EVE General Discussion

I just logged to the rusted Door instead. For 6 months. Still recovering here.

I unsubbed my main account when I caught my last forum ban. I'm also a bit burnt out on EVE right now.

No offense, but you are wrong. Every time I've thought I've reached the end a new curtain was pulled back and I discovered another side of eve. I'm still learning things to this day. And I will still be learning 10 years from now.

Also I don't understand bittervets. I've been playing four years and kicking ass the whole time but I can't get bitter. Games too good.

I am unsubbing... no wait I just bought the collector's edition... and I am paid up for almost 2 years....


I LOVE EVE!
I LOVE EVE!
I LOVE EVE!
I LOVE EVE!
I LOVE EVE!

It was sub-unsub for me, in repeated attempts, eve online was more of a romantic notion until I finally 'got it'... at around the 5th try or so.

Currently at my third try. Hoping that I'll share your epiphany.

In my experience, most people who try EVE do so with a 2-week free trial, and quit within the first 30 mins. I can tell you literally dozens of stories of me trying to get people to play EVE, and their responses. The reasons for quitting range wildly .

Sometimes it is something simple like person being unable to enjoy the game due to limited font size and style. As gamers get older, this will be more of a problem with EVE. For a game celebrating a 10-year anniversary in 2013, to have restricted fonts and severely restricted (to just four?) font sizes is a major no-no. I have personally seen a guy try EVE and quit in under 5 mins due to the font and the tutorial having no voiceover. He simply couldn't handle it, too stressful for his eyesight.

Some quit due to real-time training EVE offers. This got especially bad after CCP added "time to train" line to the ship skill requirements info sheet. I had a guy browse the ships (and he liked them a lot), then find the one he liked, and he asked me how long it would take to fly one. I told him to open the skill requirements, and there it said something like 180 days (though I probably remember it wrong, it's been a while). At which point he just laughed and walked away. Another similar case also happened recently, it was only about 64 days of training, but still too long. This fellow asked me if there was a way to speed this up, and when I told him no, short of buying a new character from the Bazaar with existing skills, he also quit.

As a sidenote, after they informed me that they weren't interested, I pointed out that the training time requirement was merely to get into the hull. I guesstimated how long it would take to train drones, turrets/missiles/navigation/core skills, etc., to where they could actually make decent use of the hull, and all of them without exception almost died laughing. Something for CCP to ponder, as I keep saying for what seems like years because...well..,it's been years.

Several I know never tried it simply because of the item-loss-on-death. Which I understand and sympathize with, I too have several dealbreakers that immediately disqualify a game. In short, they're philosophically opposed to the idea, and will not support financially any game that does it. Also, historically, all games with this mechanic have been niche games, by adding this mechanic a developer virtually signs a contract form that guarantees the game will never get the subs it deserves. Although I personally find this is actually the LEAST important factor, because as we all know the first rule of EVE is - don't fly anything you can't afford to lose. As such, as long as you play by the rules, all loss is affordable and therefore utterly meaningless. Which just goes to show how wrong CCP was in making this decision - all it does is preemptively cost the game subs based on outside perception.

Then there's people who genuinely gave the game a fair shot and quit. This is what I like to call a "life is too short to play a bad game" crowd. For the most part, the chief complaint is the non-event gameplay of EVE. As in, having to fly for 40-50 mins to get somewhere, this is a killer for many folks. I actually had someone say that, something along the lines of "I'm not playing a game where I have to fly for an hour to get to a capital", this was back in the day before warp-to-zero change and using an autopilot, but the general objection still stands.

Several discounted the game on the basis of stories those of us still playing told them. Like last year I was asked what I did the night before, and I said I spent it on a roam in low-sec in EVE. When asked for details of what happened, I basically told it like it was - chasing a few hapless fools, running away from large groups, and together as a group scoring a measly five kills (all of which were incredibly one-sided 10-second battles) in 90 mins of roaming. This was a turnoff for many folks as well - many gamers in my experience prefer a clear-cut contest of skill, on a relatively level playing field, to a one-sided roflstomp (even if you are the one doing the stomping). Simplest comparison would be Battlefield series of Armed Assault/Operation Flashpoint series. In the former, you are dropped into the action fast, and it's mostly even, and very active with plenty of targets. In the latter, it is not uncommon to run/crouch/crawl through the woodlands for 15 minutes before getting your brains blown out by someone you never even saw.

Doesn't make ARMA a bad game, as far as military sims go, it is superb, but it will NEVER get the sales that games like Battlefield series or COD do. Too many people find 15-minute-jog-to-target gameplay too slow for their limited play time. I know this feeling all too well. Just 5-7 years ago, it was no biggie for me to play from 6pm to 1am. I was younger then. Now, if I don't get at least 7 hrs sleep I'm dead on my feet the next day, and doing this two days in a row is out of the question. So games that require HUGE amounts of time to get anywhere that move at a glacial pace (like EVE) is simply out of the question at the moment. Though I usually return in summers - nothing good on TV and too hot to move.

Bottom line - there's tons of reasons why people quit. And the VAST majority, in my experience, quits almost immediately (minutes, hours). Very few stay for days or weeks. Out of those who stay, most quit around the 10-day mark. If memory serves, that's what I did first time I tried EVE too. For me, the key was to get myself past the 2-month mark where character skills get past rudimentary basic level and I started to be able to throw my weight around a little bit. Those first 1-3 months in EVE are so incredibly painful. It's just for most folks here this day is so far in the past that they don't remember.

^this is well put and very true.



^and this is someone who doesnt get it ;)

Last time I unsubbed was in 2005 I think - since then I either had enough isk to keep training (switched all my accounts to plex when the incarnage accident happened), or I had enough money to not care about it

Hell - the Steak, bottle of wine, glass of whisky and cigar I had tonight cost more than 3 months of eve sub where I live.

I used to carry my subscriptions based on the idea I needed to be injecting skill points. Once I figured out skill points had little impact on my ability to survive in EVE I stopped doing that.

I play EVE with four accounts and while I can manage a $60 a month hobby, I can't really do it as a passive hobby and go play another game so I am now down to around three months of the year in catching up on EVE subscriptions. The other nine I spend the money on other games.