I’m aware that this horse has been thoroughly beaten, buried, unearthed and beaten some more, however I figured I’d toss my two swings in for giggles and grins. I’ve come to the conclusion that EVE is like the best friend you never knew you had, or in some cases knew you wanted.
Before going deeper, I need to define what a “best friend” is. According to Merriam Webster, the phrase “best friend can be defined in a few ways.
- a person’s closest and dearest friend
- a person’s most desirable or valuable possession or resource
But both of these definitions are a bit ambiguous. I say this because if you ask some random person on the street, they will give you their individual definition if they can formulate one. So for this, I’ll define what a “best friend” is to me. My best friend is someone, or something, that I can return to and interact with as if we never parted.
I took another break from EVE as I am losing weight and getting in shape to join the US Army, but recently when I noticed my subs were about to run out, I decided to log in and pay for one more month with ISK to keep training. And then I decided to do a mission for old times sake. Aaand then I decided to move my stuff from Null because I wasn’t intending to be active for a long time and…. well it continued from there. Now I have level 4 missions, all of my stuff moved from Vale to near Dodixie, a new and smaller fleet of ships to manage, and significantly less ISK then I had in both property and cash at the start of this endeavor.
And yet, I enjoyed it. It took me two missions to get back in the saddle for EVE PvE, and the game felt like I’d never quit playing. There aren’t very many games, in fact there’s very little in life at all, that has this feeling. It’s a feeling that so many have described regarding EVE and why they continue to return or still talk highly of the game. From the high stakes 1v1’s to the massive slug fests in Null to the knock down, drag out bar brawl that is Faction Warfare. Even the risky market traders or shady hauling contracts give people thrills that you can’t fully recreate in any other game. Hell, it’s even great for passive players because mining or PI, as the time required and management needed for those activities are just up some people’s alley. I’ve described it as such for years, and I know others have as well, but EVE is like real life if we lived on the other side of a wormhole and had spaceships and never actually died. It’s a virtual second life, and with that comes something for everyone.
But like life, even EVE requires vacations or extended leaves because, well, life is boring. And sometimes, EVE is boring. Is it dead? Not at all, just check zkillboard. You’ll find someone duking it out in some backwater system or in a wormhole somewhere. But for many people, it’s the same old thing. Log in, undock, shoot things/trade things/mine things/whatever, re-dock, log off, repeat the next day. It gets repetitious. It gets a little stale. But that’s okay, because even after a few days, weeks, or even months, you can always come back and things will be there when you return. It may not be exactly the same, I know many coming back this year after having taken off around the time of the blackout probably got a bit of a shock with the patches we’ve seen, but my point still stands. Your ships are still there, your damage still hurts, your cargo bays can still haul. In some respects, it’s like you never left.
And that gives me a bit of joy when I log in and see my ships roll into the hangar. Especially the battleships. I’m a poor pleb without the training nor ISK for capitals, sue me.
For real though, I love EVE. As I finish getting ready for the Army, I may not play this game for a while. It may be a year or more until I return. But unless the servers die between now and then, I’m fairly confident I will return to this game. It’s like a best friend, always willing to shoot ships and chill whenever you want however you want. And I’m truly thankful for that.
