Eve Border hopes to hand over the galaxy to players completely
Blog Andrew Joseph 10 Jun , 2025 0
Eve Online has a decades reputation at this point because it is a huge, ruthless, free space sandbox of empires full of crime, war, betrayal and player-made empires. From its concept, the Eve border is actually something that all of these things dial further. Combine its space MMO legacy with elements of the survival crafting type and use blockchain to – so, the developers say – giving players more control, which is certainly a thought-provoking prospect.
Let me solve this problem first: Frontier is a blockchain game. It also has cryptocurrency tokens that can be purchased with real money and spent in the game. (Eve Online has the ability to buy its subscription token, PLEX for real money, and sell it with in-game funds, so specific aspects aren't new.) I'm personally very skeptical about these spinning Silicon Valley hype hypes, and so far CCP means less to me.
However, I do believe that, based on my conversations with these developers, they are really interested in technology based on the game features that may be enabled. I asked a lot of tricky questions and don't think they're trying to attract investment capital by invoking magic words or cash. It seems to me that their belief in this technology may be misplaced. But I think their desire to take advantage of it is usually sincere.
CEO Hilmar Pétursson told me that the purpose of putting the border on the chain is that, for example, if the meteors attack their offices in Reykjavik, then they and the universe we created can stick with it. It also took a step back from active administrators for the CCP one day and became just another organization in the border ecosystem on the eve of decentralization. Regarding the topic of environmental issues, I have been repeatedly convinced that using “Proof of Shares” verification, the same energy as traditional EVE online servers can be used to run Frontier's blockchain elements that have been used for years. I don't know much about the technology involved and can't verify this independently, but that's what I'm talking about.
In the final analysis, that's it. So let's continue to play the actual game at the border.
A dark forest
While Eve Online takes up a lot of high-security space from the NPC faction and its laws and police, Frontier is exactly what it says: a completely fresh wild space canvas with no rules, but the players we formulate and execute. We are still controlling third-person spacecraft, jumping between galaxies to collect resources and craft industrial stations, consumables and equipment, and shooting at NPC bad guys or other players with lasers and rockets. As a long-term eve player, I feel very familiar, instantly. A big exception is that combat is now more intuitive and complex, and obstacles like asteroids are able to actually block weapons fire based on their precise shape.
Everyone starts with a boat and a family base in the dark corners of your own galaxy, embarking on a journey to tame the wilderness of a star from a part of a square. When I asked the developers if they thought players would eventually build their own permanent civilization, maybe something like Eve Online Concord, they told me that the potential is definitely there. But the border has a certain degree of added loss, partly in the form of frightening, wandering world bosses whose shapes are boring, almost black lovecraftian metal beasts, black motives.
Frontier is also designed to be an adjustable MMO, which sounds like a weird prospect. Initially, most of what you build in the 3D world will be limited to mixing prefabricated assets. For example, you won't be able to import your own grid from the blender, although the limitation may not last forever. But we have been shown that many players can push the boundaries of this genre and its imagination.
Highway leads to space hell
One way of showing this is in the gate network, which will be entirely built by the player. You can set up your own interstellar highway, connect to galaxy systems that were originally isolated, and even charge them for in-game resources or crypto tokens. Of course, there is no bound to stop another player from building their own bypass next to you, even for free. You don't have to ask for resources either. You can make other players solve riddles or follow you on social media to use your door.
Obviously, I can imagine many dystopian arrangements of this liberal space sandbox. Most importantly, it reminds me of Minecraft anarchic servers, such as the infamous 2B2T. When I asked Pétursson CCP's lawyers if he thought he was crazy, he confirmed their behavior very practically. However, CCP believes that players will be the worst surplus for self-policy.
If McDonald's is coming in and trying to build a Stargate network that requires you to watch a new combo meal every five jumps, they also need to offer their own 24/7 security or anti-corpo player associations that can simply blow in and go all out. To what extent these brands may be hiring mercenaries in video games to protect their ad purchases remains to be seen. I must admit, it's fun.
CCP will never allow modification of the bedrock to which this universe belongs to is its physical law. A boat still has mass, even if you make it look like a pregnant hedgehog, it will behave like mass. And, whatever you build still ends up with a supply chain of minerals that can be traced back to the black hole cluster. If you want to use real-world wealth to buy a bunch of tokens and guide an empire in the game, you still need to buy these limited resources from players who spend time collecting them at market prices. Matter cannot be created or destroyed. There is no way to get around this.
See you at the border
Eve Border is an interesting experiment in production. This could be an absolute junk fire and I'm still actively alert to its blockchain and crypto elements. But I did have fun playing a small portion of what we could access, which was an attractive invitation to settle and develop a fresh empire in the blank galaxy without the major NPC faction to solve. But if you don't want to convince me, you can try it now with one of Frontier's paid founders packages.