Late Nights and Skills

Published on 05. Oct, 2008 ... written by Ebonezer Skrewed, Tags: Columns, Ebonezer Skrewed

by Ebonezer Skrewed … EVE-Online is one of those special games where you get to train and learn skills and just leave the game for a while to play. Some people find this a disadvantage to the game, other people find it a major boon. I’m one of the people that finds it a great advantage, since at times I find it difficult to sleep, I can sit up for a few hours on EVE-Online when it’s late at night, go over my skills, see what I need to train, what I don’t need to train.. And count the downtime on a level 4 skill ticking towards completion.. Or in this case, Scout Drone Operation level 3 (2 hours, 37 minutes, 40 seconds at the time of this typing). There’s the thing about EVE-Online though. Training is in real-time, all the time, any time. You can stick on a skill before you go out for the day, and depending on it’s level and your learning skills, it may already be done before you get back home. Or you may have to wait a little, but that’s just life.

That’s part of the immersion of EVE-Online, and part of it’s allure to those who hang on two different sides. Those with ages to dedicate to the game, and those with little time to dedicate to the game. Both are important to the game as a whole, and both play in entirely different ways.. Yet with the addition of real-time learning from the get-go of EVE-Online, it allows for everyone to get into the game, get the skills they want and need, and to push on and grow. For those who don’t have much time, you can log on, play what you need, stick on a skill to learn and then you can log out for the night and come back the next day, or the day after that depending on how much time you have free, and your skill should be learned and you have more time to dedicate to playing the game, instead of running around trying to find a teacher and learning the skill then and there, preventing you from just getting on with the game. (2 hours, 30 minutes, 30 seconds)

For those who have the hours and hours to dedicate to the game, learning a skill can appear like a hassle. You may have minutes – or hours – to wait before you have the skill you may need then and there, but the pro to that is that you don’t have to run and find the teacher to teach you the skill, and you can continue about with all the other business you’ve got going on in the game while the skill gets trained without you having to divert your attentions to it. This means that you can have a constant inflow of ISK while your skill trains up.. Then, when it’s trained up, you’ll most likely have a greater flow of ISK incoming from that skill being trained, and you gaining the benefits from it. (2 hours, 27 minutes, 50 seconds)

For me, though, the time ticking down is like counting sheep late at night, knowing that if I go and nod off now, when I wake up later, that skill will be done and I’ll be free to go about and play the game as I want. I get to look forwards to playing the game with the new skills and advantages that I have, in this case, scout drones that I can use to raise the DPS output while I hammer away at some poor soul. Or maybe I’ll run missions and use the drones to pick the mobs off while I concentrate on the heavier hitters. We’ll see. That’s the joy of the game.

2 hours, 26 minutes, 10 seconds.
That’s a lot of sheep.

Ebonezer Skrewed

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4 Responses to “Late Nights and Skills”

  1. Jacob Mei

    05. Oct, 2008

    Though my experience with MMO’s is somewhat limited I have to say I absolutely love the method EVE uses for skills. As a college student, I will always have bouts of days, weeks, any towards the end of the semester, nearly a month, where logging on for more than a few hours a week is all I can do.

    For a game like WoW, MXO, or any other MMO that depends on the player to go out and gather the experience points by killing rats, doing missions and what not, such a time constraint means that you either will fall behind the rest of your friends (which if there is a 5-10 level gap, you quickly find yourself the little kid tagging along with the older crowd and just generally being a burden). When you do log in you are forced to grind madly to stay caught up, which will of course lead to a burn out.

    With EVE though, the grind is really only for standing and ISK, and if your savvy the ISK comes in passively (either from building or other means). It is rather surprising that EVE’s method of leveling hasnt been adopted by other MMO companys yet.

  2. Ebonezer Skrewed

    05. Oct, 2008

    Completely agree. I used to dabble in other MMO’s more than I did EVE-Online, and I found myself always falling behind because I wanted to dedicate more time to studying than doing anything else. Exams are important, as we all know! So, I fell behind.

    Now I play on EVE more, I rig skills up for training then I’ll go study for a few hours. I am surprised that others haven’t taken up this method of skill learning, but I suppose following the old MMO style of ‘grind grind grind’ has more appeal towards the larger companies.

    Thanks for your comment! :)

  3. Guttripper

    06. Oct, 2008

    One aspect people have to remember about Eve is that it is not the game for those seeking instant gratification. At times, people want something now – the Pavlov dog’s effect of hearing that *ding*. Yet Eve allows greater abilities in small amounts and lures people to strive forward, to keep pushing themselves to be a greater pilot without having to grind away. The common aspect everyone has is time – everyone must spend time to advance. After two plus years of “skill grinding”, I get annoyed reading posts on the forums from newer pilots demanding the removal of the learning skill tree and instantly give everyone the benefits. Yet as I have curses / explained / rambled numerous times, spending time offers the greater benefit in the long term. Many newer pilots want things _now_. Because the learning tree does not offer an instant reward like completing any other skill does, these players get vocal and fret about game play and whatnot. Yet again, Eve does not reward instant gratification.

    As I look over my latest EveMon entries, I wonder how over 500 days will have to pass before my character is (potentially) where I want him to be. Since I have such a daunting task, I do not watch the daily grind – I monitor, but do not fret. Also, to alleviate such thoughts, I skill in what I consider an unique fashion. I would have to look up the records, but I started completing one skill a day at a certain time. Yes, I would pause a certain skill just before being complete if said time frame was passed for the day. Add that I move down the whole tree in one pass before moving back to the top to start again, I become the overall ~better~ character without specializing (in my opinion). Yet I do not consider myself more powerful than those that specialize, much less claim my path is the correct one. It has its own rewards in time, especially when I was not thinking about how some skill I learned months ago suddenly was a benefit today. I do not seek that instant gratification…

    …Eve will deny me that pleasure.

    So do not worry about gaining that skill today, for there will always be tomorrow; assuming the hamsters CCP uses to run the servers are up to the daily grind.

  4. Leumas

    07. Oct, 2008

    I absolutely love the skill training method. I can only play sporadically, and I can’t schedule what times I can be online. It might be 12 hours or it might be a week till I get back to New Eden. I make sure that I always have a level 3 or 4 skill that I need to work on in the possibility of an extended period away. If I come back the next night, great. If I don’t play for another week, great. I can always have a skill cooking and never feel too far behind my friends online (except in the wallet).

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