Eve Online

Well, I'm building a new badass computer system because I think I want to do some online gaming again. I have a PS3, but I use it more for playing movies than anything else. I've played some games on it, and really liked a couple of them, but there's nothing quite like a massive multiplayer (massive as in thousands) online role playing game.

Eve is unique in a way or two. Whereas Everquest, World of Warcraft, etc. has millions of subscribers and each "universe" (server, though that may consist of more than one computer) only holds maybe 15k subscribers, Eve has 250k subscribers and they're all in the same "universe." I use the term server a little loosely because there may be more than one computer for each population. So when Eve says they had on 45k people at once, that's a badass technical achievement.

They're also a little unique in the gameplay. In most games today, if you die, you may lose experience that you'll have to grind back, maybe you'll give someone a tip who gave you a rez... I have no idea how Warcraft handles death but from what I read there's not much of a penalty at all. On Eve, you better watch out, because if you die, you're out a ship that you paid for and you better hope you remembered to buy insurance beforehand, and you better have had a clone. In other words, there is a definite potential for some serious loss. Not all areas are unsafe, newbies (like me) gotta get skills and money (isk) somehow. But if you go into a low security sector, you better keep your eyes peeled, as my granpa used to say while deer hunting.

After 5 years away from online gaming, I'm giving Eve another go. Last time I played for a month and then decided to try two-boxing in EQ (It was fun for a little while and then it wasn't anymore, then I said "fook it" and stopped playing). This time things are a little different, the game is a little more friendly to newbies now, and I'm going to play it with some planning beforehand. Not too much planning though, that takes away from spontaneity or something. But enough planning/research this time to follow some sort of skill path so I can make some money and be able to kill things. Last time I ended up mining much more than I cared for, and that's boring to me so... I'm not sure why I did it, maybe because I thought I'd get rich quick and could then pirate or bounty hunting stuff. So this time I'm prepared for having to grind out a lot of missions. I'm also aware of skill progression, mainly getting learning skills first.

So, last night I downloaded Eve and started a 14 day free trial. I wanted to try and get the 14 days using my prior account, but it didn't look possible. So, I'm starting afresh. Now, in EQ my main and favorite toon was a monk. Here, it jut so happens that the type of pilot I want... is a monk. Destiny I say! Anyway, I only had time to go through the crash course and I ran one mission after that. I had enough isk to buy one of the learning skills, so I bought it and am probably already up to skill 3 in it. Though I know there's 3 skills in there that you should get each to 1 first, then each to 2, etc. But, I didn't have enough isk for that, and learning skills is so fast right now, who cares. In fact, if I wanted I could skill up to "frigate 4" by tomorrow and thus be able to start learning cruisers. If I had the isk to buy the skill, of course.

That said, I'm thinking of just getting a good frigate for now to help with missions and getting the income a little faster so I can afford to get the more expensive Moa cruiser with its better defenses. I plan to grind the cruiser through Agent missions levels 2 and get a battlecruiser. The battlecruiser, I think, should get me through level 3 missions and level 4 missions too, that is, if I can get it beefed up during the lvl 3s.

After that, I should have not only character skills, but skills myself at knowing what's what and how to kill efficiently. So, I could either become a pirate or maybe a player corporation could use me... who knows, but one things for sure, mining is not in the plan. It shouldn't take too long to do all this, maybe a few months, and by then I should be able to at least somewhat fairly guage if this game is going to continue to be fun for me. Of course, if it's sucking big time before the 14-day trial ends, then I'll sign up for the Warhammer free trial after studying more about that game.

But I'm thinking positively about Eve Online and am actually looking forward to the challenges.