I'm unsure whether they've got the global distribution sorted out yet for this game but I was curious if anyone here is playing Eve yet?

It's the first MMO game I've ever played and after a week it's still holding my interest and makes a nice change to FPS's etc.

Anyhow, if you fancy saying "Hi" in-game you'll find me lurking as Dell Boy, cushty!

This time next year Rodney we'll be millionaires

I hadn't even heard of this one, but it looks cool. Kind of a different story line anyway. Unfortunately I don't have time for any games right now, so unless I can get my wife interested (whereby playing it becomes no longer my "game" time but our "together" time) I won't be delving into anything new. She's still hooked on Diablo II so that's about the only thing I get to play these days. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Diablo II is much better than watching “Pretty Woman”.

I'm playing it, so far I've been mining soo much that I can almost do it in my sleep.

I know how you feel. There's a lot to be said for collaborative mining where you have some productive miners tearing away at the 'roids and somebody driving the equivalent of an articulated truck to carry the stuff away but it does get kindof boring if you keep doing that for too long.

I'm still a comparative newbie but I do enjoy Danger Mining for precious minerals in low security areas. This was relatively easy last weekend but since they've bugfixed and subsequently turned-up the pirate threat I've not tried it since. I think I'll get a little better 'tooled up' before I head back out to those low security zones.

I just tried danger mining tonight...Got my ship blow out from under me I'll need to track down a new Probe and some combat drones. At least I've made mad money, and it won't hurt me too bad to rebuild.

See, now, it's talk like this that has made me shy away from massively multiplayer online games for so long.

"What's so cool about this MMORPG you're hooked on?"
"Well, you get to do all sorts of cool stuff in a persistent online world and interact with other players."
"What sorts of cool stuff?"
"Like mining and trading." (For fantasy games, replace that with "killing rats and trading".)
"Is that all?"
"Well, you can be a shopkeeper..."

If I am going to invest time in a MMORPG, I want to blow stuff up and be involved in massive battles every single time I log on. I don't want to wander around looking for mundane stuff to do. And if I thought running a retail business was "fun", I would never have quit working at the Jewelry store.

Hmmm, for me it's never been about the mundane, its about the time commitment (granted which has a lot to do with the mundane). I've seen people get so hooked and not be able to stop so I've stayed away. OTOH I played both of the Diablo games (which basically just amount to killing baddies, picking up stuff, identifying stuff, and selling it again) and was always able to put them down and could do well only playing a half hour at a time.

I did see a RTS at one time that let you log in, issue orders, then log out. The whole thing was in real time, but it took hours for ships to get from point A to point B so you wouldn't want to sit around and watch the whole time. This was a cool idea to me because I got the impression you could be involved as much (or as little) as you wanted and still feel like you're competing. Unfortunately, when this one came out I didn't have even the minimal time to get started.

Let me try to put this in the perspective of Shadowbane:

"What's so cool about this MMORPG you're hooked on?"
"Well, you get to do all sorts of cool stuff in a persistent online world and interact with other players."
"What sorts of cool stuff?"

Well, run a guild, build your own city, manage the economy, raise armies, play in polotics, wage war on the unfriendly neighboors, and participate in story creating events such as the attempt to summon the god my guild believes in. There is the necessary hunting of monsters for gold to get cities started, but once they are up, a good economy can be created where the city can sustain its self.

By what I understand, Eve also has some very dynamic and player driven content. This I personally is now a must for any future MMORPG. Give the player the ability to actually do something in the world that matters.

Of course, Shadowbane is going through a rough launch right now. I'm hoping in the next few months they can get things worked out well, and prove that a dynamic MMORPG is possible.