EVE

This seductive sandbox attracts Washington lawyers and real-life rocket scientists to a safe space for virtual villainy.

I think that’s what attracts people to EVE, too: you can do what you want in a way that you would never get away with in real life.” I’ve discovered that I’m very good at it, and I wouldn’t have had any chance to experience that if it wasn’t for EVE.” As someone who has run corporations, Scott sees being able to motivate hundreds of people as one of EVE’s most important transferable skills: “That’s a huge amount of people management. Having hosted several events at the EVE Fanfest, Scott says the game has givenhim a confidence he didn’t know he had. “I have married people, I have done funerals, I have blessed babies,” says Charles White, better known as the Space Pope. At the Lessons Learned division of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, White’s day job is to comb through fatal errors from previous space missions, publishing reports that could help save lives on the next lunar outing. “It’s a lot of fun,” White smiles, with his silent, cloaked disciple sitting beside him. “I can’t compete in space combat, but I can take everyone’s money.” EVE is often self-deprecatingly called “spreadsheets in space”. During this year’s Fanfest, CCP announced an official partnership with Microsoft Excel, to rapturous applause. I get that feeling in my career, sure, but not once a week.” “I go to work, come home, and for two to three hours, I log in. For those who don’t know their Minmatar from their Caldari, EVE Online is a hugely complex player-led video game, a virtual spaceship sandbox where – in the right hands – spreadsheets are as powerful as space fleets. The Australians are mad at the Europeans, and you have to deal with it.