Zero Punctuation's Yahtzee has reached geek culture superstardom by sacrificing sacred cows. By profanely slamming popular franchises such as Halo and Super Smash Bros., he's brought down the wrath -- and the web traffic -- of virtually the entire gaming community. There's a running joke through many of his animated reviews, though: he hates MMORPGs.
Both Tabula Rasa and Age of Conan got the full treatment, and Yahtzee has even criticized some single-player games (such as The Witcher) just for sharing gameplay elements with MMORPGs. His fans apparently thought he was being a bit too harsh. "Not all MMORPGs are the same," they presumably said. "Try EVE Online. It's different!"
And so he did. It turns out that "different" might be in the eye of the beholder. Or just as likely, MMORPGs can never be different enough for Yahtzee! The humorous (and as usual, NSFW) video review is embedded above, courtesy of The Escapist.
Zero Punctuation braves interstellar spreadsheets in EVE Online
by Samuel Axon 
on Sep 4th 2008 3:00PM
Sci-fi, Video, EVE Online, Humor
12
Reader Comments (12)
Posted: Sep 4th 2008 3:43PM Nadril said
Saw this the other day, was pretty funny (especially since the EVE fanbase is pretty hardcore). I did agree with a lot of his points though (even if it is satire) and I did find the combat really boring, more so than your average MMO (which I actually enjoy).
The complexity I do like, but it's just a complex game in a boring shell for me.
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The complexity I do like, but it's just a complex game in a boring shell for me.
Posted: Sep 4th 2008 5:58PM (Unverified) said
[Gold spammers will have their comments fed to the in-office virtual paper shredder which shall promptly devour them. OM NOM NOM.]
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Posted: Sep 4th 2008 4:40PM (Unverified) said
I agree completely with him. People who love EVE scare me. They are a different breed.
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Posted: Sep 4th 2008 5:12PM Kyoji said
Yahtzee had some good points, especially with the skills, but I think the very thing that keeps people in EVE is the very thing that drove him away: the sheer openness of the game. He seems to be weirded out by the fact that EVE has no beginning and no end, and an almost complete lack of any linear gameplay.
He also went into the game it seems ready to evaluate it on the same criteria as other MMO's, which in my opinion is a mistake. It's hard to judge something as open as EVE on the same criteria as something as linear as Warcraft. I'm not saying EVE is exempt from critique just for being unique, I'm just saying a more objective attitude going into it might have helped.
But he is Yahtzee, so its nothing out of the normal.
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He also went into the game it seems ready to evaluate it on the same criteria as other MMO's, which in my opinion is a mistake. It's hard to judge something as open as EVE on the same criteria as something as linear as Warcraft. I'm not saying EVE is exempt from critique just for being unique, I'm just saying a more objective attitude going into it might have helped.
But he is Yahtzee, so its nothing out of the normal.
Posted: Sep 5th 2008 1:05AM (Unverified) said
He seems to be weirded out by the fact that EVE has no beginning and no end, and an almost complete lack of any gameplay.
Fixed. The whole never getting out of your ship thing kills it for me, who cares how big the game world is when 80% of it looks exactly the same?
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Fixed. The whole never getting out of your ship thing kills it for me, who cares how big the game world is when 80% of it looks exactly the same?
Posted: Sep 4th 2008 5:20PM J Brad Hicks said
Yep. I can't find anything to criticize about that review. Well, other than his generic opinion of all gamers that they have poor hygiene; I know enough people in real life who play this to know that it's a tired old stereotype. But my stock comment to people who want me to play EVE Online with them is that that's not a game, it's a screen-saver.
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Posted: Sep 6th 2008 12:41PM (Unverified) said
I like the way he starts his review by admitting he didn't play the game. He essentially tried to play the game as though it were a single player game - no wonder he didn't enjoy it. It's a shame really, usually his reviews verge on funny and insightful.
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Posted: Sep 7th 2008 3:25AM Brendan Drain said
Yeah, I picked up on that too. He didn't play EVE, he played what he THOUGHT EVE was. Refusing to join a player corporation and get involved in PvP removes 90% of the game's driven appeal, it's no wonder he thought it was boring.
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Posted: Sep 18th 2008 1:33AM (Unverified) said
Scathing! I love it!
I passed it on to my corpmates as well...they loved it, too. Meanwhile, my girlfriend was begging me to take her on more missions so she could blow stuff up. :-)
Reply
I passed it on to my corpmates as well...they loved it, too. Meanwhile, my girlfriend was begging me to take her on more missions so she could blow stuff up. :-)
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