EVE Online is the last remaining computer game where the interaction between players actually matters. Within EVE, the smaller and the more ambitious a group is, the more the actions of one man or woman impacts the success of the whole team. Wormholes with their resource and mass limits attract smaller groups who relish the complexity of transient routes, danger running even the most mundane activities and the uncertainties that this lifestyle brings. Wormholers are tight group, even by EVE standards for those reasons and many of us can not imagine anymore flying in the anonymity of a large k-space alliance. And when corpmates become friends, the transition from “game” to “Real Life” is complete.
On December 30th 2018, our corpmate Mindful Visteen died while logged into EVE. He was scanning an unknown signature when he suddenly disconnected and dropped off voice comms. Nobody knew what happened, people attributed his sudden disappearance to a computer or network crash and only later we found out from a friend what happened. It hit us like a sledgehammer. Some of the information can be found here, some other details stay with us.
In the following weeks, one of us anchored a structure on the exact spot where Mindful Visteen had passed away. It was a Raitaru in a C4, vulnerable, unarmed, low-power, small and open to anyone. CCP doesn’t facilitate permanent memorials which is understandable but we hoped that the Raitaru would serve as one for as long as possible.
And for an few months this was the case. The structure stood and reminded capsuleers that Mindful Visteen, the real person had been there before them. Maybe someone docked up for second and read the bio, thinking about their friends, their family and what relationships between strangers on the internet mean to him. We will never know how many have stopped by but we know that at least some people have found it and thought about what it meant.
But unfortunately, it didn’t last. The small, low-power citadel attracted the attention of a passing crew who shot it into the first timer. One of our directors reached out to them and told the story but it didn’t matter – that group swatted the Raitaru out of the sky leaving nothing but a wreck and gaining nothing but a killmail.
Actually, the attackers did gain something.
They combined anger of Mindful’s Friends.
More of that in Chapter 2
A journey through the mind 