Most games sound pretty boring when you sum them up. Counter-strike? Well you buy a gun, run around, point it at someone and hold down the mouse button until one of you is dead... Sounds pretty dull like that

Yes, but the point is that the repetetive, run around, point a gun at someone, and fire, is actually quite fun for most people. Mining in Eve does not really have any kind of thrill, excitement, or even any kind of pseudo-effective randomness, skill element, suspense, etc etc....

I agree this game is one of the most boring MMORPGS I have ever played.

Maybe I'm just weird, but the idea of a game that makes you do something that is terribly boring for long periods of time just so that you can acquire the ability to do something interesting just doesn't appeal to me.

I'd have to agree that things take a long time, but I still love this game. People say all there is to do is mining but there's so much more to it than that.

Ok, so there IS a lot of mining involved but so far I've found that I'm always mining with the aim of DOING something with the money it nets me. Every time I'm back at the station I'm checking out the market to see if I can get that new ship or new laser yet, and when I'm out mining I'm investigating the map, chatting to friends about the game, and planning to form our own corporation... And to me that isn't boring at all, it's exciting.

Most games sound pretty boring when you sum them up. Counter-strike? Well you buy a gun, run around, point it at someone and hold down the mouse button until one of you is dead... Sounds pretty dull like that.

Obviously EVE won't appeal to everyone (I'd say it would appeal more to adults than teenagers or kids) but to say it's just a mining simulator is doing it a disjustice IMO.

Can't wait to get home and play some more!

Yes, technically you can mount both weapons and mining lasers, but if you want to be effective enough in combat to kill pirates, then you won't be wasting slots on mining equipment. You can use mining drones as well if you have the proper skills, but while they don't use up your weapon slots (except insofar as they take up space you could use for combat drones, but then you wouldn't do that anyway since combat drones are currently worthless in combat) they do require time and money to get the skills and are very inefficient at mining.

During the beta, you could earn enough to buy a new ship pretty quickly. But not anymore. Since they de-nerfed the pirates and let them roam the asteroid fields and also camp the gates, it has become MUCH harder for n00bs to find a decent roid field to mine. You'll most likely have to spend a long time mining ore that is practically worthless in order to buy a decent enough ship to even set foot in a lower security sector. Even then you'll need a lot of help or the pirates will vape you in seconds. Even if you are able to fight them, you'll still be gambling on whether or not the lag will get you killed and then you have to start over mining again. Isn't this fun?

I think eve is a GREAT game for people with 2 pc's and a lot of time on their hands. As a clan based PVP game i think it has excellent potential.

The only problem i see with it is that casual players (ie adults who work or have a spouse) won't get any enjoyment out of the game, everything takes simply too long.

I'd like to have the time to play eve, but i simply don't.

Hey, so this means that if you're mining, you can't defend yourself? You'd have to hire people to watch you? That certainly sucks...not only do you have to mine your way to a better ship for 10-15 hours, you don't even get the satisfaction of a little combat while you're doing it.

And I thought grinding away killing rats and bats until I hit level 10 in EverQuest was bad. At least I had the satisfaction of swinging my Scimitar and blasting off a few spells.

When you first start out you get a civilian weapon and miner, so technically you could defend yourself. You aren't in much danger in a high security area, except from other players, but that's unlikely.

It does not take that long to get a better ship. It can happen very quickly, especially if you're working with other players. I, for one, would set you up with a better ship and equipment right off the bat if you seemed like a nice person, since both of us would stand to gain from the additional manpower - especially for combat, but for mining as well. --yrns

Nope, they'll have to be mounting weapons on their ships and carrying ammo in their cargo holds instead of mounting mining lasers.

It's possible to use mining drones (however inefficient compared to mining lasers) and fill your slots with weapons, or vice-versa (scout drones and mining lasers). Also some ships like the Tristan have launcher-only slots, which you can't put mining lasers on. But by and large if you're mining, you only have mining equipment fitted, and even if not, you're just going to run at the first sign of danger. --yrns

This comment was edited on May 7, 05:14.

"Nope, they'll have to be mounting weapons on their ships and carrying ammo in their cargo holds instead of mounting mining lasers."

Pity you can't use mining lasers as weapons. I can't think of a better source of valuable metal than some pirate ship's hull. Muahahahahaha.

Hey, so this means that if you're mining, you can't defend yourself? You'd have to hire people to watch you? That certainly sucks...not only do you have to mine your way to a better ship for 10-15 hours, you don't even get the satisfaction of a little combat while you're doing it.

And I thought grinding away killing rats and bats until I hit level 10 in EverQuest was bad. At least I had the satisfaction of swinging my Scimitar and blasting off a few spells.

~Leia

Oh, I thought my ship had some type of weapon along with a mining laser.. but I could be wrong because I never used it. Surely you can have weapons and a mining laser on a better ship though, right?

Can't they all mine together and then stop to attack if a pirate shows up? Or does it really take that long to quit mining?

Nope, they'll have to be mounting weapons on their ships and carrying ammo in their cargo holds instead of mounting mining lasers. Can't switch weapons without going back to a station. They won't be able to help mine.

They'll just sit there in their ships and watch you mine for hours on end.

Can't they all mine together and then stop to attack if a pirate shows up? Or does it really take that long to quit mining?


Hmm.. You know, it's good to see that some people will explain in such detail what is wrong with this game just so those who havn't played it will not have to waste their money on it.

Ok, thanks for that. I think I'll pass for a while. I have better things to spend 13 bucks a month on than a mining sim.

~Leia

Sorry Leia. You pretty much got the gist of it. You'll spend quite a while just mining at first. This is mainly because they drastically increased the numbers and power of pirates guarding systems with decent ore, so you're stuck in newbie sectors that only have the crappy ore. Once you get a better ship and are able to hook up with a corp or a group of people that have decent ships, you may be able to clear out some of the pirates in the low security systems and mine there. Of course then you'll probably be preyed on by player pirates, so you'll have to have people to defend you too, which means splitting the profits between even more people. They'll just sit there in their ships and watch you mine for hours on end. They'll have to fight off pirates when they respawn as well though.

Another problem I've noticed is that they will let you have up to 3 characters, but they are planning to only let you train 1 character's skills at a time. This means that people that want to have a character that is really good at refining or research or something won't be able to also train up a character to actually do fun stuff like combat. Do you have any idea how boring it would be to just have a character that is good at manufacturing things? I'm about to pass out just thinking about it.

Then there's the problem with combat. The lag is everpresent and will quite often get you killed when you try to fight. There was post after post after post on the forums about people losing their souped up cruisers without even having a chance to fight back because the game lagged during combat and then when it went back to normal, they had lost their ships and all their equipment. Back to mining for them.

Oh yeah, and don't bother with the game unless you have a LOT of time to commit to it. It takes forever just to buy a ship and outfit it with the equipment you want. You'll be travelling for hours sometimes. Not a fun way to spend an evening. Anyway, I could go on and on about the problems with this game (that's not an exaggeration either, you should see some of my beta forum posts). But my advice to you would be to wait at least a couple months and then check the EVE forums and see how things are going with it at that time. It'll take them at least that long to get it into decent enough shape to make it worth playing.

This comment was edited on May 7, 02:49.

The problem is that all those things they say you can do are mostly theoretical. You can't actually do those things yet, or at least you can't make a living at it. Like it or not, you'll spend most of your time mining or driving an industrial ship back and forth between asteroid belts and stations. The game is just missing a lot of the features it will need to become successful. All those nifty jobs and things they say you'll be able to do haven't even been tested yet. Hell, even the basic missions were still buggy when the beta ended. They have a LONG way to go to make this game what they say it will be.

Well, I've been to sleep, and now I'm up again. Still waiting for an answer from a current EVE player.

Lets summarise:

* What makes EVE good?
* What does a typical hour of gameplay involve?
* What is there to interact with in the game?
* How do you interact with it?

I'm hoping that the answers aren't the following:

* Open endedness
* Watching my ship shoot a beam at a rock
* Rocks
* Click on it

Come on, players. Tell me what the deal is with this game. I'm considering purchasing it, tell me why you love it so.

~Leia

This comment was edited on May 7, 02:19.

This is what that reads like to me :

There is mining. And destroying space debris, which I assume is mining with a different color laser. (Gathering scientific data on unmanned systems is kinda cool, but does that work for every player who goes to a new system, even if 5000 players have already been there? Kinda odd.)

When you have mastered the game, you can get bigger ships, with which you can mine, kill others for their ore, smuggle ore, or hunt those who kill others for ore.

And then finally, when you make the big time, you can build space stations so you can trade ore, you can build big mining operations so you will be swimming in ore, which will allow you to build equipment such as better ore mining lasers, and no less importantly, you can fight other players for their ore.

I mean, seriously, this game needs a drastic upgrade in actual tradeable stuff. Does CCP have a fetish for ore or something?

I mean, I'm sure it's fun to some people, but the whole game seems to be nothing but an endless repetition of activities involving ORE??

Creston

Still waiting for that answer on how there is anything to do except mining.

Ok, since none of the 'fanboys' have answered this yet, I thought I'd go and find out myself. It's kind of long, but you asked for it. I didn't feel like editing it to make it shorter. This is what I found:

--------------------------------------------------------
"To begin with, players can trade goods between systems or conduct other money making activities, such as mining asteroids, gathering scientific data on unmanned systems or even cleaning up space debris. Gains made from such activity can be used to upgrade the ship with weapons and equipment, and also to develop the character by training him in various skills.

"When the player has mastered the basics of the game, amassed some money and equipment and advanced his/her character through basic skills, the possibilities become almost endless. Players who wish to explore peaceful paths can continue to upgrade their ships to bigger and better-defended cargo vessels, purchase advanced mining or research equipment, and continue to develop their character by specializing in their preferred skills. Others will choose to explore more dangerous path, such as piracy, smuggling or bounty hunting. There will even be ways of making money through such activities as spying on other players and reporting illegal activity.

"Groups of players will be able to build and manage space stations, start up major mining operations on planets and asteroids, manufacture goods and equipment and, no less importantly, fight other groups of players for their bases and resources."
---------------------------------------------------------

The last paragraph sounds pretty cool. If I had more spare time to play, I'd probably buy EVE. I know it's buggy now (I was also on the beta), but I'm sure they will get most of that fixed eventually.

The fanboys keep screaming how there are no more bugs, and yet, on the day of release, the first patch was already there. Heh.

Still waiting for that answer on how there is anything to do except mining.

Creston

You can blame Simon & Schuster, or as we call them affectionately around here, Simon & Sheister, for the launch.