It’s day three of my EVE Online (EO) 15-day trial. As noted in my previous post, “Revisiting EVE Online”, every day I notice something new that makes the introductory experience just a bit easier. I’m sitting in the station watching Rookie Chat, trying to decide if I want to replace my ship that was recently blown to bits during a Mission. I’m NOT happy that the game lagged me as I exited the star-gate and by the time I could do anything, my ship was on fire because it was a trap. I started to warp out but it was too late. I exploded seconds later.
I had the funds to replace the ship four times over but I had been saving for the top of the line frigate for my race, the Tristan. Was it better to continue missions back in the rookie ship of which I now had two – original and the one the game provides when you show up at a station in your pod (out of ship body encasing) or replace the slightly better ship that I’d lost plus its equipment? I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do so I was just sitting there reading chat.
Sitting in the Rookie channel makes you subject to two things in EO – ISK seller spam and requests to join corporations (guilds). I wasn’t in the market for either but if you keep the channel open you will get lots of private messages for both. ISK sellers I ignore. The invitations to join corporations I shut them up with, “this is just a trial account.” They go away after that response. Today however, I spoke to a few of them because I didn’t have a ship fitted to do anything with and remained undecided about how I wanted to rectify the situation.
I don’t play EO but I do know enough about the game to speak intelligently. When I asked these people what the focus of the corporation was most didn’t have an answer for me. I wanted to know if they were PVP, conquest, industry or real-estate focused. Are you mostly looking to just PVP or take over an area of space and establish yourselves as caretakers of it? Do you want to build a space station or aspire to build one of the massive ships I’ve read about? Are you interested in the industry side of things and playing the market? None or all of the above?? Most of them didn’t have an answer so I just closed the messages and ignored them. They might have been new and just looking to have a gang or casual grouping of sorts but this isn’t the game where that is likely to be successful.
I’ve read and listened to my share of EO corporation horror stories. I’m sure there are equally as many happy endings but you don’t hear about those. *Smile* Combined with the emotional in-guild drama experiences from World of Warcraft, I wasn't entertaining the idea of joining guild – that is until the next message. I get another random private message which I accept. Same routine…He asks if I want to join and I ask him what they are about, except this guy had an answer for me.
His corporation is small and building. They want to eventually build a station but their primary focus at the moment is recruiting and gearing up a PVP fleet. If players don’t want to do hardcore PVP they will be assisted with their profession pursuits if they’re willing in turn to help others that come along behind them. Sounded like a decent plan to me. Part of me thought, “Why not join a corporation and see that side of the game while you’re where.” I was thinking it over when he added, “And all new members receive 1 million ISK to get them started.” Now that caught my attention but having seen all sorts of scams in WOW I wasn’t quite the believer. Still, he was articulate and I figured, “hell, why not?” I joined the guild and expected some long stipulation about actually getting the ISK.
He pasted a long text stream into the chat with a website, TeamSpeak and private chat channel information. I said the perfunctory, “Thanks, I’ll check it out and chat with you soon.” He left the private message session and as soon as he did, my email lit up. Cha-ching. He was as good as his word. One million ISK was sitting in my email. Holy crap, I instantly bought the Tristan and printed out the fitting plan that I’d put together using QuickFit and started purchasing equipment! I also purchased a great mining ship with appropriate equipment as well. Here some random images from that day.
In the back of my mind I wondered about what kind of devil I’d just sold my soul to for this ISK. Bah, I was too giddy to worry over it for long. It’s just a game right? If I can’t take a chance in game and put myself out on a limb then why bother right? *Wink* Only time will tell…
Thanks to your in depth revies of EO, I decided to check it out. I only got as far as the website before realizing it is not the game for me. I need more than an avatar to play a game. I was hoping the EO experience included leaving your ship and exploring worlds, but alas no such luck.
As it turns out, I am playing WOW again; at least for now. My brother in law visited over this past weekend and he is the one whom originally introduced me to the world of WOW. He brought his laptop and of course was playing, so I decided to try it out again after a near 3 month hiatus. I have found it relaxing now that I had an extended break from it. I will never be a raider. I will not allow it to consume me as it did before. I was in such a rush to hit 70 that when I did nothing else was fun afterwards. I will not allow that to happen again. So I created a new Pally and Warlock for future play, and am still playing my 70 hunter. One mistake I would recommend for others: if you ever decide to quit a game like WOW, don't give all of your items and gold away. You may come back someday and have nothing. *sigh* Now I have to start from scratch financially. Oh well, at least it isn't consuming me....
Good luck with EO Saylah, and keep pumping out the updates. Your blog is always a good read. :)
Posted by: Romagoth | January 08, 2008 at 10:34 AM
My comments are being filtered as spam...:(
Posted by: Romagoth | January 08, 2008 at 10:36 AM
Ha, I'm glad you're having fun with EVE. :) My husband got me back into it only a day or so ago, and I'm having a really great time. I started a different character from what I was before (which was a Gallente Intaki business woman type) -- now I'm an Amarr Khanid Special Forces woman, and it's been awesome fun running missions. Still haven't found a corporation to join yet, but I'm not sweating it. I thought I'd take it easy and see how things go.
Posted by: Mallika | January 08, 2008 at 10:49 AM
Oh, I just remembered. One thing I love about being Amarr is their ships -- this is the first time I ever owned ships that were symmetrical! It was quite a pleasant relief for my brain, not having to think that my ship is 'unbalanced' like a bird with one wing grossly deformed and the other all big. Heh.
Posted by: Mallika | January 08, 2008 at 10:56 AM
Hah! A million isn't much at all really. I guess many corporations would get a few recruits for just a million, with a few having the chance for saying around longer.
But finding a corporation and people to play with is crucial. A game like Eve really is what you and others make of it yourself, just mining and missioning will bore most people after a while including me, there are some exceptions though.
I'm kind of curious what corporation you got into, building a station really is quite ambitions and can only be a long-long-term goal for any alliance/corporation that isn't owning space already.
I do think that being in a growing corporation with some good leadership with goals like these, can be a lot of fun, though. But otherwise I could suggest you checking out Eve University for a few months and then decide in what way you want to continue, I almost hear only good stories about Eve-Uni.
Posted by: Nuyan | January 08, 2008 at 01:14 PM
Thanks Roma...and sorry about the filtering. I have no idea how to stop it or get some of the comments to go back to being most recent at the bottom. I might have to open a support ticket.
Posted by: Saylah | January 08, 2008 at 10:26 PM
Romagoth, CCP has the whole 'being able to get out of your ship and wander around' thing in the works. Not sure how much of avatar-type stuff they'll be implementing, but it's coming. I felt the exact same way about avatars too, and though I still wish I could see my character, the ships tend to have a personality of their own and I kind of got used to thinking of myself as the person inside the spacecraft.
Posted by: Mallika | January 09, 2008 at 06:11 AM
I know it isn't your fault Saylah. I will work through it, just as I do with other things in life. :)
Posted by: Romagoth | January 09, 2008 at 10:26 AM
Yes, they do have the avatar implementation already in development. That is going to be awesome. Even if it's initially nothing more than walking around while you're fitting, repairing, processing, searching the market, etc. It's going to be a wonderful experience.
I wonder if they will let people change their avatar appearance at launch?? Some people may not have taken too much care with their visual appearance since it was only a static image. I'm a woman, so of course, I took the time. :-)
Posted by: Saylah | January 10, 2008 at 09:37 AM
"I'm a woman, so of course, I took the time. :-)"
Haha, me too. My husband always teases me about the amount of time I spend in games during the character creation phase. Hey, it's not my fault that I want to look good. If I can't be totally beautiful and sweet-looking in real life, I'd like to look like that in a game. :P
Posted by: Mallika | January 10, 2008 at 12:32 PM
@Mallika - I am totally right there with you. If men can take the time to create female characters so they have something pleasing to stare at while playing - or so the excuse goes, I sure as hell am going to make sure that my character which reflects my actual sex looks good!
Like you said, this is fantasy, if I cant get my groove on here then where? *wink*
Posted by: Saylah | January 10, 2008 at 05:31 PM