Money Changes Everything...

...well, almost everything, anyway.

When I was last playing Eve, money was at a premium. I was working a low-paying job and there were times when I had no choice but to let my Eve account lapse and not play for a while because I just couldn't afford the $15 that month. When it's a choice between paying the rent and eating that month or playing Eve, there's really only one credible choice you can make.

These days, money's not quite so tight. I'm not wealthy by any stretch, but I can afford Eve now, especially since it appears they've cut the subscription price by about a third. Also, I have a much better PC than I did when I was playing before. I have far less issues in terms of frame rate slowdowns and other issues related to processing. The game doesn't run perfectly on the highest graphical settings, but a lot better than it did on my old machine. Once I can fix my escape key issue (CCP customer service just replied to my ticket and I'm going to try their suggestions in a little while, after I finish this post) I'll be able to back my graphics settings down a notch, which I expect will allow the game to run without a hitch (right now the frame rate issue usually only occurs during the jump animation).

I've now officially decided that once I get this escape key issue resolved I'm going to re-subscribe.

Why?

Well, part of the answer is easy: I love this game. I always have, since I discovered it for the first time about 7 years ago. There's something about it that draws me back in every time I play and keeps me coming back for more. That's not to say that I don't enjoy playing other games, but for someone who's as ADD as I am, long-term commitment to anything is rare. If you were somehow able to track all of the time I've spent gaming over the last, say, ten years, I have no doubt that you'd find that Eve is the game I've spent the most time with overall, even today. I've played and enjoyed many great games, including during the times I've actively been playing Eve, but no other game has ever had the kind of hold on me that  this one has.

The other part of the answer isn't so easily defined. Eve gives me something I'm not finding (or, at least, not finding enough of) in other games, but it's hard to put my finger on exactly what that is. As time goes on and I get back into Eve and writing this blog, that's one of the topics I expect to be exploring here: What makes Eve so compelling?

I've also decided to make it a point to read up on the big events in Eve over the last 3 and a half years. I've heard about some that made the general gaming press such as the cash shop revolt and a few of the bigger scams, but I also know a lot of important stuff that happened in this game over the last few years hasn't been reported in the gaming press. In order, to really get back into a game like Eve, I think it's important, and probably a major advantage, to know what's been going on since I was last an active player.

For the moment, however, I still have 7 days left on my free trial. I'm going to use those days, at least unless and until I run into an issue getting missions, and then once that's about to end I'll have to make a decision on what subscription plan I'm going to take.

And then, once that's all done, I'm going to start looking for a corp to join. In my experience, that's when Eve really gets interesting.

Ok, that's it for now. Until next time, fly safe.