For long I avoided EVE. I even wrote a post explaining the reasons why I prefer WoW where I can reach the socials.
However for a week I had more time on my hand as usual and tried EVE. I liked it very much. For a first time I was playing a game instead of running some blogging project in a game. I'd like to talk about my first impressions as someone with less than 4 days old character (in EVE you "level up" in real time, so no matter how much you play a day you can't have higher skills). The graphics is breathtaking, the character creation has insane amount of customization (I run with a very generic face of course). There are several empires and factions, but they are not so different from each other.
The rookie missions (quests) are well-designed and teach everything. They also give about 6M ISK (credits), partially as liquid, but mostly as ships and books that you can sell. I recommend new players that after completing the starter questline, do them again, twice (location of other questgivers). You repeat important lessons and you also get 2x6M ISK, along with reputation.
Contrary to the popular belief, learning EVE is not at all complicated. I mean there are 5 "classes" in EVE, the explorer who finds hidden places, the miner who mine asteroids, the trader who buys and sells, the manufacturer who builds items from raw materials and the fighter who kill pirates (NPCs) and other players. The starting missions teach the basics. After that, there are further missions, which are similar to WoW dailies, the same ones show up at different places. The difficulty of the missions ramp up at will, you can choose how difficult you are ready to face. While you can die and lose your ship even at the starting zone, the early ships are very cheap (I mean you can buy a new one from the reward of one mission) and if you'd lose absolutely everything, the insurance company would give you a newbie ship for free which you can use to do an easy mission and you are back on your Condor/Bantham again. Also, there is insurance for losing the ship.
So I can seriously tell that getting started in EVE is not at all harder than the same in WoW. Of course I'm not talking about the endgame here. What is "hard" in EVE is the huge amount of options. In WoW you are always told what to do. You spawn front of a guy with exclamation mark on his head and he tells you to go there and kill that and then another guy shows up with an exclamation mark and it goes on up to lvl 85. Also, the aim of leveling is clear too: to get to lvl 85. In EVE, after the starter missions there is no storyline. Also, the skill training system is unaffected by your playing, so you can't play to progress your character, there is no "I must go to mine to level mining skill". You can do missions (dailies) but the question "why" is looming over your head. Why shall I get reputation with that faction? Why shall I get more skills? Why shall I mine those asteroids? Why am I killing these pirates? Why am I here?
EVE is a sandbox game, where you must find your own "why"? The "how" is not hard at all. Probably that's why they say "the learning curve ramps up", because at the start you are busy exploring the world and learning. When you are more and more proficient in what you are doing you more and more often faced with the question "why".
I did not find my "why" yet. Maybe I won't and I'll stop playing like those hundreds of thousands, maybe millions who did not upgrade their 14 days trial account. After they answered their "how", they found the game boring. The first "how" has to be answered after the starter missions. Shall I run my Cormorant against pirates? Shall I go mining? Shall I run the Heron I got to scan down hidden artifacts? Shall I run missions and elevate my standing with an empire? How shall I play?
However "trading" is still just a "how". I will ramp up ISK in no time and I already run a Badger II. Soon I'll have a Bustard. But to continue playing, I must find "why". I hope I will, as I like the basic idea of "no welfare, earn everything yourself" which is so different from WoW where you just have to /follow the healer to get shiny.
However for a week I had more time on my hand as usual and tried EVE. I liked it very much. For a first time I was playing a game instead of running some blogging project in a game. I'd like to talk about my first impressions as someone with less than 4 days old character (in EVE you "level up" in real time, so no matter how much you play a day you can't have higher skills). The graphics is breathtaking, the character creation has insane amount of customization (I run with a very generic face of course). There are several empires and factions, but they are not so different from each other.
The rookie missions (quests) are well-designed and teach everything. They also give about 6M ISK (credits), partially as liquid, but mostly as ships and books that you can sell. I recommend new players that after completing the starter questline, do them again, twice (location of other questgivers). You repeat important lessons and you also get 2x6M ISK, along with reputation.
Contrary to the popular belief, learning EVE is not at all complicated. I mean there are 5 "classes" in EVE, the explorer who finds hidden places, the miner who mine asteroids, the trader who buys and sells, the manufacturer who builds items from raw materials and the fighter who kill pirates (NPCs) and other players. The starting missions teach the basics. After that, there are further missions, which are similar to WoW dailies, the same ones show up at different places. The difficulty of the missions ramp up at will, you can choose how difficult you are ready to face. While you can die and lose your ship even at the starting zone, the early ships are very cheap (I mean you can buy a new one from the reward of one mission) and if you'd lose absolutely everything, the insurance company would give you a newbie ship for free which you can use to do an easy mission and you are back on your Condor/Bantham again. Also, there is insurance for losing the ship.
So I can seriously tell that getting started in EVE is not at all harder than the same in WoW. Of course I'm not talking about the endgame here. What is "hard" in EVE is the huge amount of options. In WoW you are always told what to do. You spawn front of a guy with exclamation mark on his head and he tells you to go there and kill that and then another guy shows up with an exclamation mark and it goes on up to lvl 85. Also, the aim of leveling is clear too: to get to lvl 85. In EVE, after the starter missions there is no storyline. Also, the skill training system is unaffected by your playing, so you can't play to progress your character, there is no "I must go to mine to level mining skill". You can do missions (dailies) but the question "why" is looming over your head. Why shall I get reputation with that faction? Why shall I get more skills? Why shall I mine those asteroids? Why am I killing these pirates? Why am I here?
EVE is a sandbox game, where you must find your own "why"? The "how" is not hard at all. Probably that's why they say "the learning curve ramps up", because at the start you are busy exploring the world and learning. When you are more and more proficient in what you are doing you more and more often faced with the question "why".
I did not find my "why" yet. Maybe I won't and I'll stop playing like those hundreds of thousands, maybe millions who did not upgrade their 14 days trial account. After they answered their "how", they found the game boring. The first "how" has to be answered after the starter missions. Shall I run my Cormorant against pirates? Shall I go mining? Shall I run the Heron I got to scan down hidden artifacts? Shall I run missions and elevate my standing with an empire? How shall I play?
However "trading" is still just a "how". I will ramp up ISK in no time and I already run a Badger II. Soon I'll have a Bustard. But to continue playing, I must find "why". I hope I will, as I like the basic idea of "no welfare, earn everything yourself" which is so different from WoW where you just have to /follow the healer to get shiny.
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