Rodrigo Sarn
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Posted - 2006.12.02 18:22:00 -
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Like you, I am a new player to Eve. This is my second month of play and I am in North America. I like Eve. I especially like Eve's potential as an engaging and fun game. If you are an experienced MMORPG player, there are some concerns about Eve that you will need to consider and accept very early on. Things you may consider pretty basic don't really exist with this game.
I appreciate what you are saying, and I respect your opinions. But I also disagree with them, and being that I also am just two months in - and since I'm autopiloting about 30 systems round trip, I thought I'd multitask here. Hope I'm not kicking the proverbial dead horse.
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They shut they game down for 1 hour everyday. 'Extended Downtime' seems to be pretty frequent based on my last two months as well.
We joined at a weird time, right before a new content patch. You have to expect downtime and bugs with a huge new patch, that's just a part of the genre. There was only one non-patch day where "extended downtime" was more than an hour or two, that I remember. I'm in the US, I have had next to no downtime complaints or inconveniences. From what I have read, no MMO can hold a candle to EVE's stability, which is downright miraculous, since all are on one server.
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There is no manual--save a very basic 'New Players Guide'. Customer service tickets sit for days or weeks before a response is provided. These customer service shortfalls result in some real frustration for players given the complexity of the game.
I'm pretty good at internet research, so it didn't make much of a difference for me. Remember, all of these people were newbs too, and they did ok.
But yes - the incredible complexity of the game makes for a steep learning curve, no matter what. I think it's safe to say it - EVE is a tough choice if you've never played an MMO. But my City of Heroes and Matrix Online experience was more than enough to get me through 70% of what constitutes game manuals. And of course, there are strategy guides out there, though patches make them largely obsolete, from what little I know of them.
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If youÆre not playing on European time, you are going to be pretty lonely. During North American evening hours the game feels empty.
Totally depends on what systems you go to. Also depends on what corp you join. If you haven't joined a player corp, or at least an NPC corp with an active corp channel, then all you have to do is switch, and find a hot one. Even at 1am EST.
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This is compounded by two factors. First, by its very nature the game is impersonal in comparison to other RPG's... vastness of open space and all.
This is both totally true, and totally false. Popular opinion amongst MMOers is that EVE is one of the most social MMOs out there. There are always countless groups willing to take a n00b under their wing, yes, sometimes to exploit them, sometimes to strengthen their corp. But the help channels and these forums are social tools also, and shouldn't be undervalued. Much of what you say, Gaius, sounds typical of someone who has tried to figure all of this out by themselves. That's overwhelming to anyone. Seek help. Find a corp. Take part in events. It's a whole different game.
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'Missions' in Eve are repetitive and not built to be accomplished in groups or task organized. By that I mean, a group of players are not able to take the same mission together...
I'll agree that missions are repetitive. Show me an MMO where that isn't so. But I wouldn't say they aren't group oriented. You can do a tough mission either by having a big ship big enough, or having a gang big enough.
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These social issues may also contribute to the near 100% male player-base.
It's a very male dominated base compared to some... but it's sci-fi. Starship Sci-Fi. And alot of it comes down to number-crunching and economics. No game that needs a calculator built-in will draw the chicks in.
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