Saturday, October 24, 2009

Cutting Strings

I wrote and posted my goodbye post at Fallen Earth Bloggers this morning. I hope I can find someone good who cares about the game to take over for me there. Those folks are good people and deserve the best. That's the biggest reason why it can't be me. I'm too focused on EvE now to be a good moderator or reporter for Fallen Earth. It's the very same reason why one of the first things I did when I came back to EvE was restart this blog. Every writer knows that they'll be at their best when they're writing their passion. That's why I'm at my best writing about EvE and why I want someone who's as passionate about Fallen Earth to succeed me over there. If you know of a good candidate for the job, please send them my way. Thanks!

Now, getting back to EvE and to this blog, I do hope that if you like what you read here you'll let others know about it. I'm always up for link exchanges with other EvE-relevant sites as well.

Since I haven't been able to log into EvE in about two and half days, I've been spending some time reading EvE: Empyrean Age. I'm about a third of the way through it, and I must say it's a great read so far. Like most good tie-ins it's a novel that succeeds on its own merits, but also offers a little something extra to those who know and understand the universe it portrays.

I'm not going to go into detail about the story here, but suffice it to say that if you play and enjoy EvE-Online, you'll find plenty to enjoy in this book. It's set in the EvE universe and the attention to detail is obvious. In addition, it's exactly the kind of story you'd expect to find in New Eden, synchs in perfectly (as far as I can tell) with the established canon, and most importantly is engaging and keeps you on the edge of your seat wanted to find out what happens next. Very good stuff, a very fitting tribute to and a window into EvE.

*****

Have you ever tried to explain EvE to someone who doesn't get it at all, someone who all they know of videogames is boxy-looking plumbers in red overalls saving blonde princesses? This happened to me a few months ago. At the time I hadn't been playing EvE for about a year and a half, but I was wearing an EvE t-shirt and someone asked me what EvE was.

When I told her it was a video game I used to play on my PC over the Internet I could see she was clueless. Her next question confirmed my theory. "So, you play this on the computer? Is this about...sex?". Alright, no big deal, not exactly the first time the name "Eve" has been associated with X-rated media. "Um, no." I replied, "It's actually a game involving spaceships and combat." "So you fight with other people in spaceships over the Internet?" "Well, yes, sometimes, a lot of times, but there's also a lot more to it than that." "So you fly around in these Internet spaceships and shoot at each other?" "Well, yes, but..." "Ooooook. Oh, look at the time...".

Sometimes it's hard being a geek.

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