EVE Launcher

I very much wanted to like this game. I was hoping to play for a long time. I told my self I would play for a month and then start paying money for the more advanced options once I've gotten the hang of it and know where to spend my money best.

I've heard stories that it's unfriendly to new players, but I very much liked the concept and it's diverseness. The game is beautiful and I can tell a lot of time and thought was put into it.

So I did what any one would do who is starting something new for the first time. I looked around and went through he tutorial. It taught me a fraction of what the game is about and how to play it, but not nearly enough. So I went into the other session where you meet up with NPCs that give you missions to guide you through combat, business, industry, etc...

I started with industry and on the 10th mission is has you build a ship which requires materials that you can only mine from a .4 area where I learned that you can't complete the tutorial because everything outside of .5 will kill you nearly instantly. This is only after approximately 12 hours of game play. Not enough time to learn or do or know to look for you don't know: basically all of the snarky comments for the forum vultures who attack posts like this to make them feel superior are obsolete for noob players such as my self. In addition to my play time I also spent 4 ~ 6 hours looking up various things on the Internet about buying, selling, making... what skills to pick up first etc... but I was on what is essential an extended tutorial and it said get material. I went to get it and I was PKed. And they said Welcome to Eve.

So, at the end of the day, all comments aside from all the 'know-it-alls telling' me what I "should have done"- this game naturally led me to a swift decision to never play again. Glad I decided to wait before sinking any money into it.... glad there are others across the Internet that gave warning that made me hesitant so that I would know at least enough not to sink money in right away.

For the established players, most will say good riddance to someone like me, although I suggest you don't waste your time as I won't be back to read this. This is not for you as you have no vested interest in making money for the company that designed this game.

DEVs: this post is for you (just in case you care)- I am at least one player that was permanently turned away from offering money to your company for the enjoyment of your product. If there's one, there's probably more.

My opinion is that it's especially sad for 2 reasons: 1) I very much wanted to stay in this game for a very long time and 2) your game walk through was (I'm guessing unintentionally) designed to throw me in a situation that would turn me away. Why play a game that offers so many great things, but makes it irrationally difficult to get. Yes, if I stayed and struggled for who knows how long, someday I could eventually get there, but since we all play on the same server, every moment of time that has gone by since launch, has made it increasingly difficult for new players to find a footing as more and more older players build themselves into better and better positions to take advantage of new players making mistakes.

Not going to waste my money, time, and a whole lot of stress trying to eventually get to an enjoyable game, instead I would search for a game that starts out fun. I work a full time job so I want to maximize my entertainment value.

So, as I sign off for the last time, I wanted to post this because I'm very shocked by your business model. Yes, I'm obviously bitter and came here to vent, but at the same time, maybe someone with enough business sense will add this to a list of some sort that is dedicated to actually trying to improve the game to bring in more customers.

As an after thought, this kind of reminds me of Everquest; it was pretty much the best thing available for its genre at the time, but the game mechanics made it so painful for players that once something less painful game along, players left in droves to spend their time and money elsewhere.

Best of Luck

P.S.
The subject title is actually the reason I was motivated to write this post- as I leave, I can't help but to wonder how many new players your game is actually, not just attracting, but keeping?