So i've decided to go ahead with the 14day free trial. What I was wondering is this game still played by alot? If so how is it for new people starting out?

Yeah it's played by a lot of people still. I actually just started playing myself and I just turned my free trial into a subscription. Just keep this in mind the most important thing to do is to join a corp. The community in EVE is nothing like WoW or the like. They're very informative and helpful, but from my experience so far (bout 3 weeks) joining a corp really expands your horizons!

Dude ofocurse its played by alot and with each day more and more. with dust 514 coming its crazier then ever, new expension will let you go out with your character from your ship and walk on stations to interact with other players. Also its not to late to start, even in 4 month you will make a great pvp fighter.

Thanks for all the great information. Today is the first day of my 14 day trial. I will defiantly log in and venture around and try to learn the game. See you guys in-game!

Originally posted by Coyoteturkey

So i've decided to go ahead with the 14day free trial. What I was wondering is this game still played by alot? If so how is it for new people starting out?

It's not too late. In fact now is a great time to start playing EvE (This has been true for quite a while).

Subscriber numbers have risen every year since 2003, and the game is being developed more than ever. The next expansion is out december 1st. It will be free, as were all the other 11 expansions.

EvE can either be very hard for new players or very awesome, but the choice is basically yours. If you try and play it like an ordinary MMO, you will have a very difficult time of it indeed. The best advice I can give you is to forget everything you learned from other games, and start afresh. In most traditional MMOs, you progress by grinding SP, finding epic weapons and so forth. Chracter advancement basically is the game. In EvE, that advancement grind is all taken care of for you. You progress in EvE by playing the game. I really can't overstate how big the difference is.

The people who hate the game and slate it on forums are the ones who basically tried to play WoW in space; grinding quests and getting frustrated because they couldn't grind levels and you dont get 3p1c l3wts in the EvE quests (aka missions).

The ones who love the game and were instantly addicted for life are the ones who undocked, started interacting with the other players, got involved and actually did stuff.

You may have seen complaints that "EvE has no content". In the traditional sense, this is pretty much true; there is some Pve content, but frankly it's limited, repetitive and unchallenging.

In EvE, the players are the content.

If you're going to start, I'd start now. Every moment you wait is one more moment that the people who've been playing since launch are skilling up ahead of you.

Which is why I can't bring myself to play. I will never catch up to the people who started before me.

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Originally posted by PratzStrike
If you're going to start, I'd start now. Every moment you wait is one more moment that the people who've been playing since launch are skilling up ahead of you.
Which is why I can't bring myself to play. I will never catch up to the people who started before me.

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however, you could catch them, blow up their ship and take their stuff.

Originally posted by PratzStrike

If you're going to start, I'd start now. Every moment you wait is one more moment that the people who've been playing since launch are skilling up ahead of you.

Which is why I can't bring myself to play. I will never catch up to the people who started before me.

Indeed, it is better for people who actually believe this myth to stay away from the game.

Eve is MUCH more about player attitude and real-life intelligence than it is about in-game skills.  If you start the game convinced that you are going to fail you most certainly will.

Originally posted by PratzStrike

If you're going to start, I'd start now. Every moment you wait is one more moment that the people who've been playing since launch are skilling up ahead of you.

Which is why I can't bring myself to play. I will never catch up to the people who started before me.

The simple answer to your question is "no it is not too late to start and be equally as effective as people who started in beta"

Anyone who says otherwise simply does not understand Eve, like this guy quoted above period.

Originally posted by PratzStrike

If you're going to start, I'd start now. Every moment you wait is one more moment that the people who've been playing since launch are skilling up ahead of you.

Which is why I can't bring myself to play. I will never catch up to the people who started before me.

Can you explain where you got this idea from? There is only a very weak correlation between the age and the power for a character. After 6-9 months, the correlation drops to near zero. Once you have 15M SP or so, you dont need to be at any kind of disadvantage whatsoever to anyone unless you so choose, and the gap is still pretty small even at 5M SP.

Originally posted by PratzStrike

If you're going to start, I'd start now. Every moment you wait is one more moment that the people who've been playing since launch are skilling up ahead of you.

Which is why I can't bring myself to play. I will never catch up to the people who started before me.

Lets debunk this now:

YES - older players do have acess to most of the tech of the game and basically drip of ISK (the ingame cash).

HOWEVER NEW PLAYERS CAN USE THAT TO THEIR ADVANTAGE

1) Big ship VS small ship - aye the big guys have the capital ships but EVE is designed in such a way those are NOT the be all and end all of a situation - It's all about how you use that to your advanage. Big ships can tank a lot of damage, but shoot slow and heavy, smaller ships if hit blow up easy and can advoid being targeted a lot easier. 1v1 big > small but 1 big vs 20 small, big loses

2a)Lie cheat and steal - yup, playing the bad guy does pay off with money, can flipping, ransoming, or even blagiing your way into a corp then running off with their assest is ALL PART OF EVE, and 100% legal to do.

OR

2b) Gametime cards are your friend - CCP have made goldselling kinda legit in EVE, all you need to do is buy a GTC from CCP from the EVE site (or one of their auth sellers) and using the systems in EVE SELL the GTC for ISK in game. NOTE: this doesn't mean the isk/gold farmers that advistise are legit, ONLY buying GTCs and selling them on ingame is the way to go

3)THIS ONE IS IMPORTANT - Plan ahead, before you start thinking deep in EVE, work out what your goal is in the game, do you want to be a miner, thief, recon, stout etc etc... Then ask around and look up what you need to get skill wise to build the ship you need, with the new speed skillgain for new players, you could with proper planning you can be in a desent ship pulling in good money within the first few months.

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All this 'fall behind' and 'catchup' stuff is total BS, all thats holding ppl back is knowlege, knowing those basic three facts about EVE nothing stops a newer player being just as good as a ventaren

To all those contemplating joining Eve all i can say is go for it  :)

I have played for over 3 yrs and seen many changes and done quite a lot , and with the new expansion coming in December it is even better for the new players joining the game. There will be changes that make it easier to learn the game and also for you to progress with your skilling .

Theres so much u can do and many paths u can take in the game , it's not a grinding experience as it is in other games.

As others have said joining a corp is the way to go u learn from older players , u venture into deep dark space of 0.0 , u can venture into wormholes , u can run missions u can run complexes and sites , u can do all of this with relatively low skill level and Eve being the social game it is u make friends , u can have get togethers in RL as ppl have done from there corps and Alliances.

To be honest this is the time to start with the new Dominion Expansion out on Dec 1st it really is a whole new kind of Space.

:)

Originally posted by Malcanis

Originally posted by Coyoteturkey

So i've decided to go ahead with the 14day free trial. What I was wondering is this game still played by alot? If so how is it for new people starting out?

 

It's not too late. In fact now is a great time to start playing EvE (This has been true for quite a while).

Subscriber numbers have risen every year since 2003, and the game is being developed more than ever. The next expansion is out december 1st. It will be free, as were all the other 11 expansions.

EvE can either be very hard for new players or very awesome, but the choice is basically yours. If you try and play it like an ordinary MMO, you will have a very difficult time of it indeed. The best advice I can give you is to forget everything you learned from other games, and start afresh. In most traditional MMOs, you progress by grinding SP, finding epic weapons and so forth. Chracter advancement basically is the game. In EvE, that advancement grind is all taken care of for you. You progress in EvE by playing the game. I really can't overstate how big the difference is.

The people who hate the game and slate it on forums are the ones who basically tried to play WoW in space; grinding quests and getting frustrated because they couldn't grind levels and you dont get 3p1c l3wts in the EvE quests (aka missions).

The ones who love the game and were instantly addicted for life are the ones who undocked, started interacting with the other players, got involved and actually did stuff.

You may have seen complaints that "EvE has no content". In the traditional sense, this is pretty much true; there is some Pve content, but frankly it's limited, repetitive and unchallenging.

 

In EvE, the players are the content.

Someone has never hunted sleepers in a class 5 or 6 wormhole.  You want pve challenge, I could show you some pve challenge.

edit: Oh yeah, back on topic, never too late to start playing EVE, plenty of activity for all levels of players.

I have hunted sleepers, and you're right, they are quite a bit tougher than mission/belt rats, but at the end of the day, they're still scripted. The scripting is better though, and Sleepers are a good step in the right direction. I certainly hope that CCP continue in this direction, and ultimately introduce some kind of unpredictable limited AI for their NPCs.

come join EVE, you can't never have too many targets :)

seriously though, why not? you're roughly 5 years late, so what? SP stops matter after a certain point. i've known ppl to have 60-70m+ SP and can't still fly their ships worth a damn. then i've seen 5m SP pilot ripping it apart in a half-way t2 fitted brutix. (back in RMR)

it's not the size of the dog in the fight. it's the size of the fight in the dog. xD

quit being a wussie and lemme shoot ya. j/k

I'm going to have to agree with a lot of people and say that yes, now is a good time to start. I've started suscribing myself recently, and there are quite a few newbies around as well. The people also are very friendly, and are more than willing to help you catch up. At the end of the day, the time you start does not matter. As long as you are willing to put in the effort to catch up, then yes, you definitely will be able to.

I have been on and off since 2003, and a new player can kill me easy with 1- 2 months skill training, I have 99% of my skills in Industri,  Mining, Science So, there you are, but my alt you have to wait a bit :)
 

But, max 5%  is the difference with skills of a pure 100 mil PVP pilot etc.
That's the DIff with the skill 4, with 5 LVL 4 will take you 2-3 days, LVL 5 will take another 15-18 days to get. So, most of the SP goes there... 
 

And If you are a smart trader, get isk. You can get equipment that will make you the +15% even with lvl 4, and if you do have the fitting, and the BS don't, you can kill the BS in a frig... 
 

As well, for most do missions, and there is a difference with a pve fit, and a pvp fit,

so then you will win.... 

- Finally most people shit there pants in PVP, so if you are calm, etc, you can kill most out there....   

As other posters have mentioned, now is an excellent time to giving EVE a go. The game is still within its growth phase and continues to attract new members to its unique sand box approach to a space MMO. The community is excellent, with a large number of helpful and well designed fan sites and tools, and CCP continues to demonstrate why they are considered one of the more innovative developers in the space. While it doesn't boast WoW's numbers, the single server nature of the game ensures there is always a large and active player community to interact with. There are many times where I have logged in late at night to find over 30,000 people logged in and over 100 people in my star system (zone) alone.

Good luck!

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Originally posted by Coyoteturkey
So i've decided to go ahead with the 14day free trial. What I was wondering is this game still played by alot? If so how is it for new people starting out?

---

EVE is pretty much the only MMO which has only ever seen an increase in subs. More people play it every year, it never really goes down, so you don't have to worry about an empty server.

It's fairly harsh to new people, and you'll have to get used to it. It doesn't really play like other MMO's, at least not like the ones you might be used to. It's also very slow paced, and a markedly different experience from the usual themepark instant gratification type of gameplay. You'll either love or hate it.

It's also very, very, very solo unfriendly unless you come up with some creative ways to make it work.

As many have said above in their deeper explanations - Skill levels aren't as important in EVE as they are in other games.  The difference from level 4 to level 5 (the max in any skill) is VERY small, while the time it takes to get from 4 to 5 is usually much higher.  So those people who have level 5 skills only have maybe a 5% (or whatever for that particular skill) bonus compared to the person with a level 4.  To get that skill from 1 all the way to 4, may take less combined time than it takes to get that same skill from 4 to 5.  So really the only thing people are behind most of the time, is a measly 5% here, 2.5% there.. etc.. which really doesn't equate to a whole lot when you think of all the possible combinations of ships and fittings that people might be fit with.. A new player might have more skills in his ship of choice than a veteran in the same ship, just because the veteran's skills are elsewhere or geared for different kinds of combat.