I have been enjoying my time in The Dark Space Initiative (TDSIN), and recently published an article about my first experiences since returning to wormholes. My editor encouraged me to try and find more wormhole related topics to write about and I had the idea to do another interview-style piece. The human element of EVE Online is always the most organic and interesting. While many of my corpmates are still getting used to the idea of having a writer in their midst (or perhaps were not interested), some of them graciously decided to share their stories. Each header is the question I asked. Here are their answers:
How long have you been in wormholes?
“About 4 years.” – Madden Canrende
“Almost a year; 10.5 months to be exact.” – Furu Bonehead
“I have been in wormholes since June 5, 2011.” – smkdeb1
“I have been in wormholes now for 5 years, 4 and a half being with TDSIN.” – Radimir Lenin
“3 to 4 years, don’t remember, it’s too long.” – Kali Anemoi
“One year.” – Hardy Risalo
What was your first experience in wormholes?
“I am not sure, but I’m pretty sure it was my original tutorial back in 2012. I had no idea what was happening, how to use scanner probes, or why EVE hated me. But I do remember being really happy when I got to 100% and figured out how to find the object, and get a Venture I think.” – Madden Canrende
“I had been doing events and stuff in high-sec for a few months and started to get bored and wanted to do a bit of exploring. Went one jump out of Jita and found a wormhole. I had no idea which sort of WH this was or where it would lead at the time but I’m guessing it was something between C1-C3.
A Venture sat cloaked, saw me and initiated a conversation. He told me that [they] had seen people active in this WH and suggested we keep the convo open to warn each other of danger. I agreed. I scanned down a data site (I was in an Astero at the time) warped and completed it almost before I noticed in convo ”Sabre on d-scan, warping to safe”. I immediately burned off and activated my covert ops cloaking device and warped to the high-sec at around 30km. After a minute or so the Sabre bubbled up and flew around, possibly trying to decloak people. I slowboated into the bubble close to the WH, at which point the Sabre had gotten bored and jumped out. I did so as well, as I also made the Venture aware of what had happened the few minutes before. We thanked each other added to contacts and parted ways.
I decided that EVE was pointless alone and, most importantly, boring over long periods and I wanted to krab in WHs with a Naglfar, so that was my goal. . . . I was strangely naive at the time, haha. Didn’t know which WH alliance was good, so I searched through reddit looking for the coolest logo, read their description and figured these guys sound cool so I decided to apply to them. I joined a week later.” – Furu Bonehead
“My first experience was in a Drake. I was quickly ambushed and died a screaming death in the dark recess of the unknown.”– smkdeb1
“My first experience in wormholes: after joining BOrthole (WHJEW) I was brought as salvager on a static farming op. I was amazed at the amount of isk. I had about 550m in cargo, a lot for me back then. And that was from the first site. All was going well until halfway through, my college’s internet cuts out. After 30 minutes, I call and they say it will be down until the next morning for repairs.
I packed my PC up and raced 50 miles home from campus, afraid my new corp would think I tried to run off with loot. Log into comms to hear “wouldn’t it be funny if he logged on now?” Just as I say “WAIT” they rolled the hole. Lots of laughing was had at the timing. Eventually scanned my way out, though.
First experience in TDSIN, my home in w-space, though would probably be the fleet taking AHACs to Syndicate to kill people bashing a POCO and I had our scout commissared because he incorrectly read the planet they were on four times, admitted finally he can’t read Roman numerals. They escaped, then he wouldn’t shut up when a real fleet engaged us” – Radimir Lenin“Setting up a C3 and getting evicted shortly after. We were a small corp and quite active, so some [of our] people had the idea to move to a C3 WH to try something new (C3 with highsec static J163529). We were all quite eager to move to the WH and put quite some effort in setting it up.
It was the old time where you relied on POSs and it was still possible to launch fighters from a carrier sitting just at the edge of the POS shields, supporting your fleet when ratting or fighting. We also had built the first carrier and were in the process of building a second one [in our POS]. We just were spending lots of ISK for the WH, not really yet earning a lot, also we had to learn everything [the hard way].
We had one member [methosbhunter, don’t think he’s active anymore], with quite [a] temper, [and who] already knew a little more about WH space. . . . Looking back from today’s perspective and my current knowledge on WHs it was nothing.
So from time to time we had a connection to some more experienced WH corps, and one of them killed a t3 of our hot-tempered member while he was killing some sleepers, just the normal way of WH life-the corp was Alts Gone Bad (AGB). But [methosbhunter] was so pissed that he decided to camp their WH and keep them from farming.
So as a consequence they got pissed, and decided to evict us. They easily got hole control as our numbers were low, and kicked us out of the WH, (AGB together with Conquering Darkness). [Here’s] the related killboard.” – Kali Anemoi
“My first experience wasn’t even in J-space. My friend and I had jumped through a highsec hole blind and didn’t realize we had been sent to lowsec. I was in a Procurer; he was in a Thorax. He ended up getting trashed by a Confessor as I warped out. We never went back to wormholes.” – Hardy Risalo
What made you want to stay?
“I didn’t originally. I moved back a couple years later after joining Scary Wormhole People (WHBOO).” – Madden Canrende
“I thought a large [number] of guys had a good sense of humor and [were] willing to mess with me humorously. [I] got a sense of my first fleet combat experience in many years and was hooked. I was also really happy with having a farmhole or ”Krab-hole,” as players refer to them, just with all the ISK [I made it very quickly, bringing] incursions to shame. . . . [As a result, I’ve grown] as both a member [of my corp] and an EVE player both in wealth and experience; [the experience] was truly and still is quite joyful to think about.” – Furu Bonehead
“I like the rush of finding victims to attack. You have to be on constant guard, plus there are so many awesome fights in wormholes that the rest of EVE has no idea even happen.” – smkdeb1
“What made me want to stay? The people and the fights. For people: TDSIN is filled with great people. We might not all always get along, but at the end of the day we are a tight, close knit group. You have to be in w-space. For the fights: no TiDi, shiny fleets that explode, the nature of hunting site runners or miners with no local warning them off. W-space rarely gets boring.” – Radimir Lenin
“I had a friend that convinced me to go back to WH space.” – Kali Anemoi
“I wanted to stay after realizing how tight-knit the corps were. Being able to log on to the same people every day is a great feeling.” – Hardy Risalo
What’s your favorite part about wormholes?
“The people; there’s nothing like the glorious crazy pilots who are willing to pick up everything they own and jump into the breach (truly it’s amazing).” – Madden Canrende
“The variety. Just how the chain changes every day and always something new to scan and explore; hopefully dunk a lot of people in the process, BoB willing!” – – Furu Bonehead
“I like the fact that there is no local. There could be 200 pilots next to you in the wormhole and you have no idea until they decloak.” – smkdeb1
“Favorite part of wormholes, other than TDSIN? The ability to always get some kind of content within 3-4 jumps from Solaris. No content? Roll the hole and get a new chain. It’s not like k-space null where you do 40 round trip jumps just to see the enemy dock up.” – Radimir Lenin
“PvE with other people, and lots of options for PvP; earn so much ISK that you can fly all the fancy stuff you like.” – Kali Anemoi
“My favorite part is the risk. Not knowing what’s on the other side of a K162 before you jump is exhilarating. As I’m writing this, a fleet just tried to tackle our site runners.” – Hardy Risalo
Why should other players, who haven’t yet tried j-space, get into wormholes?
“Because you can’t win EVE if you haven’t explored half of it, and wormholes are a lot more complex than they could possibly imagine.” – Madden Canrende
“You can only bring so many people at a time in a fight. I think this is a good example when comparing WHs to null. It’s also ever-changing so that’s probably the most important thing to note. ISK and corps that live in WHs are good and I feel are a lot more helpful. Ofc, not everyone of them, but most in my opinion.” – Furu Bonehead
“If you want the rush, PvP, and really experience EVE, then the wormholes are the best way to experience that.” – smkdeb1
“Why should other players try wormholes? It’s different. It’s a unique kind of space. Unlike being in the bigger null corps, most w-space groups are small so you’re not just another warm body in a ship. It’s really a unique space in EVE. It’s not for everybody, but if you are dissatisfied with the null politics and TiDi, then w-space might be a good fit for you. It was for me. Also WHBOO.“ – Radimir Lenin
“Because it’s a challenge and so much fun.” – Kali Anemoi
“If you haven’t tried WH space, then take a dip. But I’d do it with friends. The chances of you getting a true 1v1 are pretty slim.” – Hardy Risalo
Conclusion
EVE is all about risk versus reward. Every wormholer has stories about what made or broke them. Wormholes may be the most bizarre places in EVE, but for many, they are the most interesting part of the game. Hopefully, this piece helped inspire a few of you who were curious about wormholes to maybe try them out.
No other Sci-Fi game encapsulates the dangers of the unknown like EVE, especially in wormholes. I’ve personally always felt closer to characters in some of my favorite shows like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica in wormholes. The unknown. The exploration. The insane money-making opportunities. The challenge unlike any other. Wormholes have that allure that can be found nowhere else in New Eden.
