I admit, for years now I've heard of EVE Online and thought,
That just doesn't sound like my kind of thing. Then I heard about a major heist that occurred in game, in which a player infiltrated a player-run corporation (the EVE equivalent of guilds), rose in ranks within the corporation, and then sabotaged it. Turns out he was a spy, and he'd spent months planning and executing this.
I thought that sounded fascinating, but I still figured it wasn't the game for me. Space combat; lots of number-crunching; an unusual skill progression system that made it pretty much impossible to catch up to people who'd been playing for years.
Then I heard about a new heist. A high-level director of the largest corporation in the game turned traitor and sold the company out to their biggest rival. And not only is this sort of behavior allowed, but the players all love it (though I'm sure the guys in that corporation had more than a few choice words for the traitor).
So I figured it was time to figure out what the fuss was about. Free trial, easy download. What could it hurt? I could get in, give it a few hours/couple of days, and then I'd know for sure it wasn't for me. That was four days ago. I've been going to bed after one every night. I spend my free time learning about various elements of the game (I wasn't wrong about the complexity).
In other MMOs, I play on PvE servers if there's ever a choice. I'm a carebear. I've been known to help out Horde characters against a monster they're struggling with, even with my PvP flag enabled. In EVE, I trust no one I don't know. I was suspicious when a GM-type player-volunteer started a private chat to ask me how I'm enjoying the game. I suspect they were telling the truth, and they didn't ask for anything from me, or try to get any intel off me. But I was wary of every answer I gave. Someone tried a scam on me in which they jettisoned a cargo container labeled "free stuff" then stood in wait to see who would take it. (If you steal from another PC--which taking from their container qualifies as--that gives them the right to fire on you without you being able to fire in return). I suspected it could be a scam, but I did it anyway and then warped away.
It's a unique game world. Stealing from other characters is acceptable. Scamming them is perfectly fine. Want to sneak up on a PC's ship and demand extortion money to prevent you from blowing them out of the skies? Feel free. You can't steal from a
player (hack an account, for example) obviously, and you can't exploit a bug, but most everything other MMOs shield you from is acceptable.
As you can see, I'm really enjoying it so far. I plan to give the trial period its full two weeks before I make the decision to subscribe, just to be sure (and also, I have no money at the moment). Once I have a better understanding of the game mechanics, I'll probably post more.