EVE General Discussion

Run a mediocre blog that gets a couple hits every now and then when redditors and "others" are interested (read: stumble upon) in my tl'dr content. - casualcapsuleer.wordpress.com

We also tend to fraps our fights and throw music at it and circlejerk...on youtube and our out-of-game forums

EDIT for AFFECT: It has provided some fun content for our Obstergoans and others to read about some of the sandbox driven lore that happens over time, and I get to enjoy sharpening my writing skills by doing pieces on ingame events and history. It makes the immersion a bit more fun for me personally.

My Alliance (mostly me) have been writing a blog for about 2 years now. It seems to get moderate traffic, however a lot of it comes from South East Asian, where I'm assuming people were Googling for recipes for General Tso's Chicken and found my horribly offensive blog instead.

I'm not sure how it's affected me, I think I've expanded my vocabulary that deals with despising my own Alliance, and describing failure on a massive scale (again, of my Alliance).

It's a fun outlet and turns out to be an awesome reference to document the rich history of my Alliance (3 and a half years old, w00t w00t)

Writing my fitter has actually made me very bitter about CCP. Everything related to third party developement is very poorly documented.

It's pretty clear CCP doesn't care about third party developers very much. It's nice to have access to the SDE, but it has multiple severe inconsistencies (example), also it comes without any kind of documentation about its structure.

Just like the wiki page about the DNA format (which is outright wrong on every aspect).
Just like the install links for API keys.
Just like how they keep fiddling with the typenames without telling anybody (link).

Also, it's been months since the last update about CREST.

Just my biased .2 cents.

A very smug FF-report thread?

I created a stat site for notable w-space entities, www.whkills.info/stats

What I learned doing that is that people are still paranoid about their API keys despite the keys being completely customizable.

I have become extremely well-known and highly respected by nearly all the EVE players I encounter. But what's really rewarding is the feeling of making a positive difference in other people's lives. That's why I do it.

Does screaming random-but-well-timed obscenities in Jita local, and generating lols thereby count?

I haven't really contributed much (a sometimes-EVE blog, and that one VFK thing), but I think it has affected me.

Running the blog has made me realise that there are indeed people who like discussing EVE maturely and sensibly, and are also willing to listen to me. Running the VFK thing (Operation Dread Intrusion) has clued me in to the fact that despite all the forum rabble-rousing that goes on, almost none of the "daring" capsuleers of New Eden can be bothered to actually undock a warship and go make a difference.

So overall, I think contributing has made me a bit more cynical, and a bit more knowledgeable.

I got to know a few other people who also like to make web stuff / graphics etc... so that's cool to have EvE and that as common interests. Also, you learn more about the game, and poking around database dumps, particularly development server DB, can uncover some insightful clues about what is coming next. Hopefully I can make some OMGWTF ISK next expansion... but it's always risky. Ultimately I think what drives most people to do community based sites / tools and whatnot is just that they have the capability, and they want this feature or tool to be made their way on their terms. You can ask CCP sure... but doing it yourself is a lot less work.

I created a video tutorial on how to use the directional scanner for my corporation's new members, which we shortly thereafter made public so our PVP-University students could use it. Agony Unleashed Introduction to the Directional Scanner

The video got a TON of negative comments about my narration. Really nasty comments :) Apparently my poor attempts to talk slow, without my usual touch-of-southern accent, clearly, and precisely made me sound like a cross between a flight attendant and Rosanadana or something. Lots of positive comments on the content and presentation of the material, but my narration was hated or loved, no in-between

However, I must have done something right, because an educational video company (unrelated to Eve or gaming) hired me to write and narrate several small videos for one of their clients on contract. It wasn't big money - a few hundred dollars - but it practically saved my life, because I was unemployed and my electricity was about to be turned off. Something you really don't want to have happen when you are living in Las Vegas in the middle of summer (it was 118F/40C outside).

I've since moved out of Las Vegas into a cooler climate, I'm still unemployed, but if I hadn't taken the time to create that video, I really don't know what I would have done to survive this past summer's heat.