Making a Friend

Well its been about 5 months to the day since my last post. Needless to say, but I will, I've taken a break.

It wasn't a rage quit, it wasn't any particular action by any one group, party or happenstance. I just didn't like playing anymore.

My absence from the EVE has really made me reevaluate what I want out of an internet game. What brings me joy and keeps me coming back isn't 'something new', which other games offered. I figured out that playing with friends hits 9 out of 10 points on my chart of happiness.

I've always told people who just started playing EVE, JOIN A CORP! ASAP. Its not because of what the corp can bring to you, its because you need them as human interaction. EVE isn't about you vs the game, because the game has no clear end, or goal.

There are those who think gathering ISK or ships or mods is the eventual goal. They refuse to interact with people out of fear they might lose some of that "item/money", this might work for a bit, but in the world of EVE the ways of making money and things to spend them on are a bottomless pit. The game will simply let you go full retard with multiple accounts, multiple billions of items and money, run by you in exactly the way you want it to be run. But to what end?

Eventually, you'll reach a stopping point, a number in your mind that you don't exactly know, but know that you've past it and the challenge isn't there anymore. You look for more challenges, you find them, but eventually those two dry up. The number gets bigger and bigger, but you keep passing your point of, darn, I should just stop doing this now.

I got to that point. Worse, I made internal rules of expected behavior and outcomes when I encountered other people. I'd ask new people I've met the same set of questions to narrow down exactly how to deal with them.

1. Do you require Ship tags.. if yes.. I yell at them about how dumb it is. If they say No, I ask why as the next question. If they happen to answer correctly to me, I'd continue with the next line of questions.

2. Do you require a API.. if yes.. I yell at them..


This goes on and on till I eventually rule them out for whatever invented reason I come up with in my head.

The thing is, if you ask the same questions from people, and you ask enough of them, you will eventually just get the same answers. You hear the answers you want, you know their play. The risk isn't there, because you know what to expect, without risk, there isn't challenge, without challenge, why the fuck am I even trying?

Back to burn out because I've "done it all" in my head. Even the human side of the game. I know your reaction, given the circumstances I've created for you. blah blah blah blah.. Back to boredom and back to not playing EVE.

Well that sucks!


So here I am. The saltest of vets seeking a fresh perspective I haven't seen yet. So I logged in and decided to fit up one of the new T3 Cruisers and dive into some holes.

I've talked to a couple recruiting wormhole groups, one was someone who I've had past negative dealings with so I ruled that out. I talked to another group who said they were part of a C1 group, but when I asked why they had their FF set to legal, they gave me some fishy responses. I think it was a reverse safari corp, so I passed.

Since I despise local chat and wormholes are my home, I said fuck it, started up the stream for some sniper action, and waited for them to find me. Started broadcasting my location to the stream watchers and jumping into a wormhole connected directly to Amarr.

All went well till I nearly cross jumped a Tengu in a connecting C2, Tengu scout vs a proteus scout, sure, I'll take that fight, I waited for him to uncloak, he cloaked up before I could lock him. I jumped in for quick look to see if they dispatched anything I could kill, nothing, so I jumped back.

He reveled the fact he was baiting for friends when he uncloaked off the hole a couple minutes later. I would have tackled him right off the bat, but a few minutes later he just accidentally turns off his cloak he so quickly activated minutes before.. NOPE, thats bait and not the fun fight kind.

I activate one of my other accounts to bring some back up if needed.. suddenly I see a bhaal on the hole. So its proteus scout vs Tengu and Bhaal. Not the best way to bait at this point, because I'd have to be a total idiot to do that, and total idiots don't fly proteus.

He opens a chat with me and asks to brawl!.. I said sure 1v1 Bhaal. I don't think he was expecting that response.But being a sporting guy he agrees.

This whole time I'm expected to lose my bhaal by a double cross or at least a 3rd party, but fuck it, its only ISK, and I might make a friend.

We 1v1 and I win, I don't blow him up, two reasons, I didn't really care to win that much, the other, I couldn't prevent the MJD with my disruptor.  :P

Then he comes with a domi, still only 1 person, then he even brings a DST to drop me off more Navy 800 Cap charges!

Each time I just let the ship warp away, good fights with a stranger, and just for the fun of it.

He says that he's have such a good time that I deserve a KM.  He brings a hurricane and I blow it up. He brings a drake and warps off, he's about to bring a cyclone, but I remind him that if he simply brought something smaller and flew a little different, my large guns couldn't hit him.

He brings a Vexor and honestly it was one of his hardest hitting ships, but I eventually chase it off with my drones.

Then he brings a Amarr assault frig (forget the name) and he orbits me till he runs out of missiles, then runs.This whole time, I'm streaming our fights on this wormhole, totally expecting to be 3rd partied by someone, anyone, but nothing. It was just he and I sharing a good time.

Later I discovered, and I mean that I didn't know it, I was flying that Bhaal in a full slave clone. That bhaal was faction fit and had an EHP of 133,000k. I went on a suicide run into an unscouted hole, to fight someone I didn't know, in a 2.6 bil pod, in a 900m isk ship. The entire time, I'm telling everyone watching where I am and how to find me over a twitch stream. I'm such an idiot!

But here's the thing, I had fun.

The key was me putting myself, my expectations in check, taking a risk and interacting with a stranger.

So here's to you Hobb lol

Thank you for letting me have fun with this game one more time.