After reading a bit on these forums, I get the feeling that as a new player, my life will be like this. Get ship and stuff, undock, immediately lose ship and stuff. Rinse and repeat. If this game openly supports what some call “ganking”, how is it even possible to progress?
I know this probably sounds like an ignorant question, but when it comes to this game, I’m completely ignorant right now.
Welcome to Eve!
In New Eden, high security space (0.5 to 1.0 security status) is considered fairly safe however all pilots are given the option to break the rules and attack other pilots unprovoked. Since the reprimand from CONCORD for doing this is severe (they lose their ship too), ganking tends to be done on targets of opportunity. Often times it has to do with someone carrying too much valuable cargo in their hold, or someone mining AFK, or sometimes for no reason at all.
As a new player I think the chance of you being ganked, in high sec, is low. However, you should be aware that every time you undock your ship it, and the contents inside it, can possibly be lost. If you wander into other areas of space outside of high sec, you should be aware that people will try to destroy your ship as PvP combat is a big source of entertainment in this game.
Luckily you don’t have to go at it alone! There are many corporations that will show you the ropes and teach you how to navigate New Eden as safely as possible. I’m sure the people who visit this forum can give you a number of recommendations. Just keep in mind that the only truly safe place in Eve is docked inside an NPC station, or logged out, so be prepared every time you venture out - just in case.
Good luck out there!
While you may get that impression the truth ganks rarely happen arbitrarily in high sec. Other places that may be true but groups will help thier own. Also research helps.
Thank you both. That does ease my mind a bit. My experience in online gaming over the last 20 years always leads me to believe most players will take advantage of others if given even the slightest chance to do so 
The times where ganking happens is when you pursue profit making or laziness at the expense of safety.
If you try to maximize yield while mining and use a hulk… gankers are more likely to target you. Hulks have a weak tank which makes you a target. If you use a Skiff… with less yield but more tank (and offensive ability with medium drones)… you are less likely to be targeted by ganks. But you mine less.
Also goes for fittings… the more bling you put on and in your ship the more effective you might become at your activity… but the bigger target you become due to the fact someone who kills you might get that blingly module to drop if they gank you. That freighter hauling 15b isk in cargo is much more of a target than one hauling 250m isk.
Other than a few random folks… few target newer players for a simple reason. They don’t have much yet. You’ll have plenty of time to build up some isk with little threat of ganking. But do know at some point you have to start considering how big a target you’re becoming.
You are reading forums little too much and playing game too little. Don’t judge game by its forums.
You have to choose to be the wolf, and not the sheep. Once that decision is final you really should’t have much trouble.
It’s more like this:
TLDR the game is a PVP game, but it’s balanced to let you gather enough ISK to be able to fund your ships and gear, so you can actually PLAY and participate in the PVP. Basic common-sense rules let you avoid the PVP in high-sec, as you learn the game, and just a little bit of effort lets you gather millions of ISK, enough for several cheap frigates to learn the game with.
EDIT: Also, it’s a game. People won’t shoot your ship because they hate you, they’ll shoot your ship because it’s what everyone does in this game. When you play chess with your friends, you don’t attack their pawns / bishops / rooks because you hate them, you do it because that’s the game. EVE is a game; ships are pawns, people are people (and most are friendly and will give advice or help if you open up a convo).
And remember: your chances to still be playing after a month are about 10%. So don’t feel bad if EVE is not a game for you!
the fact that you know that puts you ahead of most. It’s worthwhile to keep it in mind going forward.
Welcome to Eve,
As others have mentioned this is a PVP game and Eve can be a very harsh game. But for me what makes Eve special is the community. Follow the advice from the previous posters, and don’t worry about dying too much.
When you feel ready, I would encourage you to try and find friends in Eve. This can be somewhat of a difficult task, but it really is those relationships you build with people that make this game so special
The funny thing for me about Eve, learning from your mistakes is a big aspect of survival. Most players (including the ones who might kill you today), were you at some stage. When you do die, contacting the person who killed you can be advantageous. Many players will be willing to chat with you, perhaps teach you where you went wrong and give you a little push in the right direction so that you don’t make the same mistake again.
I hope you enjoy Eve, if I was to give you one line of advice it would be…
Undock, have fun and let it happen. . . . . When things happent hat you don’t like ask people, and learn.
Best of luck out there o7
Its actually pretty rare that ppl gank cheap vessels, unless talking about mining barges, some people get high on Retriever debris. Remeber that in hisec, the attacker / ganker also loses his ship unless you are at war or certain other pvp / crimewatch situations. If you go out of hisec then its pretty much shoot first ask later in most parts.
I’ve played for four years, much of it in High Sec, and I’ve only been ganked once. You’ll be fine if you’re careful - mine in more out of the way locations, optimize tank over profit, don’t be full afk.
In fact, after a while I realized I worried about ganking too much when I was a beginner.
p.s. Just as with online reviews, there are usually 5 happy customers for every one that is complaining. If you like complexity and learning, you’ll enjoy Eve.
This happens only when you move to low/null sec, and it stops happening the moment you learn how to make insta-undock bookmarks.
The tools to prevent a lot of ganks are available from day one, they require no SP whatsoever, knowing how to use them is the great learning curve of EVE.
Ganking mining ships just doesn’t happen near as much as its made out to be.
I’ve been here for about a year total. And I have only been ganked in my a once in a hulk and Mack during Hulkagedon(some of the alliances got together trying to and funded it to raise the prices of ore), and a few times in ventures by CODE. Mostly because I wasn’t paying attention or wasn’t tanking in high sec.
It started to get funny when I started passive tanking(making it look untanked) and when they try Concord would blasted them, and I would grab their gear and Warp away LOL.
Amazingly, tens or even hundreds of thousands of players have managed to survive and thrive in Eve over the years. Eve is easier now than it has ever been. High sec is a sewer of zero risk isk faucets.
If this is still too hard, then perhaps it’s just not the game for you. Eve isn’t for everyone, and once upon a time that fact was something of a badge of honor.
Eve was a destination- the place you ended up when you got tired of elves and wizards and risk free income farming. When you wanted a challenge instead of training wheels, you signed up for Eve.
When you think of how impossible this game is, remember that it’s been running for over a dozen years, with an untold number of players who managed to succeed just fine.
Besides, did you really just complain about the game’s difficulty by reading the forums? How about undocking a ship first and finding out the reality before coming to the forums to complain about something that hasn’t even happened to you yet?
Carefully.
Lookit, Eve is the only game I’ve ever played where venturing into the unknown creates a real sense of danger and an expectation of bad things happening. And it never gets old. There is always unknown danger lurking around the corner.
It’s an amazing achievement by the designers, if you think about it. Nobody is losing anything except pixels, but folks get incredibly worked up about it.
Yes high sec is for the slightly risk adverse, we just don’t feel like everyone that passes should kill us on site with something that can burn my ship and 10 others to ash if we would line up in a row with one shot, but it dose slightly help my feelings if their bling ship blows up right there next to mine if I’m attacked for no other reason someone wanted to smash a windshield.
No, we can’t all cut it in null, or as I like the big blue SAFTY FLOATATION DEVICE where the big block alliance money fountains are found.
I’m an alpha for the time being till I can get around to playing enough to make subbing worth it to me.
Speaking of ISK faucets, I can make more ISK in 15 minutes of ratting in nul than I can in an hour of missions in high sec, AND that ratting in nul is significantly safer than running missions in high sec.