You can PVE just fine as alpha and make a TON of money. You also can PVP just fine as alpha and be useful in fleets or win solo fights.
You are a smart guy. I needed years to understand fully how evil eve creators are - it is one big scam in very niece box with the niece prophet in the launcher however it was not always like that. There was a time when eve was great game with stunning economy and playerbase, world full of pirates, small corporations, bussiness and oportunity. Most of this people just don`t play anymore.
we will see new era soon. As i hard horde will be full communistic empire - players kill this game with their own hands.
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She sounds awesome
i talk about this
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I dont think Falcon is anyone’s niece though.
Are you assuming hi… never mind.
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I see the biggest issue in the fact that you can buy ISK, which means there’s basically no point to actually play the game and create some value and content.
The gameplay itself has been reduced to “just” pvp in a sense that you buy ISK and consequently skills and ships for real money, go out, kill a few low-skilled (poor) pilots, share zkill, log off and be proud of your success in the game.
No more empire building, specializing, now we just cover bot farms for isk grind for more pvp because that’s what this game is all about… Zkills offline…
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I wish I’d been a girlie, just like my dear Papa ~ Lumberjack
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I doubt buying ISK is that much of a problem, unless you are rich enough to buy a substantial amount of it (over 200 bil isk) and can keep buying it. This is because EVE has a really generous leeway for progression, and you are unlikely to hit the “level cap” both in terms of skills and things to do or own.
Which is why people eventually leave. The prices are now made for people who can sustain several accounts for passive gains/mining/plexing and they go fo fast gameplay. After shooting couple of noobs with T3C and farming with caps, there’s not much else to go for and yeah, game over.
Besides, sustaining several accounts reduces the need for interaction with others, which I see as another aspect for why the game feels so lonely.
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Why are you measuring your success by the success of others?
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I had my fun in this game, not trying to measure me and you. Got my own path of progression.
Understand it more as my “new player experience”, or how I came to see the game in 2019.
I wasnt even trying.
You seem to measure success in isk.
I play this game not for isk, but because I enjoy playing it, in all its aspects. Does that put me in the minority ? - it would appear so, from some of the stuff I read on these forums.
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Thats is a trait of every multiplayer sandbox game - you create “fun” for yourself by yourself. If you expected handholding and a theme park - you chose wrong type of the game.
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For a game that is centered around trade, industry and warfare, how can it not be about isk? In itself that is not the issue (nor the endgame lol). What I try to point to, and what was pointed on by OP, is the fact that you don’t need to “work” for isk anymore. You can just bypass the whole process of isk generation and thus a huge part of what this game is about and just go and do some pew pew. Very amusing indeed.
Then wonder why the universe feels so empty.
Thank you for the thorough and well-written post. I don’t agree with all of it, and feel you have compressed all the worst aspects of “EVE for beginners” and included none of the good ones, but I definitely agree with the overall trend of the post.
Unfortunately you immediately ran into the pack of forum hyenas who take every opportunity to shout “You suck noob! Go back to Hello Kitty Online, EVE is too tough for you!” at new players and rational critiques of the EVE experience. Of course, they totally ignore the fact that EVE is very different for a totally new player than it is for experienced vets, and that EVE 2019 Alpha style is a totally different experience than when they joined in 2008; but hey that’s trolls for ya.
1st point is an exaggeration, and not really relevant to the ‘new player’ experience (since even a new player can set up 4 key binds and be ‘pro’ in your words), but I get that ‘first one ready wins’ and more experienced/SP-rich players are more likely to get the first shot in.
Absolutely valid and a result of terrible game design on CCP’s part. In EVE you often get rewarded better and advance more with less risk simply by paying some cash and then waiting offline, rather than actually playing the game. One of the worst aspects of EVE in terms of “a game people play to have fun or challenge as opposed to ‘pay for competitive edge and wait’”.
Another absolutely critical point against the design of EVE. EVE has a tremendous amount of interesting lore and story… all of which is virtually inaccessible in the game and/or buried in long, unconnected text blocks that you are actually scrutinizing for mission or task details. Plus, CCP knows that social/corp/fleet connections are what keeps people playing the longest, and yet there are zero team/community building mechanics in the game.
Some truth, but lots of error here. I have started numerous trial and free characters over the years. Almost all new characters build their own way in the game except for a starter bonus of 10-20 million ISK I send from an alt (it sounds like a lot, but basically it’s what you get from running 2 sets of career agents and a little trading).
A new character should be (IMO) running 2 sets of career agents for start-up capital/gear/ships/practice. After that you can make about 4-6 million ISK per hour even in a Venture in high sec. You can make 10 mill ISK an hour running lower level missions, salvaging and selling; or running high sec combat anomalies; or even doing exploration in high sec. You can also do various kinds of WH diving for decent profit. I don’t do low-sec very much because as you say, the tendency is to die fairly quickly - but not always, and definitely not “before you have time to react” unless your reaction times are very slow.
Agreed, although again this is more an issue of story design and character development progression. However this is a slightly more forgivable in ‘sandbox’ games as the point is ‘to make your own story’. Still, CCP could do much better here. We have no attachment to our ‘character’ from a game play perspective, and our only ‘visible’ character is our ships, which we are supposed to regard as disposable tools. So yeah, little personal investment in your character except as a stack of counters (part of the reason EVE gets called ‘Spreadsheets in Space’).
I wouldn’t say this is the case for everybody, but yes, in 12 years and dozens of new characters, I have encountered about 80% of players who were completely uninterested in new players, or who were scams or exploiters, and about 20% of pretty cool, helpful or generous players. The ‘corp’ breakdown was more like 90% uninterested/scam/exploiter, 10% helpful and interesting. (Although TBH this is only slightly worse than most other MMOs I’ve played.)
I will also add that the majority of ‘easily accessible’ contacts (in recruiting or chat channels, or people who mail you or chat request you) were the crap/scam/exploiter types, and the “hey I met a player or corp who was pretty cool today” cases were random encounters when out in space doing an event or talking in local (or even PvPing) and a convo just happened to develop from something and turned into a good contact. So the ‘game mechanics’ provide low quality contacts, and the good quality contacts mostly came from being active out in space (for looong periods of time) and being open to engaging politely and humorously with other players.
More frustration than fact in this point, IMO. First off, while Alpha, the speed of skill training is not all that important, as you need to be learning how the game works and how you are going to approach it just as much as you need to be learning skills. Having higher SP quickly won’t make you a better player… it mostly just means you start losing more expensive stuff even earlier in your career when you have less resources.
You can play just fine as Alpha, even long term, so long as you pick your niche and develop for that. You can’t play everything, and you will still lose to an equally talented Omega player who has more SP and resources, but you can do a lot of stuff and compete well within certain niches. Yes, it’s not true F2P, it’s more ‘unlimited free trial accounts’, but it’s still playable.
Also, saying EVE requires ‘zero brain power’ to play shows you spent more time accumulating negative points about the game than actually delving into guides and videos and forum posts about how to play/make ISK/do things as an Alpha. EVE isn’t easy, welcoming, or enticing to jump in to. It doesn’t tell you what to do next, and it literally often leads you down a path to destruction unless you are attentive and perceptive. If you had invested more brain power and time you would have found the game less frustrating. Regardless, many of your points are still relevant criticisms.
Hope your next endeavour works out a little better!
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Thats right, you dont need to.
Some people want to.
Why is that a problem?
Is there a problem wanting it to be fun too?
What do you buy with all this isk? Just ways to get more isk?
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I’m not buying ISK. I’m out there, risking my easy fit ship while making some good out of it and occasionaly run into fun with someone >> creating content as someone would say.
But I get you, to each his own.
I’m not trying to say that I’m successful in my way, nor others are failures in theirs. Just that there’s not so much incentive to engage in the game anymore, that’s all.
And maybe it’s not even problem of EVE more like the overall gaming trend.
Why would one walk up the mountain when they can take the train…?
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Because the train is full of disgusting lowbrows and krabs and the walk is good for you with a beautiful view?
Id rather walk for free than pay to sit near someones smelly kids
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