EVE Online, just for kicks
So after hearing that EVE Online has a free client download and 14-day free trial, no credit card needed (over on Shamus Young's blog, Twenty Sided Tale, which has a hilarious comic based on the LotR movies turned into a D&D adventure), I thought I'd give it a try. I've never really played a MMORPG before, and I really like the space theme and all, so what the hey.
I'm running into the same problem Shamus did... there's lots of "hurry up and wait". Your combat mission is seven jumps away? Well, that's fifteen minutes of watching the very, very pretty starscape fly by in hyperspace, with nothing obviously constructive to do besides chat. Get blown up? Six jumps to get a good deal on a new ship, five jumps to get the best price on the new guns, and seven jumps back to try that combat mission again. Get blown up in fifteen seconds, and do it all over again. :)
Last night I was greeted by an official volunteer greeter... the first person I've chatted with, actually. That was a nice touch, having a real person check up on how things are going.
But overall I'm a bit frustrated with the "wasted time" thing. I think I can see reasons for space travel taking up a bit of real time... if you need reinforcements, you don't want everyone to be able to pop in instantly. But dang, they made travel way too long. I can see some of the same thing with mining... mining takes a few minutes of "doing nothing else useful" time as well, but since the best mining spots are the most infested with pirates, "combat mining" is apparently a real adventure. And entire fleet pops in, clears out the pirates, and then sets up a perimeter to ward off incoming pirates long enough for the mining crews to do their work. And for that to have play value, mining has to take time.
You can use the Market interface during travel and mining... so if you wanted to get into the day-trading thing, you could probably do some of that. I ought to look at it... my highest skills are in trading.
But I'm thinking that to really "get" the game, I need to get involved in multiplayer action... what's the point of playing in a universe with 27,000+ live players connected if I play the game solo? So I'm going to try hooking up with someone else for a little team action beating up of pirates and see how that goes. And I'm itching to try out this new missile launcher I finally acquired the skills to install and use... after getting my butt kicked by these things, I'm looking forward to dishing out some of the same.
I don't expect I'll play past the 14-day trial period. But I've got ten days left in the trial, and I'm going to play it a little longer to see how it turns out.