There is a thick line between online gaming and living in an alternate reality. It's more like a wall really, and EVE Online is like a portcullis in the center of that wall. EVE Online is probably the most revolutionary game to be played online right now. In fact, even though it isn't my type of game, I still find myself drawn back to it. EVE is a sci-fi based on single-ship combat in a new universe. If I were to create a perfect game (like the cyber-universe of the Dot Hack series), EVE could be considered a single vertebra in the backbone of it. Not only is the world of EVE comparatively massive, but the player base is enormous. The player to player relations cause great snowball effects throughout the universe. There are countless accounts of corporations (think guilds) forming armies and setting off real-time events that change the history of the game forever.
There is no leveling in EVE, just training. Your character trains in real time, each skill point capped at five taking up to months to complete training. Training one of hundreds of skill to a certain level can enable you to use anything from a mining laser on an asteroid, to a mothership-class vessel. Guns, lasers, missile launchers, ethnic relations, maneuvering, shields, ship types, and even trading skills all add up to what your character can and can't do. Speaking of what you can and can't do, lets go to the sandbox trailer as an example.
You're a lone wolf floating in space and you see a defenseless mining barge under attack by local players looking for a little cash, or maybe a little payback. Corporations can go to war with each other after all, and bounties are a huge bonus to income if you can corner the poor sucker who screwed up. So you can either join them and salvage the wreck for a little cash, maybe have a little interest in taking on a pirating career, or you can be a good citizen, and drive the pirates off. Say you drive off the pirates, and the patrolling gang that was on its way to help the miner shows up. They are thankful, and invite you to help them drive off more pirates. A few weeks go by, during which you loyally continue to slaughter your new friends' opposition, and the corporation leader decides you're fit for a promotion. You're not cut out for spying, he thinks, maybe not front-line warfare either, and you're not quite interested enough to mine all day. So you end up tailing a squad of other mercenaries who've shown promise. A few hit and run missions later and something big happens. There's been word of an attack; the enemy corporation and her alliance have made their challenge. One late night, you come home from work to see urgent fleet-wide mail waiting for you. You're to report immediately to a specific system to defend a key outpost. Only, when you get there, only enemies wait for you. New orders come quickly, they've taken the outpost and you must defend the next one until your main fleet has time to assemble. You drop back to more controlled territory to be joined by twenty others who were wrecked at the first outpost. The the strike comes. There are hundreds of enemy players bearing down on the tiny outpost. The server strains to keep them all connected, and your computer strains to keep the models loaded. Ten minutes tick by and they still buzz about the outpost picking off your fleet members. And Then, salvation. The Corporation's main fleet arrives. hundreds of allies shove back. They clash for hours. You send and receive handfuls of reports over two hours. You sleep and come home from work the next day to find the stragglers still duking it out. The outpost has help, but thousands of ships and billions of ISK (currency) have been lost. Your corporation leader decides that it is time to strike back, and begins planning a mega-assault on their fringe territory, as well as position spies and traitors. You are a hero; you helped drive back a map-changing assault, even if you did sleep through some of it.
All because you helped to wreck a few pirates.
Wall of text, I know. But you get the point. Possibilities are endless. Players can shape almost every feature of the game. And while you can't really dance with another player's avatar, why bother whining, when you and a few friends can form a small mercenary group and bring in big bucks by pinning down and annihilating targets on the bounty board.
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