Eve Online

Since I am busy playing other games involving certain... ahem.. Gears. I figured I'd share an old review on the blog. My impression may have changed over time and I am not as angry as I used to but I'll keep it word for word. However, it does get my message across, so here goes nothing:

After a year of being abused by many players and pirates, I think it is time to write a detailed review or an impression of the psychological rollercoaster I went through.

Eve Online is identical to real life in my opinion. You are thrown in there with little to no instructions. The learning curve is tough. You could end up mining for a guild, oh DAMN. I called it a guild, you might be shunned if you call them guilds in this game, they are called corps. Where was I? Oh yeah, you could end up working for a corp as a miner to get the ship you wanted after a very long time in the safest spot or you could end up being a pirate hunting the same miners you could have been. It most likely depends on your skills and how much time you are willing to dedicate to such a game. Why do I say that? Learning skills takes real time as opposed to game time. Skills would start building up in your queue from 3 Hours to months of real time. In case you read this far and you are wondering if it is a casual MMO, no it is not. It is rather hardcore and this is coming from someone who is not all that familiar with MMOs. Anyways, just like I said, you could ultimately do whatever you want to do in this game. Planetary exploration and material extraction, piracy, logistics, Mining, whatever. It sounds very exciting initially but it takes a really long time and money and effort. All that effort can go down the drain however. If your ship gets destroyed, all those upgrades you have spent time and blood and sweat on would go away in a heartbeat, but that's not remotely all of it. Your character's pod is thrown into space and you have to get your pod to the nearest space station to find another ship before someone destroys your pod and... Well, your character dies and loses all those skills you spent real life time on. I am repeating myself with the real life time because it is just so goddamn frustrating.

This is what you are reduced to once your ship has been destroyed. Good luck surviving in your pod.

I honestly didn't expect myself to get into a game like this, I didn't expect to get into it for a long time. I rarely enjoyed it but it was like staring at pandora's box from afar, it seems so interesting your curiosity gets the better of you and well... You spend 100+ hours into it getting into more than one corps the same way you apply to a job. Perhaps even more humiliating. Getting into a corp is not easy, they interview you, sometimes skype you and assess if you are the man/woman for the position. It almost sounds crazy, and I assure you, it is when you end up hearing about people being humiliated in chat rooms filled with at least 200 players that watch a man get naked on webcam to get a position in a corp. That's how it is in the world of EVE, it sounds really interesting from afar just like the notorious battle that had thousands of players pit against each other, but when you actually get into it, you want to leave and never come back.

The biggest battle in Eve Online's history (Bloodbath of B-R5RB)

Perhaps I got one good thing out of it. The love of Ambient music. A year ago, I was never a fan of music that fades into the background and helps you concentrate. EVE's soundtrack is full of that. It helps the players enjoy their sweet time digging into their menus for countless of hours to EVE's soundtrack. It was well engineered to the point where you feel lonely and it is scary out there when you are traveling and expect a pirate to strike you down even in the safest spots. Ironically, the first time I encountered an NPC drone, I thought it was a pirate and panicked and abandoned my ship only to find out later that it was part of the mission.

Having the Eve Online soundtrack to this is pretty serene, I'll admit that

I don't think I have anything specific in my review regarding the technicalities of EVE, but I was just surprised and my expectations have been greatly exceeded by what I saw there, and I was sure it was not for me. At the same time, all I can write here are my impressions. I finally left the game after realizing it was inevitable for me especially after a pirate corp threatened the mining corp I was in. I actually stayed with that cop for about a month or so, and it was newly formed. Later on when the pirate corp threatens it, members of my mining corp started arguing and all I could do was observe. I was a spectator the whole time and it was, admittedly enjoyable to see my own corp's members argue and argue until some of them left and it went down the drain. It's just so amazing how things could change ther-- YOUR SPACESHIP IS BEING ATTACKED,WAT? YOUR GUN IS FROZEN, YOUR SHIELD HAS BEEN JAMMED.... WHY? OH GOD PLEA-- *boom* Pod is still there, guess I can go and grab another ship and build millions of isks instead of buying PLEX cards with real money (60$ give or take) to get back the same ship I had with the same upgra-- *respawns* *pod destroyed* ..... *quits game* *uninstalls*

10/10 would quit after a year and be haunted by it for the rest of his life

Looking back at Eve, I do appreciate my experience but I don't see myself dedicated to any MMO