EVE: The Second Genesis is a database driven multiplayer game, with an incredible community of over 250,000 players, running about 450,000 characters. Up to 25,000 players can be logged in at once. If you're looking to get into EVE, you'll want a good broadband connection, as the EVE Online downloads are pretty substantial. The subscription model covers getting updates to the EVE Online downloads as part of the login process, which makes things a lot simpler and more straightforward.

So, what's there to do within EVE once downloaded? Well, like most massively multiplayer online games, the play focuses around resource gathering, manufacturing things and, what's commonly called "engine building". What separates EVE from other MMOs is that it's got a functioning economy; instead of there always being stores where you can buy and sell things, the goods that are available are based entirely on what's being manufactured by players (based on resources gathered), and organizations (cartels and guilds and such) can claim entire chunks of the virtual space of the game as their own territory. To get the most from EVE, you need a lot of time to spend, learning the ropes, and there are some tools that veteran players download to make this process work better.

One of the most important EVE downloads is called EVEMon, which is a tool that will help you optimize your character. It monitors your character's growth, helps you plan out what skills to train, and helps you find the most efficient ways to do it; a lot of EVE's play space comes from the fact that it's a "black book" with regards to character optimization and growth.

Another popular EVE Online download is a suite of trade monitoring tools; these will monitor the status of your trades, even when you're offline. Several of them can be configured to email you when things happen, keeping you apprised of what's going on without having to be logged in 24/7, which is a regular complaint about the game, even among its die hard supporters.

Due to EVE's universal server model (there are only three - Tranquility, where the English speaking community plays, Shenzen, for the Chinese community, and Singularity, the test server), there can be a lot of demand on your time playing the game, so an EVE online download that monitors things for you while you're away is a godsend.