Out of Pod Experience

Greetings fellow Players!

Disclaimer: if emotion-laden wall of text isn't for you then stop reading - Now! Yes, NOW!

For just over 12 years now, I have been playing EVE-Online. Save for a short hiatus, this account (my main) was subbed most of that time and in training. There were times when I played it nearly 23/7 (though back in old days it was often maybe 16/5 due to game and/or server issues), and there were times where I barely logged on for months.
Nevertheless, for me EVE always was special in mainly two ways. It was the only online game that captured my attention for more than just a few weeks/months and I had the luck and privilege to get to know some awesome people while playing it, something that didn't happen in other games, at last to me.
Whatever the exact reasons, it is hard to put the great time I had with the game and my in-game friends into words without sounding too cheesy and cliché.
Also, due to EVE's one server structure I got to know people from all over the world - I shared playtime with people from every continent, save maybe Antarctica.

I started the game shortly after the (in)famous Castor patch, in late 2003, and I got pretty quickly into a small corp of really great people, who taught me the game well, and where I instantly felt welcome. It was not easy to leave that corp later, but I yearned for a bit of expanding my game-experience and I started "Two Swords Guild" corp with a player with whom I would spend a lot of time in the coming years, and while we weren't always in the same corp later, our paths crossed regularily.

The first year was full of experiences: among others, I got shot down the first time by a pirate (NPCing at the spawn-point in Passari - me stupid), went on a roam with my first (uninsured!) battleship into 0.0 space (where we were ofc jumped by a few members of Tundragon (back then a smaller but infamous pirate corp) - though, luckily I made it out), fought against Pojo, moved to Period Basis with HUN Corp, struck fear into the asteroid population there, fought in various smaller skirmishes, ran a bit from CA, chained the hell out of the local Period Basis Blood Raiders, fought on FA's side in the CFS/DSMA/STAR uprising against them and spent countless hours managing my corp and its diplomatic ties. And that is really only a tiny excerp - EVE totally delivered and with a lot of the players I got to know back then, I stayed in contact until they later quit the game.

After that, I moved back to Empire space, did one mission after the other for months, joined Regeneration with whom I moved back to 0.0, and took part in some fleet fights against RA - those were huge for the time, and one amassing of forces even killed the server once (wasn't the first fleet fight to do so though, admittedly ;) ).
Meanwhile my corp had it's highs and lows, at peak with about 30 individual members, but then often with mainly me and one or two others or even only alts in it. The last peak activity had a nice bunch of people together and even landed us in the Star Fraction - Amarr conflict on SF's side, albeit sadly for only a very short time. But that was also about 8 years ago.

Time passed by too fast, and while I tried to "get back in the game" it seemed get harder with each passing year. I tried to join a few corps, in the end but those didn't work out. The spark wasn't there, not because their members weren't decent or fun people, but ... well you know... sometimes things happen or just don't work out and it's really nobodys fault - just not the right place or the right time - or both.

Additionally, it didn't help that the players I was used to and had fun all those years one by one stopped playing the game - my contact list usually looks like an enemy fleet jumped into local.

But I carried on. There were still some mates I could chat, do the occasional mission with or, later, exploration session, and that was sufficient for me. A small but vigorous EVE flame kept alive by sheer will.

The last few years were a bit of a struggle though - actually insane if you think about it.... the "dying throes" of a game interest taking years. Nonetheless, my active times got shorter, and while my playing enthusiasm of EVE *did* enjoy a flare of activity around spring/summer last year, after 4 months of barely playing the game I can't deny the fact no longer that the EVE Virus has run its course in me.
I always thought that I would stay subbed till the servers shut down, but all those countless "EVE is dying" posts over the years didn't herald the game's actual demise, so I am still here. Damn you, naysayers, you were not right!

After over 12 years of playing I think it's not really necessary to look for reasons to leave a game behind, also I think some come to mind by reading the above lines. The game itself is not the reason though, or the mystical "bitter vet" syndrome.
Although I sometimes voiced my opinion strongly and vocally (especially after CCP screwed up an update) about the "catastrophic" state of the game, I actually think the game overall to have developed, at least technically, very well. Performance wise the old days can stay where they are, the graphics look nice these days, and the annoying bugs and "weird behaviours" of past (session change weirdness, random lags, etc) are more or less expunged. Gameplay wise CCP also always tried to expand and keep EVE interesting - one of the few MMO development teams that actually gave (at least a litte) damn.

Good luck out there.

Yes, I can clearly see that.

Eve has come a long way since i started playing back in 2007? 2008? I dont feel like its getting " too sterile" though. More refined than anything else, though ill admit there is a point in which it could become to refined. Ship x becomes the counter for ship y for example.

I have learned that who you play with makes a big difference in eve. If you are playing with people that you are detached from or that you just cant seem to connect with, it makes it hard to keep logging in. Ive had a few times like that where ive felt my corp had lost its identity and/or direction. And i just gave up playing for a while, i couldnt be bothered making new friends.

Good luck in your next endeavor. Oh and i have just one question for you...

Can i have your main? ( you didnt say anything about characters just stuff)

Good luck to you!
_o/ \o/ \o_

EVE is a journey, and it looks like your journey is done.

BOB speed you on your way.

Can I have your SP, then?

“God's Final Message to His Creation:
'We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for the wrong forum.

I won't give away any assets because lots of the items are interwined with history (e.g., I know all the ships which were gifted to me and by whom, etc.), so they need to stay with Dezz. Also, you know, .... you never know what's in a few years.

Thanks for the reading. I've seen enough people leave the game without as much as a word as to appreciate that someon takes this effort towards those who remain behind.

By the way... wise move to not give your stuff. Chances are that you will come back, if even to play EVE once more before the servers go dark for the last time.

I think I would.

But really don't want to think of a life without EVE Online. Only EVE is EVE; everything else are video games.