EVE Search - From one newbie to all the up and coming Alpha clone newbies

Josh Sharvas wrote:

Just from me (a moderately inexperienced player who has made the same mistakes over and over), to all the up and coming newbies of Eve Online - Especially for when the clone states kick in.

1. DO NOT apply with any player run corporation for a while. No matter how well intentioned they are or how willing they are to teach you. You will find yourself war dec'd by HiSec griefers like Marmite Collective and so on and you will be unable to do much in the game except hide away all the time.
2. DO NOT apply with a nullsec corp for a while either. Not only for the same reason above, but if you have low skill/training, low ISK and so on you're not going to find this game fun. You will feel useless and trapped and without a market in nullsec and will be at the mercy of higher ranking members. Basically, you're cannon fodder. Again, no offense to them and no matter how well intentioned they are.
3. Consider sticking with an NPC corp until you have at least 50 - 100 mil ISK and can fly a cruiser at 4 or 5 mastery [EDIT: Or maybe not as much but when you're comfortable] before considering any of the above. That means doing missions, exploring, mining (If it must be done), industry etc... and getting well acquainted with the game. Do not rush to nullsec or rush into PvP. NPC corps cannot be war dec'd so this reduces griefing chances in HiSec to all but those who want to suicide gank you.
4. If you do want PvP experience early on, consider Faction Warfare instead. Use it as a learning path also.
5. Learn how to evade gate camps and traps as quickly as possible. Lots of YouTube, google links etc... to research. Use a shuttle where necessary and don't put your good ships at risk unnecessarily if you need to fetch a small market item a few jumps away.
6. As the old saying goes, fly what you are prepared to lose. In fact, consider whatever you are undocking as lost already. So check your ISK budget before undocking. It is the same as playing an FPS - you will die frequently and you will respawn again, except in Eve you lose a lot more.
7. Finally don't frustrate other players by asking questions that are covered by tutorials and career agents already. Besides - you will want to do the career agents for all the free ships and goodies you get via them anyway.

The rest will come naturally as you learn the game (i.e. Ship fitting, The Market, Working with the overview etc...). And you can still learn a lot through NPC corps, forums, YouTube and trial/error without relying on some muppet in a player corp to train you :P

If you don't follow my advice, well then either you're one in a thousand or you will quit the game soon after. Do not listen to the more experienced players [EDIT: If there's a chance they are not well intentioned - but otherwise everyone else here thinks this is generally bad advice so scratch that], they may still tell you to join X corp as soon as possible coz they has cookies and that this is all BS :) But you will learn ;) And they went through all this when the rules/environment was a little different so what do they know :P

Cheers.

EDIT: Many have disagreed here with valid reasons so read through and decide. This is just from one newbie having gone through the process a few times to others. Some players like to dive into the deep end immediately so if that's you then go for it. Just consider changing your situation if you no longer find it enjoyable or have joined up with the wrong corp before you decide to quit Eve. If you do happen to find a great corp early on or join up with personal friends then go with it. And if you do find a well intentioned seasoned vet then by all means take his/her advice.