The EVE rite of noobness passage

Stargrace is the first one I heard use the term “Nomadic Gamer” and I’ve decided I like that a lot more than “MMO Tourist.” Tourist to me has a negative connotation. You can travel a lot, visit many places and as long as you show some respect for the people, places & cultures you’re visiting, you won’t be considered a tourist.

[I should point out that I grew up in a summer resort so I may have a more negative reaction to the word “tourists” (which in my family was *always* preceded by the word “damned”) than most.]

Anyway, dissembling out of the way, I’ve decided to follow Stargrace and Petter into EVE. This is not technically my first visit; I played back when the game first launched, and once, very briefly, since. But I kept hearing about how the game had changed.

Now I was always an enthusiastic EVE Observer; I loved reading the stories about wars and scams and deals that went down in the game. But I assumed there was no place for someone like me; someone not willing to commit to playing a single MMO as his main leisure time activity. But Stargrace convinced me otherwise; or at least convinced me enough to give the game a try. A *generous* 21-day trial (as long as a current player invites you) really helped in this decision. I’d heard the horror stories of the steep learning curve and knew that if I tried to force myself to learn the basics of the game in a short time I’d walk away in disgust. [Darkfall’s $1, 7-day trial leaves a bitter taste in my mouth after learning of EVE’s free 21-day trial.]

I’ve been taking things very slowly indeed. Two challenges I face: 1) there’s a lot to learn that isn’t at all obvious (as Blue Kae pointed out to me…prior MMO know-how isn’t very useful here) and after a long day of coding and writing for my two jobs, it’s hard to get enthusiastic about stuffing more content into my tired brain. And 2) laugh if you will, but EVE is the only PC game I’ve played that makes me put on my reading glasses. Even with the on-screen font bumped up to 12 pt, wide (the max it will go), I can’t read it without glasses. Which means I have to lean forward to play so that the glasses will focus on the screen. Silly, but it means my eyes tire very quickly while playing. I’m hoping this eases up some when I’m not reading tutorials constantly.

But I started Thursday night, and this morning I hit that point that every EVE ultra-noob eventually comes to:

Yes, I’m doing the Mining Tutorial! With this new-found knowledge, the world galaxy is my oyster!

Kidding aside, figuring things out and learning a game that’s so markedly different is turning out to be a heck of a lot of fun, as long as I go at my own pace. It really, *really* helps to have a group of folks willing to offer help and advice when I get lost. Petter formed a little Corps that has a nice handful of Twitter/Buzz/Blogger types in it, and that helps a bunch too. Nice to have a channel where I can ask dumb questions and not be (maliciously, at least!) laughed at.

Now I guess I need to go track down the EVEMon program and see what that’s all about. Until the next green pasture of MMO goodness beckons, I’ll see you Nomads in EVE!

4 thoughts on “The EVE rite of noobness passage

  1. I’ve always used the term “MMO Gypsy” myself. It seemed slightly more polite than the “MMO Whore” that some of my officemates used to use to describe me. 🙂 I really like the connotation of a group that moves from land to land, setting up our tents, taking part in the local customs, food & festivities, before packing up and moving on to the next location.

    But “Nomadic Gamer” isn’t bad either. 🙂 Enjoy your stint in Eve Online!

    Dusty

  2. I have a love/hate relationship with this game. It has some really nice people that play and at the same time has the biggest group of assholes I have ever seen in any MMO. Its a good game to play if you want to catch up on your reading or set up a game console next to it and play a game of Madden or something else while you mine or go thru jumpgate after jumpgate after jumpgate after jumpgate.

  3. If you need a few million ISK to get things cranking, drop me a line through Eve mail (Jaggins). I think EVE is a great casual MMO for those of us with families and jobs. With the skill training system, you can advance and explore new things without dropping an insane amount of time into the game.

    Good to hear you have found a great corp. Group ops is the secret spice that will keep your fun quotient high in EVE whether PVP or PVE.

    Welcome to New Eden!

    -Jaggins

  4. EVEmon is awesome! I am only about three weeks into the game, but I am really enjoying the game a lot. The tutorial and career agent missions do a great job at teaching new pilots like myself the basics of the game, enough that I felt comfortable with buying the game and going out on my own. I just started the epic mission arc and so far they have been pretty easy, but very profitable.

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