EVE General Discussion

Hello all,

This is going to be a little bit of a salt fest I suppose. So anyone with High Blood Pressure should GTFO. Kidding :P

I am posting this in hopes that it might help with some thought as to new player experience, and the issues I have seen with EVE over the past.. 9 years or so that I've played it (Granted, it hasn't been 9 years straight, it's always on and off).

EVE can be a great game with countless hours of enjoyment.. But it can also be a giant waste of money and time in more ways than one. Especially when it comes with returning players. There's a lot of issues I've had with how the player experience is within EVE, and I think how CCP manages that. But I probably won't get into that because this is going to be a giant wall of text that probably no one will read anyway as is.


As someone who's done at least a little bit of everything in the game, I just simply don't care for it [the game] anymore as a whole. There's a lot of things in EVE that I want to do as a player, however the game itself, how it is designed keeps me from doing so. Which, is honestly kind of disappointing because I love the universe, the ships and just about everything there is about it.

That said, the game (imo) has changed... Very little. Granted, I'm not expecting there to be an expansion that all of a sudden, you can now play Dust 514, and Valkyrie all in EVE! AND... You can also go seamlessly from being on the planet surface raising livestock to Space Combat and omg DD's everywhere.


I've spent many years dealing with new players.. and their issues with the game. A lot of the same stuff has come up, over and over again, and surprisingly enough... Most people I know that stopped playing EVE... Did not stop because of that infamous EVE Difficulty graph. Most people, at least that I know... Don't have an issue with the "difficulty" of EVE. As it is the experience and gameplay presented at start.


First of all, EVE online is a terrible solo experience. It's in all honesty, probably one of the worst I've ever seen in an MMO (No offense, I <3 eve. Don't ban me. xoxoxoxox). That terrible experience, is what most people experience on their first playthrough and causes them to stop.

If you have no friends, or no one to play EVE with, it's normally just very, very bad. I'm not saying there should be some amazing equivalent of a single player campaign. But for most people it's abysmal.

Then the expansions every year, while they do offer new and pretty decent content. Usually MOST of the content CCP provides for EVE is not something every player see's or experiences. Now, I'm not saying there should be an equivalent of an "LFR" option for EVE that everyone should see the content. Hey, it's cool if the top 1% have something ultra special, whatever. That's great and I think that can be a very good ... Carrot on the stick sort of approach. But, most things content wise are related to null and low sec experiences.

I've known many players who basically experience NONE of the new content provided in expansions, year after year after year. They're effectively playing the same game as it was ... 3.. 4.. 5+ years ago. Now, you can say, well that's their fault. They should go out and do X thing with Y people and get Z result. However, it's not always that simple. I've known MANY people over the years that WANTED that new content, but could never experience it. The means to get to that end, is not a great path. Although to be honest, that's usually because of how awful a lot of EVE players can be (No offense, but it's true).

EVE imo is pretty good at keeping it's current playerbase for the most part but, not really a shocker here but they really struggle with new, and returning players. I've tried getting some people I know to go back to playing the game, even buying them game time at times. But then everyone remembers the pain of logging in and having to deal with... EVE.

An issue I've seen a lot of that causes a lot of heartache in EVE is the fact that from the start, some VERY important things aren't clear... And often are misinterpreted.

A lot of which is thrown off by CCP themselves, with how they portray the game... And there's a lot of unknowns and things that you just will not get your head around till you've spent a lot of time/money in the game.

I've known plenty of people who spent months trying to get a certain ship, only to find out.. That ship was not what they expected, and they were extremely disappointed and wound up leaving the game due to it. It's depressing to work for a carrier for many months, then to finally get it and realize.. Oh, you can't actually really use it unless you have other people or accounts to play with. There's a lot of aspects in the game that are awesome, however... They (Honestly) are not executed well imo.

Which, most people will say "Well, you shouldn't just be going for a carrier right from the start anyway." But as a new player... It's just one of those things, you see carriers in the trailers. You think, oh man that looks fun. You get in the game, train for it.. You finally get it and then you're like.. Well, all that I spent was literally just wasted. Not a great experience of course.

A lot of things in EVE really just are not designed that well for a solo player. Now, I'm not saying every player should be able to own their own Citadel. Or everyone should have an Erebus in high sec. But, there's the disappointment people get when they realize, they can't do what they thought they could, or what they want to do. This is a hard limitation of the core game design, and unlikely to ever change... is still an issue that I've seen from players time and time again.

*shrug* My .02 and hopefully this might help someone in the future.

I play EVE mainly because solo player can do a lot here. In other games you have some bound stuff, timed raids, and other crippling stuff like FTP catering to bunch of whales and giving the rest finger. And if you are really bored, maybe its time to talk to other people? Explore new possibilities? Its not so hard as it could be imagined.

"You can also go seamlessly from being on the planet surface raising livestock to Space Combat " - that's where I stopped reading.

Well...bye OP

This basically reads, "Why isn't there a solo path? Why isn't **** spoon fed to me and my people? Why do people have to work to get something new released?"

Because EVE is a social game. You have to work with others and you have to work to achieve these things that come out new. It's only the fault of the person who refuses to go for it that they don't get the prize. Not each facet of EVE is for everyone.

Yes.

lets not forget the years of expansions that were nothing but fixes

The real reason most people dont like it is.... Its WAY too much like real life. Thats it. Nothing else. You have to figure things out and deal with people you like, dont like, tolerate, and do things on your own just like life. Most people dont want a real world simulator set in space. As real life sucks solo too. Its hard and most people dont do hard at all. They want a "game" to escape real life. Mostly cuz theyre real lives suck. For some this allows them to vent their frustrations by shooting miners and harvesting tears, for others its space mafia online and for still others its building a lil empire for themselves somewhere in the stars.

And CCP does nothing BUT force people to interact, most often explosively with cannon fire and pew pew lazors.

Eve is pain. Space pain. When you are enjoying the game then someone else is in agony .

theres nothing wrong with being a social misfit even in this game, wouldnt you say that a lot of people in this game or any other game are anyway? why else would they be spending time on a game instead of being outside enjoying the sun, the eye candy, chilling with the opposite sex and or same sex if you're into that. I feel sorry especially for those who have partners who walk around butt naked trying to get them off of the game to have a little fun and they ignore them due to playing a game.

I'm also a social misfit and i care not what others think only of what i think myself. Eve in general is supposed to be a mmo where you play with others, however you are not forced to. you can play the game however you want and have a lot more freedom to do things here compared to any other mmo. The amount of solo play in this game is limited I agree but even then there is still enough to enjoy the game just not to the fullest like many of the others are doing.

TLDR: Catharsis is painful, and EVE is a cathartic experience? You can sure solo things, but if you ain't no genius, or prodigy, don't expect the world if you aren't willing to work your butt off for it.