EVE online is the best MMO

Skills- Again EVE takes some patience, and planning. Within a couple months a new player could be running the hardest most profitable missions, and ten hours a day would make him incredibly rich. EVE rewards players who stick around a long time with more skills. It rewards players who play more often with more assets, and probably more power as they will make more friends in the game. To place all the rewards at one end of the spectrum or the other doesn't seem like good game design to me. I rarely ever want to play EVE or any other MMO ten hours straight. With EVE your subscription is not a waste if you don't play the game much because you still make progress. subscription- Many players have found it very addictive, and kept up their subscriptions. Paying for skill training makes perfect sense...you pay to improve your character. Only dedicated players can stick with EVE, which is why its such a strong MMO. Improving a character is part of the fun...it is not a detraction from the fun. Graphics- The actual ships, stations, and other updated graphics are the heart of the game. Complaining about the background is the same as saying the water graphics in WoW aren't good. I play many space games...the only one that beats EVE is the new game "Sins of a Solar Empire". Which is a Bran new game. And again as you reminded yourself we are talking about MMO's and in comparison to the graphics of a game like WoW EVE is a clear winner. PvP- We are in agreement...EVE is a game that requires strategy. But having a better strategy then your opponent IS outsmarting them. If you can adapt to a situation that you did not expect and survive then that is outsmarting your opponent. Server Size- Fighting over resources forces players to play more wisely. It forces players to join with others when they want to earn the really big bucks. EVE's massive server acts in a way to make joining with others more profitable then going at it alone. It may not make it the best or "better", but it is different then every other MMO. Especially guild wars where once you leave the City you are basically in your own little world...its hardly an MMO when fighting the computer. So the server size makes EVE more realistic. Player driven economy- I'm guessing you were a miner for your short time in EVE...That's understandable most people go into that. But no you missed my point about running the economy. When you have enough isk or if you train the right market skills you can place large buy orders at cheap prices for common loot items. People will sell these to you one at a time because its not worth their trouble to do anything else. And you gather a large inventory of items that you can resell at a higher price or reprocess for minerals. Mining is a reliable way to make isk, and one of the safest if you stay in high security. But it is also a very slow way to make isk. New players are often forced into this role, because their combat skills wont get them anywhere. But it takes only a solid month of training to get into a decent combat ship, and start running missions. Doing the best missions will get you an average of 30 million isk in the same amount of time it takes the best mining ship to get about 2-5 million isk in minerals. Entertainment- again its a matter of opinion...if you like creating your own goals or not living by some pre-determined standard then EVE is your game. Otherwise you are right WoW and Guild wars are good alternatives. The lack of controls is not much of a major drawback for me. I don't play EVE to shoot stuff...i don't know who does play MMOs to shoot stuff...there are much better first person shooter games like halo 3 or call of duty 4 out there. EVE is about forging your own path through a well thought out strategy, and a solid dedication to achieving your goals. One thing we didn't mention before is the Community. EVE has a rather tough unforgiving environment which has tended to weed out gamers with no stomach for losing big. You don't get smack-talked when you are killed...you can trust PIRATES because they know if they aren't honest they get hunted down by other pirates. I mean if that doesn't say a lot about a game i don't know what does. When you can trust the people everyone hates the most...you have a solid community. The community has also shown their appreciation for the EVE developers...voting EVE the best MMO again this year on MMORPG.com. New players are almost guaranteed to find corporations that will gladly accept them into their ranks no matter what their skills are. If they choose not to join a corporation then players are always helpful in local.