Wednesday, May 07, 2008

5 Common Misconceptions about EVE Online

The RPG Vault has a great developer interview where they look at the five most common misconceptions people make about EVE Online. Head over and have a look. Here's their lists before you head out:
  1. Newbies will never stand a fighting chance against old players
  2. EVE is only about combat
  3. Mining is the only way to earn money as a rookie
  4. You can't enjoy the game if you aren't in a major alliance
  5. EVE is not meant for casual players
Here's a few more you could add to the list:
  • EVE is just a good looking spreadsheet
  • New players can't make a difference
  • The EVE Community is a bunch of ruthless hooligan
Can you think of any others?

5 comments:

heartlessgamer said...

I will gladly argue why those are the five most common misconceptions, and that is because they are all almost exactly, 100% true.

I takes a very special person to solo their way through EVE. Next, newbies stand no f'n chance in a fight with a veteran.

EVE isn't all about combat, that is true, but you'll never figure that out from the tutorial.

Mining is the only "safe" way to earn ISK at the start. Most other activities to make ISK require massive ISK investments to get started, and/or, a decent corporation to donate ships/ammo/etc.

Which brings us to the FACT that EVE sucks solo unless you've spent a couple years shacked up with a good alliance or corp that let you pile up your own personal wealth.

EVE is not meant for casuals. There isn't a single system, aside from gaining skill points while logged off, that is casual. For poop sake, the TUTORIAL isn't even casual friendly! It will easily be half a year to a year before the normal player is even in a ship that is worthwhile, and be damned if they are solo and get podded.

Anonymous said...

"You can never catch up with the vets" is the most common misconception i read on the forums..
It's actually two misconceptions in one. People treat it like Wow, where you have to be at levelcap to do anything, which is the wrong aproach to eve, as it is not about "catching up" anyways.
Plus, it's simply not true..

Anonymous said...

"Mining is the only "safe" way to earn ISK at the start. Most other activities to make ISK require massive ISK investments to get started, and/or, a decent corporation to donate ships/ammo/etc."

False. I've been watching the eve forums a lot and picked up three other ways players can make isk.

Missions- This should be a no brainer.
Salvage theft-Get a destroyer or cruiser and probe out other players doing high level missions and get the salvage from ships they destroyed.
Trading- This requires you to actually have good business sense but the best players actually challenge themselves by trying to earn 1 billion in a month while making using a n00b alt.
And by n00b I mean an alt that isn't properly optimized to even do trading properly like the Entrepeneur career path.

Anonymous said...

Something I see again and again with newer members of my corp is "Bigger is Better" as they rush up to fly bigger ships as soon as they can. One of them was even aiming for Titan!

CrazyKinux said...

Common Heartless, you can do better then that!

Depending what the Vet is doing, or flying, or has equipped on his ship, in many cases he doesn't stand a chance.

As mutantmagnet said, they're much more than mining to earn a good chunk of ISK.

I'll agree with you that EVE isn't meant to be played solo. It's got much more to offer if played with others. I mean, it IS an MMORPG, right!

AS for casuals, I totally disagree. You can have a lot of fun and do a lot, even if you play a couple of hours a week only. There were times when that's all I could afford and I still got my fix. I think you're not talking about casual in that sense though. Correct if I'm wrong, but I think you mean 'user friendly'.

And as Jon points out, the "Bigger is Better" approach isn't appropriate with EVE, whether you're talking about ships or skill point.