Elder Scrolls Online and other single player games

Both readers of this blog may recognize that I occasionally drift away from writing about EVE Online and venture into other games and genres. Never for long, no other game so far had the staying power with me but yes, I did write about World of Warcraft, Fallout 4, Planetside 2 and of course my anticipated disaster playing No Man’s Sky.  Likely quite a few others but those are the ones that I remember a little more.  Common to all these games is my lack of attachment, an “aloof” attitude, an unwillingness for me to get serious about the game, nothing compares to you, EVE Online in depth and complexity.  Case study Fallout 4.  I picked it up over the Thanksgiving Holidays and played it a ton. The captivating storyline, the excellent (in my opinion) combat, crafting and interaction system and the detailed post-apocalyptic, believable world drew me in.  Its an awesome game.  Last time I played? January 23rd according to Steam. Its not that I don’t like the game, I just “got it”, i.e. I understood how it works and where it will go eventually.   Sure, there are mods (which I downloaded), new questions, more villages to free etc but overall, I have all the content that I wanted – (discounted) money well spent.  In the future, I will likely go back and replay it in Survival Mode for the additional challenges but currently I see no need to continue.

Still my favorite companion

Backing the Fountain War

Calling EVE Online a “computer game” would similar to calling Facebook a photo sharing site.  Both statements are technically correct but they don’t do justice.  In fact, Facebook and EVE Online are both social media products in the broadest sense – with the crucial difference that Facebook’s core message is the importance of “me” whereas EVE Online’s message aims to be the value of “us”.

Yes, EVE Online is social experience for us players in-game and outside.  Like no other MMO (measured by percentage, not total number), it spawned blogs, podcasts, meetups, parties and – yes – fiction and lore.  We don’t see ourselves as “players”, we see ourselves as creators of stories set on the backdrop of a space simulator – even if the story is just our own, we touch and we are touched by tens of thousands of others like us.  Even you, the harmless industrialists built weapons of mass destruction that ended many other’s dreams.  And you, the professional AWOXER and harvester of tears force the rest of us to analyze our own moral stance toward the helpless, the newbros, the hapless.  EVE Online is a community like no other because it is under threat, not despite of it.  “EVE Is Dying” is our battle cry, not our swansong.

Windows 8 and EVE Online – Clash of the decades

I could not resist the Amazon.com offer of $69 for a (seemingly!) full installation of Windows 8 Pro.  My XP license is seriously ageing and Windows 7 is what I use at work, in the true Windows tradition, when it works, you forget that you have it.

Newbie Blogger Initiative – My 0.2 ISK

Newbie Blogger Initiative

The Newbie Blogger Initiative aims to help aspiring bloggers and I would like to quickly add my 0.02 ISK to the chorus of outstanding posts.

About Friendship….

Society is currently undergoing rather substantial transformations, the one I mean to think about today is “friendship” and what it means nowadays.  Maybe there are many blogs and scientific papers written about it but I never looked at those.  Not because of arrogance but because I abhor channel flipping.   I’d like to stay with my topic for a while and not have it “contaminated” by the wisdom and insights of others.

EVE Online Described

Seismic Stan asked to describe EVE Online, the MMORPG is currently use to think about the online world.  Needless to say that very well known and informed bloggers jumped to the challenge and described EVE as it appeared to them.  Jester of course delivered his trademark wall of text, after all, why say anything in 2 pages if 10 would do as well.  But Kudos to all who wrote and write since a reflection on what EVE Online is, would be in order after this summer of uncertainty.

Personally, I define EVE differently depending how I think about it.  To the one person who in RL knows I am playing it, I call it “that game I currently play”.  I deliberately use the term “game” so that the non-serious aspect comes through.  For myself, I define it as a Sci-Fi simulator.  And Sci-Fi for me is the ultimate laboratory for human behavior as it allows alteration of starting conditions and then tosses in the lab rats (players) to work out how this all plays out.  In EVE, leadership, friendship and (maybe?) enemies can be made under conditions otherwise not likely.

So rather than defining EVE for myself, I need to find out what it means to me and what I intend to do within its boundaries…

Thats it.  No wall of text, no deep description of game mechanics that EVE players already know and nobody else cares about (sorry Jester).  WoW players want their pink pony.  Everyone else is playing Starwars: the Old Republic (= WoW in space).

You have arrived. But there is nothing here.

I thought I needed a place to express my thoughts about life online but I realized that the interwebs have scores of interesting stories and I am not sure I really want to be a lone voice bleating from my own blog.
This may change.  Or not.  For now, go somewhere else

Peace

Splatus