TsunamiWombat said:
Fair enough, but can I play EVE without formatting spreadsheets or looking at the stock report? Honestly i've THOUGHT about it, I really have, but it sounds like the end game is just... dreary poo flinging.
Though I played a little of it back in beta, I gave EVE Online another try not too long ago (last Summer, I think). I tried out the 14-day trial, and enjoyed the game enough to subscribe to it after the trial lapsed.
I'm analytically minded enough that I would perform manual calculations and whatnot using the in-game notepad and calculator in order to find out where the best place to sell my ore was and whatnot. Basically, you can figure out who is offering to buy your stuff for the most through simple calculations. Whether you get more for refining it yourself or selling the ore directly is one major consideration, the same goes for whether or not to recycle components into ore or sell them for what's offered. Spreadsheets would have worked too, but for simple transactions that really isn't necessary.
I liked the math - it made the game interesting. I liked the concepts behind the weapon balance and ships too. The game had improved a lot since beta.
However, before my second month of subscription, I had reached the point where I couldn't see why I should bother. It seemed to me that EVE Online, like many MMORPGs, was a bit of a tired fossil this late into the game because of all the accruing of veteran players put the newbies at a disadvantage. However, it was several times worse in EVE Online because there were aspects such as training time, and massive player corporation assets, and other things that assured to perpetually keep new players down.
Pretty much the best thing you can do is harvest rocks or grind missions until you accrued enough ISK to invest, and maybe that'll make you enough ISK to have half a chance at the big leagues, or maybe it'll turn out you're scammed and SOL.
At the bottom line, while I could appreciate the dynamic content and other such aspects of EVE Online, I couldn't see why this would be fun in the long run. As a ludicrously advanced player, I had pretty much mastered most significant aspects of ship piloting and module mixing in well under a month, all that was left was a loooong grind ahead, waiting for skill points to accrue, earning ISK (which was perpetually in jeopardy), and when I finally got to where the established players were today, they'd have jumped light years ahead of where they were.
If the game itself was fun to play outside of the economy, that'd be something. But how hard is it to park your ship and turn on the mining beams while watching the contact list? I could do flat out PvP, sure, but why throw away my ISK on a suicide run against veterans who could replace their ships much easier than me?
Many veteran EVE Online players I talk to about this really don't realize how much of a problem this is. This is probably because, unlike me, they have a chance. They were there long enough to grind those skill points and isk ahead of me. In their neck of the words, there's nothing wrong - it's hard to sympathize.
Yes, I don't like EVE Online. Yes, I want to rub EVE online defenders nose in this. However, in many significant ways, my dislike is legitimized. EVE Online didn't so much not match my taste as it did kick me out for being late to the party.
It was probably inevitable, though. I don't really like the idea of unregulated, popularity-contest based PvP, on the grounds that fair competition doesn't exist in a scenario without population restriction. It's like having an American football match where the players can join whatever team they want, and there's no minimum or maximum number of players for the team - when it's 20 players on 2, it's not much a game. The 20 players aren't truly challenged, and the 2 players had better run if they don't want any broken bones. EVE Online's end game is nothing but that. I don't know what I was thinking to even give it a spin, other than perhaps to get some firsthand experience with what present-day EVE Online was.
I think my prognosis that the only real reason to play EVE Online is for the drama is dead on. I suspect most veteran EVE Online players with their heads screwed on straight would agree: they sure don't play it to turn asteroids into components alone. I don't know why I'd bother talk to anyone who argued against this, it's just too obvious. It's a train wreck, sure, but train wrecks are plenty entertaining for the spectators.
