Eve Opportunist: Choices

"In the battle of life, it is not the critic who counts; nor the one who points out how the strong person stumbled, or where the doer of a deed could have done better.

The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually strive to do deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends oneself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he or she fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those timid spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."

-Theodore Roosevelt

The clock clicked over to 2000(eve time), Sunday, March 20th.

TXW-EL, Syndicate

A mass of battleships undocked from the station, forming a small cloud of reps and DPS. In their number were three Megathron Navy Issue class battleships, and one Machariel.

Course was set for PF-346 and the fleet, comms chatter quiet. Despite the size of the fleet it moved quickly, searching for a valid target. Initially the target of the OP was called unavailable and the fleet reversed course, heading for S-U8A4, where talk of a fight was brewing.

A single jump out a similar sized HAC and Battle Cruiser gang loitered on the gate, hurriedly falling back when intel of the approaching Battle Ship gang reached them from their scouts in the outlying systems.

They fell back into the waiting arms of comrades in S-U8A4, numbering just above one hundred in system while the Battle Ship fleet pressed towards them.

A scout arrived ahead of the Battle Ships, jumping in to gage the situation, the hostile fleet was reported to be moving to range. The order, however suicidal, was given. The gate pulsed 20 times, sending every ship into harms way, for what would be the last time.

Rote Kapelle pilots and crews grimaced, surveying the field, already knowing that most of them would not leave the field alive. But without chance is there ever glory? This was the time to prove our rhetoric, or in dying open the eyes of those who fought us. Ships uncloaked, heading for a regrouping point to focus repairs, comms staying clear to call out primaries, secondaries. More hostiles landed on the field. A third party in stealth bombers, darting into the battle, removed the drones from the field. Their bombs, however powerful, were few enough to be unable to significantly damage the valiant Battleships.

The Rote Kapelle fleet engaged, taking down targets in range, but slowly each one succumbed to the firepower laid against it. The order to disengage rang heavily through the fleet, many ships too heavily engaged in the fighting to pull back now. On the other side of the gate hostile tacklers formed, preventing any Battle Ships from escaping intact. The overall result was poor, devastating. Not even the fleeing were spared.

The scattered remnants of those crews mourn the loss of their brethren, at the same time thirsty for revenge. Next time, next time they will inflict more damage, next time they will not fall without their enemies falling first. Next time it would be different. Even in defeat glory can be found, earned, skills sharpened and battle praised. In this space, this universe there was no time to hide, scared of losing. Only time to kill or be killed.

GF!

Welcome to this special installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by myself, CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to me. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

When you've been roaming New Eden as long as I have, it almost feels like home. That's how familiar it has become over the last 5 years. Not that I have done everything or touched every aspect of this most amazing of virtual world, far from it, but it just feels as though it's always been there. And always will be.

Whether you've logged into the game every day since its launch in 2003, or you've taken one or several sabbaticals from your capsuleer career, you've always come back to New Eden don't you. Why is that?

We know the EVE Online Community is unique in so many ways, and that EVE Online is like no other MMORPG out there. But what makes the game special for you?

What is it that makes this particular virtual world so enticing, so mysterious and so alluring that we keep coming back for more. Why is EVE one of the very few MMOs to see a continuous growth in its subscriber.

To put it simply: Why do you love EVE Online so much?

------------------------------------

Man either he's been reading my old posts or I just got lucky! But I plan on expanding on my previous post on this topic, my first post actually.

The name of my blog states it, but let me look into it more... Eve-Opportunist.

I have Opportunist defined above as well, but I think CCP Abraxas put it very well in "The Mercenaries (Part Three)"

"This, to him, was the Minmatar lot. You saw an opportunity, no matter how unorthodox, and you did something with it. You went for it."

How crazy that quote comes along just as I start writing this blog. To me this isn't just the Minmatar lot in eve this IS the spirit of "My Eve" that keeps me coming back. Before I focus on opportunity, let's look at the phrase "My Eve."

My Eve is the Eve Online that I play, and everyone in Eve can have their version to play. The miner, the industrialist on one side, the lowsec pirate and the nullsec pvper on the other and everywhere in between. Eve isn't a straight line with PVPer on one side and PVEer on the other. It is like a huge X,Y axis, with room for a Z and the elusive fourth dimension. Sure some people's Eve look similar, close even, but that is the framework of the game. It would be foolhardy to state any miner is like any other miner or any pvper is like any other... Alt's aside there are no two "my eve's" that are word for word the same story.

How much of that can be said for other MMO's? Wow comes to mind, WoW there has to be thousands of "heroes" completing the same quests, gaining the same professions(damn you mining), doing the same thing. Missions in eve may be repetitive, as mining can be, but ship fitting, order to engage, finding your path, skilling, scouting, learning, now THAT is the simple essence of Eve that makes it so addicting.

It is like this butteryfly effect video...

Every choice you make in Eve puts you down a different path. All the way down to two of the most basic parts of the game, meaning skills learnt/trained and modules fit on your ship. A friend of mine can't pilot anything larger than a frigate but has 8 mil sp in trade related skills and plays just to manipulate the market, that is his Eve. I have 256 sp in industry (mining 1) and 0 in trade, but can fly almost every combat ship in Eve. The nice thing in eve being that if we wanted to, he could do what I do now and I could do what he does, it would just take some more skills.

Back to opportunity:

Oh opportunity, is there anything so fickle?

Eve allows you, want you, to take every opportunity and really do something with them, going out finding a opportunity and exploiting it for its worth. There are no limitations set upon you, unless you do it yourself. Combat proficient pilots can become traders, traders can be miners, miners can be combat pilots. All it takes is different skills, a change in ships or fittings, and the opportunity to display those skills. No classes, no subsets, just players.

Like the Eve addage "Don't undock what you can't afford to lose."

When you undock in that shiny faction ship, you are giving others the opportunity to come out of the woodwork to kill it. Same when you undock in that noobship, though the threat may be slightly less!

Eve opportunity relies not only on the pilot but thousands of other pilots, all doing their part in this dance with death or life. The maker of the ship, the miner of the mats, the modules on the ship... And of course YOU, do you undock that Taranis or the Navy Comet, or a Imp. Navy Slicer or a Crusader? Daredevil? Megathron? Each provides different opportunity for you and for your opponents, and even your friends. And you never know what ones surround you or fight with you.

Opportunity here means the chance to get a few kills without dying yourself, the chance to run that mission faster than before, I guess you could distill opportunity down to "the chance" to do whatever you want. And Eve DELIVERS those chances, time and again. Sure you died this time, but tomorrow, you live, or maybe you die, or maybe everyone lives and the roid dies.

Those who are truly into eve cannot get bored here for just that reason. If one thing gets boring you just move onto something else, give it the chance to be your Eve for a while. When that gets old, you keep moving. By the time you "run out" of things to do, some of the old ones sound appealing again and you start the process over again... except for mining.......... ::smirk::

Add to that the people you meet, the conversations, the wars, and grudges. The playerbase is amazing, and rightly awarded for being so. Opinions differ, flames ensue, but when it comes down to it, the playerbase passion is to make the game better. We may not always see eye to eye with CCP, and especially not with each other but at least occasionally... you have moments in this game that make your heart beat fast, throat dry, fingers tremble and lips smile, or grimace.

Opportunity, that is what keeps ME coming back to Eve.

Here is the final list of other Blogs on this topic, crossposted from CK's blog

And two more who didn't make the deadline but are worth reading anyways!

He's got his hands full on this one! 56 entries is massive, nice work CK!

And here are the winners of the contest!

Congrats to you all! Very good entries.

Here are your 10 winners!

1st Prize - $100 in EVE Store merchandise: Wench with a Wrench
2nd Prize - $50 in EVE Store merchandise: Don't Fear the Mutant
3rd Prize- $25 in EVE Store merchandise: Into the unknown with gun and camera
4th Prize - $25 in EVE Store merchandise: Sered's Lives

And the following bloggers each win a 14 Day EVE Time Code:
FlashFresh
EVEOGANDA
Vive Virtual
Why do I love EVE Online
An Extremely Complicated Survival Machine
Ecliptic Rift

Very nice work!

My favorite was definately Flash's entry! FlashFresh

Eve Opportunist

Reference Pages

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The Twenty-one

Monday, January 25, 2010

Oh opportunity, is there anything so fickle?