Love it or hate it, the sheer enormity of EVE Online cannot be denied. Often lovingly called “Excel sheet the game” it takes a lot of patience and time to just learn how to play. Formerly, a paid subscription meant that you were working against the clock to squeeze every bit of value out of your 30 days in space, measuring efficiency in time vs ISK made.

CCP Games has decided to free us from this anxiety riddled experience by introducing a free to play option for the popular MMO. As of November 15th, prospective pilots can now create an account and give the game the old college try without committing a dime.

Typically free-to-play options in MMO games are extremely limiting, forcing players to swiftly decide between continuing their adventures at a cost, but not with Eve. The only limiting factor in this free to play option is the size of ship that you can fly, which for many, is just fine as bigger is not necessarily better in Eve online. To the contrary, the first three ship classifications (which are the ones available as a ftp player) are already the ones most flown in Eve.

If you couple this new option with the fact that you can purchase 30 day subscriptions (called Plex) with in game currency, and you have a very viable option to play without having to spend any money at all!

The new free-to-play option is not the only aspect being added in this update. CCP Games is also refurbishing the tutorial missions to make it easier for new players to understand exactly how to play in the overwhelmingly large, emergent sandbox universe of Eve Online.

Whether you are a returning player, or new to Eve Online, let us know your CMDR call sign in the comments below and we’ll be happy to wing up and make some ISK together!