Most EVE players have heard of Chribba. Widely touted as the only trustworthy person in New Eden, Chribba has been around since EVE was in its infancy. He is most well-known for his Veldnaught, the only dreadnaught still in a 1.0 system (Amarr, specifically). In addition to the high sec flagship, Chribba is the sole pilot and commander of the Veldfleet, a fleet of every available titan and super-capital.
His unquenchable lust for Veldspar aside, Chribba somehow manages to find time to run multiple EVE related sites pro bono, many of which you have probably used at some point. He also provides a broker service for high value deals that can’t be completed safely via in-game mechanics.
We took some time to chat with him about his activities, both in game and out.
First of all, what do you do outside of EVE?
Chribba: I work as a system admin, dealing with all sorts of server troubles on the bad days, and user troubles on a regular day.
What does your battlestation look like?
Chribba: Wouldn’t really call it battlestation unless you mean how much it destroys my life lol! It’s a few year old quad core AMD desktop with a midrange GPU.
How often do you get asked about your Veldspar tattoo?
Chribba: It happens from time to time, usually new people at work ask about it, and look equally confused after the explanation, so I usually just resort to saying it’s a thing in a computer game – that usually still makes them confused [why’d someone would do that] but at least it doesn’t make their brain overheat (I usually keep the EVE part pretty quiet though in general).
What got you started in this game?
Chribba: It wasn’t as much as getting started, I sort of accidentally came across an article about EVE in some game magazine, and having played Elite for many years it looked sorta similar and decided to give it a try.
Why EVE? What has caused you to stick around with this game for 10 years?
Chribba: The biggest reason is the community, without it, there’s really nothing that would have kept me for this long. But also of course because EVE itself is pretty and if you feel down you always got a Damsel in Distress to save. But really, the content that the community creates is just mind boggling and I love it.
How many accounts do you actually have, and how much ISK does it cost you to PLEX all of those Characters each month?
Chribba: More accounts than I need really, and I blame it all on GTC in the start and later PLEX, it’s far too easy to get another account haha. But as for actual number it’s in the area of 30, then it’s just math.
On that note, if you had to estimate your net worth, what would it be?
Chribba: Two pixels and a beer – or probably not even close to what I could have earned from another job these past (soon) 11 years instead of being a spaceship pixel pilot!
What is a typical day in New Eden like for you?
Chribba: Logging on and being hit with one or two convos before the screen has even loaded. 20-30 mails in the inbox and then usually the rest of the time involves talking to people and conducting supercap trades. If there’s time left over I’m usually spinning the ship and relaxing in the belts (unless I put on my dropsuit and head down to a planet for some AR action).
Mining is widely regarded as the most mundane thing a person can do in EVE. What do you do while mining? I would imagine watching mining lasers gets fairly boring after 10+ years.
Chribba: You could PVP on your alt, run missions on your alt or clean your room. I usually chat though, and/or use my alts for trades. CCP surely could spice up the watching by adding colors to the various crystals… (or how about a proper active ore scanner…)
If you had to guess, how much (M³) Veldspar would you say you mine in a day?
Chribba: On average… no idea, but with business coming first, less than a can a day for sure.
Most people have heard of the Veldnaught, but less are aware of the Veldfleet. Can you explain how the Veldfleet came to be?
Chribba: I’ve always been interested in collecting ships, so even so one goal was always to get the supercaps too, even if their creation and intended purpose was perhaps not orbiting roids, but then I found a new shovel to use in the sandbox.
That is an incredible achievement! Veldfleet aside, what do you feel is your biggest accomplishment in relation to EVE?
Chribba: That’s a tough one, I rarely give myself credit, but I feel very happy, and fortunate to both had the possibility as well as being invited to hold presentations at both EVE Vegas and EVE Down Under, for someone who really dislike holding presentations I feel very happy to have done that, stepping outside (like way outside) my comfort zone. So that’s an accomplishment I am very thankful for, and that’s also thanks to the people giving me that opportunity, as well as the community for even being interested in listening.
You have mentioned that you are a collector of ships. What rare ships do you have sitting in your hangers?
Chribba: I have most of the Alliance Tournament ships, including a Tribal Tempest, as well as the old Guardian-Vexor. Also a few slightly misfitted ships, like CruiseKestrel and HeavyBurst. Also had a misfitted Naglfar but decided to unfit it so it could undock for a few “tourists”.
You run several EVE related websites. We all know that hosting is not cheap; do you pay for these out of pocket?
Chribba: There’s parts of it that are sponsored thanks to good relations with people (no donations in terms of money) but beyond favors like that, it’s all paid for by myself (with a small discount by whatever money comes in from ads after taxes and all that).
As we all know, EVE is a game that is made great by player created content. What can the average player do to become a content creator?
Chribba: Play his or her story, think of things they want to do or would like to see and give it a try. It’s a sandbox, many times I’m sure your castle will either collapse (because you suck at engineering) or stomped to the ground by others, but just as well it might become something really cool and appreciated by many. I think the key is to try and not rush things or put too big expectations on something, rather try focus on having fun, at least that’s something I feel have put me where I am today.
If you could improve one thing about EVE, barring any financial or technical limitations, what would it be? You can’t say “add more Veldspar”!
Chribba: Less TiDi. Now, I know CCP is already working on that but I’m confident that getting that sorted (even if it’s only 50% TiDi instead of 10%) that would give EVE as whole a huge boost. Looking at the recent battles, and the influx of new players, it’s impressive to see how that affected people, magazines and such – and that’s USER CONTENT. No CCP PR trick, that’s thanks to all those people fighting, creating that. TiDi at 10% however is major boring, so if that could be sped up for better performance, I think EVE would grow even more (some TiDi is sorta good though, since it does create these “long” fights, rather than one that would be over in an hour).
You have organized a few events, such as LoveQuest, which were greatly appreciated by the community. Do you have any plans on doing something similar in the future?
Chribba: Absolutely, I always have ideas on events that would be fun to do, just takes a lot of time and effort to do something properly, plus so far I’ve found the random on-a-whim type of events to be far more fun though, as it’s not expected and surprises tend to make people more engaged as well.
You have said that you like to set small goals for yourself. What is your next small goal?
Chribba: Right now, thanks to CCP they managed to create some sort of OCD in getting stupid golden icons on ISIS – so that’s my next goal. So in about 75 days or so, all those ORE ships will be golden (some weird requirements for Lv5 mastery there…)
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Chribba: Fly reckless, thank you for all support and for creating all this content I get to share with you guys and gals, feeling truly honored to be a part of your community. PS. Killing supercaps is great for business, keep up the good work! 😉
Is there anyone you would like to see interviewed in the future? Leave a comment below.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Dkeh Weis.
