"This really is any developerâs dream. Eve is the only MMO that has managed to grow its population year-on-year since it was announced. This year, the Eve universe is expanding further: PS3 multiplayer shooter Dust 514 is going to add potentially a few hundred thousand more players to this fascinating economy. Itâs not difficult to imagine that more than a few of those people may well end up more intrigued by the incredible society surrounding Dust 514 than by the game itself; shooting at people on alien planets is perfectly entertaining, but when you realise that the planet actually belongs to someone, and that youâre fighting to take it over for someone else, and that the air strikes you call in from the sky are actually delivered by Eve players floating in near orbit⦠well, suddenly it all starts to mean much more. It becomes more real."

I hope this succeeds, and Eve certainly is closest to Stephenson's Reamde idea.

"Eve is nine years old, launched by developer CCP in 2003. Now there are more people playing Eve than actually live in Iceland (400,000 Eve players compared to 300,000 Icelanders), which rather puts this small developerâs achievement in perspective."

Wow, I had no idea this game even existed!