EVE General Discussion

In the four months that I've played this game, I've rejected all charity. I don't accept any donation unless I feel I've done something to earn it. I also only work with friends if I feel they're getting something out of it too. I've acted this way, in part, because I don't think that most EVE players get hand-outs, so I feel I shouldn't either.

...But, on a second thought, I could be totally wrong.

Did you get financial help when you first started EVE? If so, was it in the form of ISK? Ships? What?

Is it normal?

All but one of the donations I've received were unasked for (the last one was because of a post I made on GD). Every one of them escaped my notice until a couple days had passed. The total amount is tens of times larger than what I've legitimately earned in game since I started (I spend 50% of my time on explo, industry, etc.).

I make secret donations to corpmates who've lost ships. My goal is to lose all I've gained to random acts of kindness. I don't consider this ISK to technically be mine.

/蘭

Nope, not at all. This is a game of "trust no one". Never any offer of help when I was a newbie. More so than any other game, kinda thought players just outright hated new players invading their game.

I received some material and financial assistance to get started on my pew pew, but I sort of needed that if I were going to stick with the game. I find Eve's PVE to be just awful, so if I had had to build up from nothing to PvP-capable stability, I would have probably just quit. Also, I should note that I had prior reason to trust the people giving me "free" stuff as being genuinely helpful and generous.

This is why I always try to get newbies interested into PvP into some place where they have access to tons of inexpensive (if not free) PvP ships.

I got passed a few million by older players early on in rookie chat for answering questions. Once I joined a decent corp there were a lot of mods and ships passed to newer members, and as we got bigger and made more money we expanded that into corp cap skillsbooks, carriers etc. In larger groups handing out Skillbooks/Mods and Ships to new players is pretty common. Even now though, if people pass me stuff I tend to pay for it. Generosity is nice, but chances are I have more ISK than them.

There are always some who refuse 'charity' as you put it, and I can see why from complete strangers as it might oblige you to talk to them. And they might be a bit wierd (you can never tell). Having said that they might turn out to be a friend ingame, so it's worth considering it carefully. People handing out ISK to rookies aren't always doing it randomly - you might have been chatting in a channel they were in and done/said something they think earned a reward.

The very first time I played someone gave me a hundred million and some ships and I very quickly got bored. So I recommend not accepting any financial help (or selling Plex). IMO the game is more enjoyable if you earn stuff yourself.

I started by signing up to a random buddy invite and he helped out by sending some isk (not that I knew what to spend it on), but more importantly helped out with questions I had and no doubt saved me from making some silly decisions with the isk and generally. First corp I was in were a bunch of good people to with answering many questions I had.

Have contracted over some ships and skill books to some new players at times if I have seen them in chat asking about things or what may of happened, helped with the odd mission and sometimes just sent a mail with some links to some info. Kind of figure it doesn't hurt to help out at times if they appear genuine enough.

Not much, no, unless you count written stuff like wikis.

I once got 50 million isk from a very helpful person whose attention I caught with a forums post, I guess.
Aside from that no financial aid, except what my alliance provides in free skillbooks to newbies, which is great, too :)

Non-financial:
Got tips for various things from several people I've randomly met (mostly on the forums). My corp and alliance mates also are awesome with "teaching by doing", basically dragging me bloody newbie around to more or less every single thing the alliance does (when I am online) and being patient enough that I can keep up and learn.

Edit:
I think accepting help if someone offers it is completely alright. The person helping out most likely doesn't consider what they gave to you any great loss. You, in turn, could be kind to some newbie yourself, once you find yourself in the position of the more experienced and "rich" person.
As such, the "chain of kindness" remains unbroken ;D

Female players sometimes have issues with this. Eve was my first MMO so I started oblivious, but early on a corpie did a lengthy and enlightening rant in comms about girl gamers expecting free stuff and getting it. In all fairness he'd just come out of a WoW guild with a female guild leader who was banging half the guild behind her husbands back and causing all sorts of drama. He didn't seem to see it, but the flipside for the player is the risk of harassment from nutjobs if you do accept stuff.

Anyone who has ever had a drink bought for them in a bar by a random stranger will know there is often an expectation to then stand there feigning interest in their feeble chat up line before escaping. Which is why some just decline all offers to save hassle. Same thing with that scenario; some people would never turn down a free drink and can't get their heads around it v0v.