Speaking to loadouts and pride in ownership, acquiring and learning skills needed to use specific equipment give a sense of investment on property. It reinforces our notions of ownership and primes us to feel a need to protect our property (protecting our equipment through survival). That has always been another attraction of mine with EvE---the risk of loss through a severe death penalty. In the case of DUST, that was a great sense of immersion too; though it did have flaws IMHO.

BPOs (as used in DUST) directly contradicted that notion of investment and risk. What risk is there with an infinite stock of equipment? I am not going to derail with an argument of balance or other subtleties involved as to why this was a benefit to some or not; I'm just speaking on a philosophical view of an element that countered what, in my view, is, in part the spirit of EvE and what was potentially the spirit of DUST.

Bleh. On my phone and it's too early for this! I'll come back to finish my thoughts on skill progression.

Mornin =/

Totally agree with you. The social aspect of Dust is what made it so unique. I and many others could spend hours without playing, only chatting and tweaking dropsuits.

All the point s that Rattati said are true, but this one is the most important.

Soraya Xel made a good point on the Biomass podcast.

Part of what makes EVE epic is that although everyone starts as a forgettable speck, it is possible to became famous, or infamous, and incredibly powerful. The movers and the shakers in EVE are better known than the NPC characters of EVE Lore. You can build organizations or effect events that effect large percentages of the game's population, weather it be building a powerful Corp/Alliance, developing a player run financial institution and/or scam, or organizing an event with hundreds of participants that everyone is talking about.

Building your reputation can be part of the game, and it very much ties into both how Epic the game feels and the persistence of New Eden.

DUST had this too, to a more limited extent. I know I got to experience squadding with people who got all excited to be playing with "Fox Gaden". I managed to make myself relatively famous without even having to be good. I mean, I was good at what I was famous for, but I was a terrible shot.