9 people can get EVE Online and two months, free, today only.

[Kitsune]

PM me an email account and a steam name and I'll set you up with a buddy account on EVE with 21 days free time, and then the full account with an extra 30 days via steam, free.  All you have to do is open the game on your list of games in steam, click on the button where it tells you activation is required which'll take you to eve's website.  You click the button that says you already have an account, log on with the eve account you made, and voila.

Why am I such a pillar of generosity?  EVE is two bucks on steam for the next twenty-ish hours, and setting someone else up with a buddy account gets me a free month of game time.  Two bucks per month is a super-swank deal, so I'll gladly pay it and give someone else the chance to try the game free for a couple months.

<Insert obligatory 'Join the F13 corp!' line here.>

Edit: The steps in more detail:

Step 1: Open the 'You've been sent a buddy invite!' mail that the eve people send you.
Step 2: Make a free 'Buddy' account with 21 days of playtime.
Step 3: Go to steam, which'll tell you that you have a gift from me.  If you've already downloaded the eve client from their website, cancel when steam tries to download it.
Step 4: Right-click on EVE in your game listing in Steam, select Properties.  You'll see a window with a note saying that you need an account.
Step 5: Click on the 'Go to account website' button.
Step 6: The EVE website will ask whether you want to make a new account (you don't), or add the thirty days of play to an existing trial account (you do).
Step 7: Put in the username and password of the buddy account from step 2.
Step 8: Go through all of the tutorials.  It takes about four hours, but is invaluable and gets you off to a good start.
Step 9: Wait for your free ship to be given to you next Tuesday.
Step 10: Sell the free ship on the market.  Seriously, just sell it.  If you fly it out into open space, some ass will shoot you just to destroy a unique gift ship.

[Gets]

Do what this man says.

[Miasma]

Does this mean you have nine active accounts?  And if so are you space rich and don't pay real money for them only isk?

[Chinchilla]

I'm in APB right now but I wouldn'tmind trying this out. Never tried it but always heard alot about it. Might not be on much though for about 1 mo while I get me some APB action. That seem fair to you. Or does it have to be activated now?

[Miasma]

I'm in APB right now but I wouldn'tmind trying this out. Never tried it but always heard alot about it. Might not be on much though for about 1 mo while I get me some APB action. That seem fair to you. Or does it have to be activated now?

That's ideal as you can train up your learning skills during the month.

[IainC]

Apparently this doesn't work any more, the Steam account can't be activated on an existing trial.

[Kitsune]

Does this mean you have nine active accounts?  And if so are you space rich and don't pay real money for them only isk?

It means I have three accounts, each one can send three buddy invites.  I spend mostly real money on them, but occasionally isk.  They're only staying active until the characters on them are finished training skills, at which point I'm transferring them into my main account and letting the other expire.

I'm in APB right now but I wouldn'tmind trying this out. Never tried it but always heard alot about it. Might not be on much though for about 1 mo while I get me some APB action. That seem fair to you. Or does it have to be activated now?

I think you can let the buddy invite sit unused for a couple weeks before it expires.  And the Steam purchase is good forever, AFAIK.  So yeah, it ought to work.  Or like Miasma said, you can basically just sit out the first month and only log on to set which skills your character's learning while you're playing the other game.  That way when you're done with APB, your character's far more badass than it would be while brand-new.

[Kitsune]

Apparently this doesn't work any more, the Steam account can't be activated on an existing trial.

Is there linkage on this?  You've never been able to add the Steam eve CD key on an existing full account, but it's always worked fine if you were using it to upgrade from trial to full.

[Kitsune]

I'm seeing people on EVE's forums saying that it worked okay for them, so I'm still gonna go full steam (har) ahead.  At worst, I'll be out eighteen bucks with nothing to show for it, and that's not the end of the world, especially to give a bunch of F13 people a free ride in a good game.

[IainC]

From the Terms and Conditions on the buddy invite page:

Eligible subscription activations can be funded by Credit/Debit cards, Direct Debit, WebMoney, paysafecard, ETC, PLEX and PayPal.
Payments not eligible for this offer: PayByCash, Steam.

It appears to have changed at some point today so it's likely that the people who are reporting that it worked got in before the update.

[Gets]

Welp!

[Chinchilla]

The auto training of skills for that month sounds really bad ass – 2 birds 1 stone.  Is it working by chance?  I read all the posts, but now I’m somewhat confused.

[Kitsune]

It's very unclear.  But PM me anyhow, I'll give it a shot working or not.

[IainC]

I'll give it a shot working or not.

You live for the fight when that's all that you've got.

[Kitsune]

Whoaaaaaaaa livin on a praaayyyyyerrrr....

Anyhow, it looks like it's working, I just got credited for an activation, so let 'em roll!

[Chinchilla]

info sent, sorry took me a bit, been workign on my Ethics paper for school (suffering withdrawl from APB because of this damn paper).  Plus I had to figure out what my name for STEAM is :).

[Kageru]

So does f13 still have an active and unified presence in Eve or did that end with the goon implosion?

Still have Eve from the xmas sale but maybe this is a good time to check it out.

[Endie]

So does f13 still have an active and unified presence in Eve or did that end with the goon implosion?

Still have Eve from the xmas sale but maybe this is a good time to check it out.

F13, back in the ancestral corporate home of Bat Country, are very active as a member corp of Goonswarm.  The alliance holds space in Deklein (I did that) but we're currently deployed to Curse to help the French of Cursed (I did that) in messing with Atlas's pets in Scalding Pass, Insmother and surrounding regions.

[Kageru]

Great, that makes trying it more tempting :)

[eldaec]

From the Terms and Conditions on the buddy invite page:

Eligible subscription activations can be funded by Credit/Debit cards, Direct Debit, WebMoney, paysafecard, ETC, PLEX and PayPal.
Payments not eligible for this offer: PayByCash, Steam.

It appears to have changed at some point today so it's likely that the people who are reporting that it worked got in before the update.

It said that when this came up at Christmas as well - worked back then, works now.

But this is probably the last time it will work. Previous occasions this happened it was an insider secret, this time even the in game noob channels are going nuts over it.

[Kitsune]

There's still about three hours left on the steam deal if anyone wants in.

[Kitsune]

The steam deal's dead now, but I can always give out the 21-day trials free for the asking to any interested parties.

[ajax34i]

CCP has declared this a billing exploit, apparently.  I think it's because the Buddy must create a new account, rather than apply the 30 days to an existing account.

[Kitsune]

No, CCP declared making tons of bogus steam accounts to rack up oodles of one-shot buddy months to be a billing exploit.  And they're sorta right, so can't really blame 'em.

[eldaec]

Hmm, I think they've gone back and removed all the free time granted through this.

Looks like they've got shitty console FPSes to pay for.
 

[Kitsune]

Ha, joke's on them!  I'm in the one month they credited me, so apparently they couldn't revoke a 'spent' month of time.  I gave two people $2 months, so four bucks for a month of time was a pretty favorable rate of exchange.  Just a pity that this is apparently not gonna work in the future.