Survival is tough--especially in space. Eve Online is a game of depth and mystery, one wrong step and you will find yourself on the wrong side of a laser turret; go into this game unprepared and welcome a myriad of confusion and tender despair. My mission was simple; survive in Eve Online for eight weeks and report my trials and tribulations. I knew this would be hard but still I was unprepared. This is Eve Online Survivor Guy.

Week Five: Down and Out in New Eden

It has been five long weeks since I started my survival in Eve Online, I had enjoyed my experience but constantly tasted the bittersweet element of mind boggling depth the game offers. As I now stand in my survival I feel myself hitting a brick wall; I am now static, without purpose, unknowing of what I am to do next but scrabbling for my next hit of space adventure which the game dangles above like a metaphorical pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Most of my playing time had been cancelled down, invested in pursuits of knowledge on the Internet, a frantic search for some sort of hint or tip, helpful comments on previous posts seemingly have yielded more questions. I knew Eve Online was to be a difficult mistress, I had heard the tales of its murderous learning curve, now I bore witness to those foreboding scenes.

Since I last left off in detailing my experiences I had found a corporation and subsequently left it in search for a more helpful establishment. This was a quest I would find myself indulged in for days; I would search in-game and in-browser for newbie corporations but to no avail, oh sure they were certainly out there but the mountainous applications they receive seemingly relegated me to a long waiting list, it's like they think I am not important. The one corporation that had taken my eye was Eve University, a name that would constantly be paraded in front of my vision as I asked for help or guidance. After finding them I applied and waited; and I waited more. Finally I decided to ask how long it would take for my induction into the University- I was promptly told around five days. What was I to do for this amount of time? Search for another Corp? Seek out helpful players? This week of my survival was going to be testing to my patience and will.

From research and simply conversing with other players, this is perhaps the hardest test of Eve Online, persevering with the game when everything seems at its darkest. I had indulged in missions and mining for the past month and now I wished to progress, take the next step--apparently this was corporation warfare but as of yet I had not had much luck with this element. Unlike most games of the genre, Eve Online simply plunges you into its virtual world and lets you decide on your actions and path. Coming from games such as EverQuest and the like, this is a real shock to the system, where most games guide you by hand, Eve Online simply refuses, and this is why I now find myself hitting the brick wall of static progress. I desperately wished to continue and advance but this week was becoming a very hard week for survival.

My week consisted of my routine pursuits; I would run a dozen or so missions; use guides and tips to plan my progress into becoming a better combat pilot, then I would mine and haul back with my frigate. In this time I had amassed a modest amount of wealth, a handful of ships including: a Catalyst, an Iterion Mark II and III and also a Retriever (a ship I had simply bought in an effort to mine more without having the skills to do so) I thought I had achieved something with my time, I was enjoying myself also but I couldn't help but feel I was going nowhere and fast. The goals I had set myself early on and simply disappeared, every guide I read told me to pick and choose a path but my objectives simply fell by the wayside.

I had pitted all of my hope and efforts on receiving an invitation into one of the many rookie Corporations I had applied to, this seems like a bad plan but during this week I felt like I had nowhere else to turn. I need guidance and someone to really explain the advanced basics. Helpful comments on this very website would explain what I should do and usually these would involve joining a Corporation but I was finding this a very hard prospect, just how does one really go about finding such an establishment that is not only good but understanding to a rookie? I had joined and left numerous Corporations by now and all of them were seemingly empty voids existing only to constantly increase in number. I was despairing at the game for lack of a better word; I needed something to really reinvigorate my time in the game.

Of course my week was simply becoming a waiting game and in search of excitement and a break in the norm I was to take a metaphorical leaf out of the scoundrel book. I needed to catch a little adrenaline before I hopefully moved on and so I was to try a method that I had read about, it sounded devilishly naughty but what the hell? I was a rookie on a waiting list; the devil makes work of idle thumbs after all. Activating my Catalyst I set out into the nearest populated asteroid field, after scanning around I came across one player with a very small ship simply mining into a jettisoned can- this pilot's foolish trust in space was his undoing. After around twenty minutes of simply watching from afar I surmised that this can was probably filled with a generous amount of Veldspar, I moved quickly, making a bookmark of this place I returned to my station and made use of my Iterion Mark III, warping back to my prospective crime scene I came upon the jettisoned can and swiftly devoured the content. With rapid clicks I set about warping back to the station with my ill gotten gains, there I waited, sold my wares and sat smugly like a proud space vagabond.

Space piracy had always sounded like a great idea to me, who doesn't like pirates after all? I had imagined myself a sort of space traveling Black Beard, commandeering anything I see, plundering all and making good use of Space Rum. This little excursion was exciting and made me feel like a joyful child, I craved more; I craved violence and a chance to flex my Catalyst's muscle. I returned a little later after my theft to the same asteroid field and found that while my victim had departed, possibly in a funk of depression, several others remained; mining for my ore. Weighing up my prospective combatants, naturally I choose the weakest and smallest of them all. Approaching him I spotted my target, the jettisoned can, with a few simple clicks I had stolen my fill of his gains and waited. The inevitable laser shot came and I was in business. Moving quickly I targeted the pilot and unleashed the fury of my six turrets. It all ended with a satisfying explosion. Space pirate was I.

Week five had been a difficult week. I had carried on in my routine activities and had found this a little disparaging, I ultimately wanted to advance and progress but had found myself hitting a brick wall, I had become static and it was becoming the greatest threat to my survival. In many ways this week had become filler, just something I had to get through until hopefully my application to Eve University and others may be accepted. In order to satiate my despair I had indulged in the adventurous and devilish piracy that I had heard of, of course in a very minor scale but it was exciting and enjoyable. Still I found myself scrabbling and on the ropes, my survival in Eve Online was becoming tougher and now it had become a battle of will. Would I be able to continue if my fortunes didn't look up? Once thing is for sure, I had a hell of a lot of reading to be doing. Join me next week as I continue....