EVE General Discussion

Nothing needs to be changed.

I think that EVE is suitable for casual play, but only if you can enjoy the casual content that it offers.

The problem is that "casual" usually means "solo", but it just depends on your ability, and will, to interact with other people. Once you can join a good corp, or a good alliance with fleets running every night, it's really easy to get into the action even with little time to spare.

If you can't/don't want to find a group that accepts you and your playtime, then you have to play solo, and this might be the problem... but then the question becomes "Do you think EVE is supportive of solo play?". I think yes, there are things to do for the solo player, it just depends on you if you find them enjoyable or not.

Eve is not in any way supportive of casual players, being a game by and for neckbeards and stay-at-home sons. It's even harder on "lone wolves", and may eventually evolve to a game mechanic whereby undocking when not a member of a 0.0 corporation causes ship and capsule to explode in an instant.


And THAT is what makes it all the more challenging.

So I say once more as a casual player and lone wolf: "bring the pain, CCP".


You see, there are people who see a game mechanic or an intent, and totally skew the approach to it for their own terms, such as killmail horing, griefing, e-peenery, semi-autistic emoraging, and the like. CCP does nothing about that. "It's a sandbox" is the excuse-for-all mantra.

So be it.

On those lines I will take their forced group play game, and play it alone, no matter what they do.

The funny part is that the very things CCP does to appease the existing playerbase of ganktards, carebears, 0.0 lordlings, ISKaholoics, and killmail addicts, actually make for little nooks and crannies in which a solo/casual player and survive. And the more they try to appease and force group play, the more little nooks and crannies they create. If this game was "WoW'ed up", it would truly suck, but the very kind of player they are openly against and do nothing to protect, when they find their own goals not related to "how many people can I grief" or "how much ISK can I accumulate and not use", get a better game from it.


IF you want to be an ISKaholic, or a KM addict, you are fodder either way. But if you forget the way the game is advertised, and pay no attention to the ganktards and carebears when they try to tell you how this game "should" be played, you will find your own goals and your own game and a way to achieve those goals and to hell with the intent of the game and who says what.


Sandbox? Indeed. But even those screaming "it's a sandbox!", having invested so much of their ego into the way they play their game that turns out to be anti-climatic will scream it with a penchant for hating it as much as they claim it is hated by those they claim can't handle it.

To me, it's like watching the passengers of a short bus try to take control of the wheel while the whole thing goes over a cliff. It's funny and tragic but at least the windows are clean.

Eve-Online: MASSIVE MULTI-PLAYER ONLINE GAME (MMO)

If I were to play this game solo, then I would have quit after the trial period was up.

This game is not meant to be a solo player game. :P

Some people do it & seem to have fun, but it is a sandbox game so more power to those that can make it a solo game.

Causal gaming, its not really & probably a waste of your money if that is how you play. Go play other games.

So, overall I hope CCP does nothing to encourage solo or casual gaming in EVE, but instead keeps putting more focus on group MMO experiences.

Haha, that is a fair comment. I'm not concerned about it, I was merely just posing the question whether it is supportive of casual players or not.

I think the biggest way is in the skill training system. You do not actually have to be playing (read as "leveling" in most other RPGs) in order to be able to have mechanical access to various aspects of the game. If you are going to be away from the Game for a few months you can log on once every few weeks to update your training queue. That way when you do return you have access to more areas of play. I think EVE strikes a good balance for this.

I don't think as it currently stands that Eve is very supportive of casual play. True, casual play can be had, but I think more can be done. I think the current semi-focus on removing unnecessary complexity is a good start (you know, like killing the session change timers...what a waste of time those things are). I think adding more routes of casual play (note: by this I do not mean "dumb Eve down") would be good for CCP and New Eden as more people would play who right now just don't have time for 5 hour CTA's.

EVE is incredibly casual friendly.

1) PLEX. ISK Grinding is for people who game a lot and are really hardcore about it. For casual players, it's kind of dumb. I make more ISK by working a couple extra hours and not going to Starbucks than I do from grinding Incursions for hours on end. It doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me.

2) Buy/Sell Orders. Now with the quick-add fitting feature from Crucible it's even better. Dock in Jita, post buy-orders for the items/quantities/prices I want, log off. 5 minutes to build as many ships as I can afford to insure.

3) Courier Contracts. Once my orders are filled, I can contract that stuff to Red Frog and they'll deliver it wherever. If you aren't near high-sec they have low and null alternatives. And most corps also have Freighter/Jump Freighter services available as well. The contract system makes this possible. I don't need to be online to hand my stuff to a hauler. It just happens.

4) Real-Time Skills. I don't have to grind a zillion fights just to get better gear or "level up." It just happens over time. Old news, but still as a founding principle it works well.

5) EVE Gate. Yes, the twitter-clone is sillly. Having access to in-game EVE Mails from any web browser is awesome. The event calendar is quite useful, if your corp actually bothers.

6) 3rd Party Stuff. This offers so much functionality, it's hard to cover it all. I can use my Android phone to keep tabs on my skill trains and market orders while I'm out and about. I can use EVEMon and EFT to pre-fit ships before I blow cash on them. Killboards allow me to keep up with what the corp's doing and where. I can hang out on Teamspeak with corp mates, or just listen in while I'm doing other stuff. Teamspeak even has an Android app, so I can BS with them while I'm driving around.

Really, the hardest part is finding people that play the same time you do and like doing the same stuff you like. Beyond that, everything else can be handled with a minimal investment of cash to replace the hours I can't and don't want to spend grinding. I log on, hop in my ship, X up for fleet. The fact that I can only play a couple of hours here and there, and need to preplan as much of my sessions as possible means that a few PLEX ends up lasting me a long time.



TL; DR -> EVE is very casual friendly. You can get most of the boring, time-sink crap out of the way with PLEX, in-game tools, and 3rd party services.

MMO doesn't mean group play. I grow weary of that misconception. MMO means a lot of people playing in the same world, nothing more. We don't have to play together at all. I'm thankful for that too, because most of you guys suck and I don't want to play with you.

Yet despite that, you've become the self proclaimed EvE know-it-all.