EVE General Discussion

You did not understand my post, sir. Not even close. Others have likewise failed to understand what was being said. That's not my problem, though.

Playing EvE as a new person is like standing in 3 inches of water being told you should enjoy your swim.

I see no connection between ISK and the point in the OP.

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.

The "problem" I have brought up is that one cannot influence the timetable for acquiring specific skills. Your point does not address this. So, I continue to stand firm in that there is no in-game solution for this problem.

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.
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MONORAIL!

Well, I have to disagree with your vaunted knowledge here. The point of the OP is specific and valid, even without your veteran approval. And, from your response, I cannot agree that you understood the point.