Right, first thing...  I'm not actually sure if today is my first day in my fourth year but it sounded right to put it...
 
I've just read a blog about some guy's first days in EVE, so as a veteran player (I've clocked up at least 3years, I know that much!) I thought I'd let people see what I do in my days.
 
First of, I did some orientation checks.  (Where am I, where are my ships, where are my friends, where are my enemies - these things will become natural to you by this stage of play).  My Harbinger (a Battle Cruiser size combat ship), my Runner (a small general purpose shuttle), my Magnate (a basic scout ship) and my Covetor (a mid-level mining ship) were all with me in my current station.  Good.  However neither my Orca (big-ass mining support and hauling ship) or my Sigil (small and relatively quick hauling ship (in general, all haulers are slow)) were one jump away in another station.   Bad.   If I needed these it would take 10 mins to go and get them.  In my EVE, time is money.   However this cruel PvP event called Hulkaggeddon is on at the moment so neither of these ships would be needed...
 
Next, hoped in my Magnate whilst scanning the channels for potential wingmen for the day.  No one :( .  Did a full scan of the system and located 6 combat sites and an anomaly.  Further analysis showed the anomaly to be a wormhole.  I didn't bother finding out where it went.  Time is money.
 
Docked up the Magnate and swapped to the battle cruiser.  Took out the combat sites (veterans will call this overkill, I call it easy) then docked up again.  Spoke to one of my agents and got a mission, saw that my girlfriends had just came online so I rang her up IRL and asked if she could run salvage for me.  (It's easier to speak on the phone then type constantly).  She said she was free and hoped in MY shiny new Noctis that I'd given her and she hadn't yet given back.  (One day, I will discover her password - note: this would be against the EVE EULA but it's not like my gf is actually paying for her account either!).
 
So, with my Harby I entered the mission site.  Empty at first then the rats showed up.  After ensuring all the rats were attacking me, I launched my drones and set them upon the smaller enemies (they guys that were too fast for my guns to hit).  Then I signalled my girlfriend to come on in.  As I poped the cruisers and my droens took out the frigates, the wrecks started to pile up, limiting my ability to use my overview effectively.  No big deal, as soon enough, the Noctis was eating wrecks nearly as fast as I was making them.  Just as the last enemy went boom.  An NPC battleship spawned.  Not a problem for most mission runners.  But a problem for me.  I recalled my drones as the BS tried to attack one of them, then launched them again when he was focusing on me.  My tank was holding up well, and with the combined force of my lasers and droens, the BS fell, signalling the end of the mission.  I left my girlfriend to clear up the last of the wrecks whilst I turned the mission in.
 
Already bored of killing NPCs, I had my girlfriend send me her Bestower (a larger slower version of the Sigil), fitted a basic tank setup that would last 30 seconds tops if I was suicide ganked (hopefully long enough for Concord to deal with the suicider(s) and flew out to several planets where my colonies were hard at work making me items to sell.  I moved one particular item from planet A to planet B, since planet B could turn it into a much more profitable item.  With my cargo hold near full with stuff to sell, I decided to head to Jita.  On my way, I study my skills and made a short plan of what to train for the next week or so.
 
With that done I looked through contracts to see if there was anything cheap I could buy to sell on.  I found a nifty little auction going.  Current bid was 41mil, and of the 20 or so items in the auction one of those was worth 40mil on its own.   Knew this since recently, I'd had to buy said item to upgrade one of my ships.  A bit of research showed me, that in total, the top 4 items were worth 80mil.  With less than a day to go, I figured I'd put in a bid.  Best case scenario, I get a load of items I can sell on individually for profit, worst case scenario, some other guy on EVE makes less profit from the plan.
 
By this time, I'd gotten to Jita.  EVE's biggest market hub.  I docked up and started looking at the market value of the stuff I was selling.  A few things, like very low amounts of faction ammo that I didn't use (most likely I'd stolen from a bait can) I sold straight to the highest buyer.  Lower profit, but I got the money straight away and other people wouldn't buy such a small amount on it's own if I had put it up to sell.  The big items in my hold I put on open market rather than selling directly.  On average, I sold for about 20% ISK (the currency in EVE) than if I'd just sold to those already looking to buy.  Easy money, though it can take a few mins for someone to buy.  Sometimes it may even take a few days.  After about 30 mins or so I'd sold so much, that if my empty hauler got blown up on my way "home", I'd be able to buy it back twenty times and still have change.  Haulers are cheap.  What they haul isn't.
 
So, back home I jumped back in the magnate didn't find anything interesting so I told my girlfriend that I was logging off to play Bulletstorm.  I asked her to keep an eye out for a guy I needed to speak to about a manufacturing job.  She said she'd ring me if he came on. 
 
==================================================================================================================================== 

If all that sounds mundane or boring, it's the way I've explained it.  You'll notice a lot of what I did today was solo.  Some like to play EVE that way.  I've had to play EVE that way because it's hard to find people you can trust that play UK time zones.  Not everyone in EVE is out to get you.  I'm definitely not, it's not in my nature.
 
On what I call a fun day, I'd probably store my harbinger in another players orca, use my magnate to find a wormhole, then guide my orca pilot about half a dozen miner and a handful of combat pilots into the wormhole.  On the other side, I'd find a asteroid field, send the combats in to clear it, then send in the miners.  I'd stay in the magnate for a while, finding more comabt sites to keep our killers happy (and to make more profit by selling the NPC loot).  When our time was up, or when the miners were done filling the orca with ore, I'd guide everyone back to the wormhole and we'd return to our normal homes whilst the group leader sold the ore and loot the divided up the cash.  With luck, the Harbinger wouldn't need to be used at all.
 
In EVE, you can do what you like, with whoever you like.  Some people do mining, some like to bust up NPCs and some like to bust up other players.  I'm the type of player who has no solid focus, I do what I like when I want.  If some guys are flying a mining op, I'd offer to bring in my orca to haul or provide support, or I'd fly the cov and help fill any hauling ships quicker.  If a group I trust are going into low sec, I'd fly an Arbitrator to support them rather than fit loads of guns and be one of the guys doing the shooting.
 
Right now I'm actually looking at upgrading my Magnate into an Anthema, but I don't have the skills for the Anthema, yet.  This only takes time, since I can easily make enough ISK to buy an Anthema in little over a day.
 
In game, I'm AnnonOMous.  If you want to hook up, just send me a message.  If you want ISK, sod off.  If you want help, let me know the details.  If you want to give me ISK, thanks, money for nothing is always a good thing.

Right, first thing...  I'm not actually sure if today is my first day in my fourth year but it sounded right to put it...
 
I've just read a blog about some guy's first days in EVE, so as a veteran player (I've clocked up at least 3years, I know that much!) I thought I'd let people see what I do in my days.
 
First of, I did some orientation checks.  (Where am I, where are my ships, where are my friends, where are my enemies - these things will become natural to you by this stage of play).  My Harbinger (a Battle Cruiser size combat ship), my Runner (a small general purpose shuttle), my Magnate (a basic scout ship) and my Covetor (a mid-level mining ship) were all with me in my current station.  Good.  However neither my Orca (big-ass mining support and hauling ship) or my Sigil (small and relatively quick hauling ship (in general, all haulers are slow)) were one jump away in another station.   Bad.   If I needed these it would take 10 mins to go and get them.  In my EVE, time is money.   However this cruel PvP event called Hulkaggeddon is on at the moment so neither of these ships would be needed...
 
Next, hoped in my Magnate whilst scanning the channels for potential wingmen for the day.  No one :( .  Did a full scan of the system and located 6 combat sites and an anomaly.  Further analysis showed the anomaly to be a wormhole.  I didn't bother finding out where it went.  Time is money.
 
Docked up the Magnate and swapped to the battle cruiser.  Took out the combat sites (veterans will call this overkill, I call it easy) then docked up again.  Spoke to one of my agents and got a mission, saw that my girlfriends had just came online so I rang her up IRL and asked if she could run salvage for me.  (It's easier to speak on the phone then type constantly).  She said she was free and hoped in MY shiny new Noctis that I'd given her and she hadn't yet given back.  (One day, I will discover her password - note: this would be against the EVE EULA but it's not like my gf is actually paying for her account either!).
 
So, with my Harby I entered the mission site.  Empty at first then the rats showed up.  After ensuring all the rats were attacking me, I launched my drones and set them upon the smaller enemies (they guys that were too fast for my guns to hit).  Then I signalled my girlfriend to come on in.  As I poped the cruisers and my droens took out the frigates, the wrecks started to pile up, limiting my ability to use my overview effectively.  No big deal, as soon enough, the Noctis was eating wrecks nearly as fast as I was making them.  Just as the last enemy went boom.  An NPC battleship spawned.  Not a problem for most mission runners.  But a problem for me.  I recalled my drones as the BS tried to attack one of them, then launched them again when he was focusing on me.  My tank was holding up well, and with the combined force of my lasers and droens, the BS fell, signalling the end of the mission.  I left my girlfriend to clear up the last of the wrecks whilst I turned the mission in.
 
Already bored of killing NPCs, I had my girlfriend send me her Bestower (a larger slower version of the Sigil), fitted a basic tank setup that would last 30 seconds tops if I was suicide ganked (hopefully long enough for Concord to deal with the suicider(s) and flew out to several planets where my colonies were hard at work making me items to sell.  I moved one particular item from planet A to planet B, since planet B could turn it into a much more profitable item.  With my cargo hold near full with stuff to sell, I decided to head to Jita.  On my way, I study my skills and made a short plan of what to train for the next week or so.
 
With that done I looked through contracts to see if there was anything cheap I could buy to sell on.  I found a nifty little auction going.  Current bid was 41mil, and of the 20 or so items in the auction one of those was worth 40mil on its own.   Knew this since recently, I'd had to buy said item to upgrade one of my ships.  A bit of research showed me, that in total, the top 4 items were worth 80mil.  With less than a day to go, I figured I'd put in a bid.  Best case scenario, I get a load of items I can sell on individually for profit, worst case scenario, some other guy on EVE makes less profit from the plan.
 
By this time, I'd gotten to Jita.  EVE's biggest market hub.  I docked up and started looking at the market value of the stuff I was selling.  A few things, like very low amounts of faction ammo that I didn't use (most likely I'd stolen from a bait can) I sold straight to the highest buyer.  Lower profit, but I got the money straight away and other people wouldn't buy such a small amount on it's own if I had put it up to sell.  The big items in my hold I put on open market rather than selling directly.  On average, I sold for about 20% ISK (the currency in EVE) than if I'd just sold to those already looking to buy.  Easy money, though it can take a few mins for someone to buy.  Sometimes it may even take a few days.  After about 30 mins or so I'd sold so much, that if my empty hauler got blown up on my way "home", I'd be able to buy it back twenty times and still have change.  Haulers are cheap.  What they haul isn't.
 
So, back home I jumped back in the magnate didn't find anything interesting so I told my girlfriend that I was logging off to play Bulletstorm.  I asked her to keep an eye out for a guy I needed to speak to about a manufacturing job.  She said she'd ring me if he came on. 
 
==================================================================================================================================== 

If all that sounds mundane or boring, it's the way I've explained it.  You'll notice a lot of what I did today was solo.  Some like to play EVE that way.  I've had to play EVE that way because it's hard to find people you can trust that play UK time zones.  Not everyone in EVE is out to get you.  I'm definitely not, it's not in my nature.
 
On what I call a fun day, I'd probably store my harbinger in another players orca, use my magnate to find a wormhole, then guide my orca pilot about half a dozen miner and a handful of combat pilots into the wormhole.  On the other side, I'd find a asteroid field, send the combats in to clear it, then send in the miners.  I'd stay in the magnate for a while, finding more comabt sites to keep our killers happy (and to make more profit by selling the NPC loot).  When our time was up, or when the miners were done filling the orca with ore, I'd guide everyone back to the wormhole and we'd return to our normal homes whilst the group leader sold the ore and loot the divided up the cash.  With luck, the Harbinger wouldn't need to be used at all.
 
In EVE, you can do what you like, with whoever you like.  Some people do mining, some like to bust up NPCs and some like to bust up other players.  I'm the type of player who has no solid focus, I do what I like when I want.  If some guys are flying a mining op, I'd offer to bring in my orca to haul or provide support, or I'd fly the cov and help fill any hauling ships quicker.  If a group I trust are going into low sec, I'd fly an Arbitrator to support them rather than fit loads of guns and be one of the guys doing the shooting.
 
Right now I'm actually looking at upgrading my Magnate into an Anthema, but I don't have the skills for the Anthema, yet.  This only takes time, since I can easily make enough ISK to buy an Anthema in little over a day.
 
In game, I'm AnnonOMous.  If you want to hook up, just send me a message.  If you want ISK, sod off.  If you want help, let me know the details.  If you want to give me ISK, thanks, money for nothing is always a good thing.

What are the larger events happening in the game environment lately? I guess the new update is only a short time away from being implemented, from what I've seen. You looking forward to the changes?
 
I'm not sure I have the resources to get into this game myself, but I'm interested in hearing what's going on. 
 
If you wanted to give your article a bit more punch, maybe adding pics or links to the ships you're talking about might reduce 'net travel time. When you say you have all those ships, can you just buy a ship, store it, and as long as you can move to the place where it's stored you can then pilot it? And when you refer to agents, are you talking NPCs or real players? Hard to tell without knowing more about the game, I guess.

A very nice read, thanks for sharing your experiences. 
 
I've tried EVE before but I was slightly scared that if I played, I would somehow be inferior compared to other players even after two years. Do you think that's the case and how much effort and time does one need to put into EVE for it to get to the point which in your opinion is the game is the most fun and rewarding?

@ hoodie.  I'm bad at blogs.  I dont' make them often.  I just assumed that if someone were reading an article about eve, (rather than say a review) they'd already have some knowledge of what was what.  Certainly, to eve players, all the hauling ships mentioned are easily recognized.

@ Joru.  Everyone is new to a new game once upon a time.  Let's say...  Halo Reach.  Maybe you've played it, maybe you haven't I could have said any game.  When you start (in particular multiplayer) you don't know the layout of maps, you don't know what weapons beat what armour and you don't know what tactics other players are likely to use.  If you get totallt pwned in your first match do you give up?  No.  Eventually, you start to take the quickest route a to b, you take the sniper instead of the shot gun for this map, and you camp yourself in that little hole to the left, rather than the big platform on the right.  You learn these things with experience.  EVE is the same, just on a much larger scale.

If you get lucky, you can find someone (like me) who's willing to help you.  If your unlucky, you run into someone who pretends to help you, but helps themselves more at your expense.

As for being inferior, don't worry.  EVERY PLAYER in EVE has something they like and the focus on that more than anything else.  Eventually, you stop being a n00b.  And then the next thing you know some random player is calling you a Vet and it makes you feel really old...  Seriously, someone pointed out that my character is nearly 4 years old.  EVE is 7 or 8 years old.  Go figure.


Finally, comparing EVE to other MMOs, let me show you a pic a mate linked me of facebook.

 http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?fbid=1870256151534&set=o.164194223636262&theater

If you can't view it, let me know and I'll upload it to GB separately.

AnnonOMous