EVE Online: Flying Solo - Playing Without a Corp.

How long have you played EVE Online? Is this your first character?

3 years nine months and change, and yes it is my first character.

What things do you enjoy most about the game?

The open endedness of it, you can pretty much do whatever you desire. Anything from being a lowly dirt grubbing miner, to the master of a galaxy spanning player empire/alliance. You can sit in a station and trade 23/7, or roam the space lanes and pillage the traders and other players for their belongings. Also the fact that it does cater to my play style. Its equaling open to casual gamers or hardcore power players

What makes you choose it over other games?

To be honest, this is the only MMO I have played, I dabbled a little with online games such as C&C but once a friend of mine introduced me to EVE, I haven't looked back.

What makes it so unique to you?

The fact that everyone is on the same server cluster. So, everyone gets to interact with everyone else. If you get the desire to, you can hunt down anyone online and make your presence known to them. In a good or bad way. Whichever suits your style.

What things would you say would appeal to new players? Both people new to MMORPG's, and new to EVE Online specifically?

That's kind of a loaded question I think. EVE has a rather steep learning curve. If you can get past the first 2 weeks to a month I feel that it's a very rewarding game. The fact that your course thru the game is really completely uncharted, appeals to me. But then again there are a lot of people out there that prefer a more structured environment.

Do you think with missions and specified goals set by a corporation, that people who prefer those structured environments would be able to enjoy the game too?

With the introduction of the epic arcs, CCP may be introducing a factor that could appeal to that player category. but in my opinion and from what I gather from reading the eve-o forums, missions as they are now, are mostly boring and repetitive after you get used to them. I only do them for the standings anymore

Do you consider the game to be primarily about player versus player interaction; or do you think people who don't enjoy PvP, will still enjoy EVE?

Eve is definitely player versus player in almost all of its facets, however there are a couple of fine distinctions to be made, combat PvP is very present, but it is not necessarily the end all, be all of EVE.

What other options are there for players who don't particularly like fighting other players?

The rest of the game is also very important, industry and market PvP and the rest of it. Just going out and killing your opponents ships is awfully fun, but carrying out a fully fledged economic campaign can be just as satisfying in my opinion. One of the nice things about eve is that those who don't want combat PvP day in and day out don't have to participate in it. Those who do, can.

Do you have any tips for newer players; that can help them in this well-developed and exploratory world?

A couple and a link: The penalty for screwing up is pretty harsh. In the blink of an eye, all that shiny stuff you accumulated over the last couple months can and will go "POOF" the phrase "don't fly what you can't afford to lose" is very applicable. (The player then links to a player's biography, Character name ButterGlee, which can be viewed in game.)

ow difficult is it for you to do fleet-based activities without a corporation? Do you still hold alliances with other corporations on your own?

Depends on what you call a fleet, it is of course harder to play eve as I do. Most of the time I tend to involve myself with a select group of people I have known in game almost since I started playing. This means I get a pickup group of 5-15 people that go do group activities.

What kinds of activities do you usually do with them?

We were doing level 4 and level 5 missions; they have taken off for wormhole space at the moment. I am doing a side project of my own at the moment, but plan on catching up to them in the near future I hope. As for alliances, since I am in a NPC corporation, it rather limits my ability to have any formally recognized alliance with any player corporation

What kind of project?

I am working on expanding my blueprint collection some more to further my construction goals.

EVE Online constantly has new updates with new features. As a player who has played for so long; do you think there is no one who knows everything there is to know about EVE?

Well I hope the developers know everything about the game. I do have my doubts at times though. As for players, I would imagine with the type of fan sites that Chribba keeps going he might be one of the more knowledgeable players. But as large as this game is, it's hard to keep up with everything going on. It's pretty common for even 3-4 year old players to find something and go "huh, never knew that"

Anything else you want to share with those that may be reading?

Just that, EVE is a very enjoyable game in my opinion; it really does a good job of appealing to a wide range of player types and styles. And if you do decide to join, if CCP ever gets ambulation into the game, look me up, I'll stand you to a few fermented computer pixels.