EVE Online - a game of immense scope, awesome potential, and
the steepest learning curve ever seen in Massively Multiplayer Online
Games (MMOG) to-date. Unlike other games of the genre, EVE Online
acknowledges the utility of secondary accounts to the point where they
endorse them with such programs as the Power of Two promotion that
returned this month:

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Space can be a lonely place. Make yourself a minion!

Space is a cold and dark place and sometimes you could use an
extra hand to get ahead or even just to survive. Power of Two gives you
the opportunity to create your own minion in EVE to do your bidding, be
it to obtain ISK or fight your enemies.

The Power of Two is available to everyone with an active EVE
subscription. (Trial accounts are not eligible.) The special package
includes account creation and six months of game time for a reduced
price.

I've been playing EVE Online on and off for about three years
now, and I've got a couple of characters that are firmly entrenched in
low-sec play these days. I came to wondering, though, what the player
experience must be like for those new to the game - especially since
the tutorial revamp, which I had yet to test-drive for myself. Well,
the Power of Two promotion came along just at the right time for my
needs, and it will give me an anonymous alt that I can use in Empire
space while I'm at it *evil grin*.

The hardest part of doing this is distancing yourself from
your own background and experience. What long-time users take for
granted now can be extremely confusing for new players. Is the new
out-of-the-box EVE Online experience easier or harder for newbies?
Let's see if we can determine the answer.

Character Creation

Character creation has been cleaned up greatly since I last
ran though the process. The various attribute and skill levels that
your character begins play with aren't as hidden as it was with the old
system, and a progress bar along the top of the screen shows you how
far along you are in the character creation process. With the wide-open
nature of EVE Online's skill training system, any choices you make here
won't matter a whole lot in the long-run, though, so don't worry if you
mess something up; it can always be fixed with further training down
the road.

With that being said, it is still a bewildering amount of
choice for a new player. What do these skills and abilities do? Someone
new to the game won't have much of a clue, and there's nothing here to
show them the way. Some research on the various EVE Online-related
websites can help, but not many will do that right away for their first
character. Again, not a big deal but bears a mention.

The Tutorial

"Aura", the omnipresent female voice that all EVE players are
familiar with, is still running the game tutorial with her dulcet
tones. After a brief run-through of how to navigate the tutorial,
you're thrown right into the action with a small skirmish with local
pirates. As before, it does a pretty decent job of explaining the
basics of ship-to-ship combat, keeping things at a simple level of
'click here, do this, etc.' that (hopefully) results in your opponent's
being vaporized and you picking up the modules dropped when they pop.

Other topics covered include basic mining, courier missions,
inventory management, skill training, using agents... it touches on
almost every aspect of basic gameplay. Would new players find it
adequate, though? From what I can tell, the tutorial is *still* very
light on detail into the more intricate parts of the game, something
that is confirmed with friends that I've convinced to try EVE Online
through the Trial Account program. With the main tutorial completed,
there are a number of other helpful tutorial screens that you can
access through the 'Welcome Window' that appears when you open a menu
item for the first time. I recommend that new users read each and every
one of those screens, as it's bound to save you a ton of grief later
on. Some of the tutorials seem to end abruptly - the Skill Training
portion ends rather abruptly, for example, without really explaining
how important skills are to be able to progress through new abilities,
ships and equipment. It would probably be helpful if there was a page
that linked *all* of the Welcome Pages in once place; then again, maybe
there is but I haven't been able to find it.

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Training skills in EVE Online is important, ad the tutorial ended rather abruptly.

New players are automatically joined to the Rookie Help
channel, where there are volunteers on hand to help with just about
anything you may need information for in EVE Online - and there's no
shortage of people looking for help. One anonymous newbie in the
channel put it this way: "This game is so difficult, awesome, boring
and addictive at the same time, how can it be so?" It's definitely a
lot to bite off for the uninitiated.

Almost as numerous as the newbie players were the ISK-selling
spambots, however. As fast as they could be shut down, they were in
with more spamvertisements for ISK sales. It's worse in Rookie Help
than almost anywhere else, to be sure, but it's clear the staff is a
little overwhelmed with dealing with those miscreants as well as those
in the channel that are seeking assistance.

Now What?

With the main tutorial completed, you're handed off to your
first agent. In the course of the next dozen or so missions and
assignments, you'll get more comfortable with the game interface and
how to get about in the big EVE universe. With the 'Cashflow for
Capsuleers' series of missions, you'll even net yourself a small amount
of ISK to help bankroll your next line of skills or ship purchase.

From this point, you're pretty much on your own as a new
player. The Rookie Help channel is always there, of course, and you can
usually find more information on the EVE Online forums that can give
you the pointers you need - but the game retains the same daunting
learning curve as before. The revamped tutorial does go further than
previous iterations, but you're still going to have to actively search
for advanced topics to learn more about the game.

As I go back and read what I've written about my latest go at
being a new player, it reads a little harshly and I don't want that to
be misleading. EVE Online is, hands-down, the most difficult MMOG to
play well and no amount of tutorial is going to entirely address that.
The game has succeeded in the face of this adversity and continues to
grow to this day, as it attracts some of the most cut-throat and
hardcore players around. Out of all the MMOGs out there, EVE Online is
the only one that I continue to return to - as well I should, since I
currently have three active accounts running. All that skill swapping
keeps a guy on his toes!

Where to go now? The universe awaits. A good friend of mine is
getting tired of his current corporate situation, and is considering
re-opening his old pirate company. Will it be a pirate's life for me?
Or should I jump into Factional Warfare instead? I intend to attempt
regular articles from the point of view of my new Power of Two account,
so stay tuned to this space for more musings.



To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EVE Online Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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