EVE Online?

I've been looking into EVE Online today and I have to say, I'm impressed. I haven't managed to download the client yet, I've only read reviews, but from what the reviews are saying it looks like quite an imposing alternate reality experience. The size of the map that I saw on a trailer was incredible and according to what some people have said, it's accurate to say that it's HUGE. How much of this is down to the immense travel times I've been hearing about I don't know.

Basically I'm 90% committed to giving it a go. The %10 that's holding me back is that the combat is completely out of the player's control as far as I can tell. It's a case of clicking an enemy ship and relying on behind the scenes dice rolls based on the stats of each combatant. Now, I like to get in there and dogfight, so maybe I'll find the combat in EVE a little sterile, but from what I've read of the other aspects of the game, there'll be plenty more for me to spend my hours on other than combat.

According to one review, since the latest update, players can now build their own stations and "occupy" areas of space, leading to turf wars and conquests. That sounds pretty cool to me and I'm eager to catch a glimpse of the stuggles currently playing out.

I heard that the character progression uses skills which can be learned. The payment you make to learn a skill, I'm told, is time, with some skills taking weeks to learn. Fortunately, your character is learning while you are logged out, so that may not be too much of a problem.

I'm frightened though by the general concensus that EVE will take days of my life away, to be spent in a gorgeous, yet still artificial, life. I used to be a Second Life regular and let me tell you, *that* took some hours from me that I'll never get back. It was an addiction. I'd come home from work, log in, play, build, chat, script, look at my watch and BAM! it was time to make plans for bed. A very strange, and not entirely rewarding experience. There's nothing wrong with Second Life in and of itself, it's just a dangerous balance between *playing* for fun and profit, and *working* for fun and profit, and to be honest, with the way I went about it, the latter got the better of me. I only sign in every now and then these days and I'm wondering, if I get EVE Online, will I end up only signing in once in a blue moon?

We shall see...