I Accidentally YourShip wrote:Do you enjoy getting the same small pool of missions over and over again, dominating the same NPCs with a small amount of risk and no artificial path of progression?
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This is not a flame / troll / bait post, I am a former EVE player who is interested in the viewpoints of missioners who continue to do something that I burned out on due to lack of direction and goal a long time ago.
The one question I left in there makes it sound a LOT like a troll. You might not have intended it that way but on its own, maybe you'll see why some people are offended by it. You're basically belittling missioning with that question.
I don't do missions. I joined in when my corpmates ran missions, but rarely started them on my own. I actually have a hard time getting jump clones because I've never put in the effort to get the requisite standings with enough NPC corps. Still, I think I understand the mission runners well enough.
1) It's the first thing they are introduced to in Eve. The tutorials are a series of missions, so it's easy to step from the training missions to Sisters of Eve to normal faction missions as your first activity. After a few weeks of missions and getting new ships, they become invested in missions both in experience and the skill training they choose. After a while, it's just what they do best/easiest.
2) It has some appeal to the same OCD crowd who will play the same platformer over and over to get a better score/time/whatever. Pick a metric: isk/hour, mission times, standings, NPC kill count, whatever...doing better than their previous best drives them.
3) You may see ships as disposable tools, but they might see ships as vehicles, property, even the closest thing they have to a "home" in Eve. It's the thing they spend the most time in, can customize, and show off. They started in a Merlin, moved up to a Cormorant, then to a Caracal, a Drake, a Raven, a Tengu, then a Golem. Every upgrade was a reward to them. T2 large weapons training completed? Time to upgrade. You might think it's silly, but there is a whole genre of flash games out there where "complete this repetitive task to get upgrades" is the entire game.
(edit: for that matter, almost every single player game and multiplayer RPGs does this: the further you progress, the more cool stuff you get to use. They've been conditioned for this mentality by nearly every game there is)
4) It's a means to an end. Locator agents, station taxes, jump clones, and isk to buy ships and PLEX can all be had via missions. Sometimes you have to grind to get to stuff you need/want.
5) While they're running missions and amassing wealth and ships, they are also training skills. Have you forgotten that every minute an account is active, it can be training? They may have other goals and simply be using missions to pass the time while they complete their training.