Yes, I've played EVE. I left because it was completely one dimensional, and I see that same thing happening here: players are rushing to the lowest common denominator style of play. Maybe that's the game's fault, bu I think it's really our -the players'- fault. Too many people decided it was EVE on wheels, and rushed to establish the same status quo.
The problem I see in this thread is similarly one-dimensional: people love to say 'sandbox' and 'risk-taking' and 'challenge,' but they're really only talking about one thing: combat. And the majority of the time, it's combat on their terms only: angry kid wants to grief people.
This game has nothing that approaches real risk: lose a robot, so what? Here's another. Want a better one? No problem, just turn on the free money faucet. Corp lost a fight? Eh, nothing's changed anyway, we have a hundred more bots in the garage.
And now, into this environment, some very short-sighted people want to introduce choiceless PvP, claiming that it will introduce "risk-taking." Nonsense: the risk should be shouldered by the player who wants to attack, not by the player who chooses to harvest.
Now, certainly, any kind of progression should require a measure of challenge- if I don't want to face that challenge, that should be my choice. But if I want to move on to bigger and better things, then I should be prepared to pay the price.
But why do those risks have to be combat-related? The answer is that they don't, but a few single-minded people can't imagine anything else.
In other words, I want to see real risk-taking, and that's not introduced by allowing people to gank each other.
What if the money faucet went away, and you had to take assignments from other players or player-run corps? What if your ability to fight depended on your economic status? What if your corp had to pay rent to keep those hundred bots in the garage? What if losing an outpost meant you lost 30% of your credit line?
I want to see more challenges, more kinds of risk, greater complexity. I want to see economic warfare, and real diplomacy. If I want to spend all day mining titan ore without being bothered, I should be able to do so. But if I want to get the better ores and the higher tech, I'll need to find a way to meet the challenges: maybe spend more EP in combat extensions, and gear my bot differently, or join a corp that will keep attackers out of range, or hire mercenaries to farm kernels for me.
In short: real challenges and real risk will never come about from allowing players to gank people on alpha. Real challenges and real risk will only come about from introducing more depth in more non-combat areas.
All those who are merciful with the cruel will come to be cruel to the merciful - Kohelet Rabbah 7:16
"My transaction log shows all my NIC was from selling kernals. All of it."
"Savin's outrage tears are the best tears." - Anonymous ***