“EVE is shiny.”This was a comment by a friend of mine a while back when we were discussing the MMO I’d been watching my roommate play for a few months. I had been considering taking up the game myself, while she-a devoted FFXI player-had been trying to recruit me into the throngs of Vana’diel.

To be honest, I had never really played an MMO of any kind. It just wasn’t something I’d felt inclined to do. In fact, I had told many people that if I want to interact with others, I’d leave my house. Video games were something I played so that I didn’t have to bother with other people.

For these reasons, I didn’t tell my roommate when I decided to download the EVE client and install it. In fact, it was a week or more before I mentioned to him the desire to play at all. (To be honest, I was still working on the tutorial for my first avatar.)

Yes, the tutorial is a tad long. And even on my third avatar, I find it hard to go through it all in one sitting. This is not to say that it’s a bad tutorial. It’s not all-encompassing by any stretch of the imagination-that would take… Well, let’s just say it would take a while, but it does give you the tools you need to function without looking like a complete idiot and get out there to make some Inter Stellar Kredits, or ISK, as the game’s currency is called.

Once you say goodbye to the friendly tutorial, Aurora, and get out there in EVE, you’ll immediately see that my friend was right. It IS shiny. It’s a beautiful game to look at. It can also be a bit daunting.

Let’s face it kiddos, once you undock on your own for the first time without Aurora’s gentle voice and serene face there to keep you company, you realize one thing: You’re on your own, at least for the time being. It’s up to you to decide where you want to go, what you want to do and how to do it. You can spend the rest of your time in EVE “getting along” or you can find a way to make it big time.

You decide whether you want to stay by yourself, join a corporation or even just join a random gang for a small period of time. You can decide to mine, run missions or hunt pirates. You can decide to do all three. You can also decide between staying in high sec (safe) space and venturing into low sec (highly dangerous) space.

Like everything in EVE, each of these choices has its rewards and dangers. For instance, staying in high sec means that while you and your ship are much safer, you will spend more time trying make ISK. Venturing into low sec means a higher profit, but chances are you may not make it back intact.

EVE is a dangerous place. Dangerous. But if you can get past losing your ship-more than a few times-and let yourself get to know some of the players (including the one who just blew up your ship), you should find that, for the most part, it’s a nice place to hang out.

You should understand, however, that game play is a tad different than your standard MMO.

One thing that every player will have to get used to is ditching the regular concept of leveling up. You don’t really level up in this game. You’re not going to get a message popping up every time you reach a certain point-level. You will quietly set skills to train in the background while you go about your business. Oh, did I mention they train while you’re not playing? That’s right. And you need them to. Because while your initial skills will take somewhere between five minutes to a few hours, some will take weeks or more. On the upside, if you decide to take a hiatus for a month or so… Just set a 30+ day skill and it’ll keep chugging away until you get back.

If, for some reason, you feel the need to think of yourself as “leveling,” the only area that would be remotely relevant would be in dealing with agents. Agents are the people who players run missions for, if the player feels inclined to do them at all. Essentially, every mission you run for the same agent, or agents within the same corporation, raises your standing with them. The higher the standing, the better agents and missions you can access with that corporation. This, ladies and gents, is pretty much the only grinding you will find in EVE.

Also, while there is an EVE Online back story and histories for each of the races, there is no real RP-ing. Don’t consider this a loss, though. While you may miss RP at first, you will find that it is made up for by the EVE community in general. The developers of the game work hard to keep the entire game on one server. This is truly unique in online gaming and allows for a lot of player-driven development. We as players determine the market. We start and end wars–or narrowly avert them.

The developers aren’t the only ones adding to the community. The players contribute with offerings like EVERadio-an EVE-dedicated Internet radio station. And then there’s EVE-TV, a service started by CCP to cover the alliance tournaments. You will also find a good amount of experienced players more than willing to help out the fledgling pilot.

I would like to note that, as with most games, things don’t always run perfectly in EVE. There’s the occasional in-game problem, the company snafu and other random issues. But, for the player looking for a little less grinding, seeking something different, or just thinking that he might like to try a game designed by a bunch of drunken Vikings who love a good time, then EVE is right up your alley.

Oh, remember how I mentioned my friend was trying to get me to try FFXI? Well, I did start it about the same time as EVE. As of now, my FFXI account has been cancelled and I have a second EVE account instead.