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EVE...What's the deal?
Mordeath
Member Posts: 131
I was talking with a buddy of mine trying to understand what's so great about EVE in a quantifiable fashion. I've tried it 2x and never had the patience to wait for "it". What I am interested in know is what is "fun" at the higher levels. How do the "players make the game". I understand PvP and corporatations et al but I dont think I "really" understand it. The graphics, effects and some of the devlopment systems are awesome. Is the fun that you get with your corporation mates and have big galactic battles? It it you take over resources or own sectors? I want to like this game but it seems monotonous. Posts by players seem to LOVE or HATE the game so on the love side what am I missing?
Comments
Dude, I tried it for 3 times and this 3rd time I started paying for it since there really isn't anything else worthwhile playing. It definitely isn't as good as the fans praise it to be. I still don't understand why people get so fanatic about it. I've been a longtime gamer and I've played tons of different games but I still don't get these people.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Same here. I tried it as well after hearing how revolutionary and fun it was. Passed out of boredom, woke up the next morning with drool all over my keyboard.
If have to imagine the fun I'll play D&D.
its a massive multiplayer online screensaver,the more time you dump on it, the prettier it looks.
just that
I don't know what you've done in EvE to give you a solid answer on what you're missing out on in EvE.
I can tell you how I started and why I enjoy playing.
Well When I first started playing Eve I guess I was like most of the ex-trial players. I found Eve ok, The missions were clearly meant for isk farming, mining was a asteroid screensaver and Low sec terrified me.
I went through the motions like a good brain washed EQ/WoW player and went from little ship to bigger ship like i was gathering tier armor in WoW.
I got bored of this and left. One day I caught a Blog someone wrote about the Lore in EvE. So i read all 150+ chronicles (at the time), read the novel, the short stories, the race histories and this lead to me reading on game mechanics this lead to me becoming obsessed with reading player blogs.
I became fascinated... Everyone had this unique story to tell. This wasn't people leveling in WoW, there weren't a few starting zones and a raid centric endgame. These people told these stories like it was apart of their lives.
So I grabbed a trial, The setting grabbed me by the balls and never let go.
I ran missions and they no longer felt like a isk grind to me. I was running missions for corps and factions that i read about. I knew their histories and I started sinking deeper and deeper. I farmed standing. ships that were meaningless like the Drake became special to me due to their parts in Eve history (If you read the Eve novel you know why the drake is special).
The lore kept me interested and my player corp did the rest. We did everything together from mining Ops, to mission runs and low sec roams.
When apoc hit I got into exploration and fleeting up for Sleepers, then 0.0 territorial warfare.
Eve gave me so many options. It was unlike anything i've ever played before. To this day I still don't know half of the game.
I'm casual now and mostly go back to my missions and run Red v Blue on the weekends. I still have a complete blast.
I love how I could be playing a couple different ways with a few different roles then suddenly completely change my gameplay all with the same character.
Man I could go on and on. Eve is probably my perfect mmo.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
After reading this post all i pictured was a 6 year old kid staring at a massive playground saying "I don't get it."
LOL!
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
It's one of those "love it or hate it" games. Personally, I love it, but then I play the good EVE that you have to unlock. You're probably still stuck on the trial server, right?
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Freedom. Complexity. Pew Pew.
Summary, the game is what you make it. Nothing is handed to you.
I play it, I like it, and in the least offending way, I'm going to tell you why you don't like it.
Because you don't have patience and/or you do not have a big enough imagination.
I spent four hours last night doing the tutorial, getting into exploration, and finding a single gravemetric(spelling?) signature.
It was a bitch, but I found it, and got it done for the mission I was assigned.
And after I completed it, I realized none of my friends would like it, you need to put more effort into getting things done, you need to be patient and you need have the imagination to match.
Did I get my point across? I think I did, but I'm not sure... xD
"I went to the store to buy a candle holder. They were out, so I bought a cake." -Mitch Hedberg
I, too, am playing on my own server of extra cuddliness.
Besides, where else can you announce a "no pants op" and have 120 people attend?
Yea...a massive playground that doesn't have any cool playground equipment for miles and miles around...but you promise him that if he wanders far enough he will have so much fun.
Oh c'mon, give the guy a break. You two are laughing with each other at an inside joke. What you see is a "massive playground" while all the outside observer sees is a small box. EVE isn't something you can "quantify" in such a way, and you guys know it. If you really want to help paint the picture, try dodging why EVE seats itself in your brain and makes your imagination create what it is, and explain more of the actual gameplay.
I've never gotten into EVE myself, but I definitely understand why others do. I still can't get past the sterile feel of it all myself, nor the seemingly stale gameplay. That's why the OP is probably still confused.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."
George Bernard Shaw
What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Oscar Wilde
Those raised in a Theme Park environment have a hard time with EVE.
I played UO and loved it, but I still don't understand what makes EVE fun. From the looks of all the posts here you have to imagine all the fun yourself, EVE just provides a spaceship to fly around in while you're imagining.
OK so you're saying there is a playground but I have to eat lima beans for the next year to get to it? From the responses I assume the lima beans are the playground? Is that the fun? Or do I have to be into spending 4 hours getting a gravometric reading? It is beginning to sound like there really is nothing there that is that special other than your screen is black cause you're in space and you can dream that you are a captain of whatever (which is basically eating lima beans no less). I have yet to see any concrete example of "fun". I can pay nothing and look at a black screen and use my "imagination" (rainbow, Spongebob). None of you EVE fans can illustrate what makes it great, this is my point.
Oooh is there a no-panter?
x!
Give me liberty or give me lasers
Eve primarily provides an interface to interact and play with people all over the world. And blow them up. And blow stuff up with them.
I haven't seen a game that makes so easy to play with people all over the world and actually get to know them better. Imo it's the best global social framework available currently.
Well it's kind of a "what you make it" deal. If you're the kind of kid who prefers to play pirates vs ninjas in the local wood than go to the zoo, then EVE is for you.
Give me liberty or give me lasers
That I can understand. I haven't seen that side of EVE though so maybe it is just after you've played a long time? From my experience asking for help as a relative newb (on numerous occasions) resulted in not a single response. I literally felt like I was flying around in space all by myself, except when I saw the few other player ships when undocking.
I'm in the extreme hate it crowd. People that say things about people being kids that hate it obviously are said kids and have way to much time on their hands and mom and dads money to throw out the window. Adults can tell when something is a complete waste of effort and back out before it costs them more than they want to give. Time investment and down time doing things that suck to get to the parts that don't suck are totally out of proportion in Eve. I played up untill the battleship stages and the whole time wondered when the real fun was to begin. Basically you'll be doing pretty much the same thing after 2 months of playtime that you do in your first week. Shooting rocks and lots and lots of boring uneventful warping from spot to spot on autopilot. Killing enemies degenerates into the same ole' tactics that work and that's it. The main thing that changes is the size of the ships. Screensaver is a dead on description. More power to people that like that sort of thing but it's annoying to see people posting how great and complicated it is when really it's a bloated overhyped multiplayer spreadsheet chat program.
I'm an adult and I like adult mmos. I like decent graphics but gameplay will hold my attention longer. Right now I'm playing FE, which is the best experience I've had for a long time. Deep game mechanics, decisions that count, vast traveling which you actually have to be engaged in, a crafting system that somehow figures out how to be complex, intuitive and enjoyable at the same time. The community in FE is the best I've ever played with except for early swg. They are helpful and polite and most of the time are goofing off and joking around making the game feel more personal.
"I'm not cheap I'm incredibly subconsciously financially optimized"
"The worst part of censorship is ------------------"
I joined a halfway decent corporation after a few days and ventured into 0.0 space. You don't have to play a long time, you need to go out and play with people.
If you just follow the PVE game, it's going to suck for all but the biggest fants of grinding. Missions suck, mining sucks, ect.
You HAVE to interact with other people to have fun in this game. Join a high sec mercenary corp that takes hits of high sec POSs, go to lowsec and pirate, join a major powerbloc in 0.0 and become part of the war machine, or join a smaller 0.0 roaming alliance that simply fucks shit up, go to wormhole space and set up a corporation there, ect.
Personally, I'm boring and like to trade, but the market in eve is worlds apart any other MMO.
Its the only successfull and true sandbox.
But as with sandbox's a large portion of participants dont have the imagination to mould the sand into a sand castle, let alone mould it into a 1000 man empire that effects 10's possibly hundreds of thousands of peoples lives.
In short, Eve can be likeable to politics.. 90% of us humans dont aspire to such power, but the 10% LOVE the freaking hell out of it xD
I'm a part time politician where Eve is concerned.. I'm not always involved, I'm more like the media, I have an intense interest in the story, but not a great deal of aspiration in controling the story.
EvE is so different than any other mmorpg out there right now it can be difficult to get into. The first time I tried it I didn't like it either. Getting into a good corp is vital to enjoying the game. Sure you can solo but you would be missing out on the most fun parts of the game. When you ask somebody who plays your typical fantasy level based game about their character they recite their stats, class, skills and gear, in EvE you get a story about their adventures.
Let me give you a few examples of things I've done in Eve that just don't happen in other games...
I started in a drug manufacturing corp trying to smuggle illegal cargo into high security systems. The concord didn't appreciate that too much.
Spent a lot of time in Gallente militia living in Black Rise. This is where I learned to PvP. Since we were small I had to learn guerilla tactics. For a small corp we made a pretty good name for ourselves.
After that I put on my eye patch and spent a few months as a pirate living outside trade hubs ransoming haulers, mission runners and pretty much anyone else who passed. At the same time fighting other pirate corps trying to lock down the system.
Then joined a null sec alliance of about 1,400 pilots. Up until that time I was used to small gangs of 2-6 people, these guys rolled in fleets of 50-150 complete with logistics and cap support.
Spent some time in a merc corp taking down POS's, performing assassinations, denying resources to corps and doing random war decs.
I just don't get this from other games. I'm done grinding levels and gear, been there, done that. Arenas and battlegrounds are boring and predictable. In Eve the fights are not fair, not predictable and losing is painful. A lot of players view these as negatives but I wouldn't have it any other way.
From my experience I can tell you to have fun in Eve you need to be patient, strategic and be a bit of a gambler.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
I'm sure a good portion of the players literally use it as a chat engine most of the time. You rarely see the players you're communicating with. Lets be honest, when you're not in a mass battle and actually have to pay attention, you can chat, search the web and watch TV all at the same time while "playing". There is no provided story to follow, so you have to really get involved to experience it, which lets face it, takes a lot of time and "effort" most people would rather spend elsewhere. AND you have to actually care about players passionately arguing and squabbling back and forth over virtual stuff, which only appeals to a select few. You really do have to find and invent something interesting, because the game doesn't provide you with any of it. The UI is a abomination that turns most people off. If that doesn't do it, the slow game play speed, travel downtime and pacing will finish the job.
It really is a VERY different type of game thats love it or hate it. Most hate it.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/208-Eve-Online explains it all as well as anyone can.