Massively

Oh, but the risk of getting scammed, blown up, outnumbered, or having to deal with a lawless world is exactly why EVE is so much fun. Personally I find that one of EVE's main attractions.

There are plenty of MMO's that offer absolutely no consequences of your actions - you might lose a goldpiece or two for armor repairs or have to wait 2 minutes for resurrection debuff to fade at tops, but that's not really a consequence at all, you don't have to "think" much.

EVE is different. You have to put some thought into your actions, otherwise you risk losing it all (and of course you have to plan for the day you eventually do lose it, always have a plan B). That feeling is what has kept me playing since the start.

Also, contracts have been in game for a while - everyone knows they're infested with scammers, so people don't generally trust strangers promising great deals. But then again... there's always one sucker born every minute/day ;-)

But you don't lose it all, at least not unless you're an idiot. Insurance, clones, and jump clones are all there to limit what you lose.

you are wrong. It is definatly fun beeing scammed, betrayed and blackmailed in eve because this ads alot unexpected excitement to the world.

Probably the most appeal of Eve is that it's player run and that it's really close to a realistic Sci-fi world.

Currently MMOs are targeted at casual gamers, where people are playing in a "safe" enviroment where nothing really can go wrong and it's just a game.

Eve is diffrent in this matter, in Eve you are able to do anything, and get away with anything, this is probably what drives people to play Eve.
The element of danger, not by how higher level the monsters are, but the danger of every pretty much everything.

No one can be trusted in a world with No Law, and that is always appleaing to some people.

I don't think its so much people liking being scammed as the idea of it, and even then I find it meh. You would just wind up having to become extremely conservative and risk-averse if you hoped to progress, and eventually you'd view all other players as potential enemies.

Considering the article writer even suggests nuking a corpmate by this tactic, I don't think that assessment is off the mark. I agree with consequences to a point, but when you risk serious consequence just by trusting a fellow player, it's going to have serious effects on playstyle and mindset.

And that's exactly how people play EVE. You think you can join a corp without them checking your former employment history, your transaction history, your account status etc (in many cases, interview process both in text and on voice comms)? And if you do get accepted, do not expect you'll actually get any hangar rights for the first months - and getting to a position of trust might just take you years of "hard work".

Paranoia and extreme caution rule - same goes for all player interactions - if you're not careful someone *will* scam/blow you up. As you say, it is conservative and you actually *do* (you should anyway!) consider everyone as a potential enemy.

EVE isn't about progress in the sense every other MMO is - there are no points/armor/xp to collect - Big part of your progress is actually staying alive and surviving, learning to spot the scammer and/or the enemy in time so you can fire first. If you don't, they will.

But out of the mistrust and paranoia, it *is* possible to forge friendship and trust relations - they tend to run on deeper level and there's often very real RL-element involved. And in this sense EVE corps and communities tend to be so much better and "tighter" than your average MMO-raiding guild (or even social).

It's a hard game "to get" - and that's partly why it's so great.

Yup. Eve needs to put in a seller/buyer rating like on Ebay. Also, they could put in something like a better business bureau that lets players rate corporations too. Rating systems are flawed, but better than nothing.