Out of Pod Experience

I recently tried-out EVE. Sometime after starting my trial, I realized this wasn't the first time I'd played EVE. Three (or four) years ago I made a character on a friend's account. Over time I completely forgot. As I played, I was able to recall some of the details.

First Time
I can't remember much other than a few things. I tried to join "Brave Newbies". (Or however they spell it.) I was told that they were full. However, I was also told that if I didn't join Brave Newbies the game would be extremely difficult. Someone in the newbie channel indicated I should get into Eve University instead.

I was whispered (whatever you guys call private messages) by a guy. To summarize: he trolled me. He lied to me about the game mechanics and rules. He manipulated me into doing all sorts of foolish things.

The first time I tried to mine, I ran into someone (CODE?) that demanded money for a mining permit. I refused. I was killed minutes later in a suicide gank with a rookie ship.

My friend asked me what I thought of the game. He said he wasn't going to play unless I wanted to play as well. I told him it was full of trolls. He agreed, and uninstalled.

Second Time
Having totally forgotten about the poor experience I had last time around, I was willing to approach the game again. I'd like to say it was with an open mind, but I'd heard about EVE. I'd read the stories of $100s in real-life money destroyed. I knew that players committed epic acts of piracy. I'd heard of players stealing real-life money from people. (Not PLEX, but actually scamming real people out of real money.) It didn't sound particularly pleasant, so I avoided it.

You know how it goes though. I've been bored for months. I saw an ad indicating EVE would soon be f2p. I figured it would be a good time to give it a try. Y'know? Before all the free players. I wanted to experience the game, not the event. I wanted to know if it was for me. Best to try before the inevitable shenanigans that free to play would undoubtedly bring.

However, nothing I was reading convinced me to play. In fact, everything was discouraging me. I read through the forums, and people are just plain mean. If someone says something like, "I was in this situation I feel is unfair." The response is generally harsh in the extreme. It's like EVE players look for anyone that has a negative opinion and then immediately commence trolling. I also read "EVE is a game where even the forums have PvP", or something like that. People are allowed to lie/scam you on the forums. (Which is why this will likely be the first, last, and only post I make here.) Given everything I've read, I'm afraid to say anything about anything on this forum.

Not to mention the forum rules. If I respond to comments made here, I could be accused of: trolling, arguing, flaming, or even making posts too difficult to read. (Yes, I'm serious.) I've chosen my words carefully as this could easily be misconstrued as a rant.

Where was I? Oh yeah. So I talked to some players. They told me that I had the wrong impression. That "not all players are like that". They explained that the game was full of nice people that would give me tons of free stuff. They even claimed that people will give you millions of ISK and a free ship after they blow up your ship. They said that trolling and ganking were no longer prevalent. Basically, they said I was worried for no reason.

Early-on, I took a trip into low-sec. I was trying to mine. A solo pirate in a large ship decloaked and stopped my ship's movement. I tried to run. I had no guns or drones. (Not that it would have mattered.) I'd gain some momentum, and then he would manage to stop me again and again. He fired at me, but he only used one gun. My shield booster easily compensated. I would assume he had more guns, and he was just taking it easy on me. Regardless, he let me go. I vowed to never return. (At least no time soon.)

In an effort to complete the opportunities map, I joined "Anti Social Mining". I did little in the game other than solo mining. I was fine with that. I was making money slowly, but steadily. It was enough to support my needs.

An alliance declared war against my corp. Why? No idea. I kept mining anyway.

After a couple days, I figured I should do something. I had a Catalyst. I could do something right? I flew around to the home area of the alliance. I didn't find anyone, but I flew a really long way. If I was to get into PvP, I figured I should practice. I attempted to destroy a cargo container. I thought it belonged to a player. Instead, it was owned by a NPC mining corp. It took CONCORD a total of less than 10 seconds to warp-in and destroy my ship.

I realized combat/piracy wasn't something I could do. Still, I wanted to do something. So I flew to all the home bases of all the corps in the alliance. Surprisingly, I found a number of them gathered at one of them. I spent all my spare cash to give them bounties. I couldn't fight them. I figured this might get them off our backs.

I was wrong. They hunted and killed me. If I'm looking at the data on the killboard correctly, they were camping gates near areas I frequent. Both before and after my death.

Yes, I was in a T1 hauler. I have nothing else available to move significant quantities of ore. I don't know how I would move it without it. Everyone laughs at the use of them, but I can't use anything else.

And wardecs? I'm told the best tactic is to logout for a week. While I'm forced to agree, I also think it's sad that being part of a small corp means being bullied out of the game from time-to-time.

Ultimately, this got me thinking I shouldn't play at all. Because... What's in this for me? I honestly don't see any chance to be much of anything. People say to talk to other players, but they are all free to lie and scam me. I can't trust them. Plus, I think I've made enemies for life, and so this character is useless.

It seems you lack allot of understanding how the game works, and going solo further exasperates your frustration. This is not a very new player friendly game compared to the other mmo's on the market - both in terms of its learning curve and it's player base, but it rewards risk and dedication like no other. It's whole basis of being an unfriendly, dangerous universe is what attracts many to it.

I highly suggest you join an active industry corporation who is new player friendly and can help answer your questions. Try using the corporation finder to adjust the time of day, language and career paths to help refine your search. You can also message me in game and I'll help if I can. Good luck!