Monday, November 21, 2011

The Passive Game

This January, I will have been blogging for about a year. Compared to many bloggers out there that I currently follow, I’m still a newb. ;) What started as a general gaming blog, where I boasted about my ability to make gold in LOTRO, or my epic gold cities in Lord of Ultima, turned into an allout Eve blog when I defected from other games to play Eve again.

I love writing. I love getting mail after people have read something I’ve said saying “Susan, you changed the way I look at the game!” And yes, I even love it when people send me hate mail. (So long as it’s not too disturbing or stalkerish.) I love the long heated comment storms on some posts, and the waves in local from people I’ve never met. (or the smack talk from the Amarr who hate me)

And I love discussions!

I was somewhat bemused when I first became aware of how large the Eve blogging community was. And then the Twitter community! I never knew that talking about playing a game could be so…popular. As I became more deeply involved, my bemusement turned into sheer fascination, among other sentiments.

I admit, when I first started to notice how some bloggers seemed to spend more time and energy writing about Eve rather than playing Eve, I was a little disgusted and had to resist the urge to snub my noses at them. After all, what do they know? While they are speaking eloquent, they but spin their ships in station. That was until I realized that this sort of passive facet of Eve was an actual style of gameplay that many get their kicks from, not much different than the heated political CSM discussions, professional corporate recruiting, market manipulation, or Jita spamming.

You don’t have to undock to play Eve.

Though, undocking, in my humble opinion, makes the game much more interesting. ;) And killing stuff…the sheer adrenaline of hunting your pray…or coordinating with several others to completely wipe out an enemy gang. Of holding an enemy until backup arrives…or leroying into situations that you know are suicidal.

 There is no substitute.

4 comments:

  1. It's an odd evolution of gameplay involvement isn't it. I started blogging as a crafty attempt to justify my gaming hobby, seen as a waste of time by many. But it's a slippery slope.

    It's not our fault, it's like a substance addiction. I want to play EVE, I really do, but I just don't have the time.

    The metagame has me, my soul is lost...

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  2. I've been hooked on PvP for a very long time now... not just the adrenaline, but the camaraderie created. Nothing beats a good fight, though, even if you lose.

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  3. Best time I've had yet in this game was a small gang frig-only roam we did through Syndicate a week or so ago. Ended up that the "exit" gate at Harroule was camped by Ag0ny, with some good drag/gate bubble coverage. We leroy'd it, and since I had a good on-grid gate obs to warp to first (well off alignment with....anything!), well, a couple others and I got through, but man the entire time my asshole was pulling the chair in!
    Now THAT is EVE!

    Well, that and people who want the exact opposite--the cholinergic response of watching mining lasers "pew" asteroids, or semi-AFKing plexes and missions: eyes drooping, drool running down the chin... but god forbid anyone disturb them lest the drool becomes froth, and tears and rage come forth in the demands to buff hisec. ;-)

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  4. UNfortunately, real life dictates lack of time to actually log in and play, but enough small chunks to participate in the community metagame.

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