EVE

EVE does a couple of things really well- it makes space interesting as a back ground. The ships are cool looking, and the space combat is somewhat "realistic".

Meaning it's not like WWI and WWII dogfights- but a lot of orbiting and stuff while shooting at each other.

The skills system is a cool idea,and executed well.

I just found it really boring.

and the character head thing seemed totally pointless since your character is really the ship.

Played it for a while, enjoyed it for a while, but got boring quite soon. And i really, really enjoyed FFXI which many other people tell me is boring. So take that for what it's worth. Too bad i don't have the time for that anymore.

Anyway, there is a common saying among EVE players which at least the veterans seem to repeat with some strange pride:
EVE was made by griefers for griefers.
Which is pretty true if you ask me.

To list the things that made me drop it after half a year:
Kiss goodbye to character development. Since there is no way to really accelerate the rate at which your character develops new skillls. There's nothing you can really *do* to develop your character. Sure, you can buy a few implants, but that's just another case of earning money i'll come to later. Anyway, EVE is NOT a MMORPG. A MMO Simulation maybe, definitly not RPG.
Which btw also means that if you fancy joining fights in a big battleship, you'll have to wait until all your skills are high enough. A year maybe.
If you like crafting and the like, the economy in EVE is very deep and realistically done. Which means you can totally forget about doing anything on your own, you'd have to go join a large corp. And if i want to be a wage-slave i can get a decent day job.

So, basically, you can spend your first year or so in eve either doing thousands of missions (which get old quite quickly) to earn money while you wait for your skills, or you can go join a big corp and be a miner to earn money. The only possibility i know that differs from this is to find a small pirate corp who go out and kill other players with big ships by using superior numbers of small ships. This is where the by griefers for griefers part comes into play.

So, overall opinion: Don't play EVE. Get FFXI instead.

On a (very important) sidenote though, when i started EVE you could download the client and play for a few weeks (2 or 4?) completely for free. You can even keep the character if you decide to open an account after that. Just keep in mind that EVE will not go beyond what you experience during trial play for a looong time.

EVE is a fascinating game.

The economic aspects of it being the most so. What's neat is that any group of organized players who, even though they might be on the noobish side, can make some serious money in the game through the crafting/mining system. I also like the leveling system, because it means you can progress in the game without having to sink 10,000 hours of time into it. Although to build wealth it does require a substantial time investment, but not on the level of WoW.

EVE is just one of those games where you get what you put in to it. However joining a corp is a must, and it is fun to get with a horde of like 100 n00bs and swarm attack high level players with dinky little frigates.

Dommo said:

I also like the leveling system, because it means you can progress in the game without having to sink 10,000 hours of time into it.

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This is were i disagree completely. Sure, you don't have to pour time into it, since the skills progress with you doing nothings whatsoever, but what annoys me is that there is nothing you can do to make them progress either. Imo that's something that really needs to be included. Having the money to buy a fully kitted out lvl 2 frigate and the war going to use it in, but not the skills totally killed the game for me, since the only thing to do at that point is, well, nothing. To just ignore the game and wait for weeks until the skill are up is not what i call gameplay.

I loved it. If I could afford any mmo for any length of time, I would definitely go back to it. I liked that you had to work to get anywhere and found their skill system good because I absolutely hate farming.

I'm with Lhun, I found the skill system kind of frustrating because there was no way I could influence the speed.

It's a great idea- set it and the skill improves on its own in X amount of real time.

But, as a player, I'd like to be able to influence that time by direct action- the missions I go on are based on that skill, and I gain a bonus to that time by completing that mission. Now, yes, you'd have to be careful of farming driving the skill ranks through the roof so you'd have to limit the bonus, but it's something I'd like to see.

AMCrenshaw said:

I liked that you had to work to get anywhere and found their skill system good because I absolutely hate farming.

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I don't quite see the difference between "working to get anywhere" and "farming". I'd call running missions in EVE for money/points or mining for money farming too.

The Lonely One said:

I'll try the free version and report back what I think. Even with the sluggish level-gaining or whatever it is, you've intrigued me enough to try it.

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I tried EVE a few years ago. It seems like I did some mining and fought a lot of space battles. It was pretty fun, but I probably left it to play Red Orchestra or something where you could bayonet your opponents.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Orchestra:_Ostfront_41-45

I loved Elite, Privateer, Freelancer, etc. So I was pretty hyped about Eve, but I've tried starting up in it twice and both times left feeling somewhat bored by the presentation.

I'm hoping that Jumpgate: Evolution will get it right.

As for being 'made by gankers for gankers' -- I have no problem with PvP-based games.

My favorite thing about Eve was the Guild of the Guiding Hand.

You know, the guys who infiltrated a major corporation over the course of a year, worked their way into the chain of command, and then at a predetermined hour, killed the CEO, stole everything, then ran like hell.

Those guys were awesome.

That's what I like about this game as well. Stealing and cheating are accepted as a part of the game, and it makes things more interesting.

Pretty much!

Put all your money in implants and got shot?

I played the game for about two months. I got hard into it at first. I was soooo into the game that I was able to buy battleships and had top level implants when they became usable. My favorite ship if I remember correctly was the Armageddon.

I was all shit hot cruising solo looking for trouble... Well. I found it.. I dropped into a zone with a "blackbird" and one other ship... A special fast ship that was designed to do one thing... Warp disrupt long enough to get the blackbird into range... I had a ship that could rape dozens if not more npc ships... and That blackbird hit me with three missiles and popped me.. demanded 50mil credits... ROTF... Stupid titan killer... if only I had taken myself down the the blackbird path... but Noooo lasers FTW... lol

after that the game just kinda lost its appeal... I was basically at the top end of damage absorption "Tank" and those missiles just shattered my illusion that my ship was something special... Later on I realized that the time it takes you to get from one place to another is just basically lost gaming time... and there is a LOT of needing to travel around.

I don't agree with the assessment that it takes a year to get to battleship status. I bought my first battleship while still in my free period.