So here's a question to all the repliers to this post:

 Would you recommend beginning to play this game today? Or is it going to be completely frustrating, painful, and annoying. Would I only consider starting to play if I plan on investing years of time into it?

A good point was brought out that reviews are generally for people who have not yet played the game, but are interested in it. This is me.

I'd recommend starting to day as long as you understand EVE is a PvP game, meaning it does come with frustrations. Secondly, yes, you'll need to play for awhile to really start enjoying it.

I definitely feel i would enjoy it. I love complicated/intricate gameplay, was a HUGE fan of Original SWG (sandbox ftw), am a structural engineer by trade, and love MMOs. I just don't want to be wasting my time either (got a life - thus the SN).

Given that the developers were found and proven to be cheating at their own game and playing favorites (giving their friends rare items and leaking information and rigging events)  then trying to lie cover it up only to be exposed, I would say stay clear of this.  Why waste your money on a rigged field?  CCP is probably one of the most corrupt MMO companies out there and acts in a thoroughly dishonest and unprofessional manner.

Originally posted by amanuen

Given that the developers were found and proven to be cheating at their own game and playing favorites (giving their friends rare items and leaking information and rigging events)  then trying to lie cover it up only to be exposed, I would say stay clear of this.  Why waste your money on a rigged field?  CCP is probably one of the most corrupt MMO companies out there and acts in a thoroughly dishonest and unprofessional manner.

woa woa woa... this was not mentioned in the review. Elaborate?

I'll try to explain :

A corporation (guild), BoB, received unique items from an unscrupulous developer (rigged a lottery) who had a character in that corporation.

Anyways, Eve Online is still the best MMO ever (by far). And I think CCP has been and will be more careful about such things since this regrettable event, because if it were to happen again it would kill their image this time.

Originally posted by admiralnlson

I'll try to explain :

A corporation (guild), BoB, received unique items from an unscrupulous developer (rigged a lottery) who had a character in that corporation.
That corporation is on the verge of extinction though. Many Eve corporations are at war with them.

Anyways, Eve Online is still the best MMO ever (by far). And I think CCP has been and will be more careful about such things since this regrettable event, because if it were to happen again it would kill their image this time.

This is so full of misinformation its unreal. Calling utter BS.

What really happened was that 2 years ago a developer used his dev powers to make his SECRET player account somewhat more wealthy. Noone knew about this but him (but its not allowed). He then joined a corporation in an alliance called Band of Brothers. Without telling BoB anything about where his wealth came from, he donated some of it to his corp. The amounts were large but not massive, probably less than 5% of the corporations total wealth.

Skip forwards 2 years and another player HACKS Band of Brothers forums, HACKS some CCP emails, and is able to prove that all this happened. His hacking also shows that the dev in question had all his player characters banned shortly afterwards.

CCP admitted it had happened, said that disciplinary action had been taken (back then, 2 yrs ago) and put in place new checking systems.

The issue has mainly been that BoB were and are the most skilled and impressive PvP alliance, and therefore have many many enemies. Even though the amounts were pretty miniscule compared to their total wealth, people used this as an excuse for why BoB were so good and they were losing to them.

Basically, epic space e-drama, but nothing the average player should worry about. Any claim that the devs are untrustworthy or that this is likely to happen again are simply by players who suck and want to bring down those who dont.

Excellent review. Very fresh and inciteful. Hopefully it will attract some "more meat for the grinder" as one of the developer's put it.

I agree about the griefing and scamming myself. The community used to be better but has gone down a little in recent years. Still, there are plenty of people around to help and it's a lot better than most of the other MMOs I've tried. More kids are playing nowadays I suppose.

By the way have you heard CCP (the developer) are working on implementing a supercomputer solution for the server cluster? This should eliminate all server lag. An MMO with a supercomputer for a server. Nice eh?

First of all avatar uploading in the member profile of mmorpg.com is broken. Update: just discovered the spellcheck here is also broken.

Secondly: how on Earth does Eve consistently get such good scores? Does no one notice that the tutorial missions are broken? Does no one notice the endless spelling mistakes? Or the awful character art? Or the terrible dialog of NPCs? Or the boring NPC missions? Or the awful auto-pilot? Or the lack of help? Etc, etc, etc, freaking etc...

This game never gets any better. 10 year old + games like Escape Velocity continue to outclass it when it comes to the basics of Elite style gameplay. WTF is going on with these reviewers?

How can the very basics like ACTUALLY having FUN and WORKING tutorial missions without spelling mistakes be ignored? CCP have had YEARS to perfect this game and it still has no help under help???

I'm sorry, but I just don't get it.

You said:  Does no one notice that the tutorial missions are broken? Does no one notice the endless spelling mistakes? Or the awful character art? Or the terrible dialog of NPCs? Or the boring NPC missions? Or the awful auto-pilot? Or the lack of help? Etc, etc,

a) Although everyone sees them, tutorial missions are done once per player.  The current missions, from what I hear, are adequate to introduce game mechanics.

b) Spelling mistakes do not break gameplay.

c) In Eve, we don't run around the game watching our female Night Elf's ass or boobs.  Most of us never worry about other people's character portraits or even our own.  We're playing the game, not staring at pixelated asses.

d) NPCs are just bags of isk/loot/salvage so you can make money and/or manufacture stuff.  Who cares what they "say".

e) NPC missions are boring, yes... they are a means to an end... getting ISK for PVP or manufacturing.

f) Auto-pilot is very purposefully aweful... so you'll pay attention to the game and not afk fly all over... you have to watch yourself all the time in Eve and having a bad auto-pilot (it will get you there as long as you aren't blown up by another player in the process, albeit slowly) serves the purpose of getting somewhere.  It's up to you to do it safely and quickly.

g) Help is given by other players most often... that's why joining a player-run corporation is encouraged.  The sheer complexity of Eve (it's a learning cliff instead of a curve) means that help would have to be complex anyway.  Plus, there are huge amounts of help on the 'net if you know where to look (hint: use Google to search for it).  What other MMOs are there that you have to worry about traversal velocities, explosion radius, and explosion velocity of your weapons and  signature radius and speed of your targets? You don't have to have a good understanding of math for Eve but it sure helps (you can get explanations like: put transverse velocity on your overview and if you see your target has higher than X value, you won't hit them but knowing what transversals are and how to minimize them makes you much better at PVP).

Eve is NOT for players who like their hands being held to play.  There's another saying (the article has a good one, too): Space is cold, but Eve is colder.  You should look up some stories about the Guiding Hand Social Club, who spent a year or so infiltrating another corporation to its highest levels, assassinated (not permenant) their leader, blew up an extremely rare ship, and stole that corporation's assets... for hire.  If you think the death penalties in WoW are harsh, you need not ever download Eve... if you buy a ship (say it takes you 3 weeks to get the money to buy it), expect it to be blown up... hopefully insurance will cover it, though, if tech1.  If tech2... well... insurance payout for those isn't worth getting insurance usually.  In Eve, you can lose everything you've worked for for the past year in 30 seconds if you aren't careful.  A comparison with WoW.. suppose your fully epic equipped toon gets killed in PVP... the person who killed you in Eve would get to loot all your epic items (that survived the fight) for himself.... every time you die in PVP, your killers can loot your wreck (corpse).  It's kind of like in WoW if you spent 100,000+ gold to buy this really neat rare mount and the first time you use it to travel across The Barrens, a bunch of enemies jump out of the bushes, PVP kill you, and take your mount from you.

There are other sayings: Don't undock in anything you cannot afford to lose. And another: any time you buy a ship, assume it will be destroyed the instant you undock... that way, you don't become too attached to it.

Alright review, but having played a couple of months of Eve some time ago I missed some more elaboration on the actual gameplay.

Most games are divided in PvE and PvP gameplay, but Eve also has the economics branch where you can build or speculate on the market from day#1 and improve on that until you're filthy rich and influential, without actually having fought NPCs or players. ..I know you mentioned it, but seeing as Eve offers this more unique approach than other games, it could warrant more emphasis.

And while I applaud the reviewing effort, just as it's nice PlanetSide got a re-review, I question the merit of trial/1st-month based reviews. Anyone could download a trial and see what a game is like for 14 days, and you're essentially telling people what they'll figure out in that time. It's handy for us to know in advance, but after those 14 days the game could drastically change for all we know.It's learning how the game is on the longterm that in my opinion is the greatest benifit we get from reviews, which is why it would be very nice if you could somehow persuade a few veterans to write about their games as well.

The thing about Eve that gives me a tingly feeling in my stomach is the player-driven story. There's always a war somewhere, a conflict over territory and pirates stalking or camping in the depth of space claiming the turf as their own. These have fundemental impacts on the economy and resource availability, which in turn affects how well the warring sides can keep up with their losses and needs in order to push their goals. It forces traders to hire help, do risk assessment of their routes; will they buy cheap in the newbie areas and dare venture into outlaw areas to sell high? Getting hold of rare blueprints or being the first alliance to develop some huge ship to tip the scales in their favour. Things like that. I'm sure a one-year vet could write a huge essay on the topic.

Come to think of it, maybe you could do a Part 3 of the review, which could consist of player interviews. If you made a list of questions and had them answered by represents of everyone from pirates, ore-stealers, bountyhunters, mercenaries, alliance leaders (trades/war), station owners, dedicated miners (if any), traders&haulers, market players and other sort of community big shot that might be around (Imnominate Nightmare maybe? :P The newbie that bought a shuttle and set off into 0.0 space to visit everyone and everywhere in the name of neutrality). It'd be extremely interesting seeing where their answers were the same, at what parts they disagree and what motivates them.

Originally posted by Wizardling6

First of all avatar uploading in the member profile of mmorpg.com is broken. Update: just discovered the spellcheck here is also broken.

Secondly: how on Earth does Eve consistently get such good scores? Does no one notice that the tutorial missions are broken?Not that ive noticed care to Elaborate? Does no one notice the endless spelling mistakes? There may be a few but its hardly a game breaking problem once again care to point out a few examples as i havent seen any of them myself Or the awful character art? Err whats wrong with having a static portrait representing the pilot of your ship? Or is it just the lack of big ass and boobs your missing? Or the terrible dialog of NPCs?Err NPC's dont actually talk to you in this game? unless you refer to the mission vendors who may not be big conversationalist but do at least tell you what you need to know. Or the boring NPC missions? NPC missions are not a main part of the game they are there just to earn you a bit of cash so you can begine to PvP or manufacture. Or the awful auto-pilot?Whats so awfull about it? as far as i can tell it works just fine care to elaborate as to your reasons you consider it awfull. Or the lack of help? Again care to elaborate as once again you have said very little. Help in what? in mission running help in learning how to play etc Etc, etc, etc, freaking etc...

This game never gets any better. 10 year old + games like Escape Velocity continue to outclass it when it comes to the basics of Elite style gameplay and what is Escape Velocity?. WTF is going on with these reviewers? Unlike you they are unbiassed.

How can the very basics like ACTUALLY having FUN and WORKING tutorial missions without spelling mistakes be ignored? CCP have had YEARS to perfect this game and it still has no help under help??? Lol when have you last played EvE? its had a help section [and a very good one] for over a year now.

I'm sorry, but I just don't get it.

Are you making this stuff up as from what i can see these problems you point out actually haven't existed in eve for over a year or more.

the allaince found "cheating" used to own half of space.

now they own nothing and have been beaten into a plup, lets get our damn facts striaght. I see a lot of misinformation here. Nothing was spawned, there are no special dev powers, there are however tech 2 blueprints. what is a tech 2 blue print? let me elaborate.

T20, a dev, had a player account. Every dev in CCP has a player account and then run arround with us in the game. However to avoiding unfairness no one knows who they are. One of these guys was T20 and he was in babd of brothers. One day another dev found out that he had told members of Band of brother he was a dev! BAD BAD BAD! so CCP banned him and told him to get the hell out, he broke the rules. But not before leaving all of his possessions in the hands of his former allaince.

BAM, cheating, he left items in the game that should not exisit. This is a big no no. why? becuase a tech 2 blue print gives you total control over that items producion in the game of eve.

However resently this is not true as you can now invent tech 2 blueprints instead of winning them.

Don't listen to this blow it out of the water bull****, it was cheating yes, but not on the scale people say it was. it was 5 tech 2 blueprints. It was wrong, it was handled, it is taken care of.

he was a 2 year old player at the time. I don't see what's so wierd lots of people has tech 2 blueprints. hell they were for missiles. tech 2 ammo. TECH TWO AMMO!

As usual one of the griefers has to get on his high horse and attempts to defend their play style by a laughable attempt at quoting the rules.

Sorry, few of the readers here buy it.   The unfortunate fact is that griefing is alive and well in Eve.   They do this by bending or ignoring the rulesets to achieve their goals.  Avoiding any sort of challenge is their motto, heaven help them if they have even close to an even match.

Coming here and saying that griefing does not exist in Eve is absurd, only a true griefer could even bother to try an attempt at justifying it.

Good review by the way, good syopsis of the game, although word of caution there is so much more to this game than can ever be covered in anything short of a full book.

Originally posted by Wizardling6

First of all avatar uploading in the member profile of mmorpg.com is broken. Update: just discovered the spellcheck here is also broken.

Secondly: how on Earth does Eve consistently get such good scores? Does no one notice that the tutorial missions are broken? Does no one notice the endless spelling mistakes? Or the awful character art? Or the terrible dialog of NPCs? Or the boring NPC missions? Or the awful auto-pilot? Or the lack of help? Etc, etc, etc, freaking etc...

This game never gets any better. 10 year old + games like Escape Velocity continue to outclass it when it comes to the basics of Elite style gameplay. WTF is going on with these reviewers?

How can the very basics like ACTUALLY having FUN and WORKING tutorial missions without spelling mistakes be ignored? CCP have had YEARS to perfect this game and it still has no help under help???

I'm sorry, but I just don't get it.

On autopilot - I am guessing you mean the fact that it doesn't warp you right on top of the gate.  In my opinion, that's a great way to balance it: autopilot takes twice as long as manual, but hey, you don't have to be there!  Help can be found in the right channels...such as the Rookie channel, the E-Uni channel, and many others.

In the end, I think everyone has different tastes and dislikes when it comes to games...just like food, or wine, or clothing.  I don't love every game, nor do I expect you to, but that doesn't mean NO ONE out there is having fun with it :)

Originally posted by Ozmodan

As usual one of the griefers has to get on his high horse and attempts to defend their play style by a laughable attempt at quoting the rules.

Sorry, few of the readers here buy it.   The unfortunate fact is that griefing is alive and well in Eve.   They do this by bending or ignoring the rulesets to achieve their goals.  Avoiding any sort of challenge is their motto, heaven help them if they have even close to an even match.

Coming here and saying that griefing does not exist in Eve is absurd, only a true griefer could even bother to try an attempt at justifying it.

Good review by the way, good syopsis of the game, although word of caution there is so much more to this game than can ever be covered in anything short of a full book.

Its only griefing if its against the social rules of the game.

In eve you can do whatever you want same as you are entitled to defend yourself. I personally tho would like to know what rulesets are being bent or broken in eve tho?

I'm a 3 year old Eve player and the review was pretty much spot on.

Economy - Yes the economy is vast. Spreadsheet jockies will find themselves at home.

Community - "If you aren't my friend you are my income" I laughed at this because its so true. Yes griefing is pretty much rampant and allowed. I'd say fully %10 of the population fit the dictionary definition of a psychopath and probably should be in prison somewhere. However I have also met some of the most honorable, helpful and cool players, some of them were even pirates. In short, the community highs are really high, and the lows are really scummy. The trick is to make friends and be group focused. Alone you are easy pickings. I cannot stress this enough : loyalty is everything, corp is mother, alliance is father. And yes, I feel safer in 0.0 than highsec.

UI - The UI in eve sucks. It's cumbersome for the sake of feeling complex. You'd think after 5 years of development you wouldn't have to push F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 to fire off all your guns.

Graphics Music & Sound - Graphic 10/10 although the suns are too bright. The nice blue suns aren't too bad, its the bright bloody red ones that give you cataracts. Sound, generally sucks, most ppl keep theirs off. That goes for the music too.

Performance - Performance in Eve is not a server problem, it's a game mechanic problem. Systems allow unlimited numbers of people to come in. If you bring 200 people, the node will let them all come in. If 1000 people try to go to Jita, the system will let them all come in. If your alliance owns a system, and 500 invaders try to come in, the system will not say "No thats too many, some of you have to stay out", no it will let all 500 people in, and the node will either crash or choke. Game mechanics in Eve are generally broken and not well thought-out.

Support - A petition could take anywhere from 2 hours to 2 weeks. There is a giant backlog of petitions for "reimbursements" of people who lose their ships to bugs or disconnects. My suggestion? Raise default insurance rate to %60 (from %40), remove higher insurance options, and deny every single reimbursement petition. Lost your ship? You got %60 insurance, now go away.

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Honestly Laura's review was pretty much accurate.