Eve is stupid. True story. It takes no skill, only time. Takes the same amount of time to reach an identical goal, regardless of skill level. I tried the 14 day pass... It was cool to begin with, but then I realized how incredibly dumb and repetative it would get. I mean, with WoW, yeah maybe the same thing, but WoW just has something that makes it interesting.

Hrrm, I thought about discussing the merits of it, but then I figured meh why bother =P

The game isn't for everyone =)

I don't play Eve for a great many reasons. However, I'm very often tempted to.

Eve is more like an open Universe, almost like a table-top RPG. The fun in it is entirely social-oriented. It's in the corps and territorial battles and conquests outside empire space. It's about spies, espionage and combining the resources of hundreds of people in a corp to create giant ships and player-run stations.

Honestly, I don't think it's even remotely possible to even see 1/1000th of the game by playing for 14 days. And this coming from someone who doesn't even play =P Suggesting that Eve takes no skill because everyone gains skill points at the same rate over time is as ignorant as saying basketball takes no skill because everyone ages at the same rate.

Open mouth, insert foot, ne? ;)

Eve has its merits and pitfalls. The economy is very interesting. And really there are quite a few things you can do in the game, but you need to have the right skills and know the right people. Not all players gain skill points at the same rate, different races have different stat loadouts, some may be better at training ships than at getting the tradeskills. You are right that eve is a huge timesink however. I dont think you can casually play eve.. or if you can, im not sure how people do it.

Id add that most of the things you can do in eve for profit tend to boil down to one of 3 categories. You can haul things from place to place and sell them, you can fight NPC's, or you can mine asteroids. Pretty much all gameplay types devolve into one of those 3 categories. All of which are fairly boring to do alone.

I find myself both liking and disliking it at the same time. The NPC combat in eve is way too simple and i think the game suffers for it, but name me any MMO where NPC combat is complex, other than scripted WoW boss combat. NPC combat is usually where i spend most of my time in a game however, so there are times when i feel it really lacks any punch and gets very repetitious.

Player versus player combat should be much more interesting, but unlike most games, eve has HUGE risk involved in its combat. Death isnt trivial in eve. If you make a player lose his ship, or die for his cause, it can be pretty painful. It can take weeks and sometimes months to recover from those losses. Sometimes i think thats a pitfall in eve, but without risks it'd be another Anarchy Online where death is the quickest way to get back to town.

So yeah.. mixed feelings. Eve has some very deep player combat oriented options, but nearly all of them involve group warfare. Its not a game built to be played in single player mode. I suppose most people who play MMO's dont play them on their own, but i tend to spend 99% of the time by myself in the games i play.

Unlike most games, the only balance in gameplay that eve has is player-made balance. There are no real computer governed limitations or handicaps like you could expect in more isolated or casual games. Theres nothing to stop 50 people from sitting in a system and destroying your ship as you warp in, or try to warp out.. except your 50 friends, if you've got em.. when enough people get tired of being blown up, they start to band together and create gangs, corporations, and alliances.

Final thought on the game generally rests at: If i didnt have a friend involved, i wouldnt play. I certainly wouldnt pay a monthly fee to play solo either when there are other games out there that require less time investment to get to a point where you can enjoy them. Eve really rewards long term and dedicated players.

Or you can be a pirate. Or manage a corporation. Etc.

Right. Which actually makes it important. Spies and betrayal would lose their impact. Harsh death is a good thing for Eve.

Agreed, Eve is a very social game. You could, however, make new friends, ya know ;)

Eh, my semi-troll being rebuked. Yeah, obviously I can't get the big picture, but I just guess what I'm saying by no skill is that no matter how much you play the game, you level at the same rate. So a casual could get up to that high level freighter skill as fast as a hardcore. I just... don't see myself sitting around for that much time waiting on a skillup. I'd rather play a game where I can sit on my ass for 10 hours and get what I want by doing so, rather than waiting a week playing something else, and getting what I want.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be harsh ;) Personally, I prefer it the other way, although as Ratha said eve is nearly impossible to play "casually".. I mean, I'm the definition of a casual WoW player. I play 20 arena games a week, and that's pretty much it ;)

Yeah, now ask him about BEFORE he was only playing 20 arena games a week.

Dranok, I'm asking.

The "before" there is just so vague..