There’s a relatively infamous graph image someone made out there that shows the learning curves of several popular MMOs. LoTRO and WoW go up slowly at a regular curve, while EVE juts up almost vertically, as tiny little stick figures die and are tortured by the escalating difficulty and the line winds backwards creating a cliff from which the little characters dangle at the game’s mercy.
That almost perfectly illustrates just what new players face when they log into EVE for the first time. It’s gotten better, and perhaps a little easier to pick up the game over the years. New versions of the tutorial and all that being what they are.
Athough CCP can explain in the simplest terms just how to physically play their game, they’ll never be able to give players a real education on the politics and warfare within the title. That’s something everyone has to learn about and experience for themselves. EVE is one game whose steep learning curve doesn’t seem to affect its success to much, that’s for sure. - MMORPG.com
