/me <3 Armor Hardeners

Yep, I beat it...and, in fact, pretty easily once I had the appropriate armor hardeners installed for the damage I was taking. One thing I've had to get used to in the last day or so is following the one part of the advice of the BoB guys: To be an armor tanker, not a shield tanker.

This was slightly difficult to get used to at first. Instinctively, I'm prone to wanting to prevent as much of my indicators from going red as possible, including the outer layer. Being an armor tanker, though, I don't even go in with a shield booster anymore. When I take enough hits to lose the shield, I turn on the hardeners and my tech-2 armor repper and I have enough resistance to stay in the fight much longer than I did before, making clearing deadspace rooms full of NPC pirates a far easier proposition than it was before.

The other nice thing, of course, is that now that I'm off that mission and onto others is that I'm whipping through these level two's pretty easily. I'm still a bit hesitant right now, but once I've gotten more well-versed in the effective use of these hardeners (thanks to a timely donation, I now have two for each damage type), I might even try to go back to that ultra-low-level 3 mission I almost got instantly vaporized on the first time I tried it and give it another shot. Not just yet, though...there's more I want to learn and practice before I try something like that.

If there's any one thing about Eve, outside of the game design itself, that distinguishes it from other MMO's it's the maturity level of the players. The young smacktalker is the exception, not the rule in Eve. Yesterday, I just happened to be watching corp chat for a few minutes ( I think I was sitting outside a station running my reppers after a deadspace run), I saw someone start a conversation in which some of the players compared their ages...one or two were in their twenties but the vast majority were older, most in their thirties or forties, one I think even mentioned he was in his fifties with college age kids.

That's not to say there aren't some terrific people in other MMO's. One pleasant memory I have of Everquest is some of the people I interacted with when I played. I belonged to a terrific guild with a very generous and helpful leader...but there were also plenty of people who didn't fit that mold. In Eve, I've found a more challenging and less forgiving game, but also a player community that's more welcoming, more helpful, more mature-minded, and just more intellectual in general.

It occurs to me that the overall Eve story would make a pretty cool sci-fi movie...in fact, I'm frankly amazed it hasn't already happened yet. Talk about a movie that, by the very nature of the source material and its storyline continually evolving and progressing forward, would absolutely demand a sequel...and another...and another...maybe a series on the Sci-Fi Channel? Can you imagine the special effects budget for that one?

Personally, I suspect that the reason why the playerbase in Eve is more mature than in other MMO's is the same reason why they haven't gotten around to making a movie yet: Eve is something you have to proactively be willing to get into and immerse yourself in. The world of Eve doesn't conform itself to your desires as much as you conform your desires to be able see them realized in Eve. Eve doesn't come to you, you have to come to it. Epic battles there may be, but this is not the universe of Luke Skywalker or Captain Kirk, this is a much colder and darker place, less forgiving, less accessible, but for a certain kind of person absolutely fascinating and riveting.

So, in a little while I think I'll jump into Eve and enjoy both some good gaming and some good company.