I'd love to play Eve, because it seems like a pretty intense sort of game but it also seems like you need to really commit a lot of time and resources to it. So instead I live vicariously through battle reports like this.
I played EVE intensely for a few months, fairly soon after the game came out. I stopped because it is not a game you can succeed at without being part of a corp. Effectively you have a "boss" in game that tells you what you need to do.
If you have plenty of free time and don't mind taking orders as to what you should do in the game and with your free time - then this is the game for you. Seriously, it is a great game but not for solo players.
You better be a "company man" if you want to get ahead in EVE.
A big part of the best PvPers are lone-rangers. It is possible to do it, and when you start to be one of these you are like a god in the system. I remembered a guy named Ephemeron, he had two accounts with two incredible ships. They were the Formula 1 of Eve online, costing more than a fleet of 20 pilots, each. When he entered in a system, it was like Darth Maul was here. Awesomely fitted, awesomely skilled. Everyone wanted to kill him to harvest his items and also to fight him because he was a master in PvP. But at the end everyone died every time. His main vessels had an mean of 500 ships destroyed before he lost them... Famous across a good 1/4 of Eve.
So yes it's possible and it's even one of the most fun part of Eve.
When you are a lone ranger, PvP is 4 times harder. In fleet it is easy to warp out when you start to be the current target, but when you are alone you are the target, if you do a mistake they will catch you and the only solution will be to fight to the death or to know several technics to disengage. You gain a lot of experience and it's a huge advantage to defeat your enemy. You will learn by yourself which ship should be killed first, how to outmaneuver your enemies, how to devise them, etc. Many pilots have an excellent k/d ratio but they can't compete against a lone ranger even with a lone ranger with a "bad ratio".
So he had two Formula 1 but the real key to his success was because he knew each law of the world and he was a master when he fought. It is one of the best point of Eve, you can have a Formula 1 but if you don't have the experience to use it, you will die at the first engagement. And at the same time, when you are excellent you can engage enemies even by being outnumbered by 10, and this is awesome.
(Another key point on Eve is: each ship have different size with different role. It is like to have catapult to greek titan in World of Warcraft. And even with one of most hardest task in any games, Eve stays balanced and coherent for a 800 vs 800 as well as a 1 vs 1 with different tactics at each size)
There are many many things to know in Eve. For instance, only after 4 years I could say I started to see the whole thing in PvP. If you want to see "Hackers" in Eve at fleet level, you have all the Rooks and Kings videos. [1][2] For lone rangers' videos, you have the Garmonation series, or Eve is Easy's video [3], and Darkness' videos with the Dark Perspective 3 and 4. [4]
A lot of people go solo. They mine, they work in the markets, they work as couriers, they roam around the universe and kill other people's ships to sell for scraps. It's a sandbox mmo, you can do whatever you like.
It does hinder your ability to participate in big battles like this and money making will be slower. But some people don't mind since they just want to be independent.
Well, unless you're hunting NPCs (which is pretty boring), bounty hunting is not a reliable source of income.
But you can run a small or even solo pirate operation, preying on lone travelers. Or run goods to dangerous markets in stealth transport ships. Or in a much much larger, much more expensive jump transport ship (just don't get ambushed!). Or start a manufacturing operation. Or for the truly hardcore (and really best done in small groups) go make a living in a wormhole for a month or two.
There are nearly countless things you can do solo or with a small group. The easiest way is to be part of a large alliance and have "safe" space to operate from - this does not, generally, mean you have to follow orders. Or you can operate in neutral space - everyone you see is a potential friend or enemy (more likely enemy). Or you can go deep into enemy space and play cat and mouse with an entire alliance for hours or days.
I've managed it quite happily. I would say that you need to be part of a group in order to claim territory and keep it defended 24/7, but there are plenty of other things to do than claim territory.
Also, "be alone" and "be a follower" aren't the only options, there's also plenty of room for leaders (well, plenty of opportunity for a leader to make room for themselves and their followers :P).
Former player here, 7y. Yes, you need at least to be able to spend your sunday night, and one or two nights during the week. It is the minimum in the majority of alliances and even if you play alone you will need the half of this time to earn money.
When you start to roam there is "no way" to stop to play when you want. Because several rules of gameplay and because you will be in enemy territory, you will have to stay with your mates until the Fleet Commander decides to go back in your HQ. So you need to stay 4h and be flexible with that (5h, sometimes 6h).
It is one reason of the main reasons I quit EVE. Not because you need to spend all these hours, but because sometimes you can roam for hours and don't be able to find a fleet to fight and sometimes you need to run away because you are on the road of the main army blob of a main alliance. So you spend hours without any fun..
