Adam tells me I'm not Byting enough lately, so this one is for you, mate...
My local GAME in Guildford was selling copies of EVE Online for 48p at the weekend, so I picked it up with the intention of trying it for a month and seeing how I go. Of course, when I got it home, I found out that some fucker had removed the CD-Key sticker from the box, meaning that I couldn't register the game and claim my free playing time. No wonder they were selling it at 48p. I *should* kick up a fuss, take the game back to the shop and get a refund, purely on the principle for them selling me what is in effect a defective product - but for the sake of 48p, I really can't be bothered. Not when I can download a trial client for free and have the benefit of still having a paper manual. It just means I can only play it for 14 days for free, rather than 30.
First impressions: EVE undoubtedly has the longest and most comprehensive in-game tutorial ever. It's so long it took me a couple of sessions' play spread across two nights to complete it. If that sounds a little bit off-putting, then yeah - it is, kinda. The fact it takes a good couple of hours to be introduced to the whole of the game interface is not a great sign, really. There's just so much STUFF in EVE, I can see how it might become utterly compelling, but I'm not certain that it's an MMOG for me.
The problem with coming to any MMOG a couple of years late is that new players just have so much ground to catch up. With something like World of Warcraft, it's not quite so bad as you can grind your way up to the top of the tree quite quickly; and since The Burning Crusade came out, most of the low level areas are relatively unoccupied, so there's relatively little risk of getting ganked. With something like EVE however, relative progression is much slower - you're going to have to mine compulsively for months to raise the cash to buy a ship that's not going to be destroyed the instant you step outside of a 1.0 security level system. And even then, that's no guarantee that you're not going to stumble across some sociopath in a Titan who will just kill you for the hell of it, regardless of where you are; and with the death penalties being so high in EVE (i.e. if you don't have a decent clone, say goodbye to most of your skills), it's easy to see why EVE only has 1% of the MMOG market share compared to WoW's 53%...
The engine upgrade for EVE: Revelations does make the game look a whole lot better than it did previously, so at least you can't discriminate too much on grounds of looks - and EVE is the only space-based sci-fi MMOG out there, so it does definitely fill a niche in the market - I just wish that it was a little less complicated, a little less unforgiving, and a little quicker (in terms of pace of action and the sense of progression). Like Auto Assault (which I dabbled with last year) I can't help but think that it's a good idea, but not quite suited to the MMOG genre - if it were offline and you took out the human "asshole potential" element (in other words, preventing you from being victimized because you're a "n00b" in a weak frigate) I reckon I could spend a lot more time with it. As it is, however, I can't see myself wanting to pay a monthly subscription for the privilege of mining for a year, just so that I can start playing the game properly. Perhaps it's my fault for coming to the game so late, but the game doesn't do itself any favours in helping new players into the game. I'll stick with it for the next week or so and let you know if I have a "eureka!" moment... but somehow I doubt it.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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2 comments:
You obviously don’t have any idea of what you are talking about. First of all, EVE is a game for smart people. It’s complex, not complicated. And if can’t handle anything beyond point and shoot games, eve is not for you. There are hundreds of guides online about virtually every aspect of the game. And personally, if I can figure out a game in the first 5 minutes of playing, I am not interested in it. I am not eager to become a member of the games for mentally challenged club.
Second, you do not have to mine a year to get a decent ship, you can do that in a week. I am a CEO of a corporation in EVE and I have seen people make hundreds of millions in their first month of playing. On the other hand some veterans are broke all the time since they devote all their time on pvp and ignore the financial aspects of EVE. And if you explore the trading aspect of eve you can make hundreds of millions every day within a few months you start playing, the lazy way. Mining is not the only way to make cash in eve.
Third, by saying things like “you're going to have to mine compulsively for months to raise the cash to buy a ship that's not going to be destroyed the instant you step outside of a 1.0 security level system”, you show that you have zero grasp of what eve online is. You cannot be attacked in any system having security status from 0.5 to 1.0 unless you do something stupid, like stealing or attacking someone just for the sake of it.
Also, titans are not something a new player sees in EVE. You can play eve for years and never see a titan. Are you actually trying to say that you saw a titan on your trial period and even got blown by it? You must be kidding me.
You call frigates, noob ships? While they are among the first ships you get in EVE, they are not useless. Any decent pvp’er in eve will laugh at you if you tell him that you trained your skills for months just to pvp with a battleship, skipping all the other ships. You start pvp in eve in a frigate or something slightly larger. You will lose your first battles for sure since you will do mistakes due to your inexperience so you don’t want to lose a battleship you can’t afford to replace.
There are low sec systems in EVE populated by pirates that usually use frigates, although they can fly battleships, so you can train you pvp skills even on your first day in eve.
I haven’t read your other posts and I do not intend to but I hope they are not as superficial and based on ignorance as this one.
Finally, I apologize to readers for not having the satisfactory level of writing in English because it is my second language.
Firstly, thanks for taking the time to post a comment, and obviously taking such time and consideration in doing so.
Secondly, if English is your second language, let me reassure you that your standard of English is a whole lot better than I've come to expect of native speakers under 25 years old in the UK...
Clearly you've spent a whole lot more time playing EVE than I have, and I have no issue with admitting that I'm speaking from a position of relative ignorance, which is made quite clear in the post - the post is by no means intended to be a comprehensive review of EVE - as stated, it's simply an account of the impression I had from my (limited) time with the game.
This post is now some 18 months and more old - and I've not played EVE since I made this entry - so if you're just reading this now, clearly, there will have been changes between how the game plays now compared to when I made this post (especially the nature of the in-game economy) - and I'd ask you to bear that in mind.
The main thrust of my post is that EVE is not the most immediately welcoming of games to play, and unless you possess a certain mindset, is likely to remain unwelcoming. You freely admit that this is the case yourself - it seems that the difference between our positions is that you think that this is a good thing, and that I don't.
I'm fine with games having depth and being complex - I'm a huge fiend for all sorts of turn-based strategies, for example - my problem with EVE is that there's not so much as a learning curve as a learning cliff. Name me another game where you need to spend your first four to six hours getting to grips with the absolute basics of how to play the game.
There's a huge difference between spending a half a dozen hours *mastering* a game and spending half a dozen hours simply understanding the core mechanics needed to effectively play the game at its most basic level.
I fully understand that part of EVE's core appeal is that it's so complex (I have many friends who absolutely adore EVE) - but I'm from the Old School - I think fun should actually be *fun*. I don't want a game that takes 5 minutes to figure out every nuance of either, but if you want me to invest twenty or one hundred hours into a game, I expect to get something in return beyond something that feels like a second job you're paying for. I already spend 50-odd hours a week working for a corporation, but at least they pay me. I don't need to spend my free time doing something just as complicated as my day job (if not more so, considering the depth of the economic model), for "fun".
If you put one hundred hours into WoW and one hundred hours into EVE, you'll make a greater amount of relative progress (compared to long-term players) in WoW than you would with EVE. Note that this isn't a criticism of EVE per se - I fully believe in the "horses for courses" principle; that is, different people want different things from the games they play - my position is that EVE's complexity (one of the key factors that inspires the kind of devotion from players that's clear in your comment) is precisely the same thing that discourages most people from long-term subscription.
I'm not going to tell you that you're "wrong" - though you may have taken my comments about "n00b frigates" and Titans a little too literally. You can't deny that EVE is undoubtedly hugely unforgiving in terms of penalising the player for in-world death, and that new players are at a huge disadvantage compared to long-term players. In any game (even WoW) where PvP is the norm, the "asshole" element cannot be dismissed - the difference between WoW and EVE is in the level of penalty and inconvenience imposed on the player. In WoW, you lose a few minutes if you get ganked. If you get PvP'ed and pod-killed in EVE (and don't happen to have an up-to-date clone), say goodbye to days or weeks of progress.
I play a lot of games. I don't simply devote myself to one thing (not even WoW) - so I don't want to have to replay hours and hours of gameplay because I've been killed by some moron with nothing better to do in a fight that I have absolutely no chance of winning. I've got better things to do, frankly.
The thing about EVE is this: either you "get it", or you don't. It's found itself a rabidly fanatical player base, and for this I'm genuinely pleased. I think it's the most progressive MMORPG (in terms of structure) currently out there - I just don't like it as a game all that much.
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