Some games just miss the point

Introduction

Eve online is my chosen game that I found not to be fun, and I think is one of the more boring games I have played for a number of reasons. I'm going to be mainly discussing the poor choices of interface design and game play design that were used, as there are many.

To give a brief description of the game, it is an MMO where players pilot spaceships in a massive galaxy, where each star system of the galaxy is an actual space that can be visited. There is a space for newer players in the center of the galaxy to learn how to play the game, and how the game world works. This space is protected by Police like vessels that enforce the rules. On the fringes of the galaxy, the space has no laws, and players are free to do whatever they want.

Players can pick what race they are, this has an impact of where you start in the galaxy and what types of ships are available to you. This is really only for style, as different ship types are the same throughout the different races (small & stealthy, big guns, drone carrier etc.). You can bother customizing your character (the pilot) but this is pointless, as nobody really sees your character anyway, and only sees the ships you pilot. The ships all look the same though, you can add different guns on to them, but their appearance mainly stays the same. So you essentially just blend in with a lot of the other players who are relatively in the same position as you (ex. newbies who are just starting out). 

Once you actually start playing, there are your generic "go here and kill this" quests for 'agents' that you can do. The game provides back story for them, but there are mainly only a couple of different types. Once you find a mission you can do, then you're all set, killing things in video games is usually a fun thing.

Usually, but not when the UI looks like this

 Seriously, not only do the little window boxes and the many different icons look like they belong in an excel spreadsheet, the actual combat is mind-numbingly boring. To give perspective, you're supposed to pick a target from that giant list to the right, click on it, and press a few buttons to make your guns fire. That's it. That's all of the combat in this game. You don't aim anything, you don't control anything, hell, you can't even move. You can tell your ship to be a certain distance away from somebody, but that's just hacking it. So to sum the combat up: you click a few buttons, and sit there and watch. If part of your exciting combat system is 'waiting for something to happen', then I think you've got a problem on your hands.

It would help if the things you're shooting at were actually visible in some way. Enemies are represented by their name, and a red cross icon to tell me that they are hostile and put inside a giant list. Yeah sure, there are icons on the screen too, but that's just making the problem worse. Now you've got a cluttered up visual space with a bunch of icons that are supposed to mean something, in a screen space which already consists of the oh-so-fun looking windows forms. The problem is that nothing that I am doing feels relevant in any way. Sure a text box can tell me that I've hit something for x amount of damage, but I don't get to see the results of my actions.

Reminds me of a text adventure

I could also talk about mining, but that is even worse than combat. Your ship just goes up to an asteroid and fires a laser for 20 minutes. You get to see a number go up next to an icon of some type of ore, and that is the extent of mining. Sure the time may be exaggerated, but that is certainly what it feels like when you're doing absolutely nothing. They could have at least added a mini-game, maybe scanning one, and if you find a rich chunk of an asteroid you get to blast it with your mining laser or something.

Mass Effect did it, and it worked fairly well

The rest of the game is like this too. All of the interactions with the game are done in these odd looking blue-grayish forms. I get that it's supposed to be 'space age', and try to look futuristic, but 'bluish-gray' doesn't really convey that well. Some of the options actually have windows 'folder' icons instead of something relevant.

No really, I am not kidding.

It could have been a picture of a drone, a hangar bay, a door, anything but a folder. It's as if they forgot they were making a game. There are lots of instances of this, which completely breaks immersion, because this just screams out loud "you are just sitting there in your chair clicking buttons" when you're supposed to feel like you're in a game world.

It makes me sad though, because I really want to enjoy this game. The concept speaks to me. I would love to be in control of a spaceship, being a part of a massive world out there that is ripe for exploring. It's just that a lot of the UI and other design issues are such glaring flaws that I can never get into this game, the fun of that concept is just sucked right out, and I can't bear to play this game any longer.