if you want to play eve, but find it too confusing / newb unfriendly at first, give perpetuum a try.  Its more PVE friendly (alpha isles are flag on pvp only, you can't get ganked), theres less players years ahead of you, and the controls are a bit easier if your used to standard mmos, wasd movement and what have you.

I mean eves better in many ways, because its bigger, more players = more content, more money behind it, bigger world, more variety of things to do, but i would say perpetuums better for miners / pure pveers, also the combat has some nice anti blob twists and use of terain.  EVE if politics, mass fights, complexity, sense of danger are your thing.

Ive been playing eve since 2007. for me it has to be the endless possibilities in which you can choose and i mean litterally choose to play eve. there are no boundries or class restrictions. no level restricted items or areas. you can go and do anything you want right from the momment you start playing the game.

you can be anything you want, anything you can imagine.

pirate

miner

trader

soldier

fleet commander

corporation leader

alliance leader

assasin

explorer

banker

protector

mercenary

loan shark

scoundrel

theif

scammer

murderer

researcher

builder

player structures specialist

in charge of a small gang of elite pvpers

tactical planner

diplomat

politician

recruiter

covert operations

espionage

spying

or all of the above at the same time.

all of the above are sort after play styles in eve.

what ever you can think of you can apply it to eve.

also. you can build empires. or you can climb the ranks of a player empire and make your self well known and even famous in eve.

and you can also be a lone player doing your own things for your self. 

it truely is an amazing game. forget wow,sto,lotro,swg,swtor and all those other fancy looking games. they have absolutely nothing to offer you compaired to eve. once you have speant a year in eve, you will find it very difficult to enjoy another game. well i do.. i used to love those simplton games like wow and guildwars. sto city of heroes.. then i tried eve. and i havnt put it down since. seriously guys the games just genius.

i dont reccomend it to children, eve has a huge learning curve. and it takes time and patience to get into it. it also simulates real loss and violence. alot of anger in the game. alot of sickness too. so keep your kids away. unless you dont mind that kind of corruption.

Different reasons for different people. The only reason I play it off and on is because there isn't a good sci fi option out there. (I'm scared of elves!)

If EVE had dogfighting and not facerolling the number keys while you watch tv combat, I would write CCP a blank check. Other than that, it's the only real sandbox option out there.

I don't understand the appeal of the game, but I imagine it attracts people that are less interested in "gaming" and more interested in it as a hobby or competition.  What's really interesting about it is that it has an almost entirely adult playerbase, yet they all seem to have a 4chan-meets-CoD mentality.  A little funny and a little sad, but it seems to be the norm for PvP games.

I really wanted to enjoy it, but the thrill of traveling through space quickly died off as I started having to pay attention to things like approach speeds and all the spreadsheets the game has.  It's very heavily data-driven, which is the last thing I want to come home to after 10 or 12 hours of coding or systems analytics.

A good friend of mine plays it pretty heavily though, and it's really fun listening to him talk about the game.

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by Karahandras

Ignore the niche etc comments as it has more subs than most themeparks combined.

Oh wow. If someone didn't know any better they'd believe you.

There is only a handful of themeparks with more subscribers than EvE.

Yeah, and Eve is the only high profile sandbox in the market.

So what? that doesn't change the plain, unvarnished fact that it has more subs than ~95% of the "themepark" MMOs. EVE really is a bit too big nowadays to write handwave away as "niche".

There are so many different playstyles that can be accomodated within EVE that perhaps you could call it "multi-niche" if that makes you happy. Start now - it'll be indisputably true when Dust 514 launches anyway, so you'll be able to claim that you were ahead of the crowd.

Originally posted by johnjec

 

Thanks for all of the replies. In reading these posts there are two things that become apparent. First, when it comes to MMO's and PVP, I always picture a guy with a sword jumping over me, bunny hopping around trying to kill me. I don't think that is what EVE is about. I get the impetion that decisions have to be well thought out and personality does matter. Secondly, I also get the impretion that you guys are not 12 and 14 years old. Instead of being barraged my meaningless antics, it seems there is a level of maturity in this community. I'm also thinking that if there are indeed particular people in the game that control vast areas of space and wealth, it may also stand to reason that these people are probably a cut above the rest in real life. Is this possible? Jut my .02

Yes and no. A certain amount of competence is needed by the leadership of an alliance for that alliance to prevail in 0.0, but the game makes it easy to keep trying and failing badly. There are certainly plenty of idiots in EVE, but at least in EVE idiots are a valuable resource for the clever players, as well as an endless fount of entertainment.

the only thing prevent me plays EVE, is the monthly sub ...

i believe its the best MMO out there, i have played it for 4 months its awesome but i am lazy :P

i would like to keep flying and scanning systems ...

btw there is no other "space" MMO like EVE, SWtoR has no connection ..!

Originally posted by loulaki

the only thing prevent me plays EVE, is the monthly sub ...

 

i believe its the best MMO out there, i have played it for 4 months its awesome but i am lazy :P

 

i would like to keep flying and scanning systems ...

btw there is no other "space" MMO like EVE, SWtoR has no connection ..!

Well, EVE does have a viable "free to play" option available to you. If you can scrape up 20 million ISK per day (about 30-40 minutes of level 4 missions), then you have it covered.

Originally posted by Phaserlight
Vendetta Online has a substantial population and has been growing, particularly with the advent of the mobile build.

Played on both PC and Android. My hat's off to whoever can PVP while playing on the Andriod. Other than that, it's a great port.

Originally posted by mastersomrat
While I enjoy the epicness of EVE's size, to go from one side of EVE's universe to the other with the most advance ship would still take daysssss. 

I'm not even going to ask why you have a need to travel the width of the universe with any amount of regularity (or even at all), but if you give me your start and end points and I'll show you how to get to your destination in under 45 minutes.

"EVE seems way too "Hardcore" to me. ;/"

I'll be honest. that is what has kept me out. I did get the nerve to try it one day but just getting the game setup and figure out takes a huge commitment of time and energy. I picture myself as a rookie who has been given a small ship with the whole universe to contend with. It has kept me out thus far, BUT reading this thread is changing me. It is still a vast undertaking but this is not an MMO of pre teen geeks grounded for the weekend. These are real people who want a bigger challenge than killing 10 tigers and bringing the fur back to Eloise.

Originally posted by johnjec

I'll be honest. that is what has kept me out. I did get the nerve to try it one day but just getting the game setup and figure out takes a huge commitment of time and energy. I picture myself as a rookie who has been given a small ship with the whole universe to contend with. It has kept me out thus far,

well you're not wrong. that's exactly how you start.

coming from WoW I thought I'd hate it. i was sure I'd hate it. yet for months this happened?

someone asks for a cool feature in an MMO. I think "this is awesome, let's see replies".

each topic had a "doesnt really exist, maybe eve online is closest".

so i did the trial. Still thinking I'd hate it. No shield, no sword, hell no character. 2 days into my 15 day trial I was subbed.

They said "do the tutorial". Maybe i should have...but I didn't want to quest. I can quest in WoW. No, I wanted to mine. So I went on a mining spree for a week. 3 years later i'm still mining. It's not all I'm doing but its my #1 activity. I mine, build things, sell things, watch pvp'ers break them and come looking for more. It's awesome. meanwhile i sit back all cozy and safe making a fortune.

thinknig about some ORE mining lasers...there just arent that many ways to pimp out a mining ship. I need a way to tell he who eventually kills my mining ship that "yes, I'm that rich".

Originally posted by johnjec

I'll be honest. that is what has kept me out. I did get the nerve to try it one day but just getting the game setup and figure out takes a huge commitment of time and energy. I picture myself as a rookie who has been given a small ship with the whole universe to contend with. It has kept me out thus far, BUT reading this thread is changing me. It is still a vast undertaking but this is not an MMO of pre teen geeks grounded for the weekend. These are real people who want a bigger challenge than killing 10 tigers and bringing the fur back to Eloise.

honestly the best way to stop eve from being so daunting is to take it slow. set yourself a goal or two, especially one involving skill training (mine was to be able to fly a hurricane). hang out in high sec. it's not really that scary once you get going.

I have a story about EVE being overwhelming. :)

I afk on a titan, mis the jump. long story short I'm alone and the 200+ players in my fleet are 8 jumps away. I decide to go by gate to regroup.

I jump into one system and as I load in...150-some enemy players all on the gate. I'm in a drake. (fairly slow ship).

Soooo...I have 30 secons of cloak. no way to warp out. no way to burn back. and certainly no way to fight them off.

normally I' be afraid and panick in these situations. but not this time. I realise I'm so beyond dead that there's no point to try to escape. and in the calm that set as life flashed before my eyes I realise i only have one decision. Whatever I decide in the next few seconds is the only decision I'll get. So I decide to do...the unconventional. I start typing in local:

"you gonna die, homie. Hide your children,  hide your wives. we're coming for you".

They all jump through the gate. My cloak expires, i warp safely away.

Yes, I bluffed them all. The fleet that I was rying to reach made it possible for me to pretend I'm the warpin and all of my fleetmaes are going to land on top of them any second.

moral of the story: don't fear. Fear is the mind killer. Take it easy, odds are you're already dead. :D

Originally posted by Robokapp

Originally posted by johnjec

I'll be honest. that is what has kept me out. I did get the nerve to try it one day but just getting the game setup and figure out takes a huge commitment of time and energy. I picture myself as a rookie who has been given a small ship with the whole universe to contend with. It has kept me out thus far,

well you're not wrong. that's exactly how you start.

 

coming from WoW I thought I'd hate it. i was sure I'd hate it. yet for months this happened?

 

someone asks for a cool feature in an MMO. I think "this is awesome, let's see replies".

 

each topic had a "doesnt really exist, maybe eve online is closest".

 

so i did the trial. Still thinking I'd hate it. No shield, no sword, hell no character. 2 days into my 15 day trial I was subbed.

 

They said "do the tutorial". Maybe i should have...but I didn't want to quest. I can quest in WoW. No, I wanted to mine. So I went on a mining spree for a week. 3 years later i'm still mining. It's not all I'm doing but its my #1 activity. I mine, build things, sell things, watch pvp'ers break them and come looking for more. It's awesome. meanwhile i sit back all cozy and safe making a fortune.

 

thinknig about some ORE mining lasers...there just arent that many ways to pimp out a mining ship. I need a way to tell he who eventually kills my mining ship that "yes, I'm that rich".

 

So you are not really into PVP but still enjoy the game? Very cool. I seem myself doing something similar. I love mining, gathering, etc.

And even better if I can make money at it.

yes I'm not a pvp'er. it'd be a lie to pretend otherwise.

I pvp on occasion when big operations happen but it's nowhere near my focus in the game.

I did save another industrial pilot today who got caught in an orca by a frigate. (super-huge ship but no defenses under attack by a tiny yet fairly strong enemy ship).