Would a new player be able to dive in at this point and have a rewarding experience?

This is a question that I often get asked, and which you often see answered by CCP Devs at various gaming trade show. The short answer is hell yeah!

But let me elaborate a little bit on that. If you allow me to use an analogy I would say that asking that question is like asking if it’s worth it to learn a trade in RL, since all the good jobs are taken. It’s not because you’ve been playing the game for 4 years and have 45 million skill points (like yours truly) that you will be able to squash every new player that you cross paths with. I’ve been podded by months-old players many times. Many corporations (the equivalent of a WoW Guild) will take new players under their wings and help them grow and learn the game. A new player can definitely play an important role in a corporation.

EVE is a bit of a different beast when it comes to classes and levels: it doesn’t have any actually. In this game you play what you want, and if you get bored you train new skills and do something else (combat, mining, manufacturing, trading, PvE, PvP, etc.). Skills are purchased and trained in real time and take between 20 minutes to 30-some days depending on their level & rank, which only go up to level 5. There are literally hundreds of skills and usually there’s only a 5% efficiency between one level and another. Learned skills allow you to use certain items, which allow you to fly certain ship or to engage in certain activities.

Now, having more skills, and more skill points doesn’t make you a better player. Only by playing the game and learning how to actually play the game, can you become an experienced player. And bigger ships don’t necessarily make for better players, or better game play. I’ve seen veterans in cruisers, kick the living shit out of newbies flying battleships, because they didn’t know how to use them or equip them.

It’s not what you’ve got that counts, it’s how you use it!