Many Eve players don't know much about the history of New Eden and that is a real shame. One of the most compelling stories from the dark recesses of time is the Great Providence Docking Disaster of 1937. A Providence freighter loaded down with Hydrogen Isotopes and dozens of commercial passengers was involved in a tragic docking accident that claimed the lives of 13 passengers and 22 crew members. Included on board were 4 Plex (which in today's New Eden is worth about 15 Trillion Isk). The accident brought about massive changes across the universe, many of which still echo today.

A static electrical charge in the docking tower, built up over the course of several days of bad weather, ignited the Hydrogen Isotopes the freighter was carrying. Normally the freighter would be transporting Helium Isotopes, but this was unfortunately impossible due to a economic blockade from unsavory elements in Null Security space. The combination of those unfortunate events directly led to the massive explosion and loss of life.

Even more lives would have been lost if it weren't for the heroic actions of Scotty (last name lost to time) the docking manager at the facility. Scott's actions that day may have saved countless lives and his memory lives on in modern New Eden as the AI-Driven docking manager we are all familiar with in most stations.

Eve history is endlessly fascinating isn't it?

I've been playing Eve Online non-stop for going on eighteen years now. Over the years my own journey has evolved and transformed over time. In the early days Eve was simply a game I played when I had time, an exciting new world to explore, learn, and have adventures - that was all I was looking for. It had spaceships and that was enough for me.

Back then I would have laughed at anyone that would have suggested all that has unfolded in this universe since then. That I'd still be writing in this blog. Still undocking every single day. And that I would have made thousands of new friends all across the globe. That my art would hang on walls in countries I've never been too. I could go on and on with examples of how my personal experience with the larger Eve universe has changed and grown over the years. I often still find it hard to believe. 

I've spent much of this past week reflecting on this journey. As you can imagine, the total surprise at Fanfest naturally created a period of self-reflection. I wasn't expecting it. If anything I had spent the past few months believing that the universe had forgotten me. Which was foolish. But, much like you reading this I suspect, I have my own demons to deal with. You might believe any number of things about me - but I am just as uncertain and full of doubts as anyone. I wrestle with those every day. Luckily, most days I still come out on top of that fight.

I don't know what it is about this universe that grabbed hold of me all those years ago. But I think it was the fact that so much of this experience intersects with, and combines, so much of what I love. Science-fiction, storytelling, art, adventure, design, writing, and more. With the added insanity that surrounding all of it was a vast sea of real people from all corners of the globe. And the random, unexpected nature of what that truly means when applied to a system like this one - is often staggering.

I can't explain it. I certainly didn't intend for it to define my life and career the way it has. But I can, in all truthfulness and sincerity tell you this - it is no more strange than the twenty odd years I spent in the advertising industry. That journey culminated in my own creative agency and dozens of employees, and twelve glorious years of insanity. And out of the ashes of that conflagration a new life was forged, in all the ways that new life can be. And a huge part of that transformation has been this journey through the universe of Eve Online.

I won a lot of awards back then. Creative awards. Business awards. I have boxes full of them. Some mean more than others. My Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award is one that means a lot to me. I took a huge risk starting my own business after 9/11 and that award represents that struggle, vision, and success of those early years. I was inducted into the Pittsburgh Advertising Hall of Achievement and that moment ranks very highly as a pinnacle for me. To be recognized by my peers in the industry. That was a great moment in my career. And you can watch it happen if you want to -

I'll be talking about this more on this week's The Safe Spot podcast with CrazyKinux, so be sure to check the latest episode which will be out on Tuesday.

In the meantime I can't let something like this pass without mentioning it on Eveoganda - that would just be weird. So here we go. If you missed it yesterday after the closing ceremony FC Convict took the stage to present the nominees and winners of the first ever Creator Awards, recognizing just a few of the amazing and talented people that make our community so awesome. If you read this blog at all you might remember that I was very confused back in March when the nominees were initially announced. I wrote about my confusion and left it at that. Others in the community were not so silent about their own confusion at my absence (thank you all!), but I continued to just take it in stride. And really not think about it anymore. All the nominees were worthy, no question. So what could I complain about without coming off like Trump and the Noble Peace Prize!

And that is just not my style. There will always be next year.

And then Thursday I get a rather cryptic note from Convict on Discord, essentially saying, "If I were you I might want to watch the Creator Awards on Saturday. I can't say any more." And I freely admit that the anxiety level in my life easily tripled. I had no idea what was happening. Or what might happen. As we all know, Fenris doesn't have the greatest track record when doing something for the first time. (Which tbh still sounds weird, Fenris doesn't have a track record at all! It's like two weeks old. We shall be wrestling with this for a long time I suspect.) The good news is that I needn't have worried.

The show was great and Convict proved himself the perfect MC for it. I've known this young man for almost two decades now and I appreciate him and how well he did during the entire ceremony. I did catch Orca on Friday saying something about a Polaris Award, so I suspected it might have something to do with that. 

For the record I haven't missed a Fanfest since 2014. And THIS is the one we decide to skip. Which is always the way isn't it? 

I want to be clear - I am overcome with emotion. It is always a truly humbling experience to be involved with so many talented and amazing people in this tremendous community of ours. And to be honored like that is an incredible moment in time. It has been a long journey. Full of challenges, debates, clashes, differences of opinion, misunderstandings, and out and out fights. But from the beginning my main goal has been to build a bridge between the creative community and the makers of Eve Online. To build bridges, open doors, and expand the connections between us all. To the betterment of all of us. That goal was not always appreciated. Or understood. But I remained steadfast and determined. And to be there to witness the Partner Program continue to grow and flourish, to see other creatives given licenses to use the Eve IP, to watch as those bridges have been built and those doors opened - and the Eve community flourish as a result - that has been the true reward for me.

And I am forever grateful to my friend for not mentioning any of that on stage. Although I do have a more current podcast up and running, otherwise he did a great job focusing on the positives. It was a tough assignment to sum up two decades of this journey in such a short time and he did extremely well.

And to all the other winners and nominees - many of whom I have helped in some way - congratulations. Well deserved. I take a small measure of pride in each of you and your accomplishments, not because I deserve any credit for them. I do not. But simply because I'm proud of each of you and what you've accomplished. Truly.

You can't play a game and be a part of a community over 18 years without a tremendous amount of passion and dedication. I had a vision early on of what this universe could be, I still do. And I was determined to do whatever I could to help it achieve that vision. We have more to do together. But every day we get closer. Together.

Thank all of you who reached out in the past few days to share with me, I sincerely appreciate you. It makes me so happy to hear from people who have my art on their walls, who I helped with some project, who were inspired to play this game because of something I did, or whatever the story might be. It means a lot to me. To know that it all meant something. That is was worth it. And that means more to me than any words could ever convey.

As always, onward & upward.

As part of our 13th Anniversary celebration Stay Frosty decided to cross 100,000 Frigates destroyed! This is a huge moment for us as a Corporation, Frigate combat is our bread and butter, these kills represent 43% of our total over those 13 years. As a small corporation in New Eden (relatively speaking) we take a great deal of pride in punching above our weight and maintaining a very active combat focused attitude. While this doesn't mean much of anything in the grand scheme of things, to us it is worth celebrating.

And it might just be historic. While it isn't easy to check such things, besides Red Versus Blue (which is a special case), I'm not entirely sure any other corporation in Eve has managed it. Despite being older than us by more than a few years The Tuskers haven't done it, nor has KarmaFleet. I checked a handful of other long-running corporations and couldn't find another one. Obviously there are those with more Cruiser, or Battleship, or other ship class kills. And those are worthy, not saying they aren't. Again, Frigates are special to us.

I decided to award a special prize to the pilot who scored the 100k kill and that became harder to do than anticipated. Apparently, over the years, we've managed to score 39 kills that zKill considers "padding". So the number you see above is zKill's tally, which is actually 100,039. So the winner ended up being this Hookbill kill. Which happened a few days before our 13th birthday. If we go by zKill the 100k kill would have been this Kestrel I removed.  For the sake of complete accuracy as CEO I made the command decision to honor the total number and award the prizes to Stickelback.

Just another milestone on the journey. But a pretty significant one worthy of mentioning.

Stay Frosty.

Today CCP Games has ceased to exist. It has been re-born into Fenris Creations, a name that stretches back to the earliest days before Eve was born. Not to mention it's roots in Norse mythology. If you know your Eve history the name change makes sense. As someone who never really appreciated the CCP moniker of Crowd Control Productions (ugh) and its often mistaken relationship to soviet Russia - the name change makes a lot of sense for a newly independent company to make.

Plus the initials are FC - which has some pretty powerful Eve connections. All in all I must say I'm not surprised by this move, it sets the company up for the future and not the past. A fresh start. And a path forward. Even the research relationship with Google makes sense. As long as Google doesn't start mucking around inside of New Eden - we should be fine. Although more AI driven content and NPC control is something I've been excited about for a long time.

Eve is 23 years old. And today is Stay Frosty's 13th birthday. All of which provides a solid positive omen for the success of this new (old) company.

Other than that, those are my initial thoughts. What do you think about this news?

On May 6th Stay Frosty will be 13 years old. Starting this corporation was a huge gamble. The deck was certainly stacked against us. The drama surrounding my un-voluntary expulsion from the Tuskers was in full swing, partly due to my own actions, and partly due to forces outside my control. Well documented elsewhere. We had two members. And we were starting in our home system of Hevrice, right in the middle of the mess we had created.

It should have never worked. We were told over and over again that it wouldn't work. For years other players did everything they could to ensure it wouldn't work. We endured spies. Corp thieves. War declarations. Gate camps. Station camps. Insults. The spreading of lies. And more. It was not a sure thing. In fact, the idea that we would live to see a year - much less 13 - was not something we could have dreamed about at the time.

But despite all of that - we survived. And not only survived but thrived. And there are two main reasons why it all worked, and why it continues to work today. The first is obvious - I am a stubborn fool. I just never give up. I had a firm and unshakeable vision for what I wanted Stay Frosty to be and I've just never wavered from that vision. Anything that deviates from that vision is simply not tolerated. Stay Frosty is what it is, and nothing will change that. And while that sounds simple, try living it every day for thirteen years. It has not been easy. But it has been insanely fun.

The second reason is our pilots. A corporation can't survive on dreams and visions, you need people to make it work. And from the very beginning we had buy-in from a tremendous amount of extremely talented pilots. Some of whom, still fly with us today. Many of whom have gone on to other very successful Eve careers in other parts of New Eden. It is not unusual to see a former Stay Frosty pilot in space doing incredible things. Running Alliances, or other Corporations, or excelling at one thing or another. And I'm proud of every one of them.

At one time the Low Sec eco-system allowed us to field a membership of over 300 pilots. Over the years changes to that eco-system have seen our numbers settle into what I call our "new normal", which is right around the 100 member mark. We simply can't feed more members. Early on in 2013 we fielded 100 members in a fleet once. Now we typically field 10-20 in our Saturday fleets. This has everything to do with how Eve has evolved over the past 13 years. As always one Stay Frosty pilot is worth at least three regular pilots.

We don't have grand designs. Not like you think of them. Stay Frosty exists to perpetuate a play-style. An old-school idea of what Low Sec Piracy is and isn't. That is our eternal goal. We provide a home for players that want to excel at combat, who seek a casual, respectful, and supportive environment in which to pursue the goal of becoming exceptional combat pilots. That's it. There are no hidden agendas involved. All for one and one for all. Solo together. Whatever you want to call it our history is written in 1v1 combat, small gang excellence, and a willingness to take on every fight - no matter the odds. To laugh in the face of danger.

Which stretches all the way back to that very first day. I undocked from one station, alone, and warped to another station to plant a new flag. And in local I typed one word as I was in warp - "YARRR!"

The rest, as they say, is history.

Stay Frosty my friends.

It was recently announced that Pearl Abyss has relinquished control of CCP Games back to the leadership team for about 25% of the original purchase price. While details of the move are scant, I suspect we will be hearing more about this in the coming weeks. This is huge news for us Eve Online players.

What it means long-term for on-going development of Frontier and Vanguard remains to be seen. I would be slightly concerned about such development baggage on the books, but that doesn't mean there isn't a solution already in the works. Again, we don't know much of anything. The article linked above is a pretty standard boilerplate and is devoid of any significant details, or any real comment from other parties. Which is what you would expect at this stage - so nothing unusual there.

If I had to guess, and that is all this is, I would expect some news regarding third-party investment - such as a capital group, or bank, or like-minded money behind the purchase. Or new investment being welcomed into the mix. That would also be normal and, based on past activity before the PA acquisition, that was pretty much how CCP survived in the past. While PA often bemoaned and whined about CCP on their earning reports, this move is not really a surprise.

I recommend checking out Nosy's blog if you are super into those reports.

All in all at this point, I am happy to see Eve return to invested ownership. The Korean connection always worried me and it never seemed to be a natural fit. But we crossed our fingers and hoped everything would work out - and they did manage to survive another seven years under that umbrella - so it wasn't all bad.

So we forge onward and hope for the best. Eve Forever takes a lot of money to make happen.

Onward & Upward.

Since 2015 my Wife and I have been to eight Fanfest events in Iceland. During the Covid year we even traveled to Iceland during the Summer for a change of pace. That doesn't include Toronto, Vegas, Amsterdam, London, and an Alaskan Cruise we went on with other Eve players right before Covid started. That is a lot of travel in a decade based around a video game. And a board game. And while we'd love to be there in Iceland again this year, we really just need a break.

And it looks like we picked a good year for it, all things considered. It has been a long time since I stayed home and watched the festivities from afar. It is an odd feeling reading the blogs, the news, and seeing everyone getting prepared for the event and not being in the mix. Oh sure, I've been helping a few people with preparations, some art here and there, and explaining some things to a few people traveling for the first time - but it isn't the same obviously. 

But this year was unusual in many ways and frankly, it still feels like we were just there. And while I'll miss catching up with our friends and making new ones - it does feel different this time. I can't explain it. But for some weird reason it just feels like we made the right choice. I'm not as upset about it as I thought I'd be. I feel strangely at peace with the decision.

Anyway. Just thought I'd mention this again since I hadn't written about this decision since January. We won't be at Fanfest this year. So have fun, be safe, and enjoy whatever blood-sucking adventures you get up to over there. I'll be watching the streams and waiting to hear about all the cool stuff CCP has in store for us all in the coming year. 

A few months ago I made the decision to focus on growing my YouTube channel. Due to certain real world confluences it became possible for me to take the time needed to dedicate to such a prospect in ways previously impossible. No need to get into the weeds here, but it made sense to at least try and see what happened. Or will happen, it has only been a few months.

In typical me fashion, I may have gone insane. Since I started down this road around the end of January I've published 68 shorts, almost 35 videos, started a new podcast, and a new weekly video series. I've also started participating in more Just rewards to help bolster the income stream and exposure to help with building the channel. Even YouTube sent me an email reminding me that it was ok to slow down a little.

This is typical. Back when I started teaching myself to illustrate Eve spaceships back in 2013/2014 I couldn't stop myself and eventually ended up creating nearly 200 of the art print series pieces in total. I mean just look at this blog - I mean seriously - 16 years now? This is my 18th year of playing Eve Online. What the heck is wrong with me?

Nothing. To be honest this is just how I am, how I approach my career, my life, and my passions when it comes to art, creativity, and expression. I don't know how else to do anything, but at full tilt. All in. Full steam ahead. But over the years I've also learned how to better manage my time and how to take breaks, believe it or not I've never been a "workaholic" in the sense that most people think of that word. Mostly because most of what I do I don't consider work. As Mark Twain once said, If you do what you love, you'll never have to work a day in your life.

So not insane. But, then again, that might just be what an insane person would say. Either way works. I'm having a blast and enjoying this new found freedom while it lasts. I have no idea if I can turn YouTube into a platform upon which I can survive or not. What I do know is that it might work in combination with other efforts. As part of a network. It could form part of a larger effort. I do have plans in that regard and slowly, over time, I will be continuing to add and expand what my channel offers. I've already started trying out new non-Eve content and in the coming months I'll be expanding on that even more.

So we'll see what happens. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy the new direction and the results. At least it will be entertaining.