I'm talking about overall advice on approaching the game. I think a lot of other games rely on constant forward progress to motivate players, but I don't think this translates well to eve, where going backwards (losing ships etc) is a completely normal part of the game.

Here are some of my general pieces of advice for anyone playing eve:

Don't play to make isk
Eve has so many different things to offer that it is easy to get caught up in the isk grind (mining and missions) and miss the fun. Try different things, even (and especially) things that don't seem to earn much isk or lose isk. This is where you find the truly fun parts of eve. Sure sometimes you'll need to work for a bit of isk to pay for ships, but most of the time if you try out new things the isk will slowly come in while you're playing the game.

Risk dying
This might sound like it's in conflict with the point above, but they actually go hand in hand. If you don't focus on isk, it doesn't feel like that much of a loss when you lose a ship. Losing ships is normal. It's great if you're trying something new, learning a new part of the game and getting out there and involved. The main pull of this game for me is the feeling you get when you put your ship on the line to try something out. This won't happen sitting safely in NPC corps mining and missioning. Try new things!

Don't fly what you can't afford
This means different things for different people. For some this means have enough isk in your wallet to replace what you're flying. To me it doesn't. To me it means fly what you are willing to lose. I'll sometimes fly 300mil isk ships with only 50mil in my wallet. If I lose that ship there is always another ship to fly. I can always buy a 20mil ship and play with that while slowly watching the isk come in for the next ship. Quite often you'll find if you're just playing the game and not grinding isk, the ship will pay itself back. If it doesn't and you lose it, you're next ship might pay for itself 10 times over, who knows.

Get involved in communities
Look for friendly chat channels in your timezone, find groups of people to play with (you don't have to join a corp, there are groups that run events and fleets for anyone). You can play eve solo, but it limits what you can do and other players are far and away the best source of both information and fun (often called 'content' by older eve players). Join up with people and do stuff, even if it doesn't seem like the best way to make isk, even if it means you might die. Risk getting scammed and killed, it might hurt a bit when you lose a ship or two, but in the long run you'll find great people to play with and possibilities will continue to open up. And trust me, it never takes long to find an experienced player willing to throw a few million isk your way to help you get started.

Make the most of online resources
There are many online resources containing ridiculous amounts of information on eve. One of the best ones is the eve-uni wiki. It has heaps of well presented information. Eve-central is a great market tool for looking up prices etc. Kill boards can be great for looking up other players kills etc to get an idea of where they usually play and if they're a threat to you. Map sites give you great information on dangerous areas of space or looking up info on Wormholes.



What are your general bits of advice for new players?

EVE will probably be awesome in five years when you finally understand everything.

Also start second and third mains.

If you're going to play EVE after a few drinks, never open a trade window.

And in a similar vein...

Don't take losses personally.

"Don't come to General Discussion looking for a shoulder to cry on.

We do not care."

"Don't come to EVE ONLINE looking for a shoulder to cry on.

We do not care."