While playing EVE I try to figure out why people consider it "hard". Not because of the gameplay, I mean executing the actions isn't harder than WoW, or can even be easier, just think of the reaction time and spatial awareness demands of rated BGs and hard mode raids.
EVE is hard for the average, social guy because it requires meta-skills that are trivial to me, but for them it's just as hard as reading something on a language they barely know.
The first such difficulty is setting a goal. In WoW, you are in rails from lvl 1 to HM Deathwing. The next step is maybe not easy to do, but you always know what is it.
The second difficulty is facing your mistakes instead of just ignore them as "bad luck lol" and keep on being stupid. In WoW you can level up as a spirit geared warrior, just slower than proper players. In EVE if you insist of going to mine in low sec with a Bantam, you will surely run out of money.
The third was found yesterday while planning. For me it's quite obvious to make plans. For many people it's not. They just jump into whatever they consider fun in that moment and see how it goes. That attitude is OK in WoW. Not perfect of course, you are much better off doing Therazane quests while leveling, and not when your application is rejected by a HM guild based on your missing shoulder enchant. But that's not something you can't fix fast. Whatever activity you get into will provide you some form of character advancement and while planning can increase its speed, it's not game-breaking if you just fool around.
In EVE you are in competition with other players and to beat them you must have proper skills. I'm not talking about WASD skills, but the skills of your character. Instead of leveling up, you advance in various skills like "frigate ship commanding" or "criminal connections". You gain skill points automatically. Each skill has a point requirement and you generate points as time passes based on your attributes. No grindable activity speeds up skill point gains (besides grinding for better implants). It means that certain skills can only be acquired after months.
For example to fly a Bustard, the next step of the freighter ships, I'd have to wait 28 days. Of course if I'd start training those skills, I would be limited to my current 1-1.5M/hour hauling activity, which isn't bad for a newbie (running level 2-3 missions is about 0.3-0.5M/hour and high security hauling is semi-AFK). So after 29 days I'd be ready to fly the Bustard but wouldn't have the necessary money. I mean I may had 135M in a month, but flying a ship that costs more than 20% of your money is a capital case idiocy in EVE.
So here is what I will do: in a few days I finish training my "must have to run" skills, like accounting, broker relations, connections. Then I'll do a neural remamp. It's a change of attributes and can be done once a year except for the first 2 times which are free to let a new player fix his mistakes. Well, I'm intending to use these once in a lifetime bonuses for increased efficiency. I'll remap for maximum Memory and Intelligence, setting all other attributes to minimum. I train my industrial skills that I plan to use to make 2-3x more money without new equipment.
While I make the money, I train some mechanical skills that increase ship survival, they are Memory-Intelligence skills too, would be stupid to not use those attributes. Then I use my second free remap to max out Perception-Willpower and train the spaceship driving skills. Not only the ones needed to the Bustard, but also to the Crane, Charon and Basilisk, despite I'll be unable to fly these ships for months. Then I do my last remap and set my final attribute setup which will most likely be Charisma and Memory 21, rest 19.
Maybe I'm weird but I actually found figuring these out one of the most fun activities of the game. As a bonus I transported some more stuff to Jita while doing so. However someone who just do things as he pleases can be very easily devastated in EVE. Imagine Arthasdklol, who ran lot of missions (daily quests) to finally have 100 million and buy a Cerberus as he heard from friends that he can finally pwn with that. And after he got it, he sees this:
PS: To those who think that only ganking is the real EVE game, let me show that you can make "feed on tears" mail in the high sec, without firing a single blaster:
EVE is hard for the average, social guy because it requires meta-skills that are trivial to me, but for them it's just as hard as reading something on a language they barely know.
The first such difficulty is setting a goal. In WoW, you are in rails from lvl 1 to HM Deathwing. The next step is maybe not easy to do, but you always know what is it.
The second difficulty is facing your mistakes instead of just ignore them as "bad luck lol" and keep on being stupid. In WoW you can level up as a spirit geared warrior, just slower than proper players. In EVE if you insist of going to mine in low sec with a Bantam, you will surely run out of money.
The third was found yesterday while planning. For me it's quite obvious to make plans. For many people it's not. They just jump into whatever they consider fun in that moment and see how it goes. That attitude is OK in WoW. Not perfect of course, you are much better off doing Therazane quests while leveling, and not when your application is rejected by a HM guild based on your missing shoulder enchant. But that's not something you can't fix fast. Whatever activity you get into will provide you some form of character advancement and while planning can increase its speed, it's not game-breaking if you just fool around.
In EVE you are in competition with other players and to beat them you must have proper skills. I'm not talking about WASD skills, but the skills of your character. Instead of leveling up, you advance in various skills like "frigate ship commanding" or "criminal connections". You gain skill points automatically. Each skill has a point requirement and you generate points as time passes based on your attributes. No grindable activity speeds up skill point gains (besides grinding for better implants). It means that certain skills can only be acquired after months.
For example to fly a Bustard, the next step of the freighter ships, I'd have to wait 28 days. Of course if I'd start training those skills, I would be limited to my current 1-1.5M/hour hauling activity, which isn't bad for a newbie (running level 2-3 missions is about 0.3-0.5M/hour and high security hauling is semi-AFK). So after 29 days I'd be ready to fly the Bustard but wouldn't have the necessary money. I mean I may had 135M in a month, but flying a ship that costs more than 20% of your money is a capital case idiocy in EVE.
So here is what I will do: in a few days I finish training my "must have to run" skills, like accounting, broker relations, connections. Then I'll do a neural remamp. It's a change of attributes and can be done once a year except for the first 2 times which are free to let a new player fix his mistakes. Well, I'm intending to use these once in a lifetime bonuses for increased efficiency. I'll remap for maximum Memory and Intelligence, setting all other attributes to minimum. I train my industrial skills that I plan to use to make 2-3x more money without new equipment.
While I make the money, I train some mechanical skills that increase ship survival, they are Memory-Intelligence skills too, would be stupid to not use those attributes. Then I use my second free remap to max out Perception-Willpower and train the spaceship driving skills. Not only the ones needed to the Bustard, but also to the Crane, Charon and Basilisk, despite I'll be unable to fly these ships for months. Then I do my last remap and set my final attribute setup which will most likely be Charisma and Memory 21, rest 19.
Maybe I'm weird but I actually found figuring these out one of the most fun activities of the game. As a bonus I transported some more stuff to Jita while doing so. However someone who just do things as he pleases can be very easily devastated in EVE. Imagine Arthasdklol, who ran lot of missions (daily quests) to finally have 100 million and buy a Cerberus as he heard from friends that he can finally pwn with that. And after he got it, he sees this:
PS: To those who think that only ganking is the real EVE game, let me show that you can make "feed on tears" mail in the high sec, without firing a single blaster:
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