Friday, November 28, 2008

Eve Blog Banter #2 - Why I'm here

Ooh, I'm so excited! I've been asked by CrazyKinux if I want to participate in the Eve Blog Banter. I had to consider it for about 0.00632 seconds, before I sent an email to him saying 'absolutely!' and here I am.

Well, the question posed to us by Brinelan is:

“What drew us into EVE, what keeps us playing the game, and what brought us back in if we’ve ever left?”

Well, what drew me into Eve was the story about the Guiding Hand Social Club assassins and the contract they accepted to destroy the Ubiqua Seraph corp. Over the course of a year, they infiltrated the corp, established themselves as trusted members with full access to corp hangars and wallet, and then, when the time was right, coordinated a looting of all corp assets along with the assassination of the corp CEO.

I was amazed that such a game existed, that allowed such intricate involvement and complexity. While this event happened back in 2005, and I read about it shortly after, it wasn't until 2006 before I actually started playing the game.

I remember reading a lot about the game over that year. While it was intriguing to learn about - and imagine myself - playing it, I wasn't entirely happy with the game client. I read too many reviews that pointed out the flaws of the game, and so I stayed away.

It wasn't until the Red Moon Rising expansion that the reviews started changing. Titans were introduced, along with many other additions like new capital ships, bloodlines, and new Tech 2 ships. The reviews began changing for the better, and so I eventually downloaded the free client.

What I discovered was a galaxy of freedom, and that's what kept me playing it.

You know how most games are linear, where you have to do something in order to get to the next part of the game? Eve wasn't like that. You could do anything you damn well liked, and none of it was necessary to go to 'the next level'. Of course you had to train skills to fly bigger and better ships, but that just made sense! How else could you do some things without training for them?

Eve Online was the closest thing to a virtual REALITY that I'd ever experienced, and I loved the sci-fi aspect of it.

Starting off, I decided to venture into the realms of anti-piracy. I ended up in an anti-pirate corp and got extremely excited about the possibilities unfolding before me. I was encouraged to start my own anti-pirate corp when the one I was in started falling apart, and so Black Scorpion Ltd came into existence.

I managed to get it to about 49 members before a merc corp wardec'd us, and suddenly we were at war in highsec. Once the war ended, I splintered the corp and started Scorpion's Sting as the military arm of Black Scorpion Ltd, which would go on to become the industrial arm deep in highsec.

But then real life distracted me from my virtual life. My job changed and I sought redundancy. I moved from New Zealand (where I'd been living for 7 years) back home to Australia, and ventured into yet another stage of life, work and play. After things settled down a bit, I thought I'd try World of Warcraft (WoW) for a while.

With everything that was going on in my life, it would be about a year and a half before I realised WoW was making my brain bleed out my ears. It was the grind! So I had to give it up. It was Eve Online that I returned to, about 3 months ago now.

What brought me back into it was the memories of freedom, that I just didn't feel with WoW.

Since I'd been an anti-pirate in my early days, I decided I'd come back in as a pirate, and see where it would take me. It's been a wild ride, but I'm getting there, and enjoying myself thoroughly.

Black Scorpion Ltd didn't exist any more, as the person I gave it to eventually disbanded it. Scorpion's Sting, however, was still mine and had me and a friend in it. He'd been inactive while I was, but rejoined when I did. He got into missions, while I got into piracy.

I don't mine, or do missions, or engage in lengthy trading. I hunt other pilots, or run from those hunting me. Sometimes I'm even successful at running and hiding...

I love the fact I can do whatever I want, go wherever I want, create or destroy whatever I want. It's the freedom that drew me in, and it's the freedom that keeps me here.

I know that I roam around and take away the freedom of others, by hunting them down and destroying their ships. But they still have their own freedom to make those choices that take them into lowsec, and the freedom to enjoy the consequences of their actions.

That's what it's all about.

I'll be here for a while, enjoying this freedom, and the other people that I've met along the way.

It's the relationships that you create that help make it all so worthwhile as well. The social aspect, the interaction, the pure enjoyment of sharing your experiences with others.

It's worth the time and even the money invested in it. It's a rewarding and fulfilling hobby that's going to keep me around for a long time to come.

------------------------------------------------

Other blog banter participants are here:
Labels:

2 comments:

  1. Carole PivarnikNovember 29, 2008 1:15 am

    What a lovely post! Glad you've jumped on the Blog Banter bandwagon. Ironically, it is the very freedom that EVE offers which is probably responsible for its lack of appeal to certain players. Some folks just want to be lead around by the nose, I guess. I've seen people comment that after a hard day at work, they want to play a game that doesn't feel like a second job. Fair enough. Personally, I prefer wrapping my mind around the open-ended opportunities in EVE. Like you, the freedom in the game keeps me from ever getting bored, keeps me motivated, compels me to keep striving.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BahamutNovember 29, 2008 1:22 am

    Good story!

    It seems you've had a fair amount of success with corp management. I hope to have the same in the future.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)