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I finally took the plunge and started an alt on a trial account in addition to my main. In just under two weeks, I’ll become like a majority of Eve players and have multiple paid accounts. The decision to do this has been on-going for a couple of weeks now – essentially since I decided that Eve was a game that I would be playing for awhile and decided to stick around. Part of this process was asking myself “why” I liked this game so much. What is it about Eve that draws me and other players to it?

Personally I am a geek, science, real life useless facts, movies, reading, writing, photography, music, X-files, Firefly, Star Wars, Star Trek, Sandman, Preacher, Hellblazer, sharks, myth busters, all favorites of mine. I am also a gaming geek: World of Warcraft, still playing it enthusiastically; waiting for Diablo 3, Dragon Age and Fallout 3 to come out; Bioshock – in the X-box 360 right now and to the side Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed and Modern Warfare 3; Age of Conan, EQ, SimCity, the Sims, Flashpoint (reminds me - looking forward to Flashpoint 2 coming out!), Zoo Tycoon 2 (don’t knock it – one of the coolest things ever!) – played it; and it doesn’t stop with computer or console games – oh no…. D&D 4E anyone? (well at least when their promised online gaming table opens up!) How about a hand of Munchkin? Shadowrun? How about just a simple game of chess? Backgammon? Cribbage? Risk? Axies and Allies? By now, you get the idea… I am a geek and I love gaming.

So what is it about Eve? Is it the right game for you? I’m here to answer these age old questions and help you find the right, true path…. Oh, sorry got carried away there. Here’s the real deal. Eve is complex. It has a major learning curve (some call it a cliff with an overhang) and once all that is through it is essentially a game that depending on where you are will determine what percentage you will be doing one of the following: on the edge of your seat with paranoia… or off doing other things while you come back in and click and drag or sometimes just click before wandering off again. Either way, unless you are a heavy PvP’er who is engaged all the time in PvP, then there is a lot of “downtime” in Eve. Downtime that requires you to make your fortunes through mining, trading, mission running, etc. but in the end: requires little activity on your part versus say a game like Bioshock, or World of Warcraft or a ton of other games out there.

Yet, Eve is one of the most in-depth, complex and immersive games on the market today IMO. I like to know the game I am playing the most of inside and out. I study, I read, I practice, I make mistakes, I experiment, and then I read and study some more. To the side of my computer desk are two black 3” thick 3-ring binders. Filled with guides and articles on Eve and tactics and strategies. I am about to add a third one. En-route to my apartment is the latest issue of EON and I have started printing out all the issues and articles of Eve-Mag and Eve Tribune that I’ll keep in yet a 4th binder. Yes, I am a geek. And ALL of these guides and articles relate some way to the actual playing of Eve. From the maps, to the minging guide, to the EW guide, to the guide on Minmatar ships, to the discourse on trading, to the POS guide, to even the excellent exploration guide, and then onto even more stuff.

If, you like things simple, everything tight and orderly: do A and then B to get to C, then Eve may not be very good you as it is to others. See in Eve, to get to C, you can go A and then B. Or you can go Z, then S, make your way to M and finally to C. In another article I read, it mentioned Eve as being one huge chess game. There are strategies and tactics that are common and those not so common. In the end though, how you get there and if you ever do is a journey that only you can go through. Get “this” skill or “that” skill; get “this” ship or “that” ship; Fit your ship “this” or “that” way, is all fine and dandy and indeed part of the game. But there is so much more. There’s politics; warfare; personal gains and losses; alliances; bad guys; good guys; economics; trade; research; science; fighting; mining; industry; making stations; destroying stations; gate jumping; gate camping; tackling; electronic warfare; exploration; pirate hunting; piracy; and over 5,000 systems where all of this and so much more is happening all at once and I may not have (and probably didn’t) touched on YOUR particular goal in a game like Eve.

Eve can be quite overwhelming to be honest, when you try to see it from the “big picture”. Which can equate into frustration as you as an individual are a “small wallet-size print” and the company you keep can be anything from the 4×5 portrait in the album to the gigantic Stadium screen at the superbowl picture.

Is Eve for you? Depends. If this article enticed you at least in some way then it is definitely for you. If it scared you off or bored you, then I just suck as a writer and Eve will still be for you. Honestly though, Eve is a game that stretches your imagination to whatever corner of the universe you want to go… the hard part and the part that will determine if Eve is right for you or not is this: do you have the patience and willpower to see your online dreams come true? If, so welcome to Eve.