EVE New Citizens Q&A

I have sent out a number of Buddy Invites as per the "Buddy invites and rewards from players" thread, with an offer to grant the buddy the PLEX that I am rewarded when they subscribe to the game.

A number of the buddies I have invited have got their mind set on the course of trying to subscribe by buying a PLEX with ISK in the 21 days the trial offers. Let me warn you that unless you have friends in game who you can tag along with on ISK-making endeavours, or simply borrow a PLEX from, you are engaging in a fools quest.

As a new player you are far better off to subscribe for three months (at a discount rate over three one-month subscriptions), and use those three months to find your way around this universe. Your skills cannot support the "play for free" lifestyle that some established players enjoy, if you hope to have some time to enjoy the non-grinding parts of the game.

Some of you will be clever enough to trade your way to fortune, others will be cunning enough to scam their way to fortune. For everyone else, please consider simply paying for a three month subscription and playing the game for the fun of blowing stuff up. Along the way your skills will improve, your character's SP will accumulate, and you might find that you are in the position of blowing dumb NPCs up for ISK in order to pay for the ships that you're losing along the way. Maybe you'll also learn how to con gormless players out of their virtual possessions, play the market, or trip over a billion ISK in the corporate hangars which none will miss. Hopefully you'll have built a network of friends who can help you in your ISK-making and stuff-exploding endeavours.

In the meantime, please don't get distracted by the shiny lure of playing EVE for "free".

+1
As senior member of an NPC corp I see way too many newbies too preoccupied with trying to make enough to buy a PLEX than actually... you know... having fun [:sad]

I have been playing for about 2 and a half year now, and I still haven't had the ISK to fund PLEX. I simply can't seem to hold on to my ISK once I reach high enough numbers. That, and I'd rather pay to play than be dependent on being online often enough to actually be able to buy PLEX.

Besides, why buy PLEX when you can have fun without them? They're not really necessary, just really, really expensive.

Yes. Applying a PLEX simply adds 30 days onto the next billing date.

Mara is quite correct in her advice. Unless the new player is actively enjoying making ISK, then they're hugely better off doing almost any RL work and using the money to pay for a subscription. A single evening of bar work or a couple of hours of overtime will pay for a 3 month sub... that's way better then spending 120 hours of your precious free time on your "spacejob" of grinding level 3s at 10M/hr to pay for a $17.50 PLEX.

Related to this excellent advice - avoid getting sucked into BUYING plex to convert to iskies. I see far too many very very new players pulling out their wallet to buy plex to sell for iskies, so they can get shiny dramiels or other faction ships, thinking that will speed them on their way to being a pvp god or whatever.

All flying a shiny ship does when you are several weeks - or even only a few months old - is make you a bigger target for the pvp'ers who really DO know how to fly.

Chill out, relax, be patient, and just play the game. Eve is so much more fun if you just slow down and let it evolve for you, instead of rushing it all.

I have to agree. I've played eve about a year now and I can honestly say that' I'd rather pay my sub than worry about grinding up the isk for a plex each month. Meet friends, have fun, blow things up, get blown up and take it easy. It's a hobby after all.

This is the ideal situation, where you have fun and the ISK to buy a PLEX for a free month is incidental :)

I hope not, considering she is a 2010 Character.