The massive multiplayer online (MMO) game “EVE Online” quite literally places you in an infinite universe. Set in space, this game requires time, patience and dedication. What type of spaceship and skills you have determines what you can do in “EVE.” You are the only one on this ship. You never leave it, and it will be destroyed — multiple times.

“EVE Online” starts you off by helping you build a character and choosing a race. There are four factions to choose from in “EVE”: The Gallantes are the political race, The Caldari are the combat-orientated race, the Amarr are the religious types and the Minmitar are once-slaves turned rebels. All these races can be built to suit whatever profession you like, but some start off better than others.

One element unique to “EVE” is that you never actually leave your ship. When you dock at a space station, you can buy whatever you need, be it missiles or shield enhancers. Nothing comes free in “EVE,” and the entire in-game market is user driven. Economics is a huge factor in this game.

Unlike typical MMOs, “EVE” utilizes real-time skill training. This means that instead of leveling up after gaining a certain amount of experience, all skills are learned within an exact amount of time.

All skills must be bought and demonstrated for your character to progress through the game. Trust me, there are hundreds of skills and it’s rumored that actually learning every skill in the game would take four to five years.

If you want to captain a battle cruiser, it’s going to take you a while to train up the skills necessary to pilot it. So what to do during that time?

One option is missions. Missions are given out by one of the many non-player character corporations, and the more missions you do, the better standing you receive with that corporation.

Player-made corporations are the equivalent to guilds, or super groups. Player corporations range in variety, from miner to pirate. The pirate corporations are usually the ones that have enough muscle to “own” a system. They usually just kill anything that comes in.

Remember when I said your ship will be destroyed, no matter what you do? Pirates are the ones responsible. To avoid player pirates, “neutral” players stay out of low level systems. Systems can range from 1.0 (safest) to 0.0 (danger Will Robinson!).

Getting from system to system is as easy as warping to the appropriate stargate. There are thousands of systems to explore, and you will probably never see them all. Graphically, the game looks great, but there isn’t ever a whole lot going on at once, so you rarely get any lag.

Because all of this happens on one server, and there are up to 30,000 players on at a time, the social and technical aspect of “EVE” can get a little hectic, especially for new people. Luckily, there are in-game chat rooms that have Game Masters on hand to answer any and all questions you may have.

It’s basically like this: Player gets mission, player does mission (kill or deliver something), player gets reward. On the outside, “EVE” is a deep, rewarding new experience. On the inside, “EVE” is just like “World of Warcraft”, only with space ships. It just takes longer to get to that super über armor. Along with this, it’s very hard to meet players to play with regularly because the universe is so large.

Overall, “EVE” is more of the same in a different universe. It is definitely worth checking out, and if you have the patience, worth the investment of a year or two. However, if you’re looking for a faster paced MMO, stick with “WoW” or “City of Heroes.”

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