A short, sharp kick in the ass

Most of my remaining two readers will have realized that had the EVE Blues.  It was a combination of three things:

• Z3ro Return Mining, my ancestral home in EVE, the corp that I joined as a pod-pole 7 years ago, where I learned Wormhole flying and in which I found true friends is slowing down.  People age, families grow, recruitment is hard work and attrition has shrunk the corp to a few good friends with limited time online.  It just “happens”, there is no drama but as a game it wasn’t enjoyable for me.
• CCP made some wild design decisions that in fore- and hindsight have been disastrous and bit them in the ass. Rather than focusing on the diversity of players using the multitude of things to do in New Eden as their driver, they channeled all development and marketing activity into one thing and one thing only, Sov Nullsec.  It worked, thousands now log in only to experience a big fight with the entirely predictable result that the servers crash and people are disappointed.  I grew tired of being treated as third class paying customer and unsubbed 2 of my 3 accounts.
• I personally had changes in my life, good or bad but they didn’t allow for “regular” play.  Long, boring story, everyone has those phases, mine started in summer 2017.  Its only now that I have more of a balance and can re-engage in things that are not absolutely necessary to life (like computer games).

But sometimes, all it needs is a short, sharp kick in the ass to get motivation back.  I suddenly realized that I truly missed EVE and that I don’t have to stay with Z3ro.  I am allowed to leave. But where should I go?

 

I thought of all the things I have done in EVE and which ones I enjoy most.  I had spent time in Faction War (fun, actually), High Sec (well…) and as Mercenary with the indomitable and intimidating Noir. corp.  But what I love most is Wormhole space and flying with small, sharp team of guys who know what they are doing but are not too “elite” to be assholes.  Basically, Z3ro but bigger.

And I remembered fondly the fights we had against with NOMEX or Anomalous Existence.   They are a proudly “low-class” wormhole corp we ran into a few times and lost a fair number of boats against them.  They had always been fun to fight and chat with.  In one notable encounter we spontaneously fleeted up when they were chasing Hole Control through our C4 home.  Within minutes, we talked, joined their fleet with 5 ships and entered the pursuit. Let me be clear, we (Z3r0) put 4 T3 Cruisers and a Damnation into a fleet of guys we normally shoot. We are not “blue”.  They could have killed us on the spot or at least gotten a good fight out of it.  They chose not to.  EVE is above all about trust among people and they chose to trust us as we did them.  No greater asset there is in this game than that.

And so, when I thought what I wanted to do next in EVE, I contacted Nash MacAllister who I drank beer with before and we chatted.  Yes, I was allowed to join.  I can’t lie, I was more excited about this than anything in-game for a very long time.  I was positively giddy when I finally had dropped my roles and joined their corp.  I posted a shy “o/” in corp channel and was greeted with private pings of welcome, advice and banter.  I joined their TeamSpeak and fell  into the middle of an opp where they were doing what I love best, driving a small fleet through wormhole space, setting running ambushes and whacking opponents with a combination of skill and raw, brutal firepower.  I was itching to get into to the fight right now but was stuck in high sec assembling my boats to bring in. Oh and I will bring in boats.  I will bring everything.

I logged off with a fat, cheesy grin on my face.  This is going to be f-ing awesome.