More Death, More Dying.

 

 A couple weeks ago, I had planned to shitpost write about the current state of Eve Online PVP, including thoughts about scarcity, decline in active groups, the death of wormhole space, and the overall effects on content generation. However, after applying both halves of my brain, I've decided to avoid talking about the ~~~meta~~~ state of New Eden.

The reasons are many, but I'll whittle it down to the following:

1. I'm a dumb guy who does dumb guy things. 
2.  By talking about metagame issues, I run a very heavy risk of talking about things I don't know about.
3.  There isn't any insight or fresh view that I would add to the conversation.

This all turned out to be a moot point, as CCP has recently communicated their roadmap for scarcity moving forward, albeit omitting any major details.  Nevertheless, player retention seems to be in a bad place. But instead of talking about a bunch of things that I can't speak to with any sophistication, I would rather talk about the experiences I have had.

 Redfire is going on hiatus once again. And of course this coincides with my account subscription renewals. In times past, I would simply shut my accounts down and play skillqueues online.  This time around however, I have decided to I did to try something different. Rather than look for a new wormhole Corp to call home, and rather than trying to make a go of it in solo PVP, I found a new group of people to play with. 

 At several points in my Eve career,  I have felt drawn to factional warfare. In the past this interest has expressed itself as an alt or alts being stuck into factional warfare NPC corp,  Which resulted in a smattering of solo or small gang kills, followed quickly by my waning interest in solo PVP and and eventual mothballing of that alt.  And while in the past I may have attributed this to is this to boredom or lack of content, I stand before you reformed. 

 Over the last week or so I have been assisting with the Gallante effort to take and hold Intaki.  A small group of relatively inexperienced players instant players manage to turn that system into the deadliest the deadliest low security system system in new Eden over the course of 7 days. Armed with Tech one frigates and destroyers, and with a goal in mind, we managed to not only achieve our goal is goal but also reignite an interest in low sec factional warfare. What I saw was not a bunch of bitter vets talking about about the "absolute state of Eve."  I saw new players, who had up until this point only seen high sec play,  Come alive with a passion for Eve that I almost forgot it forgot existed. I saw players get their 1st PVP kill and heard them describe the shakes.  I saw carebears transform into bloodthirsty Warriors for the Gallente Federation. And while there is something to be said for the risk and glory of flying absurdly expensive ships of ships in the face of hordes of nullsec players, and while I still have to get used to flying ships fit with afterburners, The vitality I witnessed over the last 7 days cannot be matched. 

Of course factional warfare has a multitude of problems from a gameplay perspective, but this does not mean that players should overlook the value of this section of gameplay.  It is far too easy to get caught up in the flaws of a certain mechanic. There are a million reasons to not do something, but we must not lose sight of the primary function of any video game: To have fun. I do not know what my future in new Eden holds, But perhaps it is time for me to join the war effort in earnest.

I want to say thanks to Ashterothi for welcoming me into FacWar and letting me run around with his gang. If you're looking for a new home, or a place to learn about FacWar, or just people to play with, Aideron Robotics is recruiting.