A New Frontier
My name is EVE is Londala Pox. I have been trying EVE since 2006, and I started playing much more seriously in 2012. After reading Erik Asmok’s “I, Goon” article, and having some much larger political happenings in EVE pertain to me, I thought it was time to share my story and my corporation’s vision with the greater community.
When I start playing EVE, like many, I had no idea what I was doing. I poked around a bit in highsec on a trial account and was killed and can flipped by CODE in my Velator. I received a mail outlining my infractions, and at that point I moved on to other entertainment. The second time I actually subscribed to the game and started getting involved with any community projects I could. I was a contestant on “Bacon or No Bacon” via EVE Radio, and I was getting a little more hang of the platform. I found I loved interacting with the community and aspired to being a good ECM pilot in PvP after watching some Alliance Tournament coverage. Again, my attention was taken away from the game and I took a long break.
Years later I came back to the game in an interesting way. I used EVE Online as a business internship. After serving in the military and receiving the Post-9/11 GI Bill, I was studying Entrepreneurship at the University of Cincinnati. I applied for a few internships, but didn’t get any opportunities to work. Needing something low cost to fill a few month gap in classes, I decided that EVE was probably the best place to develop my business skills. I made a new character and proceeded with the goal of becoming part of a leadership team in a corporation within the time frame of the summer.
EVE As An Internship
It wasn’t long before I found an opportunity to share my business skills in EVE. I started new life in EVE in a corporation named Frankenmouse Inc. There were a decent number of members, but there weren’t many leaders. The CEO and XO did a little, but they weren’t online much. As someone who could play for a lot of time every day, I started running mission and mining fleets in highsec. In less than a month we were running Level 4 Brutor Tribe missions with characters as new as a few days, and everyone was making way more than they ever could on their own.
Because of this action, myself and a few other members were promoted to Command Core, and worked together with our own individual skills to make the corp work like a well-oiled machine. We did all of this without any in-game roles. Our CEO and XO were not willing to give us any access to corporate infrastructure, and this would ultimately be the corporation’s downfall. Our de facto and du jour leaders were not aligned in their goals, so even the smallest instability would have cracked the corporation wide open.
After some time, the war declarations started to roll in. We had a couple of good fights with some other young highsec corps, but then we started to get hit by larger wardec alliances. Our CEO and XO responded by moving the corporation to a wormhole, and that’s where the story starts to end. My current girlfriend came in to the corporation as a spy for another small wormhole group, and our two POSs were not long for the world. After this, I went to fly with Dirt Nap Squad for a while, then took a break from the game to pursue work, World of Warcraft, and Diablo III for a time.
A Pirate’s Life For Me
After being absent from the game for a few months, I was enjoying a Minecraft server ran by my good friend from EVE, Rakanishu Esil. He had also started a small gang piracy corporation in EVE, so I joined, and fun was had by all. Rak is a great ship fitter and FC, but he didn’t really ever have want or interest to work with more they just a few pilots at a time. Over about four months, we had a great time flying Talwars and getting some amazing kills with new players in cheap ships.
Unfortunately the corporation lost steam, and so did my friend Rak. I personally took a hiatus to play the launch of World of Warcraft: Legion. He was about to close down The Carver Club for good, but I just so happened to end my honeymoon with WoW at just the right time. I convinced him to keep it open, and I would take the corporation from its now two members up to a number that would give him the fleets he was looking for. Over the last few months I have grown the corporation to almost forty members, with about ten core members who play almost daily. We have a great team of FCs, logistics people, and diplomats to flesh out a great small corporation. My members and I play the game in a way that maximizes fun. We do what we want, when we want, and sometimes we do what is needed to get our larger goals accomplished.
We have no real allies in the area, but nor do we have enemies. We have an in-game channel called Carver Club Reception where we hang out with locals we’ve built relationships with, and we can all have great fun on both ends of the gun. It’s like living under an “Honor Amongst Thieves” system, or a Pirate Code. Some of us come together to pursue bigger targets, but nobody is off the table when it comes to engagements unless they are in our fleet. This flexibility allows for us to keep lots of small gang targets, while also having the benefit of coming together against large groups when needed.
The Future on the Frontier
Every corner of this game is a special adventure, but it is hard to experience it all firsthand. I hope to become a voice for Low Security space, as well as encourage more people to enjoy the fast pace and small scale of Lowsec PvP. I live on the frontier in my real life as well, 200 miles from a city of any significant size, in a community of 3,000. In my 10,000 square mile county, only about 7,000 people live out here. There is plenty of fresh air, blue skies, and by luck a reasonable Internet connection. It’s hard for most people to believe that I am a participant in four different real life businesses, let alone an interstellar CEO, yet I hardly ever leave the house.
Low Security space is a lot like where I live. Many people question why you would ever settle down in a place like this. There isn’t much profit, it has a lot of traffic, and it’s dangerous and unpredictable. I think it takes the most driven, albeit irrational, players in EVE to live on the fringe. There is so much fun and adventure out here at such a low price point that it is personally irresistible.
My message to anyone out there, whether in EVE or in life, is that you can make it anywhere with the right skills and determination. You have to do every day, and you have to really figure out what is important in your life. Sacrifice everything else, get where you want to be, then grow however you feel. Doing anything less than that wastes the potential of the real you.
If you ever want to hang out, you can find me in-game in the Carver Club Reception channel or on our TeamSpeak whose information is in the channel’s Message of the Day. You can learn more about The Carver Club on our Corporation Overview Google Doc here, and you can support my work in EVE and on Twitch via Patreon.
Finally, I would like to thank everyone I’ve met in EVE over the years. Many of you have changed my life for the better and encouraged me to become the CEO I am today. I hope to shoot with you and at you for years to come.
