I was considering today why it is that I prefer MMORPGs over most other game types. Eve certainly has the pvp aspect, which I feel is probably a solid draw for a large number of players, but it can't be denied that pve is the biggest draw for games like WoW and its ilk. I can't really speak for anyone else in regards to the selling point of Eve in general. I can only really speak from my own experience.
Also, just this once, the trolling light is off. I'm actually writing a serious post.
Role-play
I didn't RP for probably the first year and a half to two years of playing Eve. At that point in time, it was something for myself and a bunch of work friends to do when we got home. I was in the Navy at the time, and my work friends were really my only friends, and my wife wasn't there at the time. So, Eve became our hobby, and one that cost much less than our old hobby of getting absolutely shit-faced at the nearby bar. I vomited slightly less, as well, which I saw as a definite improvement.
We formed our own little corporation and began to play around with running complexes and other pve nonsense, but I began to be quite bored with it. I managed to become CEO and I made us join with a pvp alliance in Geminate, and quickly splurged to set up system sovereignty in an out of the way system. This was back when sov was a matter of putting up and keeping up POS's. So, my little corp of 10 people held a shitty system for a very short period of time. Inevitably, much larger and more active alliances swooped in and ROFLSTOMPED the bajeezus out of our alliance. This was when I pulled us out of the alliance, got our towers out safely (True Sansha Large tower is not a pleasant thing to lose), and quickly went about killing noobs in high sec to get my fix. Before long, I had become estranged from my corp. I had lived in low-sec with maybe 3 ships to my name for about a month, killing where I could. But, this really wasn't enough to keep me playing.
I took a long time off before I came back and resumed my old high-sec ganking ways. I happened upon someone recruiting for TNT and decided to finally make my break with high-sec for good. I settled into null-sec rather comfortably for several months. But, then null-sec politics came into the picture. I decided I didn't want to be there anymore. An old friend's wife convinced me to join Amarr FW. This is where the reason I play MMORPGs finally came to be.
I met some very interesting people in KotMC. But, Shalee was probably the most important for the purposes of this discussion. Between her and Rin, I had been convinced to try out this RP business. It was shaky at first. I didn't know what RP was supposed to be like, and so I sat and watched for my first few tries before I began to really get the hang of it. I started an RP blog, intending to flesh out my character beyond the unscripted chatroom interactions. That blog (The Path of Strife) is now 108 posts long, and my character sufficiently complex that I am constantly interested in seeing what he will do next. He's gotten a life of his own.
That's why I play MMORPGs. MMOs allow you the ability to truly create another life, to breathe life and personality, neuroses, etc. into a character of your creation. MMOs provide another world, another history, and another framework in which to place that character and to explore their choices. It's not just about blowing up spaceships for me. It's about watching the triumphs and failures of a person I've grown quite attached to.
That's why I play MMORPGs, and that's why I RP.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
The Ups and Downs of Taking a Break
I recently took some time away from Eve. I've been reflecting a lot on it, which is kinda weird. However, this isn't the first break I've taken and there are some similarities I've found in every one of these absences.
The Good:
A break is good sometimes. After too many months of sinking more time into this game than just about any other aspect in my life, internet spaceships begins to actually seem like serious business. Losses start to seem suddenly important. KB stats are watched closely. Tempers begin to flare over imagined slights against imagined character. Stress begins to find its way into what is ostensibly an escape from stress. In short, you get way too wound up. Then, you start to log on because you feel like you owe it to everyone else. You play, not for fun, but out of obligation. Like a job. This leads to burnout. You just get tired. You find yourself loathing logging in. You begin to resent the game.
Thus, we get to the good parts of taking a break. You get to recharge. Your time away allows you to wash away all that negative shit. Then, when you finally venture back online, you see it fresh and the things that got you hooked originally hook you again. The thrill of blowing shit up. The camaraderie. The antics on comms. Even the vile fleet porn links.
The Bad:
The bad generally depends on how long you were gone. A few weeks comes with almost no drawbacks. But, if you drop off the radar for several months, like I did, it's not always so pretty when you return. Especially so if you are a director. Granted, as it's been stated, I'm a pretty shit director who didn't do much anyway, but when you return you find what little you did do is being done better by others. You find that the slew of patches that came out while you were away have fundamentally changed everything and you spend weeks trying to catch up. You find new members who don't even know who you are. The cozy atmosphere you created is replaced with one where you question what it is you are supposed to even be doing. Further, the corp you left may not be the same one you come back to. May still be the same people and same name, but things change when you're away.
The Remedy:
Generally, the best thing I've figured out to do is to simply go out in fleets, chat in corp chat, and spend time reconnecting on comms. Before long, you feel reintegrated. Your rustiness begins to fade, and so does that feeling of uselessness. That, and it's hard to be bummed when you blow up a fleet of minnies in shinier shit.
Anyway, I'm just using this post as a way of dumping the things I've been thinking onto screen and maybe purge some of it. Catharsis by verbal diarrhea or whatever.
The Good:
A break is good sometimes. After too many months of sinking more time into this game than just about any other aspect in my life, internet spaceships begins to actually seem like serious business. Losses start to seem suddenly important. KB stats are watched closely. Tempers begin to flare over imagined slights against imagined character. Stress begins to find its way into what is ostensibly an escape from stress. In short, you get way too wound up. Then, you start to log on because you feel like you owe it to everyone else. You play, not for fun, but out of obligation. Like a job. This leads to burnout. You just get tired. You find yourself loathing logging in. You begin to resent the game.
Thus, we get to the good parts of taking a break. You get to recharge. Your time away allows you to wash away all that negative shit. Then, when you finally venture back online, you see it fresh and the things that got you hooked originally hook you again. The thrill of blowing shit up. The camaraderie. The antics on comms. Even the vile fleet porn links.
The Bad:
The bad generally depends on how long you were gone. A few weeks comes with almost no drawbacks. But, if you drop off the radar for several months, like I did, it's not always so pretty when you return. Especially so if you are a director. Granted, as it's been stated, I'm a pretty shit director who didn't do much anyway, but when you return you find what little you did do is being done better by others. You find that the slew of patches that came out while you were away have fundamentally changed everything and you spend weeks trying to catch up. You find new members who don't even know who you are. The cozy atmosphere you created is replaced with one where you question what it is you are supposed to even be doing. Further, the corp you left may not be the same one you come back to. May still be the same people and same name, but things change when you're away.
The Remedy:
Generally, the best thing I've figured out to do is to simply go out in fleets, chat in corp chat, and spend time reconnecting on comms. Before long, you feel reintegrated. Your rustiness begins to fade, and so does that feeling of uselessness. That, and it's hard to be bummed when you blow up a fleet of minnies in shinier shit.
Anyway, I'm just using this post as a way of dumping the things I've been thinking onto screen and maybe purge some of it. Catharsis by verbal diarrhea or whatever.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Absence Makes Me Itchy
So, I haven't written on here in a long time. A lot of that is due to an increase in RL obligations. However, I think a lot of it is also my being increasingly out of the loop regarding the "big picture" of FW.
Here's what I mean by that. I used to give a crap about sov. Not a huge crap, mind you. However, I cared somewhat. Then, despite what I thought would happen, sov suddenly meant ISK. That ruined sov for me. I didn't think it would, but the character of FW changed such that a lot of the "pvp4fun" was replaced by a desire to crush the other guy so you could increase your ISK. Further, tons of people flocked to FW for the purposes of getting space-rich. The status quo never really returned.
All is not bad news, though. Pvp is still enjoyable. However, nowadays I spend almost all my time in frigates fitted as cheaply as possible and leroying into minmatar gangs of cruisers of all tech levels, usually in greater numbers (lulz ensue).
That's okay, however, because it seems we happen upon all sorts of people in the warzone who derp themselves to death anyway. (http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=18563570)
And then there's the obligatory hotdrop from PL. We stumbled on their Hyperion and said "What the hell, why not?" and engaged. After about 10 mins or so, navitas arrived, popped cyno, and my slicer got up close to an Aeon shortly before going boom.
So, despite not giving a crap about sov, I will say I'm diggin the fights (if you wish to call them such) that I've encountered since my return to Eve. They may lack in the epic quality of some of the bashes of years past (battleships at Huola/Kourm), but they make up for it in lighthearted fun. I'm back and itchin for more.
Here's what I mean by that. I used to give a crap about sov. Not a huge crap, mind you. However, I cared somewhat. Then, despite what I thought would happen, sov suddenly meant ISK. That ruined sov for me. I didn't think it would, but the character of FW changed such that a lot of the "pvp4fun" was replaced by a desire to crush the other guy so you could increase your ISK. Further, tons of people flocked to FW for the purposes of getting space-rich. The status quo never really returned.
All is not bad news, though. Pvp is still enjoyable. However, nowadays I spend almost all my time in frigates fitted as cheaply as possible and leroying into minmatar gangs of cruisers of all tech levels, usually in greater numbers (lulz ensue).
That's okay, however, because it seems we happen upon all sorts of people in the warzone who derp themselves to death anyway. (http://eve-kill.net/?a=kill_related&kll_id=18563570)
And then there's the obligatory hotdrop from PL. We stumbled on their Hyperion and said "What the hell, why not?" and engaged. After about 10 mins or so, navitas arrived, popped cyno, and my slicer got up close to an Aeon shortly before going boom.
So, despite not giving a crap about sov, I will say I'm diggin the fights (if you wish to call them such) that I've encountered since my return to Eve. They may lack in the epic quality of some of the bashes of years past (battleships at Huola/Kourm), but they make up for it in lighthearted fun. I'm back and itchin for more.
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