EVE General Discussion

The huge difference is now, that as the more time passes, the wider the skill gap becomes - the harder it is for new players to come and compete on the same level.

What I oppose is the idea that a game—any game—should be founded on the principle of play without reward.

I migrated to EVE from another MMO in January, 2014, at the energetic urging of a friend. "It is an awesome MMOG," he promised.

I must admit that, initially, the game appeared to have much to offer. The training missions awarded me with complimentary ships, free skills (that trained in minutes!), engagements with nasty pirates, and you got to fly through space at warp speed! Pretty cool. While zipping around the universe in my shiny Sukuuvestaa Heron, there seemed to be no limit to the adventures that surely awaited me in New Eden. After all, if the new-player content was this rewarding, surely the "real world"—the place where the danger really was—could only offer an even greater experience. My mind was an endless sea of ideas—visions of where I would go, the losses I would suffer, the scumbags I would pop, and the perils I would conquer.

A couple months later, reality has finally settled in, and it isn't pretty. EVE is not the exciting adventure I imagined it would be in those initial hours and days of playing. Quite frankly, it is an utterly maddening experiment in "hurry up and wait." I have concluded—and there is no other conclusion that I can draw outside of cognitive dissonance—that EVE is not a game you play; it is a game you wait to play.

What does that mean? It means that, once you get your noob ships and skills, advancing in the game is not a reflexive process at all. Nothing you do in-game will hasten your acquisition of the skills and ships you need to make your bigger EVE dreams a reality. You are stuck in a truly endless training queue. And there is no superlative in that statement—the training queue is endless. For no sooner do you conquer your first twenty-or-thirty-something-day training marathon, finally getting your hands on that coveted ship that promises to lift you to new heights, than you discover that you can't equip the mods you want for it without enduring an additional multi-week training queue for EACH of them. And after you have endured those as well, you will discover that, even then, your dream eludes you, because you still must endure many more multi-week training queues before you can fit all those mods on your ship anyway. Not enough CPU, not enough Power Grid. More skills needed. More waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. What appeared to be tolerable at the outset (a 20-or-so-day training wait), you discover is more like a 200-day training wait.

At this point, you have discovered EVE's dirty little secret—you don't play EVE to advance toward what you want; you wait for EVE to tell you that you can have what you've wanted since day one. The all-powerful "Requirements" tab is become your brutal and merciless master. And heaven forbid that you should, at any time, change your mind about what you want to be, or what class of ship you want to fly. For you will have to start a great deal of the training marathon over again.

EVE's is an outrageous advancement system. But don't misunderstand my position. The passage of time that precedes the acquisition of something of value—this is not a reality that I necessarily oppose. What I oppose is the idea that a game—any game—should be founded on the principle of play without reward. And make no mistake, aside from whatever reward a given player will ascribe to the game of his own will, EVE, as a game, does not inherently reward players for their play time, except with in-game currency. But, lo and behold, players can buy that with real money! So even that is not necessarily a reward. And money doesn't mean squat in EVE until your master—the "Requirements" tab—tells you that you have something decent to spend it on.

It is stupefying to me that EVE has lasted as long as it has with this advancement system in place. Again, no superlative intended.

If you are an EVE veteran, I salute you. You have done what I cannot—and will not—do; you have endured the perpetual training cycles required to, at last, land you in the place you wanted to be. My time is simply worth more than what EVE offers in exchange.

If you are thinking about joining EVE, consider yourself forewarned.

I blame the parents. Kids today don't have to work to earn anything. They just ask for it and they get it. Insufferable, self-entitled brats, all of them.

I haven't really read through the 20 pages, but I'm only a 9 month-ish old Character, and I feel in no way whatsoever similar to the OP. If I wanted theme-park I'd go play Elder Scrolls or some other garbage. I'm glad 95% of the replies I read in this thread told the OP to go get his kicks somewhere else, those posters are absolutely right.

EvE is one of the best games out there, it has my sub money, and I'm still a 'new player' kind of gamer they are trying to attract. I tried getting 4 of my friends to join, did missions with them, gave them a few dessies with garbage fits, and none of them are here today. Where they are, is adding to the toxic experience that is League of Legends, because they have the attention spans of an average squirrel, and EvE was 'too complicated' for them. The instant gratification/entitlement crowd in Online games nowadays is ENORMOUS.

It takes a special kind of person to play EvE Online, and that is one of its best aspects. The people who do stay are serious about the game. They are (mostly) intelligent, they do their research, they create content, they work for what they want to achieve. I must say, in my short time here, I have noticed some attempts at casualization. I can't really speak for people who have been here for years, but I assume this has been going on for quite some time, and I don't think it's the way to go for CCP. I think they should just take a step back from their "We need more new players" approach and just accept the fact that it takes a special kind of person to play EvE. Cater to these folks, keep them subbed, and leave the theme-park antics for Blizzard scrubs.

My 0.2 isk

Actually Im in favour of skill points for plex to completely avoid this reason, 1 plex could equate to 30 days of accelerated skill training - and anyone that wants to invest the same amount of cash as a 10 year veteran to gain the same amount of skill points can.

However I'm sure the 'WE HATE ANYTHING THAT MIGHT INVOLVE REAL MONEY CAUSE THATS PAY TO WIN' lynch mob will quickly arrive with their pitch folks If I say that too loudly.

LMAO...Has world war Z started? I shall mark this day on my calendar to note that Tippia and I were in agreement.

Fly carriers, fly black ops battleships, fly all the tech 3 cruisers, fly bhaalgorns, fly a vindi - sprinkle it with chocolate drops, fly a dread, have perfect large gun skills, have perfect missile skills. PVP on a level I knew I could in the ships I wanted too, instead of playing second class citizen. Pretty much that.