1) What makes 'Eve' fun for you?
Off the cuff:
- It's a "new" thing and I tend to enjoy new things if there's some substance to them.
- It's fairly substantial and complex in that there are various options and choices between them aren't straight forward; I can't just say "well, I want to blow stuff up" cause the follow on question is then "how do you want to blow stuff up".
- There's a lot of widgets and plenty of option to use them very early on. I'm not locked out of trying Electronic Warfare, for example, early in the game due to arbitrary limits. Sure, I can't use the really advanced stuff but I'm not yet at a stage where I understand the game enough to want/need that advanced stuff.
- I can play solo. Better, I can play as a duo. The game is stronger as a duo, I feel -- too lonely/empty otherwise -- but it is crucial that, at this point in the game, I can also play by myself.
- Apparent opportunity to explore. The world is huge and while one planet is much like the next there's still some sense that there's "stuff" out there if only I go looking for it.
- Sometimes the game is sufficiently good looking that I can stop playing and just watch the world.
- It scales to my commitment. If I want to just hang out and browse the market, I can do that. If I want a deadly mission filled with pirates then I can usually find one. If I want hair-raising chases by player pirates, I can have those too. If I want a quiet time just mining asteroids then that's also available. I choose, hour to hour, what I want to do and what game play experience I fancy. There are some caveats to that (as we recently found out when HeXstoof declared war on us) but largely it's a "you choose" game. Conversely, if you lack direction then this game can be one you get lost in easily.
2) How addictive is 'Eve'?
I don't think one can really provide a clear picture of "addictiveness" so, instead, I'm going to answer this in terms of requirements to progress.
Skill training happens in real time and takes hours or days for the more advanced skills. I'm currently training Electronics 5 on my character and that'll take me another 4 days. If you're a compulsive person, you may find that having your character not training at some points is a problem; if that's the case then always leave something huge training when you're offline and there's no need to check back meanwhile.
I'm not particularly compulsive and have a lot of flexibility so I might decide to set a skill training for 3 hours then change it over mid-afternoon and then again just before I go to bed. I accept a loss of a few training hours here and there. I probably make around 80% efficiency on training (with 20% lost to just not being around when one bit of training finished and another needed to start). Others find they "have" to be training all the time and get up in the middle of the night to train.
It's entirely up to you.
Another way of looking at this is around time commitment on any given session and the ability to step away mid-session because you've got something else that suddenly needs your attention.
From the perspective of a person who largely runs missions via agents (EVE's versions of quests), most early missions are done inside 20 minutes. If you stick around to both loot and
salvage (a good way of making money early on) then expect to add another 20-30 minutes. The salvaging is optional, of course, and perhaps a bit tedious. However, Wraith and I ran a mission that took us over two hours and I imagine there are longer ones still.
Now, you can decide to step out of a mission and come back later. However, there are usually (always?) bonuses for doing the mission within a set time limit, often a few hours or even days. If you're feeling compulsive, losing that bonus might be a problem. If you're feeling more laissez faire then you can just accept that the bonus is going to be lost and you'll do better next time. Additionally, all missions have a maximum time limit that can have negatives if you don't keep to. Usually this is fairly long (days) but you can lose out if you accept a mission then don't deliver on it. This is only a problem if you thought you could play and then suddenly can't and can't get back online for a week or something.
So, I'd say the problems in this area are down to your personal level of compulsiveness. Personally, I occasionally find myself wondering if I've remembered to leave a skill training but largely I just ignore it if I've forgotten to.
3) How much time do you need to spend per day or per week in order to make decent/satisfactory progression?
The real "grind" in EVE is cash and standing as there is no experience, per se; experience, what there is of it, is the quantity of real time you've spent playing EVE and keeping a skill training.
Cash is earned for all sorts of things and there is (as far as I can see) a thriving economy. Missions pay. Loot pays. Salvage pays. Of course, everything costs too; ammunition, ships, skill books, etc, etc. In general, it seems like a time-for-money transaction.
Standing is probably the trickiest one, therefore. Standing is gained by running missions. It's a measure of your reputation with that Corporation. High standing gives you access to high level agents who give the best and most difficult missions. Low or negative standing may mean that this Corporation won't deal with you at all. Running the same mission ten times to improve standing can be a pain, but this is no different to any MMO at that point.
I think I play maybe 10 to 15 hours a week, late nights (22:00 to 01:00) and currently have two Cruisers, a Destroyer and a Frigate. I feel like that's pretty decent going in three weeks, especially as I did most of that myself without much financial help. Of course, if you're like bob and just play EVE like a mad thing then you'd probably be in a Battlecruiser by now and working on your first Battleship. The thing to remember to look at your time in and your experience (of the game) out. I think that HNW, our Corporation, is also happy to do loans for what we consider to be core skills (e.g. Salvaging) to help get you started. Salvaging pays for itself in a couple of days, usually.
4) How stable is 'Eve' on your machine? ie how often does it hang/crash/BSOD?
I've had two crashes in three weeks. I think both were overheating. Largely, I find EVE to be stable.
