got a lot of player conflict: There are no 'safe' servers on Eve. There are places that are safe-ER, but there is no 100% guarantee that someone won't come by and spoil your fun. The ability to cause grief is part of the game and is accounted for and controlled mechanically. People play dirty here. It's something that attracts many and repels others. The creators believed in giving both great opportunities and great risks. One will have to decide for oneself if the risk and unfun of loss will be worth the excitement of pursuing greater rewards.

But I don't feel so convinced... I feel that I was once prejudiced against this game because of the emphasis on player conflict, the condoning of griefers, and the fact that dragons are more fun than spaceships. But I gave it a shot and I really enjoy it. It turns out, these were not reasons to dismiss it.

Why not more female players?
This game requires a lot of commitment to get into, but I think it is far more rewarding than most games out there, that are really simple in comparison. There are so many options, of things that can be done, or just opted out of. I am glad that i did not miss out.

There are a lot of tools available to do all the boring calculations. The creators have allowed third-party software to figure out the fitting calculations, and store massive amounts of player-collected data. All the tedious things have already been figured out. You can access these resources or ignore them as you wish.

And it turns out, outfitting a new ship is kind of fun. It is akin to choosing a wardrobe in a way, putting together something to suit your needs that works well together. Whenyou learn you are just a little more efficient with your computers and can fit in another gun, it's a nice progression.

Player killing isn't so bad. There are certainly a lot of sore winners and sore losers on Eve, but this can all easily be ignored. The point is to enjoy yourself, and there isn't a lot people can do to stop that. Fly only what you're willing to lose, and everything else falls into place.

I feel that I have not given this game justice, but I do hope that more will give it a shot. Eve players can consider themselves the elite of the MMORPG world, where even getting in is a test of your interest in the complicated and customizable, but I think many will find that it was worth it.

There's even a free trial: https://secure.eve-online.com/ft/?aid=102383