EVE online is the best MMO

Skills: You say new players can simply 'learn the lower levels,' but I see two problems here. First, many skills require level 4 or 5 of other skills as pre-requisites. Thus, only training low-level skills will not be possible. Second, lower level skills are worse. We're now, like I said, making characters as good as their lifespan. Not how many hours the guy actually PLAYED, but how long he's been paying his subscription fee. I put 10 hours into the game in one day, I can't really do anything. Another guy puts 10 hours into the game over the course of a week, he's way better than I am. This is a ridiculous scheme that encourages not actually playing. If I'm paying 15 bucks per month for something, it should at least be able to entertain me for hours on end like other MMO's. Addiction/subscription: The problem I had was not that it's addicting, since it's not. It's that regardless of the fact that there's not mch reason to play for more than an hour or two a day, they still manage to have such strong incentives to keep paying them money. Instead of paying for the time you play the game, you pay for the time you go about your day with a skill training in the background. Also, not ALL MMO's do this. Guild Wars, for example, is largely skill-based. You can max out a character in less than a week easily. However, people still keep playing. Why? Because it's fun. Not, as is the case for many MMO's like EVE, for the sake of their hard-earned character. Graphics: It matters not whether they're going to release an updated pack to fix the color banding. Why? Because we're debating whether EVE online IS the best MMO, not if it will be. The fact is, the graphics are par for a space game. Maybe even sub. PvP: It's not so much about outsmarting your opponent in battle, but about the strategy you use in equipping your ship. After that, you pretty much just have to decide who to target with what, what distance to maintain, and when to use special ship modules like shield boosters or warp disruptors. The 'excitement' is somewhat limited, considering the extremely low amount of user input. Backstory: Nothing to rebut here. Server size: It's true that no other mainstream MMO has people literally fighting over resources for their guild/alliance. But does this uniqueness make it good? I could also say "WoW is the only mainstream MMO where you fight other players simply because they're on the other side." (alliance vs. horde) This does not make WoW the best MMO, neither does your observation make EVE the best. Player driven economy: The people who drivethe economy get a lot out of that? Do they truly enjoy mindlessly mining for hours on end? Mindlessly hauling ore for a mining corporation-mate? These are the people who really 'drive' the economy, and they don't do it for the fun. They do it for the ISK. A game is not good if you're not playing for fun. These people should regret that they're part of a player-run economy. It's like having a job in the game in addition to real life. People play games to get away from having to do droning, mindless work all day. Entertainment: Make-your-own game? Or not. No matter how hard I try, I can't make the game have a meaningful story. The 'scripted' experience of other MMO's (and all other RPG's) is scripted for a reason - without being 'scripted,' there is no story, and the player is left feeling perpetually unaccomplished. I see you didn't address the lack of interactive controls. This is the game's biggest weakness, so I don't blame you. This is likely a limitation due to their single server. It takes a lot more information to track movement in a fluid player-controlled space sim. I'll end with that for now.