For quite a few years now I've been playing Eve. I think I'm coming up on my 6th anniversary... I've been actively blogging for pretty much all that time - excluding a few months where I played WoW, and then another few months when I was playing LOTRO... oh, and just recently while playing Skyrim....
Anyway, the recent break with Skyrim was a symptom of something else that's going on in my life. I'm 'untethering' from a lot of things that are not providing me with any value or helping me grow personally and professionally. This included 'stuff' and 'activities'. I was getting rid of all the crap in the garage that I hadn't looked at in years. I was throwing out old books that were no longer relevant since I have Kindle on the iPad. I was disconnecting from people that were frustrating me. I was avoiding those activities that were just tedious, and slowly disconnecting from them too.
One day after Xmas I woke up and realised that Eve Online was tedious. I was playing it because I'd 'always been playing it'. It was part of my life in a 'coming home from work and relaxing in front of Eve' kind of way. You know, like most people relax with TV or a newspaper. Except it was still 'work'. I still had to 'do stuff'. I realised it was no longer enjoyable or bringing me value.
On top of this change for me was the dissatisfaction with how CCP managed their staff. Once the people that I valued were fired, my free 'media accounts' were reverted to paid accounts and I had to start paying for my time again, even though I had fan sites that (once) allowed me free access. I contacted CCP and they apologised for the error, advising this 'is now fixed'. Except it wasn't. They were polite and helpful when I followed it up, saying it was fixed. Except it still wasn't. Then they didn't reply to my queries, and a petition I raised about it was closed without resolution. And I'm still now paying for accounts that are supposed to be free because I run fan sites.
So I'm over it. Not just because of that, but because it's just another element of changes in the priorities within my life.
Eve Bloggers is shutting down
Also, as a result of these changes, and the newfound lack of appreciation from CCP, I'm closing the Eve Bloggers Portal. That's right, www.evebloggers.com is shutting down.
The domain fees are due for renewal at the beginning of February, and I'm not going to renew it. As the most extensive listing of all of Eve's blogs for the past 3 years, it's always been the most under-appreciated and ignored. And I'm over that too.
What's happening with Black Claw?
I'll continue Black Claw's account and have the character as my occasional 'I might log in and have another few jumps around the galaxy this month' type of game, continuing to record my progress in this blog.
I have no illusions that this is a long-term certainty. I might just give it all up completely over the next few months.
It's been fun. :)
