Decision Made!

If you look on the top of the this page you'll see that what I decided the correct answer to the question about what the name of this blog would be was "D. Another option I haven't thought of yet (please specify).". By the way, you'll note that while the title of this blog has changed, the URL hasn't, so no need to change your bookmarks.

It came to me last night, while I was attempting my first level 3 combat mission in the Myrmidon. Interestingly, I believe I drew the same mission I nearly got vaporized on when I tried to do it in the Thorax. This time, I did quite well...in fact, I'm doing damage on this mission at much the same relative level as I was doing with level 2 missions in the Thorax. Once again, this game demonstrates how completely thought-out and well-planned each aspect of its gameplay is.

I just read about CCP's trip to the Game Developer's Convention. One thing that I found interesting was that they plan to hire over a hundred developers to fill out positions in the company. My brother is a computer graphic artist and developer (I know he did work some years ago for a game called "Evolution", which I never actually played, but the graphics demo sure looked nice), and so I know that this kind of thing, where a company suddenly announces they're hiring a bazillion technical people, is a fairly unusual thing. It's also a good indication that Eve is doing very well and, in contrast to the opinions of some of the doomsayers I've read on the official forums, not only isn't going anywhere, but will continue to develop, grow, and improve for a very long time to come. Struggling businesses don't hire a hundred new employees or acquire other companies, as CCP just did with White Wolf (a company that makes collectible card games (CCG's), similar to "Magic: The Gathering"). Yet another reason why I'm glad I made the investment in a full-year subscription to this game.

Also, I believe I was right when I said that as far as the BoB/Dev. thing goes, the game will fix itself. The incident has seemingly spurred what many are calling "The Great War", BoB and their allies versus pretty much the rest of the star cluster. Regardless of who wins (though it's my suspicion that this war will be raging for a while to come yet), there will almost certainly be a change in the balance of power among the major alliances in this game. That, I believe, is probably a good thing...but it's also possible that it might not be.

If BoB wins the war decisively, and maintains or increases the level of power and influence they have now, a lot of players will not be happy. Perhaps more importantly, if BoB becomes even more powerful and untouchable as a result of this war, a large portion of the player base will be furious and very likely a substantial number will decide that trying to be successful and potent in Eve is no longer an attainable goal for those not connected to BoB or one of their allies and just move on to other games.

Now, of course, from my perspective as a player at this point, it all means less than nothing. I've never even seen 0.0 yet. I do plan for the future with that move in mind, but I also believe that to try to make that move now, while I'm still learning and progressing and don't have a lot to fall back on should I get my ship blown up and/or myself podded, would be foolish in the extreme.

That said, it's also true that I have a battlecruiser now, a reasonably well-armed one, in fact, and I've been starting to think that maybe it's time I starting pushing the envelope a little bit more. I have to be careful because right now I really have no margin for error, but once I've got a little more ISK in my pocket I have a feeling I'll be getting that wanderlust...

And so, it's Monday, the day my big RL career move was supposed to happen, but it's been delayed a week to the 19th. It hardly thrills me to have to wait another week, but I did get at least some time to play Eve this weekend that I didn't expect to have. I didn't get a chance to finish that mission last night, but I might jump in later and try it again...we'll see. It'll be seven extra days before the big launch, but work somehow has a way of expanding to fill the time available, so nothing's carved in stone by any means.

Still, at least I've got that title thing worked out...