EVE Online

EVE Online builds its space adventure around players' dependence on one another. Some extract raw materials; others produce ships, transport cargo, trade or fight. The economy connects these activities: a lost ship needs replacing, and someone must arrange supplies to replace it. Corporations and alliances turn personal goals into collective ones, adding negotiation, division of responsibilities and territorial struggles. History emerges from relationships between participants as well as developer-written missions.

Skills are learned in real time, including while the player is logged out. This separates part of character development from continuously repeating actions and makes long-term planning a visible part of the experience. Meanwhile, markets and the political map change: other people's decisions can alter cargo prices or a route's safety. Released in 2003, the game gradually developed this model of a living society. For the encyclopedia, the scale of these connections matters: a spaceship becomes a combat machine, a commodity, a working tool and part of a shared history that cannot be fully scripted in advance.