I blame the awful commercials CCP cranks out. I get asked by friends knowing I play Eve Online, is this what the game is “really” like to play?
On the off chance you are reading the forums to seek the truth, I scoured YouTube for the most honest commercial.
This came out roughly 6 years ago and shows 3 frigates doing a filament. Ignoring the obvious camera angles, this is the most honest commercial. The dialog is pretty funny as well.
However in recent years they seem to love pushing out nonsense, exaggerations, or bald face lies. Such as this one.
The only thing I can find true about this video is… your Skyhook will get destroyed by random idiots. There are no bald chicks walking on stations, there is no in station view, other than your ship parked in the hangar. Seriously why are all those people bald except the one in command? Even he has a burr cut.
Okay I hope this reaches those who need to know, before they get to Rookie Chat, and ask, “Hey guys, how do I get out of my ship at the station?”.
Then I reply for the thousandth time, “You don’t.”.
This is something I never thought about it, but it is probably spot on. The trailers give a totally different vibe and I remember this caldari intro trailer and thinking it was cool as hell. Looking back if someone doesn’t know anything about EVE they either will get the wrong impression or think it is some animated movie trailer
By CCP’s own stats, EVE gets about 10,000 new accounts set up per week, and loses about 9,600 of those in the first 3 weeks or so.
I’d guess at least half of those losses are due to people who had a certain idea of EVE - some of it provided by those videos and trailers - that EVE gameplay would be much different than it actually is. It’s clear that setting up one set of expectations from the trailers, and then providing an entirely different experience in the game, doesn’t lead to retained players.
CCP would be a lot better off advertising EVE as it actually is and for what it actually does, rather than trying to spin pretty fantasies that inevitably lead to disappointment.
One would think this - but maybe that’s not the case in actuality. But I agree - the ads and trailers are definitely misleading. You can’t do most of the stuff they advertise with respect to “shaping the universe” - those days are long gone.
The most honest trailer that I find is this one.
“You’re Not Ready For It” Ad
I have been playing for a year now and can say that I have seen people quit. Because they suddenly realize just how massive of a steep learning curve this game has in fact. And the usual gripes of losing just one ship to many. Or that the sun is to bright. Yeah, Someone actually posted that as their rage quit reason for not wanting to play.
When people ask me about the game. I tell them. You have to be a self starter. You have to be able to make up your mind as to what you really want to do in the game at some point. Not be afraid to try different things as you go along. As that will help you enjoy whatever activity you are wanting to do in game.
That yes EVE does stand for Everyone Versus Everyone. You will get shot at and you will lose ships. You have to be OK with that.
Though if you want to reshape and influence the game. You really need to look at where the game is at. Which for right now the power houses of Goonswarm and the 'Horde are sitting on top. But that just means that if you want to shift or influence what is going on in the game. You will have to work that much harder.
For myself. As I have zero interest in being a CEO or leading an alliance and/or a coalition at the moment. Reshaping or influencing the game. Well at this point I am still learning and skilling up to be a better explorer/industrialist. So there is that. For myself. After doing some exploration and at the end of the day. Sitting in a belt and mining I find actually relaxing.. Well… Not that relaxing. LOL
That’s a pretty old ad, though. Over a decade or more, isn’t it? Plus it talks about “awesome combat, intense social interaction, rewards and community beyond compare”.
IMO CCP has been over-hyping and under-delivering since around 2009. Maybe earlier. While they don’t need to go quite so far down as posting “Come play Spreadsheets, in Spaaaaaace!” ads, I think they’d do better to set more reasonable expectations in advance.
At least back in those days they set expectations regarding difficulty proper, which is the most seen complaint from players these days that the game is too unfair and hard.
I disagree with what most have said. It might be that CCP ads are misleading a bit, but if you think you’re gonna get exactly what the advertising is promising you, then you haven’t been paying attention in life in general. All advertising is misleading to a degree, some more some less. I watched a couple of these ads posted here, and I don’t really see a problem with them. They are not that misleading to me. EVE is also story-driven, and what those ads have essentially been built on is the story behind the game. It’s advertised in a cinematic way because that will look more attractive than guys sitting at their computer screens clicking away at excel sheets.
I started playing this game in 2009 and I’ve never quit (I’ve been on a hiatus here and there for a couple of years, but that’s about it). I saw a regular image-format ad for EVE Online on one of the websites I was browsing at the time. I followed the link to EVE Online site, made an account, and here I still am in 2025. I didn’t watch any videos, didn’t talk to any players playing this game. I just started playing it and enjoyed it.
In my opinion, EVE will never appeal to the masses. It has a special niche. It appeals to a certain kind of person and that person is not of the majority of video game players.
I haven’t thought about how it would be best to define guys who will last in EVE long term, but it’s a combination of personality traits and lifestyle preferences that will ultimately determine it. It certainly needs to be a person who can delay gratification. If you’re the kind who needs immediate reward and accomplishment, you’re not gonna last in this game.
So, ads or no ads, or however CCP promotes this game, EVE will continue to pick out those few suitable for it and leave the others behind.
We aren’t gaining new players because the current generation of gamers are of the “press button, receive bacon” mentality. Players who can’t be bothered with the time and effort that EVE takes. EVE is a niche game. Always has been, always will be.
I don’t necessarily agree that EVE doesn’t appeal to newer players. The problem is that EVE has stagnated and not evolved.
Tell me the last EVE expansion that got you excited? I’m guessing it wasn’t Equinox or Revenant. I’m not optimistic what will be announced at Fanfest, either. That’s two years of “meh” expansions, “meh” events and “meh” content.
Most of you replying to this thread are vets. I don’t understand the move from the rookie thread to this area, but meh whatever. We all know what Eve is and what Eve is not. My point to this thread was and is to inform people watching these videos of truth, prior going into Rookie Chat and repeating the same old questions.
How do I get out of my ship at the station?
How do I land on a planet?
How do I fly my ship with the keyboard?
… etc..
About 99% of any video game trailer is hype, but here CCP excels at generating buildup to a let down. As before, in the first video, it shows 3 frigate enter a filament. While it get overtly dramatic and the crashes are beyond what you see in game, I do understand the need to hype things up. Meanwhile we all know, most skyhooks are raided by small groups, causing loss of materials and not the full blown skyhook structure. My actual issue with the second video is all those shots of people walking about in the station and on the planet. Most of the planets can’t even support human life on the surface, due to atmosphere or gravity. The adverts mislead the new potential gamer into thinking this being a very different game.
To conclude, I don’t only blame CCP for the problem. Rookies in chat need to research the game, it takes about 30 seconds for them to punch it up in YouTube “Eve Online gameplay” where I found this video. Which shows you need someone helping to learn to play.
I know CCP won’t stop making fake commercials. This is just me telling the new player what they shouldn’t expect within this game. I doubt the thread being buried under “Research” will help them find it any better.
It’s far easier to get blown up than blow anything up. Any realistic video for EVE should show them approaching Jita, getting hit with numerous fleet invites and scam requests, getting ganked immediately after fitting out a ship on the Jita undock and followed by them rage-quitting and uninstalling EVE.
“EVE Online. Where only the most disturbed and narcissistic personalities go to play.”
That’s what happens in the game, but that’s not what this game is about. (Not arguing that for some players this could be the whole justification for their playing).
A lot of you seem to focus on the mundane or the negative aspects here. Reducing the game to technicalities and material losses is cherry-picking (in the negative sense) the reality. But it doesn’t equate with that reality. If you’re tasked with making a trailer for real life, would you use scenes depicting doing paperwork and sitting in traffic for it? – That’s how it sounds what you’re complaining about. – I wouldn’t. I would show love, sex, flying airplanes, erecting cities and gardens – that’s what life is about to me, even if occasionally I get stuck in traffic or have to do mundane daily tasks of paperwork like everybody else.
And likewise when I watch these trailers – I see inherent potential in the game in them. The truth is – the potential available for every player in this game is just as huge as the most dramatic scenes from EVE’s trailers. You can build your empire, your legacy here. It’s all within your reach. While focusing on the fact that trailers don’t show the mundane realities of the game, you’re missing the big picture that is EVE. And that’s what those trailers actually are showing to you.
For example – CCP is showing people in stations, but you can’t walk in stations? – But the game does have space stations, you dock in there, ergo there are people in stations. Including you! They do something in the stations while there. So this is a real scene out of the EVE universe. Maybe not out of gameplay directly (it actually was part of the game years ago), but it is part of EVE reality. It doesn’t take that much imagination to see it. If you are in station doing trading, for example, then that’s exactly a scene out of your EVE character’s life.
