Welcome to the eighteenth instalment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by none other than CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

On May 6th 2010, EVE Online celebrated its 7th Anniversary. Quite a milestone in MMO history, especially considering that it is one of the few virtual worlds out there to see its population continually grow year after year. For some of you who've been here since the very beginning, EVE has evolved quite a lot since its creation. With the expansion rolling out roughly twice a year, New Eden gets renewed and improved regularly. But, how about you the player? How has you gaming style evolved through the years or months since you've started playing? Have you always been a care bear, or role player? Have you only focused on PvP or have you given other aspects of the game a chance - say manufacturing. Let's hear your story!

It's a Sordid Love Affair

Eve was launched way, way back in the Earth year of 2003. At the end of 2002 Firefly was dropped by the studios in the US and in 2003 Little Britain first hit the TV screens in the UK. One of the best video cards at the time was the NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400 128MB, which is a pretty good indicator of the technology available. Since then PC technology has moved on and improved and Eve has improved with it.

Even though I didn't join the scene until 2006 and have no personal experience of the game before then, screenshots, forums posts and comments from friends all serve to give me an idea of what it was like. Ever since then there have been really massive improvements such as the major graphics update of Trinity.

Four years doesn't really seem like a long time but it is the longest I have played with one game and it's almost like a sordid love affair. You know it's wrong but you keep going back for more because you like it.

That fact alone should tell you something about the way this game can hold your interest. Not by just being particularly fascinating in one area (although it can be), but by offering a whole load of options and avenues to explore should you find your attention wavering.

When I first started playing I was thinking I should play this like I used to play David Braben and Ian Bells Elite. Fully aware and bizarrely attracted to the notion that you are your POD character and your reputation sticks like skunk musk, I named my main the Unique Name of Awesomeness I used for three years playing Starfleet Command, I fancied myself as the Han Solo type smuggler/mercenary and thought I could roam around the entire Galaxy in a cool ship trading goods and battling the equivalent of the Thargoids. How wrong I was!

A) I looked nothing like Han Solo
B) My ship looked like some twisted hunk of metal only it's mother could love.
C) No Thargoids of course, don't be silly!

Everything else was there, the locations, the trade goods, the stations, modular upgrades but there was also so much more. The local chatter (with real people!), the agents offering missions and the market! Wow, there were so many distractions! So I spent the first two weeks getting to grips with exactly what was on offer before settling in to any sort of role.

Feeling now a little bit silly about my name choice but too far in to the game to even consider re-rolling I couldn't help but notice one aspect of the game that intrigued me. The Great War which later became more commonly known as the Pendulum War. I spent a little time researching this, i.e. What's this all about then? A few blogs, forum threads and still with no real idea about who was what I decided that I wanted to be a part of this big war, this massive thing that was taking the game by storm, this huge event that had thousands of players screaming at each other on forums and blowing each other up in the face, this mass of exploding ships and arcing lasers. But to do that I had to join a Corporation!

A Direction!

With a degree of random, a pinch of clueless and a dollop of noob I found one. They were affiliated to an Alliance that had helped build the first Titan in game. If that was what these people could do, then unashamedly I wanted to be part of that. I wanted to fight. I wanted have a place in a Corporation that was going places. I wanted to be useful. In essence, I wanted a job.

I got accepted into the recruitment corporation Research Associates (RESA) and went on mining ops. With a lot of the new membership unaware, RESA itself and the leadership were only just recovering from the effect of Hurricane Katrina having previously lost homes, jobs and internet connectivity. They were just managing to pull themselves back into some sense of order then one day we got wardecced. This is it, I thought, this is where the action is. So there we were, a bunch of newbies about 3 weeks old spinning our ships in stations, too underpowered (in our minds) to undock and leadership pretty much occupied with more important (and rightly so) meatworld matters. If I knew then what I know now, things would've been different and I would've shown those pesky kids! Well, Russians actually. Probably Russian kids. Pesky Russian Kids anyway.

At that time though, we were linked to AWECO but we weren't allied and the continual wardecs were designed to wear the newbies out of RESA and kill recruitment for AWECO. Many of us hung on, taking pot shots and continuing to grow while the leadership created Intrepid Crossing, IRC, to be the joining alliance and to hopefully discourage the war declarations.

After a while, myself and the rest of the intake graduated (made a lot of ISK and skilled up) and would be allowed to join AWE Corporation to take part in the greater war. The CEO had other ideas for me though that involved being a recruitment officer for another recruitment corporation, Progenitor Corporation. My alt even founded it! However, at this point, I reached a low ebb and even though the game wasn't at fault, I cancelled my sub. I had experienced no real excitement and either due to circumstance, inaction/action, whatever, my future in Eve looked pretty boring and bleak. This is no reflection at all on RESA or any members but in meatworld when your job sucks. You quit.

At Last! PvP!

Scratching the itch and being rather tired of unemployment, a couple of months later I resubbed and started chatting to old corporation mates from RESA. Some had gone on to join Exceed Inc, where there really was action, fun and really wild things. So I applied and thankfully got accepted.

Crisis. I soon found myself out of my depth. Despite my enthusiasm I had little to offer in skills so when specific ops were organised requiring specific ship types I couldn't really attend. That was okay though, I was in 0.0 now, took part in some home guard defence, ratted a bit, did more than my fair share of tackling and started to really enjoy the game. Basically I muddled on and did as much as I could to take part and do my bit for King and Country.

Without giving too much away we continued to live in 0.0 and adopted a nomadic lifestyle, settling where we thought fights would happen and looking for fun. By fun we mean no blobbing and plenty of small scale encounters. That's not to say we didn't take part in larger alliance fights. Oh yes, we did and they were fantastic fun in that special way that says fun but means slideshow. Especially surviving DD's amongst the wailing on TS or Vent when hardly anyone else did. That was fun.

Over time my skills improved and now I was equipping tech 2 ships and items.My own self worth was increasing as my kb stats weren't looking too bad at all. We fought some great opponents and there were ups and downs with plenty more ups than downs. It was a good time!

Faction Warfare

We then dabbled in Faction Warfare as 0.0 was becoming one gigantic love-in nap-fest with no real movement or conflict due to the impending launch of Dominion.

Faction Warfare was fun, but flawed. While you can do your bit in Faction Warfare, the initial excitement wears a little thin in my opinion. Added to that the mechanics need fixing to just make it mean something.

Always wanting to improve, I felt there was more to learn about fighting, tactics and general strategy. So, rather than be the Forever Noob(tm) I did something about it.

Epiphany

It was then I went on a basic course with Agony Unleashed. Oh my God. Three years into the game and it was like someone put the lights on.

If you ever have a spare 20 million isk or so, just do that course. I cannot recommend it enough. You learn so many techniques that fear of the enemy dissipates into a thin vapour and your confidence multiplies. I think half the problem with blob warfare is because many pilots lack confidence to go out in small gangs and fight on those terms.

I joined Agony and really had some good times, they are such a great bunch of people working really hard to actually have fun and also to pass on some great knowledge to others. The attitude within the corporation is of a hugely cooperative nature which engenders such a degree of knowledge transfer some meatworld organisations would be willing to pay real cash for the secret formula.

The game has a lot to do with the setting you can place yourself in but ultimately it is YOU who define what your environment is like and the path you ultimately go on. That's what makes Eve great. It really is a sandbox.

With kids on the way, real life interfering and play time dwindling, I am now in my own little corporation as Billy No Mates. It is sad. It is lonely. But there is still much hope and joy! My dastardly all encompassing "Death To All, I'll Make You Whimper Like A Small Kitten" training plan continues in readiness for my one day return into a Corp. If any will have me that is.

The Here and Now.

Planetary Interaction brought by Tyrranis, despite being in early stages has really plugged a gap. There is now something to do - at least for me. I now have a new aim.

Mission running is not really interesting to me, exploration and wormholes are great but I have very limited play time and need something snappier.

Planetary Interaction gives me a reason to go to low-sec and null-sec, a reason to compete and more importantly it's something any pilot can do without a huge infrastructure behind them and without the trust issues surrounding corporation POS's. It will be many things to many people but to me it really is an Access All Areas expansion.

PI is strangely addictive. I've even gone to bed with visions of little circles popping and fading when I close my eyes. More excitingly and less disturbingly, with some of my planets in low sec and null sec space I will have plenty of opportunity to pvp whether I want to or not! I now have a great new job.

Here's to the future of Eve Online and the next 7 years at least! That's because CCP have already stated Eve is really aiming to be Life. Evolved.

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