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EVE Review after 13 days.. long
axyrn
Member Posts: 55
(no native english)
After 13 days i can honestly say that this game is far overrated by some Veteran players.
Basicly all you do is doing 100reds of equal missions until you reach a little higher faction which gets you to the next Agent with the same Missions just higher rewards which leads you to new ships but nothing new at all.
This game promises so much when you started it but after a few days you will start to wonder if theres anything else than aiming for the next big ship or the next level weapon or whatever item...
The Traveling time in this game is simply said the biggest timelife stealer i have ever seen, you have to jump jump jump endless times between starsystems.
I have never been AFK so much in any game ever, your doing housework, taking a shower, go Shop and when your back your stupid ship is still traveling. All you can do is watching the stupid Rookie Help channel for hours and slowly you will start to feel sorry for the people there.
If you destroy a few NPC enemies you will have to get the loot manual and Approach every single loot container which takes abother 15 mins after a big battle. So damn timewasteing ! No traktor beam or drones that could collect the loot, and that 1000sands of years in future....
After reaching L3-4 with some skills you will get your 1st shock when you see that a Skill takes 2-3 days real life time to level up !! You will have the cash for a nice ship upgrade but you will be stuck until the skills all reached the Ship level, since you can only train one level after another it can take 1 week just to spend your nice money to get a new ship if you started with the wrong skills.....
Later when you start to leave the 0.1-9 secure zones you will get PKedf with your nice ship and if you forgot to Insure you can start over again lolol !! So stupid.
You will also see that some wannabe´s in the Help channel will always play wannabe GMs, that was one of the things that pissed me off most, some people that have no life at all are trying to play the smart and wise gameguides.
OVERALL >
this game needs way to much time invested for the returns
*Boring and repeative gameplay Mine, deliver some trash or kill some Pirats. always the same. maybe do a Illegal mission from time to time.
*Terrible hard to learn , many people with limited playtime (casual) wont ever have a chance to reach something good in weeks.
*Loot must be collected manually which costs alot extra time and after the 50iest mission you will get bored and leave the loot in space.
*DRONES (pseudo Pets) are stupid and bring you in danger often, because they simply have to less control options, they finished something off then suddenly wander off 50km to attack something. if you collect loot and dont pay attention the drones pull all the NPCs on you. Drones need a simple Control window with the basic options DEFEND, AGGRESSIVE, GUARD etc etc...
*DANGER !!! i often had the feeling to fall asleep while traveling. I never had a game that made me that sleepy.
*No Control over your Ship in Battle. All you can do is Lock some Targets and click the weapon buttons, if you want to steer the ship you need to click somewhere into the space and the ship will slowly react and fly there. I hated this control , i wish the game had a manual flight control, but this click and wait is trash.
*Weapons, you will have to study endless hours before you can finally say that your ship is good enough for all type of ranges and damage types in battles. Confusing and only good for people without life.
*Travel time, HORROR ! i tell you before you start this game, find a few hobbies that you can do from your computer. I never had a game where i used to TAB out and Surf the Internet or do some housework as much as in EVE.
*If you come from traditional MMORPGs like DAOC, EQ, AO, AC, WoW then this game wont be for you. Maybe for a few days.
*Motivation Scale starts at 10 but after some days your at 5 then after 2 weeks if you arent a lifeless or really patient person your at 1 and leave. terrible
*CHINESE isk farmers, you will see ships with names like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 which are nothing else than MACRO MINERS for Chinese Euro/Dollar greed nerds. GMs ignore that it seems.
*GRAFICS !! the grafic absolutely rock and they were the main reason i played that long. The rest is aboslutely Fake, an simple game not easy to learn because the DEVs planned to keep the players learning phase long enough.
*stupid players with names like D3ARTHVAD3R, R3VENG3 1116622 and what all. you will meet many childish matures that think they can return to their youth and play the "ownzyO" m8.
*Downtime > Not much BUT everyday at 11am GMT which sucks, i wonder why they have to restart the servers everyday really.
*Suggestions >> Let players learn 2 skills at once 1 Primary Normal speed, one Secondary half speed. QUEUE > this game needs a Skill Learn QUEUE i found myself often to lazy to play just login in to click on a skill that takes a while to learn. SOOOOoooo stupid for an online game. Log in and out and wait....
OVERALL > Enjoy the 14 day trial i am sure 10-20% of the trial player will stay but the majority will leave in anger and wonder what they wasted their time for.
I made like 10 millions of cash brought all skills to level 3-4 had a MOA cruiser and suddenly was bored to hell...
EVE = Big Big Life Time Stealer, no other MMORPG has so much Online time were you have nothing to do but WATCH the screen or TAB out to Surf or whatever 
P.S please, all you Veterans that you seem to have all your lifetime to play this game, dont come here and try to defend this game, because you guys are really different from normal people with a Family, Job and whatall. The only person that i could imagine that has a legal reason to defend EVE are Housewifes, that work in the house the whole day while EVE is running. They jump to the PC a few times per day to bring the MINER ship back to the Station, Sell and return to Mine.
Comments
Hmmmm.... I had a similar experience. I just read that a new patch is coming that addresses a few of these issues (specifically looting) by adding tractor beams to loot with. I also saw that they're adding criminal flags for can stealers (yay!) and a few other things.
I may give the game another spin once that patch goes live as it adds a lot of features I have been hoping for for a while.
Travel times never bothered me much. If I had to go somewhere a good distance away I just used a shuttle or a speed equipped frigate to get there and pick things up. The thing that bothered me was always the LOOTING time involved
But I agree with your assessment. The *current* version of the game was very boring for me as well.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
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i played eve for a while and it was repetitive but it was a fun game i just couldn't see spending 15$ a month on it.
Basically you went in for 13 days and decided to review it. Honestly i think your review is kind of missing something, like anything outside of being a noob. Yea for the first month you have to do a bit of repetitive things but eventually you will get into pvp, politics, alliances, and better and faster ships. Honestly if you think you know a game after 13 days.. well your wrong. I didn't feel after playing Eve for 4 months that i knew it well at all.
I am surprised though that it is at the top of the list.
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in Vendetta Online
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The joy of having an independent game manufacturer lies right here, you don't like the game, you want to cry about your awful awful experience well, too bad, play another game, you shall not be missed.
And btw, if your gonna try and make a logical argument, don't contradict yourself, you start off by saying that there is too much free and that the real life skill time training is horrible then go on to say that you need to have no life in order to play this game. I guess, if you have no common sense, that might be true, to a normal person, that would mean that :
-"Hey, wait a minute, I DON'T have to grind continously, I DON'T have to be online 12 hours a day to keep up in training and can actualy go an enjoy doing other things."
And if your looking for a non-biased response to a post like that, try a section where you might not have all the people who actualy play the game gathered at.
Dakilla[666] ~ The Realm ~ Level 1000 enchanter (retired)
Maranthoric ~ La 4ieme Prophetie ~ Level 160 (5x) HE/Feu (de retour)
Leonthoric[DDC] ~ EVE online ~ <Fire The "Laser"> (retired)
Simple and Easy > Its not worth spending my Cash for it.
HONESTLY > i dont care about the responses here. I would be happy enough if just one Developer reads this and tries to imagine how i felt playing this game. (its 0.00001% i know)
++++++++++Faster traveling, faster looting, less repeative Missions, faster Faction gain and i would have subscribed.+++++++++++++
Before i left the game some hours ago i had a delivery Mission which was the reason for me to leave it.
I had to Jump 6 times just to bring a Janitor to his mining station. I used a shuttle because my Cruiser was to slow. It took almost 25 minutes. meanwhile i took a shower, relaxed and thought the jumping crap would be finished. needeless to say i was still 1 jump away from the target system.
This experience told me that this cant be right, playing a game that forces you to go AFK or Study the market while the Ship travels endless.
Traveling is to slow and it will be to slow for the most people. I am not very impatient but everything has its border.
25-30 mins AFK "while playing" a game is just not right, i have a Flatrate, no problem, but i dont wanna start to think about the people that pay their internet per minute that dont play from a country with Flatrates. They will pay for beeing AFK...... simply not ok
I expect alot defense and flameing here, its ok i can life with that i dont know anyone personaly
I also see players that play this game for years, no doubt, but the mojority of the people out there wont be patient enough and maybe not skilled or intelligent enough to learn and paly this game. Count me to any group of that free will, its ok for me. I count myself to the "not patient" enough, even that i am very patient in my real life. This game just overstretches my sense for patience.
OK fine I am not a Vetran Ive only been laying a month Im not going to bash any other game and Point out faults. Ive palyed alot of games and EVRY SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAS FAULTS. I have only been playing EvE a couple of months and I love it no grinding yes the missions are repetitive but my all time favorie game to date Shadowbnane (I just got frustrated when my server shut doen and my city went bye bye) hade no real storyline at all. The pure and simple fact is that there are players for every game so this game is not for you. WoW has a huge fan base including people I consider my best friends but its not for me. Does that mean the game is awful? No. It means its not for me. To all those reading this post The Eve 14 day free trial is just that free no Credit card required. Try it you might like it.
To the original poster you said to the Ventrans Dont come here and try to defend this game, I am not a vetran but I would never try to defend this game TO YOU but I will defend my game in genral because it is Unique in the world off MMO's
No where in this argument did I see the fundamental point of what makes EVE great to play. I tend to agree with you courier missions are very boring that is why I do not do them. Got someplace far to go for a single item I hop into my frigate rigged for speed going long distances in a cruiser is just nuts.
If you dislike PVP I can see why you will never like the game. The PVP aspect of EVE is one of the founding activities centered around Empire Building, Politics etc. the late game activities. I know most corps won't accept anyone under two weeks of age, but the group activities of corporate living do tend to be really fun. I think the fundamental problem with EVE is trying to get the trial people to see the fun you could have, but with all complicated games with a long learning process that does take some time to get too the funner aspects of the game. However the subscription base continues to slowly rise so the message is getting through to some. Sorry you did not have a good time , but you are right EVE is not for everyone. The good news is the community is wonderful thanks to the weeding out process you mentioned in your last post. Its nice having at least one game without the average crowd. That is one of the things I really like about EVE. You meet good people in the other games don't get me wrong but you also run into a lot of annoying kiddies as well.
One last thing why on earth are you complaining about skill advancement with no grinding? Nuts!
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Sorry Aetius I was going to mention the PvP which is the main reason I started EvE but was afraid I was getting wordy. I never understand why people flame a game. Just because I dont like a game doesn't mean its a Horrible Game it just means its not for me. And thats the point I always try to make in a game flame. Any game has a chance to find a fan base EvE has been around for years which tells me they have one. If an MMO cant find a fan decent fan base it goes away (Asherons Call 2 for example). And honestly the 14 day trial gives you a taste of the game, but not the whole picture.
i am mad because i really tried hard to love this game, i even logged in again just before after i calmed down.
did 1st mission and it was over again, no one can say i havent tried it.
Id love this game if the flaws that i mentioned above would be out of the game.
i just cant play a game where i have to watch the Spaceship fly hour after hours. The missions are done faster than the traveling to the mission area.
@Stormwhine , you defend the game, you told us that its unique but you did defend the game. So you basicly did what i expected, smart attempt
Every MMORPG is Unique, believe i am not a stupid mmorpg n00b that has no clue, i have played them all AC1,AC2,DOAC,Horizons,SWG,CoH,EQ1,EQ2,AO,Lineage2, UO, Ryzom and currently my 3rd 60 in WoW. I am not a gypsy that passes by and yells out some opinions. I have comparison, and EVE has potencial, it has the potencial to grow if the DEVs wouldnt just always look for their own visions.
Look at SWG these Nerdish DEVs should all be sent to Sibiria into the deepest wood and work there til the end.
Look at Asherons Call 2, the same idiotic Developers and their complete wrong vision.
I wrote many postings, suggestions exactly about the things that lacked and ruined the game like many others, i was always 100% right and that is not a lie, if those wannabe developers would just do 20% of what the players suggest then i would be happy enough to be quiet.
EVE is good, but 80k playerbase is laughable, and exactly these 80k will be the cap until the end of days if they dont make the game more compatible to the Normal Standard EX-see above game player.
I dont know any American, European, Asian from any of the games i know as friend that would play this game longer than me because they would all complain about the Timekillers and the useless AFK times while playing, which is simply to absurd and paradox.
None of my friends would accept to a game where they have to be AFK the half of the time.
I dont understand why the developers of EVE dont see that, just reducing the time for DOCKING, Warping and flying to next Warpgate would be good enough.
I also Suggested an Option that would Activate the Afterburner with the Autopilot if wanted, but it got burned by some jerks with arguments i could laugh well about....
This posting will be here for a long time and i promise that EVE wont Break 100k players ever if they arent reducing the Timesinks and bring more variety into the game beside grinding and waiting for the skills to finally level after days of waiting.
EVE wont break the 20k players at once and >>>>>>>>>>>
+++++++++++ EVE WONT BREAK 100k playerbase in the next year++++++++++++
because the DEVs cant attract players from WoW, EQ2 etc for longer than 1-2 weeks with their boring game design.
As a review you missed the point where you should at least *try* to be objective.
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Originally posted by Mandolin
Designers need to move away from the old D&D level-based model which was never designed for player vs player combat in the first place.
The game definitely isn't for everyone. I truly enjoy the game when I have time to play. The guys over at CCP are really dedicated to keeping it a great experience and are always looking for ways to improve on every aspect.
I am a fan of a PvP, so the can thieves don't bother me. I just find a way for vengence if I need it. However I do my solo mining in a Mammoth because I am really not in a hurry. I am doing low level mining right now. Normally if I am doing higher level mining I will go with an escort.
Fadinaway
Playerbase Solutions
http://www.playerbasesolutions.com
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If you honestly believe it won't break 20k people online, then you're mistaken. It's been breaking its own record every week it seems, and just today it broke 18k. At the rate it's going, it will have over 20k people online at one time by the end of the month, and will already be approaching 21k.
Also, AC2's failure wasn't due to Turbine. It was due to Microsoft telling them to release an unfinished game, and then having to re-do it 6 months into release. By then, they'd lost their player base, but it -was- a good game after they fixed it. Turbine does some quality work.. they mess up sometimes, but overall they are a good company.
Yet another flawed review from another trial player who has no idea where the main strengths lay in the game, and thinks by doing 13 days of courier missions solo he has seen what the game has to offer.
<sigh> words almost fail me.
Almost 3 pages of your ranting, just quit and move on.
Yay for the filter.
I too am a trial player and I agree with the OP. Pretty much every veteran seems to have one argument and it is "Well you can't see what the game has to offer in [blank] days". My argument is give us MORE days to find out! I can see what pretty much every other game offers in a trial. I think a game that makes you pay $20 plus a monthly fee should be a game that doesn't need a whole month just to get to the good stuff.
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"When Saddam flew that plane into those buildings, I knew it was time to kick some Iranian ass!"
-cheer leading, flag waving American
Originally posted by axyrn
This posting will be here for a long time and i promise that EVE wont Break 100k players ever if they arent reducing the Timesinks and bring more variety into the game beside grinding and waiting for the skills to finally level after days of waiting.
EVE wont break the 20k players at once and >>>>>>>>>>>
+++++++++++ EVE WONT BREAK 100k playerbase in the next year++++++++++++
because the DEVs cant attract players from WoW, EQ2 etc for longer than 1-2 weeks with their boring game design.
I generally stay out of these posts, but this one amuses me.
Axyrn, if your prediction holds by this time next year, I will eat my own hat
UGH! These boards are terrible in Opera. I think I have given up on this website
And isn't that boring? If I see everything a game has to offer in Trial then believe me, I won't subscribe.
Also the most common "mistake" which Trial players do in EVE is sticking to one activity (usually mining or missioning). Ofc, Veteran players then say in response, that you haven't seen everything. In that 14 days you *can* see all the basics that make up EVE, that is *IF* you want to see it. It's your free choice, to try out a few things, but if you don't then don't blame the game or the length of trial.
Also you need longer than one month to "get to the good stuff", but that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the game from day one. In EVE, more than in any other MMORPG, the path *is* the goal, since there is no "endgame". You decide what you do, you decide how much fun you have.
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Originally posted by Mandolin
Designers need to move away from the old D&D level-based model which was never designed for player vs player combat in the first place.
EVE is a terrible SOLO player game. However, as far as multiplayer and endgame development, it is a generation beyond anything else on the market.
That said, the one crticism in this thread that is valid, is that new players aren't being shown that they actually can experience the "end game" 2 days into it. It's not that trials need more time (they're bad enough for mechanics as is) but that they need someway to get new players to corp up faster, and better in game explanations of pvp.
For example, some kind of npc or feature which relates a story of a couple new Incursus pilots training quickly for a warp scrambler and a webber and rocking out from the very start. You lose a frigate and/or a clone under 1M sp and you are only out a tiny bit of isk compared to potential rewards. Newb npc corps aren't the way to go to PUSH people to gang up strait off.
Probably the main problem with EVE is its safespace geography and the abrupt transition to gankland (only at the border really), and that it is too carebear in most mechanics. Alot of people spend a lot of time carebearing it up (even the sometime pvpers) because really getting involved with the near cinematic experiences of EVE take a lot of energy by all participants to kickoff each day.
Ultimately, I suspect EVE is only the precursor for more daring artificial worlds. I am not much of a fanboi. EVE's developers deserve respect, but when something more hardcore and less grindy comes along, I will ditch them.
OP has a point.
PvE in eve SUCKS! - its horrible, mind numbing and repetitive.. not even any decent storyline to keep your interest.
its the PvP, player politics etc where eve shines.
If you like "solo" games, and purely PvE, you will probably HATE eve...
If you like social, PvP games, then you might give Eve a try and might like it.
Eve is a niche game - its very different from any other game out there. For its target audience, its a drug
Very addictive and enjoyable.
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MMOs Retired From: Earth and Beyond, Project Entropia, There, A Tale in the Desert, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Eve Online, City of Heroes/Villains.
MMOs Currently (worth) Playing: None.
MMO hopefuls: Age of Conan.
You know...one thing that drives me abosultely INSANE is the complete lack of business sense 99.9999% of MMO players seem to have. I am not going to argue on every point of the Original Poster because I frankly could care less. The game is not for him. *clap clap* As for judging an entire game in 13 days...well the original poster pretty much lost ALL sense of credibility as a reliable source of review for the game in just about EVERY seasoned MMOers eyes. Now...for what bugs me:
1- Please people. Stop saying that you are some grand experienced MMO player that has played "all of them". There've been well over a 100 at the very least. Succuessful or not, small or large. So you've played the mainstream games. Good for you. That just means you've played the cookie-cutter games that are all based on the same paradigms. No wonder everything starts blurring together. If all you drive are Fords you'll never be able to grasp the concept of driving a Mercedes Benz would be like.
2- If I hear one more moron who has ZERO concept of "overhead" in an economic situation say anything along the lines that "80k player base is a joke" or "18k on at the same time isn't a record" I swear I am going to start buying people plain tickets just so I can spend a good 40 minutes slapping them till my hand hurts and another 20 for making my hand hurt. Yes, WoW has 5+ million subscribers. Kudos for them for being what I believe is the FIRST US company to achieve such numbers. However, they have a HELL of a lot more overhead and red tape to go through than CCP does. CCP is a small, self owned and run, low cost and overhead Developer. Success is NOT mesaured in volume, it's measured in profit margin. I would lay odds that a larger portion of the $15/mos from each player in Eve Online is considered profit than is for WoW ( just using WoW as an example ). Just from a hardware perspective ALONE the costs of having 30+ realms with God knows how many clusters per realm PLUS a central database management system that can allow for character transfers is going to run 100x more in overhead than a single realm. This is shown by the fact that CCP can afford to drop what we all have to believe is a pretty penny on a solid state database system that is offering 3GB/s SUSTAINED transfer speeds of data. I highly doubt mainly of the other "big boys" out there could actually afford to implement something along these lines for their 30+ realms without it eating into the profits extremely. In short...quality almost always beats quantity.
Now the few things from the OP I will comment on:
Travel Time- Yes, it is long and tedious. It speeds up as your character gets better with their said craft. Something you COULD not have experienced in 13 days no matter HOW "experienced" of an MMO player you may think you are. While the time is never cut in half being able to cross entire large systems in a single or perhaps double jump rather than 5 or 6 smaller jumps speeds things up much more. Afterburners and Microwarp Drives speed things up outside of warp. Again...in 13 days there is just NO WAY you could have possibly trained up the skills to use any of these viably. So in short you are making a VERY uninformed decision. In the end that is your problem and no one elses. In MY mind the Travel Time is a fair trade off for being able train my skills REAL TIME. Sure in WoW you can get all the way across the pitifully small world in maybe an hour of travel. But you also have to spend every waking moment grinding away to level up. God forbid your life force you to take some time off and you fall several steps behind your friends. But hey..on the bright side you can still instantly travel across the sea. Weeeee....
Missions: All I have heard you do is whine about what seems to be courier mission. You DO know there are other branches in each Empire, Corporation, Group that you can work for? Sick of running garbage to another system? Try running missions for Security Personnel. Up to tier 3 missions I have YET to be forced to fly more than 4 system jumps for a security mission. Most are in-system or 1-2 jumps over.
Faction Reputation Increase: Once again the fact that you invested such deep amounts of time to discover the mysteries that the game offers shows in force. Did you know there are skills that can increase the rate at which you gain standing? Probably not. If you're prime concern is to get to a Teir 4 Agent ASAP then you would, of course, wish to train these skills. Get your Charisma up. Schmooze a little.
Now...for the other 98.5% of the game that you NEVER got to experience: Like a few posters above had mentioned you NEVER got involved in the political and corporate side of anything in the game. And please...don't boast you massive levels of MMO experience again to try to convince ANYONE who has played Eve for some length of time that you DID manage this in 13 whole days. There's an entire market to be played. Quick cash to earn with a little price gouging. Research, production, escrow, PvP, Corporate involvement. The list goes on and on.
In short what *I* personally have picked up from your posts is that you are the typical ADHA, has to have instant gratification to enjoy a game, just can't be arsed to put any real investment in something to be earned, and probably don't roleplay to save your life type of player. Mind you, this is only my opinion as your review of Eve is yours. Eve Online offers one of THE MOST REALISTIC suspensions of disbelief for roleplayers out there in ANY MMO. Sure, I get tired of flying sometimes for hours but that's part of a realistic life. Perhaps it is just too realistic for you. Next time you try something try to get involved in the PvP and RP aspects first before you make a judgement. Mind you again...I don't say this for MY personal gain. It is neither here nor there for me if you play. I am saying this for your OWN benefit.
There is a reason why Eve Online has done nothing but grow since it's inception. Sure it may not be 5,000,000 players. Maybe that is the sort of bell and whistle that attracts you. Because...I am sure you will actually get to know all 5,000,000 of those subscribers ( a good deal of which are farmers and bots supporting the entire economic systems of some small asian countries ). I have played Eve Online on and off since it was in Beta Phase 5. I've put well over 12 months into the game so I can speak from experience on pretty much every topic I have touched on with assurance. I bounce between it and City of Heros/Villains ( which is my game for more instant gratification when I need a little time to just have some simple fun but not desire any real depth ).
'Nuff said.
"What is it I have against Microsoft, you ask? Well, you know how you feel when you wait for an MMO to come out and when it does you feel like you've paid to play it's beta test for another 6-9 months before anything even thinks of working the way it should? Being a network engineer you feel that way about anything Microsoft puts out."
What he said.
13 days to test out a game with more depth than the Marianas Trench... Would anyone take seriously a WoW review where the reviewer had spent 1 hour on it in total?
But then again, if the fact that you can't see/do absolutely everything the EVE game has to offer within 2 weeks is enough to put off the whining little kids, goldfish-attention-spans and people who think it has to be as insta-gratification as an FPS - well I say we're left with a more mature playerbase.
EVE is more like a long-term strategy game than an insta-FPS. Think Civilisation, not Doom. No there isn't a cheat menu either.
I actually hated EVE for the longest time. I liked having direct control over my ship (like in DarkSpace (I love that game)), and having my time effect my real skill level, to which I can execute later on. In EVE that's much harder to do. Basicly, no matter how good you are at the game, if you make a new character, you're crap again. Which means that the longer you play, the more rewarded you are. The first ever MMO with a real skill reward for those who have been playing longer. Yes, if you know what you're doing you can get to your goal quicker, but it won't help you against someone who has double the skill points you do.
I've grown to like EVE. I don't love it, but I like it. Losing my ship is an absolute pain in the ass, as is having to jump 30 times to rebuy my ship. But the aspect of EVE I love most is the alliance PVP. There's nothing like hunting down 30 enemy alliance pilots, or waiting at a gate for them to jump in. Watching as 30 hulls hit 30 hulls, not knowing which way the battle could go.
Also bear in mind that EVE has NO instancing, and there is only one server (even though it is noded). The amount of database changes it has to do a second is...uncountable. The reason downtime is there, is to give the database a rest, and to optimize it. If it was left to get completly tangled, the slowdown would be... The game would be unplayable. That's the reason downtime is there, much like many servers. The reason EVE has to have one everyday, is because it has the record for the most players on one server at any time, and a lot of the time 15-16k users are on, per day. That's a lot of database calls, changes, etc etc, per day.
What can i say, its a niche game. Dont like it? Turn around, good riddance. This game has the most devoted fanbase of any mmo and thats not going to change. Every other company out there are trying out various get rich quick schemes and completely ignoring their playerbase while the Eve Devs are doing the exact opposite.
CCP is a company that cares about its players, they will never make drastic changes to draw players from other games because they are more then happy with what they already have. They are the exception, not the rule.
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I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.