Shortcuts.

Its always a big gamble to start as a new player in an old MMO. In many MMOs it usually means you'll have very little to zero interaction with other players in your first months while you level up thru empty "newbie" zones/areas. It also means that you are unlikely to see any of the new content since it may require level, gear and/or reputation/faction standing that you lack in your 1-2 month old toon.

That is something that EVE doesn't suffer from. It is probably the most complicated MMO available and requires a lot reading, studying and planning to be successful, but EVE allows you to jump into the action really early in your capsuleer life. With limited SP (still under 4M) I've been able to assist in PVP fleet fights in low sec, ratting in null sec, exploration in a variety of systems and L4 missions (more about that in another post).

It goes without saying that all these activities were possible thanks to a very active and helpful corporation/alliance. I don't consider that cheating. It is an MMO, so playing in a group is part of the experience (no offense to those of you who want to play this as a 1-player game). I see it more as a shortcut to overcome years of SP I lack.

This past week another amazing opportunity was offered. Two corpmates, Rayth and Ajax, with the assistance of our CEO, Mendolus, brought online a POS in w-space!!! Following all the stories I see about w-space, besides the money to be made there, I've been playing with EVEMon to see the shortest route for me to venture there. The best plan had me there around Christmas 2009. Well... not anymore. Armand is permanently in w-space mining and on Friday got all the skills he needed to do gas harvesting in a battlecruiser. Dante visited, but is still lacking the skills to be helpful. There are plenty of explorers and others with the hacking and archaeology skills that Dante has.

The good news is that after talking to Rayth on Saturday I put together an EVEMon plan to fill the gap needed in the w-space group. Only 20 more days to go for Dante to be w-space ready!! Looking forward to be a productive part of the w-space project.