Eve – Apocrypha (part 2)

In the first part of this article, I described my lapse back into playing Eve-Online, one of the most in-depth MMORG's on the market.  The revamped character creation system hides the complexity from the new player and the tutorial missions gradually remove the training wheels.  It's still a dangerous universe, but it's now less intimidating.
The end of the tutorial points the new player in the direction of the first of the new “Epic Story Arcs”, a huge series of connected missions with decision points that allow the player the freedom to navigate their own path through the story.  This article is about my experiences playing through “The Blood-Stained Stars” during my character's next few weeks in Eve.
You're recruited by Sister Alitura of the Sisters of Eve, a religious charitable organisation that are the closest thing that the Eve universe has to “good guys”.  She's picked up a distress signal, asks you to investigate, and then bring to justice those responsible for the destruction of “The Damsel”.  Following the trail leads you through the four regions controlled by each of the playable races.  Your character is involved in plenty of internal politics, so it's a great introduction to the differences between their cultures and governments.
I had a slight hiccup close to the end when a bug broke the chain and I couldn't find the next mission.  If you're offered a mission from another agent while you're on the story arc, don't let this offer expire or you might lose the epic story arc mission as well.  If this happens use the “Petition” option on the “Help” menu to report the problem and it should be fixed within a couple of days.
I had a lot of fun running through “The Blood-Stained Stars”.  The missions gradually become more difficult as both you and your character become more experienced (you'll need to train weapons skills and upgrade your ship during the arc) and I never lost interest.  If I have a criticism it's that the ending was a little anti-climatic.  While the individual missions are well-rewarded, I'd have appreciated something a little more significant at the end to indicate that I'd achieved something.  The word “epic” implies something special and, while I had fun, I wasn't blown away.
Based on this example, the mechanism behind the epic mission arcs offers a lot of potential, another layer on top a game that's already incredibly deep.  This first arc doesn't offer much for the established player, but if you're a newbie it's a great next step.