The End of Eve

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My two week EvE Online trial has come to an end, and now EvE wants me to pay $14.95, each and every month.
Did I have fun? I did. EvE is an exciting, original game. Although the NPC-given missions are fairly cookie-cutter, it’s understood that this is just filler to get you ready for the real game that lives in 0.0 space. EvE doesn’t insist upon leveling or grinding, though there definitely is a grind in the game. But if all you want to do is find rare stuff to mine, you can do that from Day 1 and make a fairly decent living and see a good portion of the universe. But fly your little mining frigate near someone else’s battleship, and soon you’ll be working on the necessary skills to command one yourself.
It comes down to how many monthly fees I want to pay. I am paying for three EQ2 accounts — my two and my son’s — and my money there buys me EQ2; EQ1 (if I ever get it working again); Vanguard (potentially, but it better make itself very different from WoW before I try it again); Gods & Heroes; Pirates of the Burning Sea; quite possibly Star Trek Online; given its EQ heritage, 38 Studios’ effort wouldn’t surprise me if it came on the Station Pass; the Agency; possibly LittleBig World and @Home (unsure if the PS3 stuff uses the Station Pass).
EvE’s monthly fee buys me EvE. That’s all. If they partnered with SOE, or NCSoft, and got more value for their game… then I’d do it. I’d pay that extra money if they were on NCSoft and my fee got me City of Dress-up Dolls, Dungeon Runners, and my favorite game of all time, Auto Assault.
I just can’t afford to play every game I would like to play. EvE Online is a great, influential game. But these days, it isn’t enough to be great — games don’t exist in a vacuum (well…. maybe EvE does…. 😛 ). There’s a crowded MMO world out there, and people will only be able to afford few of the games they would like to play.
When it comes down to a question of, “would I give up my current game to play your game”, the answer to that question will usually be “no”. When avatar play is added, I may be back for another look.

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7 thoughts on “The End of Eve”

  1. I was going to try EVE but after reading what you’ve had to say about it I think I am going to just pass it up (again). You make a very good point: “would I give up my current game to play your game?”.. when it comes down to it that is how I too decide if I want to try another game.
    I think I will even take it a bit further and say “would I give up the games coming out in a few months to you your game?”. Pirates of the Burning Sea and Warhammer are just too close to get wrapped up into something else.

  3. Sorry to see you go Tipa. Hopefully you’ll either reconsider or CCP will add avatars real soon!
    Until then, I’ll be reading your meanderings in other worlds and EVE will be waiting for you!
    CrazyKinux

  4. I have two big gripes when it comes to mmorpgs. First, the money that you have to invest to play the game makes it difficult to play more than one. (At least my wife makes it difficult to pay for more than one). Second, the time needed to play them makes playing more than one prohibitive. Oh, if there was only more time to play.

  5. @Crazy, I’m with Fred. I loved Eve, had tons of fun in it and looked forward to getting up to the 0.0 stuff.
    Just, I am still enjoying EQ2 and am still paying for Station Access on at least one account of the three for which I pay (I would like to play EQ again, sometimes, when I can get it to work), and beyond that, I have made a commitment to do other things besides MMO with my life.
    $10US/month is my price point for a game I don’t intend to play every day. So games like Dungeon Runners, Guild Wars… things like that, I might well subscribe to. And if EvE let me play for $9.99/month, a deal they apparently offer to get old players to return, I would probably subscribe.
    If I am pay WoW prices for a game, I want a game with WoW’s content. While I know the ‘real’ EvE game is in the community, my time in EvE was running NPC missions which were very dull, while waiting for the weeks or months to pass before I got enough skills to qualify for the real game. I would need 30+ million ISK collateral in the bank even to take on the lowest of the PC missions….

  6. I made the change. Just had to do it. I was a long time player of EQ1 and wasn’t all that happy with EQ2. A friend mentioned trying out EVE, with the 14 day trial and I was hooked.

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