I first started playing Eve Online 6 months ago, after I was told about it in game chat ( in another MMO ). I was talking about the older games I miss playing. The player told me, “Eve Online is still around, I guess some of the senior gamers still play on it.”. I decided to have a look.
This reminded me of the 1980’s game “Starflight” by EA. Back then it was a cutting edge stand alone game. The game include exploration, meeting aliens, fighting or trading with aliens, collecting lifeforms and minerals, and finding habitable worlds to colonize. There was a massive star map ( over 250 solar systems ), multiple planets at each star, and the game was open world with an overall plot goal. You built your ship, crew, and there was even space police to arrest you (software pirate prevention) for stealing.
Eve Online seems to be a fun PvP game - where you are worthy of destruction from day one. Most other MMOs ease the players into that hot bath slowly. Here PvP is very present, I think players need to understand they can and will lose ships multiple times. This is a good method, the better approach other PvP games fail to grasp. I was a bit taken for surprise, when a few players would apologize for blowing up my venture. I wouldn’t be here, if I didn’t comprehend PvP games.
Now I didn’t come here to only sing the praises of Eve Online, but to also express what has been overlooked and off-track. The game’s 3D screen is apparently fireworks and nothing more. Sure you can click on objects in space, but literally everything can be done much better from 2D overview windows and shortcut keys.
Long trips in warp get redundant too fast, and one quickly learns the autopilot feature is never to be used. There are pointless amounts of beeps and lights, without any meaning to the player, and excessive audio and visual notifications abound. How many times do I need to be told I pressed the warp button? The AI audio gets old and I am certain others have muted it, if not the entire audio system.
Some of the visuals can be suppressed in settings but the recent abuse of DOCKING, docking, and oh by the way you are docking now. Makes me feel like the game designer is calling me an imbecile. “Here you need to be told this twice visually, and a few more time with audio, just in the event you are a blind man playing our game.”. There is a reason Rookie Chat has roughly 10% of the population in there. The confusing UI is only the start of it.
While I enjoy playing here casually, I still don’t see any need to spend my real world currency on this game. This is why the game is hemorrhaging revenues. According to most players I have spoken with in chat, they buy Omega for one month so they can build up strength, and then “huff gas” to buy Plex off the market for ISK to obtain next month’s Omega for playing.
Unfortunately this means someone else is buying the Plex for cash and dumping it into the market for ISK. This is a death cycle for any game. It can’t last, it is akin to the old Ponzi scheme or multi-level marketing. The flow slows to a crawl and eventually it stops when the investors cash out. I am not calling Eve Online a scam here, just stating the virtual economy is built on a rickety ladder. Getting to the top will just depend on deep pockets. I am willing to spend but I don’t pay to win. There is nothing wrong with the pay to win system, other games use it, and are very good at selling it.
To sum up, overall this is a good game with some great players. However it is not a great or unique game. It has more issues than I care to mention, but first the developers need something to sell me. I am not finding it anywhere. Until that day arrives, I will be here… the sponge on the sands of CCP, the barnacle on your ship, and the bloodsucker on your neck.
