Learning Skill Tree - My Turn

So lots of good thoughts and arguements going on about learning skills. I recommend you take a look at the following blog posts. The arguements are varied and each different:

http://www.tigerears.org/2009/10/08/skill-training-continues-towards-damnation

http://eve.finkeworld.com/2009/10/08/i-should-be-allowed-to-think

http://podsandpills.baywords.com/2009/10/08/learning-skills-and-why-they-fail

However, now it my turn. I think learning skills are and important part of the game and allows each of us to model our characters differently than the next guy. Beyond the limited selection of attributes we may further advance our training to any degree we see fit. We can either choose sucky attributes at character creation and leave it there or we can spend a little time and money training our attributes higher. Yes you, me and the next guy may say that training your learning skills is essential to playing this game, but I know plenty of people who hadn't and are quite happy with their characters. As well I have seen people who hadn't trained learning skills at all, but after a while of playing wish they had. This is a choice all of us has and we need to live with these choices. The person who chooses not to train learning skills is early going to be ahead of the training curve, but later on behind the curve.

I really agree with Kename Fin when he compares the learning skills with science and social skills. I'd also like to make the next leap and compare them to all skills in the game. Yeah it sucks training your learning skills to max, no one REALLY wants to do it. In fact I have not done it, though they are fairly close. All my rank 1 skills are maxed and my rank 3 skills are all at 3, 4 or 5, further I only have cybernetics 4. Yeah I trained up the bulk of the skills to where I am happy with the amount of time and effort and the payback I get from them. I may eventually train them all to level 5, but chances are the only one I am going to do that with is cybernetics since I get to boost all 5 attributes at once (of course with 1 billion ISK pricetag I know). But really, this is just another choice, my choice.

Learning skills cost money. They cost a lot of money for the early game. I saved up just to get the rank 3 skills. Learning soils take time, but just like every other part of the game you get to choose how much time you spend on them. For a person on a trial account just trying things out, learning skills would be a waste of time, but for those of us in game for a year or longer the skills have already paid off. I train at somewhere around twice the speed than I did when I first started and inal glad I took that time.

So training learning sucks, yep, but does it suck any more than training 40 or more days for battleship 5 to get that sliver of an extra bonus, or how about traing for a hulk? Maybe I should just have been able to fly one right away without traing frigates, barges and astrogeogy first.

At least learning skills aren't a prerequisite to other skills or equipment. So I think y'all should harden the fuck up, or lighten up, or just sit down and shut the fuck up. They all mean the same fucking thing anyway; quit crying.