While looking up EVE Online on Steam there is feature bullet that reads:
Play for FREE – You can buy game time with in-game money you earn while playing.
Does anyone have experience playing under this gaming model? If I play the game casually (a couple hours a week) will I be able to earn enough money in-game to pay for my addiction game time?
Best Answer
Yes, it can definitely be done.
You can buy a 30-day PLEX from the in-game market. PLEX are purchased by other players and listed on the market, which means it's affected by the normal supply and demand that affects nearly every marketable item in EVE. So, the price can go up or down over time. You can check the price of items on the market out of game using online tools, such as Eve Central. Eve Central has the market listing for 30 day PLEX here. If you know what you're doing and have the time, you should be able to fund the PLEX you need with in-game currency.
The only difficulty is in that "know what you're doing" part. Instead of actively playing (which can easily take more than a couple hours a week) you need to utilize all the methods of generating income while offline. Research Agents, Planetary Infrastructure, and The Market are the three biggies. You'll need a while to set all that up, and now that EVE Online has Alpha clones, which are free to play, you have the ability to set up most of the skills you need without subscribing. And you'll have to play a bit more than a couple hours a week to get it up and running, too.
Warning: Some mission grinding to increase faction standing will likely be required. Some necessary skills are not accessible as an Alpha clone and will require subscribing.
On the whole though, I'd say that if your "addiction" only means a couple hours a week, then you haven't got any addiction to speak of. 8)
This does bring up the valid question of how to use those three methods to generate ISK.
How to make ISK while online
How to make ISK while offline
Note that market ability is the key skill here, all other methods are merely ways of cheaply generating things that you can then sell on the market for a nice profit. Market ability only takes a couple hours to train on your character, but your personal skills at it will develop for years and years.