Poll: EVE-Online: Why aren't you playing it?

[almo]

Bronzebow brings up some interesting points.

He's right about the grouping mechanics being dangerous, unless you know who you're joining with. That's why player-run corps are so important in the game. People in my corp all know they can trust each other, so they mine and run missions cooperatively.

I jetcan mine when I'm alone. It's true theives do steal some of my ore. But when I learned to let go of my moral sense ("that's MINE"), I saw the economics: they don't steal enough from me to make jet can mining less effective than running back with each load. For me, this was really an important moment in MMO playing. It occurred to me that since it's just a game, I can let go of morals and let pure economics dictate my decisions.

Obviously morals are an important component of dealing with people in your group (rhetorically speaking), so I'm very scrupulous about how I run the corp and what I spend its money on. Any time I borrow money from the corp, I keep a record and pay it back. Without a moral sense, there's no reason for me not to use my corp's wallet as my own. But my corp members trust me more because they know I don't do that. The way they know is that I've given all Captain rank members the Jr Accountant role, so they can see where corp funds go. That keeps me honest. Not that I need it.

 

[Count_de_Monet]

I played for the 14 day subscription and a few weeks after that but eventually I got tired of it. The community is just like every other MMO community except griefing has been integrated as a game mechanic. I worked my ass off to get a few cruisers, a destroyer with tractors, a decent ripper for pirating and a nice set of equipment for all of those ships. After a brief false start I really applied myself to learning how the game worked and was getting pretty good at tracking people but then I hit a wall.

In that few weeks time I had managed to befriend a few knowledgeable people but they were all in corps with minimum experience requirements which I wouldn't meet for months, maybe as much as a year unless I spent every waking second paying attention to my skills. I hung around with some newbie pirates, did missions and salvage runs, and then I realized that I was spending all this time and getting nothing for it. No matter how hard I worked all I could do was make more money which I couldn't possibly spend since my skill levels were so pathetically low.

Then one day I lost a cruiser and had to jump something like 8 systems to get my backup and pick up a few extra parts. Then a couple days later I lost that cruiser and had to go back again to pick up my last cruiser and re-equip it. Then I lost my last cruiser and said to myself "Do I really want to spend another day or two buying a new cruiser, buying all of those parts again, and flying all over the damn place where I'll probably be jumped at a gate anyway and have to buy half of it all over again or just cut my losses and go back to CS:S?".

I chose CS:S and haven't looked back.

I'm sure being in a corp is fun but finding a decent sized one isn't as easy as people make it out to be. Warring and pirating is definitely fun but I can't help but think about how much of a jerk I'm being because I hate it when I'm being stalked by a bunch of abrasive morons with nothing better to do but stomp on my newbie butt. In the half dozen or so times I was destroyed only one guy was ever decent about it and, after asking for it, he even gave me some advice on what I could have done to avoid being blown away. Every other pirate really loved the "I'm a jerk and you can't do anything about it" persona and resorted to insulting me and one guy camped my damn wreckage and tried to blow away my destroyer...

So I gave away everything I had left, including my fairly valuable tractor destroyer, and started reading, going to parties, and playing games for maybe half an hour to an hour a day. EVE managed to integrate everything I hate about MMO's as features including long and boring travel time, complicated navigation, repetitive missions, griefing, and a community that thinks it's so special because it is small and exclusive... Little do they all realize a game can only be exclusive when people actually want to play it, when most people realize it's boring as crap you're just weird not special for playing it.

 

[SimuLord]

Where regards EVE, my main complaint is with the setting. It's cold and clinical, and too sci-fi for my historic-game-preferring tastes. I actually own a couple of games that could be described as "singleplayer EVE on Earth", as in Ascaron's Strategy Line (Patrician/Port Royale.) Ascaron even makes a singleplayer EVE/Elite clone called Darkstar One (although I haven't yanked that one off GamersGate yet).

I've said more than once on these very forums that the MMO that would get me to pay a monthly fee would be something like Port Royale Online (no, not Pirates of the Burning Sea, that game was a disaster) or even a massively-multiplayer Capitalism-style game with a fully player-driven economy. Closest I've come to that was when I played Puzzle Pirates for part of 2005.

 

[ProjectileVomit]

the question should be: EVE-Online: Why ARE you playing it?
I prefer fast pace shooter games over navigating through menus upon menus.

 

[Copter400]

I'm the sort of MMO player who doesn't give two shits about social activity or getting the best gear in PvP. This immediately puts me at odds with EvE.

Corporations? Fuck that shit.
PvP? In my dinghy?

So I spent a lot of my time mining. I mean, a lot. Hyperspace to asteroid field. End up 100km away from the nearest asteroid. Wait half an hour to get to asteroid. Wait another half hour to mine ore. Repeat until you uninstall the fucking game.

Although, the mission were pretty cool.

 

[Caliostro]

Ok this is far enough methinks.

Almo can you please stop defending the game. You are a fan, as am I, and I'd dare say I've put more play into it than is healthy over the last five years. But it seems every time this topic dies you find something to point over.

Can you just accept its not everybodies cup of tea like I did years ago?

I think I mentioned "badge whoring" like, 2 pages ago or something.

 

[Amnestic]

Once you reach level 80? wherever the ceiling is now in WoW, you're done

Not even remotely true. The game *begins* at the level cap. Everything before that is just teaching you how to not suck at the game (and fun, obviously).

On the other hand, WoW has terrible graphics, linear gameplay, unintuitive combat system, offers very little in the ways of character customization, it severely limits the choices you can do as a player, has very little player-world interaction, and a terrible market system. But most importantly, it won't give me the freedom of developing my character the way I see fit.

Explain? Combat was incredibly intuitive for anyone with two working hands and a functioning brain. The gameplay isn't linear at all, you're just lying there. I'm not sure quite what you're saying when you say "Character Customisation", whether you're talking about physical appearance, armour or something else entirely. The marketing system isn't as deep as EVE's I'll admit but that's something I actually quite like. Having to fly for up to an hour just to pick up an item I've bought was fucking boring. And, again, you fail to define what "Developing your character" is. Are you trying to say an MMORPG like WoW shouldn't have character classes? Good luck balancing anything then.

In WoW (and many other mumorpugers) I play as a paladin, rouge or shaman, sure I can choose if I want to play as a shaman that freezes his enemies, or a shaman that burns his enemies, but I am still severely limited in what I can do.

In EVE I can choose to play as a war-troubled mercenary, or a drug-addicted fallen rock star, the choice is in the hands of the player, rather than in the hands of the game.

You just compared two completely different things. With WoW's example you showed game mechanics (although amusingly your shaman example was completely wrong in the context of WoW) whereas with EVE you showed a roleplaying example, something with little-to-no effect on your character's stats or development. Surely anyone who's not retarded could grasp the idea that, in fact, you could roleplay in WoW too? My rogue could be a war-troubled mercenary, my shaman a drug-addicted fall rock star. What's stopping me from doing that?

Oh... and Just accept that people have different taste, mate. Period.

Different taste doesn't mean ignoring facts.

 

[almo]

So I spent a lot of my time mining. I mean, a lot. Hyperspace to asteroid field. End up 100km away from the nearest asteroid. Wait half an hour to get to asteroid. Wait another half hour to mine ore. Repeat until you uninstall the fucking game.

I have to laugh about this one. Right-click, bookmark rock, warp to station, warp to rock. 1 minute instead of 30 minutes to get to rock. And I can't think of any belts that have rocks 100 km away from the warp-in point...

And Caliostro: if you don't like the discussion, you don't have to read it or post in it.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

I have to laugh about this one. Right-click, bookmark rock, warp to station, warp to rock. 1 minute instead of 30 minutes to get to rock. And I can't think of any belts that have rocks 100 km away from the warp-in point...

And Caliostro: if you don't like the discussion, you don't have to read it or post in it.

I could argue that if you don't agree with someones opinions, then you don't have to bemoan them at every opporunity.
Personally, I think the game looks as dull as ditchwater. But I guess I've never interested in the whole deep space sci-fi business though.

 

[almo]

I have to laugh about this one. Right-click, bookmark rock, warp to station, warp to rock. 1 minute instead of 30 minutes to get to rock. And I can't think of any belts that have rocks 100 km away from the warp-in point...

And Caliostro: if you don't like the discussion, you don't have to read it or post in it.

I could argue that if you don't agree with someones opinions, then you don't have to bemoan them at every opporunity.
Personally, I think the game looks as dull as ditchwater. But I guess I've never interested in the whole deep space sci-fi business though.

It's not about agreeing; it's about the quality of the argument. "The game has no depth because the missions are all the same" is a statement that is just wrong, because there's more to the game than missioning. "The game's PvE content is boring because all the missions are the same" works much better. Some players prefer solo PvE over anything else in their MMOs, and will therefore not find much to enjoy in EVE.

 

[Copter400]

And I can't think of any belts that have rocks 100 km away from the warp-in point...

They exist, I hate them, I hate the game because of them, game still sucks the fat one.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Broken controls. Nuff said.

 

[Jamanticus]

Broken controls. Nuff said.

Broken controls?

I thought it was a point-and-click MMO.........Does that mean that the pointing and clicking is broken?

 

[Evilbunny]

I am man enough to admit I am not smart enough to grasp the complexity that is EVE. I played the 14 day trial and I genuinely tried to understand it, but it's too hard.

 

[Arachon]

Explain? Combat was incredibly intuitive for anyone with two working hands and a functioning brain. The gameplay isn't linear at all, you're just lying there.

The combat system is based upon character stats, and weapon stats, being compared to eachother. On top of this, you have an endless spamming of specials, heals, buffs etc.

Whilst "unintuitive" was a poor choice of words in this case (I'll blame lack of sleep or lack of knowledge of the English language, appy-polly-logies), WoW is lacking several other strategic aspects, such as character position (I know, there are some exceptions to this) or distance (yes, I know, you can't shoot someone when they're > X distance, however, would you have the same accuracy if someone flailed a sword in your face, as when your target is 50 meters away?)

And sure, WoW is "open-world", you can choose where you want to go, but the game mechanics still force you into a "slot", else you won't be successful, which makes it linear (of course not completely linear, but everything is relative). It's a bit like WoW is the choice of 5 different cakes, whereas in EVE you get the entire confectionery.

I'm not sure quite what you're saying when you say "Character Customisation", whether you're talking about physical appearance, armour or something else entirely.

Referred to your characters skills, and even though you can customise your character portrait in EVE more than you can customise your avatar in WoW, it doesn't matter since all you're looking at is your ship... Anyway, in WoW, you're limited to a basic set of skills, and your talents, which can form a set number of combinations, some effective, some useless. In EVE, you have this proverbial "spreadsheet" with skills, all trainable, sure, it takes time, but you are free to mix and match as you like.

The marketing system isn't as deep as EVE's I'll admit but that's something I actually quite like. Having to fly for up to an hour just to pick up an item I've bought was fucking boring. And, again, you fail to define what "Developing your character" is. Are you trying to say an MMORPG like WoW shouldn't have character classes? Good luck balancing anything then.

Well EVE's market system isn't really about going an hour to fetch something, and that would probably haven't happened if you paid attention to the details. EVE's market is completely player-driven (with one exception,: skill books), affected by happenings in the game world, in-game political conflicts etc.

With "Developing your character" I mean, once again, the freedom you have with your character, you can start off on another path whenever you want, change location, decide to fly another race's ships or go off to join the war, you're not locked in the "stereotype" you picked from the beginning. By doing this, you shape your characters "history", which IMO is developing it.

You just compared two completely different things. With WoW's example you showed game mechanics (although amusingly your shaman example was completely wrong in the context of WoW) whereas with EVE you showed a roleplaying example, something with little-to-no effect on your character's stats or development. Surely anyone who's not retarded could grasp the idea that, in fact, you could roleplay in WoW too? My rogue could be a war-troubled mercenary, my shaman a drug-addicted fall rock star. What's stopping me from doing that?

Sure, you can roleplay a drug-addicted rockstar with your rouge, but you'd still have to explain why your rockstar have the uncanny ability to vanish into thin air... In WoW, these class "stereotypes" hampers roleplaying, whereas in EVE, I can tailor my skills to suit my character, and still be effective, for example, the drug addicted rockstar can have some skills with making drugs, some business skills, some social skills, which all still fit into the characters background

Different taste doesn't mean ignoring facts.

True, Lemony strongly implied that WoW was undoubtedly able to fulfil everyone's desires, thus making it the ultimate game. I do not agree, what facts did I ignore?

Excuse the extremely long post @w@

 

[Sizz]

Personally I love Eve-O. For all the reasons the above likeminded posters cite. It's not a game for everybody, though. Some people find it boring, some just can't wrap their head around it, some are intimidated by it, some understand and enjoy it....It's kinda like the Calculus of MMO's.

 

[RanD00M]

It's just too slow for me.I am no twitchy game lover or anything like that.But it just way too slow.
But I might get CCP's other game, Dust 514 when it is released.