You can also use a game time code and knock off 5 dollars. I'm not much of a miner either. It is definitely a game of patience. I had a frustrating time in-game today. I got a new ship and it turns out it's not as efficient as my old ship because I need to train up another 2 weeks of skills... It happens, but it is still very frustrating. ) I wouldn't make EVE your only/main MMOG unless you were into PvP or actually really fell in love with the game from the get-go.

The sad thing is that I really wanted to like this game. I was tired of the whole orcs-and-elves fantasy thing, and I really like sci-fi. I thought the backgrounds were beautiful, and the ships looked really cool. But I kept waiting for something to happen. Other than being blown to bits by three other ships when I strayed into the wrong space on a mission (which wasn't exactly what I had in mind) nothing ever did.

I also encountered the same feeling when I realized that the next ship I wanted I'd get skills for a couple of days after my trial expired. While I really appreciate some of the thinking behind skills taking a fixed amount of time - no power leveling here! - it does mean a lot of waiting, whether you're playing or not.

I don't understand about time codes, but it doesn't really matter. It's not the cost that is keeping me away.