EVE New Citizens Q&A

Wall of text to follow:
I had some time to practice my writing, and did this on some of the basic principles on the game of Eve Online. Might be of interest to someone out there. So, here we go ...

I play Eve Online. I've done so for the last 5-6 years, with a break from active game play during most of 2014, thereby missing the epic battle that took place in the Immensea system B-R5RB in 2014. I visited the system a couple of weeks ago – at that time still in “enemy” hands, and saw the in-game monument the game developers, CCP, put in that system to commemorate the event.

So, what is Eve?

The easy, short, answer would be that Eve is a persistent MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game, like for example World of Warcraft, set (unlike World of Warcraft) in a distant future universe where players interact with the game environment itself and each other so the environment “continues to develop and exist even after the players have exited the world and where changes made to the world state remain intact” thereby creating an “ongoing narrative”. This, however, wouldn't even start to begin to explain why Eve Online has gained a reputation for having the most outrageous gaming community anywhere to be found in the MMO scene. You see, Eve is nothing like World of Warcraft (or WoW and Eve from here on). In WoW the game developers provide the players with a "theme park" of things to do, quests to take, and further more protects players from the wanton destruction and mischief of other players. In Eve there is no such protection. In a standard MMO when a player character dies - as does happen from time to time - the player character keeps all his gear, to be used immediately in another quest. In Eve, when a ship is blown up all it's fitted enhancements may be permanently destroyed. When a character avatar is killed, all it's enhancements will also be destroyed, for ever.

This also only touches the surface of what makes Eve unique in the world of MMOs. You see - Eve is a sandbox game. The developers, CCP, sets the scene with a basic set of regular content; space, planets, moons, ships, gear types and so on and has some basic mechanisms (missions, incursions, factional and sovereign standings and so on) and some basic rules (what happens if you do X in area Y) then leaves it all up to the players to create content. So, players coming from other games, or even other MMOs are often totally confused as to what to do in the game. To which the general reply is "What do you want to do?"

If you want to do combat against other players (PvP) you grab a ship and go do that, if you wish to do combat against the in-game AI pirates, you can do that. If you wish to build ships or equipment for others to use in their activities, you gather materials from in-game resources, process those and build the stuff. And so on. However, the game by design doesn't help you with any of this beyond the most basic introduction; instead you need to rely on the knowledge of other players, or the team effort of other players, or just figure it out alone – but it will take much longer. Don't expect the game to show you the way and give you hints on how to proceed – or even protect you from your mistakes or from other players trying to do you harm. It is not the way of Eve.

In fact, as a player once put it "Eve doesn't give out cookies. It kicks you down, steals your cookie and laughs at you for bringing a cookie in the first place."

What does all this mean to you as a player interested in “getting into Eve Online”? It means that you are thrown into the deep end of the swimming pool, and left to your own resources to swim … or sink. You are not protected from being killed, from theft or from being scammed of all your in-game possessions. Nor does it protect others from you doing this onto others.
Welcome to Eve!

Progress in Eve may seem a slow real time affair, not improved by how much you play - much unlike other MMOs where you "level up" by doing quests. (And even that may be too slow according to some recent commercials when you level up to 90 instantly.)

No in Eve, skills are acquired on the market, injected in a skill queue and set to train for "real time" time. A five day skill takes five days (as in Monday through Friday) to train. A 30 day skill takes 30 days, it will not happen tomorrow regardless of how much you play the game. Related to this is the popular misconception that newbies ”can not do anything" until they have skilled up for X. Whatever X is, usually a ship that they fancy. Nothing could be more wrong. Or right, if you want to be bored for months waiting for "skills to finish" then go ahead and be bored and don't play the game for months - your choice. Or go out do something that can be fun with the skills you do have, even if they are not perfect.

But... newbies will never catch up with the vets.

Well, this is a conclusion that seems obvious. And it's more wrong than right. Because the argument is based on skills. Lets take ship skills as an example. A veteran can amass a limited set of skills in a specific area, the actual ship, gunnery, armour, and some support skills. While it will take a while for a new player to acquire these in-game skills he or she will eventually do it. While the veteran will not have acquired any more skills, because there is a limited skill level and a limited set of skills relating to that ship. A level 5 skill is a level 5 skill regardless of how old you are in game. And 20 skills in a skill group are 20 skills regardless of how old you are. So, a “newbie” will obviously catch up – sooner or later.

However, how to actually play the game, how to handle the tools of the game - that comes with experience. And here the newbie is at a disadvantage, but then so he or she is in any game. And with talent for specific area he may well overtake the veteran. My main character has been in game since 2008 and has an impressive 100 million + skill points. But as a PVPer he sucks, both because most of those skill point are not within PVP and because a genuine disinterest in the details of fits and equipment to use. However, when to engage and when to not engage also comes with experience, so he might not be too easy to trick and kill after all - but those skills too any newbie will eventually acquire. So no, new players are not at an eternal disadvantage towards older players. Anyone telling you the contrary are either ignorant of the mechanics or lying.

From this also follows that Eve is not the eternal grinding game to reach ever higher skill points and experience. A recent question was based on “Is progression to something big and powerful like a Battleship fast enough that it doesn't feel like you are doing this massive boring grind? (oh and exactly how many hours would it take to get a decent battleship?)” Such an approach is faulty for various reasons. The main one is ”ships are tools” to reach a goal – not a goal in and of itself. Depending on the goal, ”bigger isn't necessarily better”. Some goals are better completed with bigger ships (while taking down a tower is doable with a fleet of stealth bombers, it will be faster with a fleet of Dreadnoughts) many goals are equally well or eve better achieved with smaller ships.

No kidding!
Nice writing, though.

TLDR, Eve is an MMO like WOW. Just like WOW, it is an MMO. But it's nothing like WOW. Do you play WOW? EVE is unlike WOW. (plus two more walls of text)

Your fail is here: "the whole concept of Eve is based on a PvP (player vs player) game style"

CCP has created a great many game mechanics designed to allow those that are not interested in PvP, to fairly easily avoid PvP.

Sure, you can always be attacked. But, if you seek to avoid PvP, you can lower the odds of that actually happening to the point that you can play for years without experiencing PvP.


Run the limitless missions in a well fit ship, avoiding expensive mods that could drop to gankers, and the odds of you being ganked are as near to zero as imaginable.

While for SOME, the game caters to a PvP play style, CCP has gone to GREAT lengths to make the game compatible to a WIDE VARIETY of play styles.


If you are not interested in PvP, you're sill plenty welcome to play the game. You just have to do so in a way that makes it unlikely that others will choose to attack you.

Fun part,


While doing this...you are actually PvP-ing....


You are evading that player that is looking for you as his next target.


ANYTHING in EVE is PvP or very closely related to itl, even all PvE is in fact PvP too...just not spaceship violence type of PvP.


As a miner, you compete over asteroids with other players.
As a mission runner, you compete over best ISK for LP pay out with other players.
As a salvager/looter, you compete for best ISK for your items.
As a industrialist, you compete to sell at the highest possible price, for the lowest possible cost and for the best possible profit vs your fellow industrialists.



In EVE, there is PvP in everything...though with some things it just isn't as obvious compared to others.

LOL

That is EXACTLY how CCP advertizes EVE.


EVE is about player interaction...period.

This some how takes a combat oriented definition of PvP and applies it to all areas of Eve. This isn't what I had in mind. However, as it is what many newbros focus on - it was what I tried to explain, there are no PvP (as in combat) free areas in Eve. The Eve market is PvP. The fight for resources are PvP. Or synergistic relationships. Or ongoing narrative.
Call it whatever.

This is the one scenario your objection would be valid - if, and only if, you control the space you operate in and you introduce fixed prices for all commodities. In this strictly speaking marxist economy model (God now this is pretentious =) ) it would also require that no corp member requires unseeded equipment.

In all other scenarios you will be subjected to non consensual market-pvp. Although I know of at least on corp/alliance at least trying operating under this modell, this is ideal scenario so unlikely to be a general feature of Eve the target audience of the OP would encounter.