Yeah, it was a discount for not playing for 3 years.

Is this game exceptionally time consuming, or is it something that can be played well on 2-3 hrs weekly?

if you're willing to pay then it is not time consuming.

though that also depends on what it is you want to do in the game.

It can be as time consuming as you want. The nice thing is that skills are trained even when you aren't playing, unlike WoW, so you don't have to do much grinding.

Right now I'm just trying to figure out the basics, so I haven't even begun thinking about what my in-game goals would be. I have no interest in paying more than the monthly fee.

There's really no reason to spend more than the monthly fee. I'll gladly give you some ISK to get you started, if you want.

The big decision to make early is if you want to be a fighter or an industrialist. Other than that, it's just details, but swapping between those two is a pain.

you can grind isk or standings, but you can at least shortcut the isk buy paying for a plex and selling it on the ingame market, and i think you can use isk to cut the cost of improving your standings aswell...

if you want to do pvp though you can do it without either.

What about being a courier, smuggling or pirating?

What about being a courier, smuggling or pirating?

Appreciate the offer, abge. I'm going to watch a few vids for beginners before making any decision, but if I do decide to try it out I'll let you know.

You can do all those things, too. Honestly, couriering and smuggling isn't as fun as you may think (at least that's how I feel). Pirating is great, but you have to know what you're doing or you will lose a lot of money.

i would definitely recommend watching videos, i learned a lot before ever starting to play. mostly from youtube lets plays, and a few tutorials.

courier missions are ok, make isk in high sec but are boring; in low sec are risky as the player courier stuff is dangerous - it may be a trap - the npc courier stuff in low/null sec is interesting because it is risky...

pirating just means killing people for the stuff the are couriering. i've never bothered with it...

don't know about smuggling.

I've got more than enough income to throw a new player some isk aswell, but i'd rather help you learn how to make your own income :)

There i more than just fighting or industry: http://images.mmorpg.com/images/galleries/full/052011/59040f2c-3f3e-47b7-97f0-f42a3e7249eb.jpg

At the moment, i'm a station trader and sometimes explorer (with pve COSMO/Ratting), small gang pvper...

There's a lot more to pirating than killing someone and stealing their cargo.

You can hold people's ship for ransom, extract tolls from warp gates, steal jet-can rocks, etc.

nwho pays ransoms? ortolls?

stealing jet-cans... yeah, if people are bothering to use jet-cans, which they don't anymore.

You can grief new players by going into their missions and looting a wreck, and then hoping they open fire on you. But i'd count that as griefing not piracy...

Well, as I said, haven't logged on for 3 years, so I may be a bit outdated : )

Thank ora for the advice and the offer. I'm off to watch vids. As I said to abge, I'll let you know if I decide to get in.

I used to play hard core mode for over 7 years, ran an alliance with up to 2000 members and what not. It can get addictive and is probably the most complex microcosm game ever created.

To get the most out of it though, you really need to invest both time and emotion into it.

@wusti - typical eve mentality. discourage people by telling them they have to put in more... (you can't fly blah without these skills... you can't go to low sec without pvp skills... you can't... unless you're going to do it right)

I prefer to take what you said and turn it around - you get out as much as you put in; and you can put in a huge amount if you want, both time and emotion.

i optomize my fun per second, not my isk per hour ;)

Orthaic has it right, although I hardly exemplify that. I'm tied up as an industrialist at the moment and am oddly compelled by discovering good margins....

However, I started as an explorer, which is a fun way to start. I spent my first couple of months out in the outer rim scanning (null sec isn't that scary, really).
Here's an awesome guide that tought me nearly everything I needed:

http://www.toptiertactics.com/21341/eve-online-exploration-guide-billions-and-billions-of-isk/

If you see Saarissiya Naimsula or Khanaradin Sartran out there, that's me

i've had to make a choice between playing eve and starting my own business. sadly the business won. maybe i'll be back one day.

it is possibly the best gaming experience ever, though. love me some eve.

I thought this Eve thingy was some brand of perfume.
Obviously not.

Not so much. "A nasty game for nasty people" is an unofficial motto.
Kind of like diplomacy


Gotta love xkcd's take on the game
http://m.imgur.com/gallery/jj16ThL