Haha - two people disqualified, bummer--well, for them at least!

Though, I have a sneaking feeling that the chances of my name being drawn, considering it ALSO begins with a "D" is fairly remote.

Good luck everyone! 

I've played EVE on the trial a few times. I'll admit, on the first go I was pretty overwhelmed and din't stick around long. But the idea of a really good Sci-Fi MMO kept drawing me back.

I think this game would benefit from a more imersive combat interface. Though I personally like the less "button mashing" and more tactical style that it already has, the point and click interface feels like I'm navigating Windows and less like I'm flying a space ship. Even allowing for some creative key-binding could fix this. I also think it would change a lot of minds about the whole avatar thing as the feeling of action would be much more viceral.

The avatar thing I agree with, and the videos of the coming out of ship action looks cool, but this isn't a big deal for me. I mean, I played WoW and CoH for a long time and the difference between watching my computer generated person versus my computer generated ship isn't that big of a leap. However, some more detailed ship customization would be good. Something as simple as choosing the color or decals on your craft would make a big difference.

As far as the "dying thing" some mentioned - you just need to upgrade your clone. This isn't explained in the tutorial (which is a big error) but it's a simple and easy way to ensure all you ever loose is your ship and the cargo you were carrying. Plus, if you pay to ensure your boat it's not that great of a loss anyways.

The skill system I like. A lot of people complained about the time it takes - but honestly, after level grinding in games like WoW I think the fact that you can learn a skill while off-line makes up for this. I can't even count the mindless hours I spent point-and-clicking mobs to get X number of X item in WoW. With EVE you can go do something in the park and enjoy the sun while you character learns a skill. Plus, if you follow the online guides and learn the "learning" tree before the others, you can simply train quicker skills while ingame and switch to the massive long ones while your sleeping at night.

Also, as I understand it, EVE does allow for massive unlimited levels of crafting i.e. ships, items, and stations - though I've yet to ever get that far and I'm not sure if you can craft stations that you can go in and out of.

Some of the "mission" stories are quite imersive - but many do feel a little bland. I just finished a chain one (this is my 3rd time back on the trial) for the first time and it was lots of fun. But again, it's the first good chain I got in three tries at the game. I haven't gotten very far, but as of right now, a little more flavour with the missions could help.

Overall I'd say EVE is a great concept that needs some tweaking. As it is a Sci-Fi MMO it does appeal to a niche market and it's complexity does turn off many players. I've yet to decide if this is a bad thing. I've only met friendly people playing the game and I've found there are way less idiots in areas like the "general chat". This same complexity seems to filter out a lot of the loud-mouth imature kids that are rampant in games like WoW. The whole thing with CCP? Well, I don't know much about it, but it seems pretty bad. Although I can't really say if it's that much worse than gold-farmers, gold-sellers, character-sellers, or the endless stream of "Buy Gold Cheap Online" ingame emails that are TOTALLY ruining a game like WoW.

I think with some changes EVE could be one of the great MMO's out there - but I'd hate to see it change so much that it just becomes another kiddie playground.

Thanks.