EVE Online

[Jschmuck2]

I do, I really, really do - so I'm hoping that someone can point out to me how it isn't the most boring game ever conceived or played. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but spending 75% of my time warping around and the other 25% watching my ship trade blaster fire with an NPC isn't really "fun" in my book.

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
I do, I really, really do - so I'm hoping that someone can point out to me how it isn't the most boring game ever conceived or played. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but spending 75% of my time warping around and the other 25% watching my ship trade blaster fire with an NPC isn't really "fun" in my book.

You're doing it wrong.

You're supposed to trade blaster fire with other people and then collect their killmail and (hopefully) hate mail as a trophy.

Honestly, in EVE you gotta make your own fun. heh. Set your own goals and go for them.

edit: If you can get a friend to help suicide ganking is incredibly profitable.

 

[Auryg]

I have the same feeling as the OP. Basically, it's really hard to get in to, and the whole learn-skills-overnight thing doesn't really make you feel like playing. Sure, you can earn money, but when everyone else is 5 years ahead of you and you literally can't catch up..

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Praxis1452

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
I do, I really, really do - so I'm hoping that someone can point out to me how it isn't the most boring game ever conceived or played. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but spending 75% of my time warping around and the other 25% watching my ship trade blaster fire with an NPC isn't really "fun" in my book.

You're doing it wrong.

You're supposed to trade blaster fire with other people and then collect their killmail and (hopefully) hate mail as a trophy.

Honestly, in EVE you gotta make your own fun. heh. Set your own goals and go for them.

edit: If you can get a friend to help suicide ganking is incredibly profitable.

doesn't that kind of completely defeat the purpose of playing a game? that's like buying a book and saying you have to write it yourself...

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Auryg
I have the same feeling as the OP. Basically, it's really hard to get in to, and the whole learn-skills-over-the-next-8-10-weeks thing doesn't really make you feel like playing. Sure, you can earn money, but when everyone else is 5 years ahead of you and you literally can't catch up..

fixed

 

[nsafreak]

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
I do, I really, really do - so I'm hoping that someone can point out to me how it isn't the most boring game ever conceived or played. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but spending 75% of my time warping around and the other 25% watching my ship trade blaster fire with an NPC isn't really "fun" in my book.

Well the one thing that really helps this game continue to be fun for me is the fun I have with my corpmates. I'd recommend finding a corp that fits your needs and join them.

 

[lupi]

I found flying around with virtually no real directions or sense of where you were going enough of a turn off to stop playing well before my trial was up.

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Praxis1452

Originally posted by: Jschmuck2
I do, I really, really do - so I'm hoping that someone can point out to me how it isn't the most boring game ever conceived or played. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but spending 75% of my time warping around and the other 25% watching my ship trade blaster fire with an NPC isn't really "fun" in my book.

You're doing it wrong.

You're supposed to trade blaster fire with other people and then collect their killmail and (hopefully) hate mail as a trophy.

Honestly, in EVE you gotta make your own fun. heh. Set your own goals and go for them.

edit: If you can get a friend to help suicide ganking is incredibly profitable.

doesn't that kind of completely defeat the purpose of playing a game? that's like buying a book and saying you have to write it yourself...

I enjoy it. EVE is quite freeform. There are a lot of options. Choose the section of the game that you like.

When I say you gotta make your own fun I'm saying that if running missions isn't fun, do something else. The tense excitement before something large happens, before you engage in a large fleet fight. The excitement as you find something juicy on a gate. As a gate flashes and you ready your disruptors and web etc. That's something that you create.

It's all in the eye of the beholder and I think EVE is large enough to accomodate a lot of varying playstyles. I find pvp thrilling because of the risk. Others like to watch their wallet grow. I don't understand the latter but it's still a valid playstyle.

edit: yeah the beginning is slow but you can have a lot of fun in a frigate. EVE is definitely not an instant action game. Not at all. Fights are short, they last a few minutes if it's a small gang or solo. Large battles might take hours depending much of it filled with lag and 2-3 minute module activations. Enjoyment is how you like it sure.

If you don't like it fine. =) but I think you should give it a chance is all.

edit2: When I first started eve and was out pirating in a frigate in 2 days and I saw a covetor(mining ship) in a belt my hands shook and my heart was pumping really fast. I misclicked a few things because of it and couldn't actually scramb the covetor hehe.

 

[pontifex]

i've given it a few chances over the years, even subbed for a whole month. towards the end of the month i stopped logging in.

 

[Praxis1452]

Originally posted by: pontifex
i've given it a few chances over the years, even subbed for a whole month. towards the end of the month i stopped logging in.

well it's not for you then. =)

 

[Mide]

Eve a a different breed of MMO. I always read that it was all about being "open" and you being able to do whatever you wanted. Good thing about this is that you truly can do whatever you want, but the bad thing is that to get to the point where you actually have the skills to preform any of these tasks takes time. I always wondered why the "skills" always increased at the same rate when you are in-game or out. There should be some incentive to actively playing even though I do like how you are always learning.
If you are playing solo, either mining, mission running, or trading, it does it boring really fast. Even if you get up to L4 missions it does turn into a chore: first you have to go in with a BS and wipe out all of the NPC pirates and then you have to get your salvaging ship to gather up all of the debris and drops. This eats away your hours and you don't really feel like you've done anything substantial. This changes when you get into a good corp that has a good number of active players. Clearing out 5 L4 missions with 6 people and having 2-3 people coming in to salvage it totally where enjoyment takes place because it is not only you doing things.

PVP is quite exhilarating, but most of the time you need a group in order for it to be fun.

I do understand that the "combat system" is a tad boring. You setup your ship to fight against a specific NPC and go kill. Keeping a certain distance or orbiting and then pushing all your F-keys is not really interactive, but I do enjoy the laid back process.

The game is totally not for everyone. I enjoy it because I am at a point where I can mine for 3-weeks straight and can accumulate enough ISK to pay for a 3 month Eve Time Card so thus I can play for free. All the while I have set up "baby step" goals of building up my combat skills and can fly better and larger ships. If my corpmates are online and want to do something then I consider that a bonus. It's a nice game to have as a secondary to fall back on. But yeah, get into a good corp and it'll start getting better. It's one of those games where solo is not the way to go because the things you can do solo can get very very boring.

 

[Coldkilla]

I also have spent 2 weeks really trying to get into this... It ended 2 months ago...but from memory it was the most boring thing in the world...But those videos make it look so exhilerating and cool... But I don't think it can be much more exciting than, go here, warp here, deliver this, deliver that..

 

[cirrhosis]

Nothing to this day gets my adrenaline flowing like fueling ten POSes in a row. I get so hot thinking about it!

 

[manko]

Originally posted by: Mide
The game is totally not for everyone. I enjoy it because I am at a point where I can mine for 3-weeks straight and can accumulate enough ISK to pay for a 3 month Eve Time Card so thus I can play for free.

How long have you been playing to get to the level where you can earn enough in-game to play for free?

For those three weeks of mining, how many hours at the keyboard is that? Are you AFK with mining bots most of the time, then you just fly a cargo ship back to port when it's full?

 

[Mide]

Originally posted by: manko

Originally posted by: Mide
The game is totally not for everyone. I enjoy it because I am at a point where I can mine for 3-weeks straight and can accumulate enough ISK to pay for a 3 month Eve Time Card so thus I can play for free.

How long have you been playing to get to the level where you can earn enough in-game to play for free?

For those three weeks of mining, how many hours at the keyboard is that? Are you AFK with mining bots most of the time, then you just fly a cargo ship back to port when it's full?

Interestingly enough, I haven't been mining for all that long at all (3 or 4 skills in the mining area and only 2 are at Level 5) I don't have a Hulk, but I am close to getting the mid-range mining ORE ship. The key is to find a .5 system that doesn't get a lot of traffic. My corp has a station office in the same system so all I do is wander out to a field, grab all the "dense, massive, fiery" stuff I can find, keep on putting it in a jettisoned jetcan, and when it gets either full or close to the 1 hour mark, I fly back to the station, get my hauler, and haul everything back to the station. I usually just do this for 2-3 hours while I'm reading a book. My corp has a fixed turn-in rate per unit of ore so all I do it sell the ore to the corp via contract and they send me ISK and then use the ore to build stuff. I've been inactive for a few months now so I don't remember how much isk I can bring in during a single hour session of mining, it's a fairly good amount 8mil? Even more isk is to be had if you are in a group mining operation. Upwards of 30-50mil depending on the belt and the number of people.

Another way to make money is to continuously run L3/L4 missions and be sure to salvage everything. About once a week I grab the hauler and haul all of the "useless" mods and all the salvage to one of the trading hubs like Jita or Amarr and then post items on the market. Salvage can get you a lot of isk really fast while the other items vary.

On my way back to my HQ system, I'll fill up my cargo with minerals that my corp will buy at a more expensive price than is posted at the trading hub. As I recall Pyrite is something I can make a profit on. So after I get those minerals, I head back to HQ, put the minerals on contract, and make an easy 2-3mil right there. As I am writing this, I am noticing that a lot of this "profit" can happen only because I am part of a corp that has a pretty stable operation in terms of buying ore and minerals from corp members at a certain price.

But yeah you have to have something else to do while mining, like reading or watching TV or something. Sitting there at the computer just mining is very boring and it feels like you're wasting a lot of time because you're not actively having fun. I know that if I had to actually post ore up on the market it would be a very slow process to make isk.

 

[madiusmax]

After having played EVE for a little over a year and a half I stopped, mostly because of real life commitments. One thing I can say about EVE is that it has a very steep learning curve. It is a game about commitment. Not simply ingame time commitment, but commitment towards a goal and learning all there is to the game. The more you put into the game the more you can take out. Best advice for new players, find someone to help you, or at least play along side with you. The game can feel as lonely as real space would, dark, quiet, and emptiness to fly around in. Or it can be filled with just about anything you can imagine. There is no driving force behind EVE. You can mine, fight, trade, travel, build, sell, buy, salvage, invent, and much more. EVE does not limit you towards one path, you can do a little of everything or simply all of one. If you like small groups there are plenty of those, but if your aims are towards total domination, there is plenty for that as well.

If you can find someone to help you start off with what skills to train first depending on what you want to do, you can save valuable time as well as make friends. EVE is not to be played alone in my opinion, though it can be. The more people you fly with the more fun you will have. Go through the tutorials, learn the basics, then start talking to people. There are plenty of people willing to help and even corporations dedicated to helping new players. Just be cautious as with any game there are the good and bad in people. Be aware of scammers, and pick your friends wisely.

Most of all, enjoy the view.

 

[Drift3r]

Finding a good corp is crucial to having fun in EVE. To be honest this isn't the sort of MMO where you can play by yourself as you would in WoW. In fact if you approach EVE like you would any level based fantasy MMORPG game you'll get bored fast and quit. As others have said EVE is about setting goals and sticking to them. It's also about making social interactions ( good and bad ) in game. The great thing about EVE is that if you find something to be boring like missions well there are other things you could do and there is usually is a corp that will focus on that activity and help you do what you like best.

I myself personally hate mission running. I also hate mining and anything dealing with industry or trading. I love to rat in 0.0 and pvp ( gang/fleet ops ) which is what my area of fun is all about in EVE. I guess it's not for everyone and well too tell you the truth I wouldn't have it any other way. In some way EVE's complexities and high learning curve make it sort of child/man-child proof. In a "Keep the WoW-kiddies away with the hot pew...pew....pew lasers of doom and death" kind of way. jk-ing

 

[BadRobot]

Like others have said. You have to be in a corp that has the same goal as you. Some people actually want to just mine, build crap, and then play the economic side of eve. And trust me the economic side of eve can consume a lot of your time if you want it too...

Then others want to dominate 0.0 space and have tons of player owned stations and capital ships and titans and have crazy fleet battles.

Then others just want small fleet battles in low sec or want to be pirates.

Except that sometimes you don't know if you will like any of those things and have no idea which corp to try and join.

 

[hooflung]

EVE is a game about team work. The company that makes the game built a sandbox that encourages and down right rewards group play. If you go into EVE expecting to win it then you have already lost it. In fact you just don't get it. Its not that I would call you a bad gamer, its just you are misguided gamer. EVE is 100% PVP. The PVE in the game serves as a backbone to fuel PVP. There is no PVE endgame at all. The moment you step into a lvl 4 mission after about a week and a half of running lvl 2s and 3s you are basically at the end of empire PVE life. Once you do some exploration sites in 0.1 ( if you ever get that far ) then you have pretty much played the entire PVE line of things to do for combat.

However, PVP comes in all shapes and sizes. There is market PVP for those who'd rather trade oportunity grabbing rather than gun fire. There is black bag infiltration and corp theft for those who want to be social engineers. There is a large population sector so you can try your hand in politics. There is good old fashion combat where you trade fire over resources and/or epeen. There is the logistics race. There is the Tech 2 production market. 0.0 Moon mining and a host of others.

There is a playstyle for just about everyone in EVE. You have to understand that EVE is a thinking mans game. If you don't play well with others or don't have the mental fortitude to embrace something out of your element then you might as well not apply to the game. It is a sandbox. You have to seek out your own fun and then set it in motion.

Skills train in real-time and only need your isk investment to set those in motion. That gets you on the treadmill but that isn't what burns calories. You as a gamer have to make the commitment to seek out people who do what you like. When someone says they don't like EVE for any reason other than the graphics/interface I immediately think their full of shit like Pontifex. There is a game for everyone in EVE, its the only game on the market like it. You just have to have patience to find what you are looking for. It can take 5 minutes or it can take 5 months... it depends on who you are, what you like to do and how well you work with others.

I've played every major MMO on the market on and off over the past 5 years. EVE is the only one that has been active for 99% of that time over multiple accounts. Star Wars Galaxies was the only game to ever have a shimmer of coming close and SOE flopped on top of a grenade and ruined the sandbox they had in 2005.

 

[Genx87]

I am in the same boat as you. I have tried EVE about 3 times over the past 2 years. Each time starts with hope, high expectations, and excitement. About 1 month into it bored to tears and hit the cancel button.

I love the concept, the look, the feel, but something about it doesnt work for me.

/shrug

 

[SunnyD]

EVE Online: May the biggest jackass win.

 

[imported_protoz]

It took me 4 or 5 tries to get into Eve but this last time it stuck. I'm in the SIEZE alliance currently and there is a good amount of activity and looking at growth. I'm currently on the other side of the galaxy from most of their activity but I'm looking at getting closer to the action.

Don't worry if you don't have a ton of points compared to a beta player. It is set up so you can be useful rather quickly and you may only lack a few support skills to get a slight edge. Within a months time you can be just as useful as a 5 year vet flying a frigate used to prevent other ships from escaping, called tackling, and be a great asset to a corp while you learn the ropes.

There are a lot of corps out there that help new players learn the game and help you out a lot. There is an Eve School corp that does this with tons of players and really helps build that community spirit.

I have more fun, making less isk, flying missions with a partner than flying solo. Find a friend that might be interested in it and go fly some missions together. See who can kill faster with different ships. Start a 2 player corp and practice PVP for when you get that far.

You will lose ships, it's part of the game. I've lost numerous ships by accidentally flying into low security while getting a drink and being gate camped. When I came back I was in my pod with the other player orbiting me to taunt me.

If it's not for you then it's not for you. I know one friend loves it and the other thinks it's a pretty Excel spreadsheet.

 

[HumblePie]

I tried EVE and liked it, but my biggest gripe with the game is taking weeks and months to earn a skill. Other than that, the ONLY progress you can potentially see with your character is getting more ISK.

Great. More ISK so I can buy more of the same gear to suicide bomb or RAT run over and over for guess what? More ISK.

You get to a point where the game becomes what to static and stagnant. I like seeing REAL progress, as in when I do something in game I get more than just an inflated number (ISK) that really means nothing.

If they would come out with a different version of EVE, when time spent playing = skill gained and it was done at a MUCH faster rate, then could see playing this game long term. I don't want to wait around the next 3 years literally to be in the top tier ship.

There are only so many things to do in EVE.

RAT running (killing npcs either at spawn points)
RAT questing (doing quests that kill NPCs)
Questing through deliveries or crafting
Ganking
being Ganked
Suicide bombing.
Harvesting/Mining (which has the be the most boring thing EVER, it's worse than watching paint congeal)
Or flying to zone after zone looking at all the pretty "wallpapers" of space.

It's an RPG, but it's only fun at first when you see skill increases in increments of 10 minutes to half an hour. Then you start taking hours, then days, then weeks. When I started hitting months I was like, screw this.

 

[skace]

EVE is one of those 'in theory' games. In theory, it should be amazing but the gameplay really isn't there. What is there is a shitload of politics and drama that the company and corporations work very hard to maintain.

Think of EVE like this, imagine you are reading the most amazing story of a hunter who wrestles a bear to the ground and kills it with a twig. So you go "holy shit that is amazing, I'm going to go hunting". So you go and work really hard to buy all the equipment you are going to need and you do lots of research... only to find yourself sitting in a tree for 12 hours staring at nothing.

Nobody ever talks about how 90% of the travel through EVE is you staring at a WARP screen. Nobody talks about how absolutefreakinglutely mind numbingly boring the mining is. Nobody talks about how the skill system is about as interactive as progress quest. *DING* you learned something while you slept! Let's not mention the joke of a mission system.

Now, don't get me wrong, EVE isn't a bad game at all. But when someone says "you really have to make your own fun in EVE" take that at absolute face value because its true. I think Goon Squad took the best possible approach anyone could take to EVE. "You want me to sit around mining and wait a month of real time before I can do something cool? Fuck that, how about me and 200 of my friends in our starter crafts go start some shit". That's the mentality that actually makes the game engaging. The reality is that if you start playing the game on your own, you can play it for quite awhile without ever getting into one of these fun situations.

And to summarize all this in elitist EVE speak? If you aren't in 0.0 space you aren't playing the game properly.

 

[Modeps]

I remember reading this scan of a magazine article about how there was this giant attack planned on someone in the game, it took (real) months to organize and pull off. Sounded very intriguing at the time, but then I thought about it and said "meh, I'd rather just read articles like this one."

I wish I had the link to it... or could remember the name of the article at least.