from what I heard from my Eve obsessed friend, the entire game is more or less player controled. This sounded awesome, until I got to thinking about it. I will compare this not just to MMOs, but to all RPGs. You level up to be able to accomplish what you want. So in theory gaining exp continually sounds ideal. Until you realize EVERYONE is, and in a game where your main competitors are getting exp just as fast as you are, well whats the point. No doubt you can tweak things to maximize your gain, but do you really think you can do it better then a 5 year vetern? A vetern that already has vastly more exp then you, and will always have more then you?

Rather then reward you for playing alot, working hard, and investing time into the game, it rewards you for getting the game earlier.

Note I am not saying grind is fun, its why I dont play MMOs. But they should make it so you gain exp slower when not online or something.

The thing about that is, the ships and weapons are set up in such as way that a relatively new character controlled by someone who knows what they are doing is a threat, even to a 5 year veteran. That new player CANNOT stand toe to toe against that veteran in whatever that veteran excels at with his chosen ship. But he can, with little training, get a ship that that veteran cannot even hit or damage significantly, lock him down and gank him.
Big hulking battleships cannot even hit the little ships, and they take at least 30 seconds to lock onto one (and if its an elite variety, longer) before he can even start shooting. A team of newbies in pratically worthless freighters can circle a battleship, cripple it with Electronic Warfare, seal off its escape by disabling its warp core, and slowly eat it away. Probably with no casualties. If if there was one, a frieghter takes a newbie 15 minutes to afford. A battleship? Maybe even weeks.
For every ship or style of combat, theres an ultimate counter. Nobody is safe, even from a player (that in other games would be no threat).

Also, there is one reason why a person would need to play. Money. It isnt easy to get. It takes time, consistant effort. Those skill training manuals often cost a lot of money, and so do the ships and equipment you are training to obtain. And since the market is entirely player based (no NPCs sell ANY useful items), and all useful items, or items used to produce goods are also player made, formed from player-mined minerals; the market always manages to balance itself out. Nothing is cheap, and getting it into dangerous space is even more expensive. Even pirating will only earn you a small portion of a killed player's equipment (you can steal what they dont carry with them), which may be worth nothing to you, or anyone else. Because even the cheap stuff can pack a punch. But there are, of course, ransoms.

I grew tired of it, because, in essence, you are doing the same thing from your first day playing, to the last day you play. Just in a bigger/better ship. I mean, exactly the same. Youre either staring at a rock for hours at end, mining; blowing up NPC ships for small profits; or producing goods by clicking a button and hauling crap around. You move your way up, but it ultimately doesnt get any more exciting, unlike other games. Which is why so many join a 0.0 space alliance and either pirate, or kill pirates.

I played it right after Earth and Beyond shut down, for over a year. Then I got tired of it, moved to WoW for three years. At some point in there, I tried EVE again, for a few months, and even fought in a lot of PvP. But I didnt have the time to invest in earning money to upkeep ships which were ultimately blown up, sooner or late. So I lost pretty much everything when the war turned the tide and I no longer had any reason to play any longer. This was over a year ago.

BTW, which alliance is mostly Something Awful goons?

Then according to that, a newbie can take out a vet, then why be a vet? I have all this exp, money, and equipment, and a noob could still kill me? I think new players should be able to catch up, not be able to kill anyone from the start

Now you're just grasping for argument straws there dude. I mean, come on.

The aptly named Goonswarm.

Now, a newbie might get lucky (and be very skilled in ship scanning) and pick a fight he can win against a veteran, but the veteran will have a stock of maybe a million times more money and hundreds of ships and what's more important, friends. It's entirely possible (in low sec space) for a group of players to lay siege on a station or a system and make it impossible for one player to get anywhere, or get any replacements for the ships or clones he loses whenever he tries to break out.

That's to say, the abilities of a group of players is always less than that of a bigger group of players, five years under their belt or no.

Kiiind of. I mean, if that particular veteran is solo, and in a poor soloing ship, maybe your frigate swarm could lock him down, and mayyybe kill him. I agree a frigate swarm is a great thing in the hands of a capable squadron of pilots, but it's not as great for "noobs" as people constantly claim it is. First off, no "veteran" pilot worth his salt flys alone. It's a common EVE pvp saying that "There is no solo pvp in EVE." it's pretty much true.

As for battleships not being able to hit frigates, well... Maybe my opinion is skewed because I fly gallente, but a flight of 5 t2 medium drones will obliterate a frigate about as quickly as they can catch it, and since they have microwarpdrives, that's pretty fast. If it's an interceptor, well, that's what a battleship carries a heavy neutralizer for. (A single cycle takes a frigate from full cap to zero, instantly from beyond web range.)

Then the drones catch up and... It's not pretty.

Ugh, you guys are throwing a fit over them taking away your ability to grind while you aren't paying to play the game? Che, I've just got one thing right here (and any of you Star Wars gamers should know about this):

November 15, 2005. Sony Online Entertainment. Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided.

New Game Enhancements.

THAT'S something to kick and squeal about.

Yeah, there are always exceptions to the rule. The worst case scenario is when you are fighting (alone or not) against a ship of equal size or capabilities and an interceptor comes and joins the fight against you.

Now If I remember correctly, you must target lock an opponent before you send drones against it, and its notoriously difficult to do so againsty frigs and interceptors. Especially if its packing some sensor countermeasures. Even there, you have a weakness.

My advantage was in my Caldari Drake battlecruiser. It has extra powerful shields in its own right. I then used my skills trained and lots of passive shield enhancements to boost the maximum HP and regeneration rate to beyond that of most battleships. For no active energy expense. I used missles and passive shielding and thus, did not ever need energy for anything.

Now that you mention Goonsquad, I fought against them. I was a member to a sovereign faction to BOB (I think that was it) who was in direct war with the goons. They gave us their borderlands on the edge of the war with the Goons (and their sovereign factions) to watch over, and attempt to profit in our own rights. The goons, if it gives you any comfort, relied on numbers more than skill. At the time, they had several times the population of BOB, and were still being pushed back.

I once was the last one left in a fight against two battleships (one Gallente, one Amarr) and a cruiser versus my Drake. They couldnt deplete my shields. They could lock me down, drain me, but the couldnt stop the missles or damage me. And I wouldnt let them run either. I destroyed the cruiser quickly, but couldnt completely take down the battleships. So I ended up popping all of their expensive tech 2 drones, instead. Collateral damage ftw.

Drones have a tendency of choosing new targets once one you have chosen for them have died, sometimes attacking anyone who's targeting you, as some support ships have discovered. . .

But anyway, targeting isn't entirely necessary with drones.

Yeah, Queen's right. I was one in a small gang with my Megathron-Class Battleship when we were blobbed by a goonswarm pet alliance (they weren't actually goonswarm, but they're part of "The Alliance" of people who don't want to get screwed by Red Alliance and Goons) and launched my drones before being immediately jammed by a Falcon for the entirety of the battle. (When you are ECM jammed, and the Falcon excels at this, you cannot lock anything, and thus cannot fight.)

I was too busy spamming warp and trying to get my pod during the massive lag of warping into a grid with 36 enemy combatants that I only found out afterward that my Wasp 2's had scored three kills on frigates I didn't even know where there.