This image has nothing to do with my day yesterday, it was just a cool image I found. I can't even remember why I made it.

So what does a normal, middle of the week day look like when I log into Eve Online? Well, I was late logging in yesterday so I didn't have as much time as usual to play. No worries, it was Monday and Monday's are usually kind of slow anyway. The other day I had been scanning my hangar when I found a fitted Metamorphosis with nine kill-marks on it. I think this is the original Meta from way back when they were first launched. But I could be wrong. Either way, I thought I'd fly around in it and see what might happen.

A few systems away I discovered a Cerberus on scan. In a belt. I told Phoenix about it and he jumped into an Orthrus to come back me up. The Cerb was warping belt to belt looking for potential NPCs to slaughter and kept warping away before I could get close enough. A few of these and eventually he left system. So I followed along. Again, a few belt warps and then he docked up in the NPC station. We left local and hung out on the gate for a bit. See if he would undock again and then Phoenix jumped in to take a look. And while he did undock, he also left into the High Sec system next door.

Normally that would be the end of that. I couldn't follow because I had several timers running and didn't want to lose my ship to Concord. So I ended up going around. My patience was rewarded when, sure enough, he was in local on the other side. I took a guess at a belt and made the warp. Sure enough he was in a nearby belt shooting at NPCs. I think I landed about 17k from him cloaked in my Meta. I alerted Phoenix and he was already waiting on the gate next door. I moved in and managed to catch him. 

The entire sequence took almost a half-hour, but we finally caught the Cerberus.

On the way back home Phoenix managed to tackle an Endurance that was foolishly mining in a belt. And that encounter turned into a long conversation about the dangers of Low Sec and why pirates exist and why we explode ships. This one ended in a positive light, I think.

A few systems later and I discovered a Venture mining in a belt. As I've said many times before, killing Ventures is not about padding our killboards. For one thing Ventures have built-in Warp Core Stabs and we are opposed to that technology. Rather aggressively opposed. For another, you can't just let them mine freely in your space, can you? What kind of message is that? A good Venture pilot should be able to mine in peace if they know what they are doing. And how do they learn?

The real reason is to pad our killboards though. Plus, added side bonus, they often get mad and re-ship for revenge.

This one did. He re-shipped into a Myrmidon and called a buddy of his to come help him. I think they decided to camp the gates maybe? Not sure, their tactics are confounding. Either way, Phoenix and I thought this sounded fun and we re-shipped into a Deimos and Vigilant combo. Sadly the Myrm had vanished by the time we returned, but we did manage to catch his buddy in the Stratios.

And that was the end of my day. I docked up and unloaded the loot I had managed to pull.

Time to retire to the penthouse.

No reasonable player likes to be caught and explodified inside of Eve Online. Heck, even I have an aversion to ending up in a flaming wreck of debris and it has happened to me three thousand times. I get it. It ain't fun. But man, some of you sure are a bunch of whiners about it.

I've noticed a marked increase in the amount of times I get conversation requests that start with "Why!?" or (insert profanity here). Or local begging text, "Please no!" or words to that effect. Man, it is really starting to bum me out. (A little) (Not really to be honest)

Look, as to the why? Because you are in space. Once you undock you are a target to someone, somewhere. Maybe you get lucky and that person ain't around at the moment. But sooner or later they will be. It is not personal. Or, in some cases, it might very well be personal. I don't know you. And I don't know what you've been doing. You may very well have made some enemies. I can tell you that I don't have any enemies and that if I am the one doing the explodifying, it isn't personal. I never undock and say to myself, "I'm going to go find Ubbertits2004 and make him pay!" Sorry, doesn't happen.

My play style and your play style probably clash. You don't want to explode and I want nothing more than to make you explode. Both of these goals are legit, perfectly legal, and condoned by the gamer gods and Bob. I'm not evil. I'm just a gamer who has chosen to play the game in a way that I find interesting. In my case that is to warp about and try to explode stuff I find in space, steal the loot, and cackle on the way home with my cargo hold full of faction mods. This is how I make a living. You might do other things. Those things are also legit. I have no gripes with your play style. Do whatever you want. Jolly good show. Have fun.

Now a few of you have the right idea. Sometimes you'll convo me and ask how to prevent me from doing that again. And I will always try to explain. There are entire nations of people in Eve that are willing to help you. Tons of videos. Guides. And other helpful sources of information. Some (like me) might say there are to many of those and you people are getting way to good at getting your pods out after a fight - but that is just my personal opinion.

The best of you dock up and re-ship into bigger ships. I fully support this activity. Please continue doing that. There may not be a lot of guides out there recommending this course of action, so let me be the one. I love it when you do this. I may even go home and re-ship myself. It'll be fun. Bring your friends.

And no I am not setting you blue. Or your alliance, or your 2 man corporation. We don't have blues. I don't recommend them. Friendship is built on the back of ammo usage. This is proven scientific knowledge and we have to trust those scientists.

I understand that Low Security space is scary and dangerous. You are welcome. We try.

It's a game. Have fun. Pick up your corpse and try again next time.

Just to be clear, I do not have a Death Wish. But I do have to call this post something. What I do have is more complicated than a blog post title or catchy graphic can capture. To explain this, let's start with a bold statement of fact:

Eve Online can be boring.

Especially if you happen to have been playing for a long time. But even if you haven't it isn't an engaging game if you wait around for it to engage you. That is not what Eve is about. In fact, it is very passive and relatively dumb when you think about it. The game itself is only a system that is laid out in front of you. It needs you to engage, to be active, to participate in order to activate. You have to do the work to make Eve interesting. This causes no end of frustration for those players who never catch on. And CCP has done a pretty remarkable job over the past two decades to alleviate some of those issues. But there is only so much they can do, because this is the way Eve fundamentally works. You can't change that.

For me that means a lot of things. It means running Stay Frosty and FC'ing regular fleets each week, trying out new combinations of ships, flying in new places, doing new stuff. That helps. Personally it means constantly challenging myself every day. Otherwise I tend to get bored. Yep, even the Pirate Lord has moments of extreme boredom in the game. None of us are immune. So I tend to create scenarios for myself to keep things interesting. Those usually revolve around PvP. I'm sure other players have other ways, but for me it is always about combat.

What does this mean? It means I tend to take more risky opportunities in the beginning of a month, than I do towards the end of each month. I tend towards trying more opportunistic engagements and maybe risk more knowing that I'll have the rest of the month to make up for it. This is something that I've been doing for years now. As an example, yesterday I saw three Corax in a site and attacked them in the Jaguar I was flying at the time. I gave myself maybe a 30% chance of breaking one of them. I didn't and I lost the Jaguar. If that opportunity happened again I'd probably re-ship first, or pass it by. I wasn't getting a lot of action yesterday and decided it was worth the risk. A busier day and, again, I might let it slide.

The point being, your risk/reward structure is entirely your own to control. There is a randomness factor that exists, no doubt about it, but percentage wise you can control enough of your own fate to dictate the direction over time. I often prove this to myself at various times, by going weeks at a time without a single loss. Just to watch the kills rack up. But that gets boring. And I hate to be bored. At some point a riskier opportunity will show up and it is worth taking it. Not everything is about numbers, or percentages, or statistics. It is also extremely important to have fun. And also deliver content. I also get enjoyment from that as well.

These are tactics I use to actively engage with Eve Online. On a daily basis. One day I will just randomly decide to take an Incursus into space to find a ship I can't kill with it to engage. And that's how I end up exploding some dudes Vigil Fleet Issue with it. And then I get blobbed by a Condor and a Comet. But that's how risk works. Plus it was a lot of fun.

For me "fun" is more important. In fact, it might often be the most important thing. Sometimes protecting a corp mate is more important, or achieving a specific goal, or whatever. But generally I strive to play the game and have fun doing it. If something doesn't bring me joy, I stop doing that thing.

I'm writing this, not to explain myself. But to encourage you. Find your own way to have fun in Eve Online. It can be done. I think you'll have a much better experience if you focus on yourself and your valuable time in the game.

It has worked for me for over sixteen years now.

"A catch-22 is a paradoxical situation from which an individual cannot escape because of contradictory rules or limitations."

Often, on our roams, we will encounter players in local who hurl intended insults at us. These can vary widely, but often use our chosen play-style against us in one way or another. In the context of local chat this is a very common choice for players in space. This is the place to do such things, in the context of the game itself. We often parlay back. Many times these exchanges can be hilarious. Even rarely rising to the level of share-worthy or screenshot worthy. This is part of Eve Online. And we are all familiar with the special kind of Hell Jita local can be, or the countless examples of local chat being used to intimidate, or bully younger players - or worse. This is also, sadly, a part of Eve Online.

Bear with me here today, I have a point to make but it is going to take some time to get there. Local chat can also be extremely positive. For me, I can't go anywhere in New Eden without someone saying hello in local. Yesterday I took a wormhole down to minnie space and every few jumps someone was calling me out in local to say howdy. I always try to respond. If I miss it, it is usually because I'm busy doing something else. Like fighting for my life. I've gotten used to this over the years and it is normal. And positive.

The rules and etiquette that dictate local chat, governed as they are, albeit moderately, by CCP have their own guidelines. And any player can usually get a handle on those rules pretty quickly. It essentially boils down to - keep your mouth shut or be ready to play the game. If you choose to play the local chat game - I recommend a healthy dose of humor. It really does help.

Outside of the game however the rules change. The Eve community is increasingly spread out over increasingly widespread platforms. Discord servers, Reddit, X, BlueSky, Instagram, TikTok, streaming, YouTube, the choices are endless and many players only frequent a select few (if any) of these channels. Notice I didn't even bother to list blogging. Like so many other communities around the world, the Eve community itself is challenged to present a unified or cohesive front these days. This is the way things are now. Fractured. And this applies not only to the gaming environment, but to everything.

I remember when I first started playing Eve Online one of the biggest fears inside an alliance was the constant threat of "secret channels". Special chat rooms in which only some select players were invited and where things were being decided behind the curtain. We've certainly come a long way since then, now you can have your own niche somewhere and say whatever you want into it. Feel free to scream into the void.

Or, you know, spread slander. Who can stop you?

This is the first part of the Catch-22 - there is no way to effectively monitor or prevent anyone, anywhere, from saying whatever they want about you. And there is nothing you can do about it. Stand up, or speak up, and you only add fuel to the fire. It isn't always about truth, but who says a thing first and loudest. In small ways and big ways this is ultimately about bullying. And the recourse is pretty much nothing. I've witnessed players being destroyed by this and driven from the game because of it. Not everyone is me.

I can't be driven from the game. And trust me, people have tried. In every way imaginable. I've been doxxed twice, stalked in real life, slandered, accused of stealing, accused of being a failure as a father, had my account stolen, had 15,000 shuttles dumped on my killboard, and more. And the reason why I have to mention these things... again - is the second part of the Catch-22.

Eve has no memory. Every year almost half of Eve Online's players are replaced. New players enter the game and older players leave the game. This is a never ending cycle that repeats over and over again. I ran into someone the other day who had no idea who Mittens was. And every single day that process just continues. And while that is how Eve Online evolves and changes over time, the result is loss of memory. From an institutional perspective the community (as a larger entity) remembers what it chooses to remember and forgets everything else. This is normal. But also frustrating for those of us who have played the game for almost two decades. And, I can imagine, it is also frustrating for younger players as well.

Add those two things together and you have a recipe for frustration. I bring all of this up, not to offer a solution, because there isn't any. But as a warning. This is the dark side of the concept of a larger community in Eve Online. It is a place that exists as powerfully inside the game as it does outside of the game. But outside the rules are rapidly changing, evolving, and are built to favor the loudest and most determined voices. There is no recourse. To this void all you can do is stand firm and let it roll over you. Because Eve will forget. A whole new batch of players is coming and sooner or later they won't even remember you.

Or they will never forget you. The choice is yours.

I didn't have a lot of time to play yesterday, my time was mostly spent on my monthly supply run down to Dodixie. And that takes almost an hour just to get down there, load up on essentials, and then get safely back. Most of my supplies tend to come from loot, or orders - but every month or so I like to do the trip to Jita or Dodixie myself on my alt. To be honest, it just feels better to do the work yourself. I find it adds an element of work to the process.

But I doubt anyone is reading these posts for stories about my adventures in transportation and supply logistics.

I did manage to get into a solid 3v1 situation. I was flying around in my Hookbill when I spotted a Merlin and a Punisher in a plex together. These days if I see a T1 Frigate in a plex I figure they will just run away and not engage, but two of them together might feel up to the challenge. And, sure enough, they did. Fighting two at once at close range is challenging, but the Merlin melted pretty quickly. As he exploded the other Punisher, which I had spotted on d-scan came into the fight. Two Punishers can be tough, but liberal use of the web helped me manage the fight. I came out with more than half my shield remaining. But that was a good fight.

Everyone else either ran away or was in something I couldn't engage. I tried to mix it up with a Firetail, but he was MWD/Arty fitted and after a few zooms around I just warped off. Not gonna catch that in an AB Hookbill no matter how skilled I happen to be. 

And so I returned home.

Over the past week a couple of players have been haunting the station in dual Brutix Navy Issues. I have no idea what they were doing. For the most part they tended to look menacing and yet dock up whenever I tried to engage them. For the most part I decided to just ignore them. But I know other pilots in SF were having the same frustrations. On my way back I heard that they had returned to the station and that one of them had a Vindicator docked up inside. So the plan was to get something to engage the Brutix and then undock the Vindi. Got it. Now it made sense.

Once you understand what the other person is up to, you can take advantage of them. So I quickly docked up and undocked in my cheap, standard Megathron. I figured it would make for the perfect bait. And it worked. The Brutix Navy engaged and then, drumroll, the Vindicator undocked. I waited to see if it would also engage - and it did. So I quickly docked up. (I had mysteriously not engaged)

That's when Ninouh pointed them with the Drek and Phoenix undocked in his Kronos. I switched the Mega for my own Kronos and also undocked. The counter trap had been sprung. And it is amazing just how fast a Vindicator melts under dual Kronos blasters. As you can see from the killmail.

I will mention here that there is much more to this story. Probably a bunch that I am not even aware of. Always is. The important thing is the end result. 

Fun times.

Now available over at rixxjavix.com 

The Ikitursa has been the single most requested piece all year, I've gotten dozens of requests for a piece on this ship and I decided to go for it. I've been taking a short break from these ever since I finished up on the Board Game project - doing 500+ illustrations will do that to a person. (Plus, I'm not even technically finished yet, I keep getting pulled back in for additional work!) But I'm starting to get inspired again and I think the break did me some real good.

Working on the board game really pushed me in a lot of new directions and allowed me to explore some new areas in my work. Mostly it gave me some much needed confidence in those areas and showed me that I can indeed push myself harder than I realized. It is all too easy to fall into a rut and keep doing the same things over and over again, but sometimes we just need to challenge ourselves and try new things. Not that this Ikitursa piece is anything extremely new in my growing portfolio - but I think it does represent some new directions I'm looking forward to exploring even more.

Either way, I hope you like it. I'll be creating even more pieces in the coming months as well as offering up some board game related pieces as the game gets closer to release.

More to come.

Back in January 2022 I wrote a post entitled "The 100 Club" in which I discussed the ships I've flown that have registered at least 100 kills. Back then that number stood at 22 total ships and I wondered if it would be possible to ever get that number to 100. Well that final result may never happen, but I am pleased to report that almost two years later the number now stands at 35 ships with at least 100 kills registered. With an additional 10 ships with 80 or more. Which is getting closer to an almost magical sounding halfway mark.

As I said back in 2022 this means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. People often misunderstand me when I talk about zKill. I don't play Eve for some sort of bragging rights, or to watch numbers change, or to spend fruitless time worrying over rankings, or records. If I cared about such things I would never, ever host so many FFA events and let myself be killed so often during them. I figure almost a full one-third of my entire losses in Eve Online have happened during those events alone. So yeah. Thing is, it is still fascinating. After 16+ years of playing this damn game, things really do start to add up.

What has really helped change the dynamic on the ships I tend to fly is my weekly roams. I've been running these pretty consistently now for over two years and it has brought a lot more ships into the mix. Especially those that are better in small gang scenarios rather than solo situations. The biggest example is the Retribution which is now Number 5 on the list with 452 total kills. With only two mid-slots the Retri has never been ideal for solo work, but put fifteen or twenty of them on the field and they are insanely good. So that ship has certainly benefitted from increased exposure. I could say the same for the Thrasher Fleet Issue (#11) and the Kikimora (#12) as well.

The Comet and Astero remain my top two ships of all time and I doubt that will change anytime soon. The Comet is simply the best frigate in the game right now and is a notoriously versatile choice that can be fit in multiple (and valid) ways. There just isn't another ship available that does what the Comet can do, which is both its super-power and its weakness. Which is why I have 1,700+ plus kills with it. But I also scare away a lot of potential fights when flying it, which is where the Astero comes in. The Astero is my sneaky killer and while it will never be a numbers choice, it does often give me a chance to try upscale kills from time to time - the kind of kills I wouldn't get in another ship. Simply from the cloak and the insane "hawk" level tank. The weak dps is its only downside, as I discovered last week when I tackled a Kikimora with it.

It's funny to me that the Drake and the Sacrilege remain in the top ten. Most of those Drake kills happened before I started living in Low Sec full-time and the Sacrilege kills happened during a year when I wasn't playing Eve all that much and simply solo gate camped for a few minutes a day in one system with it.

The most surprising ship on the list has got to be the Procurer at Number 64 with 57 kills. Those happened during one of our FFA events a few years ago when we fielded a small gang of RR Procs in the belts for a good laugh. They are surprisingly effective at that when you have 10 of them working together. I also have 33 kills in a Venture. Which is always a fun choice. I'm guessing most of those were being used as bait, although I do have more than a few solo kills in that ship.

The bottom of the list is three ships with 27 kills each, the Cormorant, Executioner, and Maulus. I don't fly either of those very often, obviously, and for good reason. There are just better options available. 

If you are curious you can see the list for yourself. It's good to check in every so often and see how things have changed over the years. But otherwise I continue to choose my ships based on what I think I need at the time and what I enjoy flying the most. Some ships are chosen because they fill a need, or in response to a potential threat at that moment. Others are chosen simply for fun, or to try something new. Others are more reliable. And others are more deadly. It just depends on my mood at the time.

I never let the killboard make decisions for me. It is simply a journal. A record. And it is best used for that purpose.

Until next time, fly safe. You never know what I might be flying next.

What are the most concerning pain point these days inside of Eve Online? I can't speak to the wider universe these days, I stopped keeping up with the big picture a few years ago. But I can speak to my neighborhoods and the things we tend to worry about. I'll leave the Null Sec worries to other, more knowledgeable, players.

I never would have imagined that one day I would see a situation in which ONE player would, could, or should, be flying 12 or more ships. These days however, it has become a regular sight in our neighborhood. The other day I saw a dude flying 17 Vexors! For goodness sake. That was probably the worst offender, but multi-boxing has become so common these days. Fleets of one player running Dragoons, or Algosee, or whatever happens to be the max flavor of the day. It was Arbitrators there for a long time as well. There isn't much small or solo groups can do when faced with 8 Arbitrators and 6 Algosee in a plex. We do our best, trust me, but seriously - that is a hammer of drones.

And, of course, that is the entire point. It has seemed to die down a little in the last few weeks, so maybe things are changing. But, more likely, I've just not run across as many during my play-time. Either way, the situation is depressing and causes untold damage - both to potential content and to potential log-ins. Why spend hours needlessly roaming when every potential flash-point is full of drone hammers? I've seen the effects this has on participation numbers. So don't tell me.

Right now that is my main complaint.

Otherwise space is busy enough, content seems plentiful (in general) and I have no real complaints about balancing at the moment. I wish more ships would get visual updates, it feels like forever since an older ship got an upgrade. And some of the models really need one. But it feels like that is no longer a priority. I think we can go awhile now without adding yet another batch of new weapon options, or weird ship abilities to the game. Maybe 2025 should be more focused on quality game-play updates, ship graphical updates, and tweaks other content creation options. 

That's my two cents worth right now. I might change my mind tomorrow.

The Eveoganda Headquarters in Ouelletta has been a flurry of activity lately as we've been hard at work pushing new content and expanding the Rixx Javix Expanded Universe. I made that all up by the way, it just sounded a lot better than the reality. The reality is that ever since my work on the Eve Board Game ended a few months ago, I've been twisting in the wind. I'm not entirely sure what to do with myself going forward. I've been poking around with getting back into the work force but those efforts have resulted in creepy levels of silence and frustration. I've been meeting with old contacts in person and every single one of those goes great - but then nothing really comes from them. And so it goes.

You don't read Eveoganda for real life misery though. And I can't blame you. So let's turn our attention to more positive efforts. I had a chance over the weekend to provide one more illustration for the Board Game, this one for the inside cover of the game manual. Of course I jumped at the chance even though it wasn't going to be a paid effort. You can see the piece over at my real life portfolio site if you are interested. It's the one with the Cerberus' running away from the Paladin.

I've also been putting a lot of time and effort into expanding my YouTube channel. So I'd appreciate any "Like and Subscribe" help over there. I've put a significant amount of creative work into Eve videos over the years, but they were always side-projects in the past. Pieces that I produced to fill up empty spots in my schedule or pieces I would use to explore a creative spin on a subject. These days however I'm putting them forward and focusing on creating more compelling and creative pieces. Still with my own spin. I see no reason to create the exact same thing that others can do as well, or better, than I can. If I can't find my own way into something then I'm just not invested in it. And me not being invested never results in my best work. So be sure to check out the library and older videos as well. You might just find some true treasures back there beyond the "Dumb Ways to Die" Eve video.

I'm also re-launching my RedBubble storefront. This time it will only feature my own work, so no more selling other people's corporation or alliance logos. I'm also not really going to be offering up any of my older pieces, so it'll mostly just be new work. Although some classics will be available. There are already a bunch of stuff up and available, but new pieces will be added on a regular basis. So be sure to check it out. I put up a new link in the sidebar over there - so you can always just click on that.

I haven't been adding any new pieces to the Rixx Javix store and the reasons behind that are a tad complicated. The store is obviously my pride and joy and I want to keep pushing the envelope of my art there. But it also impacts our real life in a significant way that is challenging to convey without sharing a lot of boring information. So you'll just have to trust me on this. Hopefully something changes soon on that front and I can start adding new pieces. I have plans to offer a 1v1 Comic Book and greeting cards at some point as well. But right now I have to be extremely careful with the store.

I'm also playing Eve every single day and running my fleet every Saturday. The other day I spotted an AT ship in a system near our home and we formed up to try and catch it, but unfortunately the pilot wasn't interested in engaging in a balanced fight. At that point he'd already killed aprox 100 ships and I suspect he was happy staying in that lane and keeping his ship alive. Can't blame him.

Anwyay, that is the round-up for now.

Onward & Upward.

I've re-launched my RedBubble store this weekend, just in time for the Holidays. I'll be adding more and more items for sale here this week, so be sure to bookmark the site and check back often. I'll be bringing back some of the previous classics as well as adding some new designs - along with some non-eve related works in the coming months. I'm excited to bring the store back after a long hiatus and hope you will enjoy it as well.

The RedBubble store will not be featuring any Eve IP obviously, that is the domain of my Rixx Store and that is only for illustration works. So that is why my RedBubble store at the moment contains mostly Stay Frosty and ABA merch. But that will be changing and expanding over time.

Anyway, that is my weekend update.

I will leave you with this video from yesterday featuring our Country Crow Roam that was filmed by my good friend Vincent and which features two of the better fights we got ourselves into.

We, my Wife and I, attended our very first Fanfest back in 2015 and a decade later we will be attending our sixth Fanfest. It would be more but CCP skipped Fanfest during the World Tour year, and then again during the pandemic, and then again in 2024 to get it back on a early year schedule and back to Harpa. During those years we also attended Eve Vegas, Eve Amsterdam, Eve Toronto, and went on a cruise with other Eve players to Alaska. Which also doesn't mention the five player meet-ups we hosted ourselves in our own home. Or the trip to London during which we met up with Eve players. Which, if you had told me all of this back in 2015 I would have called you crazy. That sounds insane. It still sounds insane.

It is hard to remember but back in 2015 I had literally never met another Eve player in real life. At that point I had been playing Eve for seven years already, and other than my Son, had never met another person who played the game. Obviously we already had hundreds of friends from around the world, but until you fly to Reykjavik (the city Rixx Javix is named after) and land in the early morning hours in a dark and mysterious country after flying all night, get into the city and try to find your hotel, and half-asleep stumble into the the streets looking for food - only to hear someone yell (for the first time ever mind you) "Hey Rixx!!!" It isn't real, until it is very much real.

That first Fanfest was a whirlwind. It was packed full of activities and my head never stopped spinning. To support the art posters that CCP was selling we had a lot of extra activities to attend and participate in. I even gave a player presentation, attended a round-table, and signed posters on two days in the store. It was awesome, amazing, and a blur. And, to be honest, that blur hasn't really stopped since then.

A decade later. I'm sure I'll be writing more about this as the date approaches. But we are looking forward to attending once again and catching up with everyone. We're seasoned professionals now. Iceland is like a second home these days and we've traveled and explored so much of the island. We even went to New York last year to spend four days with a friend of ours from Iceland who doesn't even play Eve. He's been our tour guide and our friend for a decade now as well. Our roots in the country extend beyond just Eve.

We're looking forward to it. We can't afford it. Just like in 2015 when we were broke and penniless, we made it work somehow. A decade later and we're back to making it work somehow. But we both know we can't miss it. The board game is coming out in March and missing Fanfest after so much time is just not something we can do. I have no idea how we will make this happen. But we bought our tickets the first day they became available. And we got our plane tickets during the Black Friday sale. And we'll figure the rest out as we can.

And yes, it is still insane. Always has been.

If you haven't yet, be sure to check out my latest video for Salvage. And be sure to like and subscribe, it means a tremendous amount to me. Thank you.

I'm also hard at work on a new documentary short right now and hope to have that one ready to reveal sometime in the next week or so. It built around a subject that was suggested to me and that I find especially interesting, but I'll hold off on telling you what that is until closer to the release date. But I will say that the idea, the concept, or doing more of these short subject documentary style videos on Eve history and places within New Eden is one that I find exciting. And I'm encouraged that others have also found them to be interesting as well.

The past few months have been an interesting time for me. Since my work on the board game wrapped up I've been busy trying to figure out what comes next. Luckily for me I have a very understanding Wife who is also wondering what comes next for me. As you can imagine that is something we are both curious to find an answer for. I've spent most of the past decade being a consultant brought in to help companies build a marketing department, set up mergers, take a company public, those types of scenarios. But after the last one of those I wanted to try something new. And that's when the board game opportunity popped up out of nowhere. Which was amazing and I'm eternally grateful to the folks at Titan-Forge for the opportunity and for CCP supporting not only that decision, but the project itself.

I know, I know. No one gives a crap about my real life. That's fine. I get it. But this is my blog and I'm going to write about what I care about. Plus I do think some context is important. I really do try to keep it brief and top-line, and not get into the details. But yes, this is a gaming related blog and I should focus on that aspect of things. 

Point being, I'm trying to find my way. And I can't stop creating. So sometimes you get a teaser video and a full trailer for a film that doesn't exist. And that can be strange. Although, I must say, within the context of other videos I've created - it doesn't feel that odd. I did recently create an entire video about Svipul bring a creation of Nikola Tesla that starred in television shows.

Buckle in for a crazy story of insanity today.

So the other day I decided to hop into something different and go for a spin around the neighborhood. I choose a ship I hadn't flown solo in a long time, my trusty Jaguar. Flying an Assault Frigate around is one sure way to not only grab some attention, but also really limit the kinds of engagements you can expect. Not an ideal ship for solo roaming. Luckily for me, I don't care. I'm the Pirate Lord and I do what I want.

My arrogance (which is all for fun and totally fake) doesn't change Eve's inclination to ignore my wants and desires however. So fights were hard to come by. In fact, I would only get one fight the entire session and that fight would be unusual. To say the least. I spotted an Algos alone in an advanced plex and decided to slide into it. Nothing unusual yet. He was sitting about 36k off the beacon so I burned into him, set up my position, and scrammed him. The second I activated my rockets - my computer crashed.

Catastrophic crash. Re-start level. Normally this means coming back to a dead ship and more than likely a dead pod. I was not happy and I restarted the computer and stormed into the kitchen to grab a drink. Even my Wife was concerned, she knows what it sounds like when I am fighting - and the horrible silence that follows something going terribly wrong. Eventually I managed to get back into the game only to find my trusty Jaguar alive but with several toasted modules, including an offline prop mod. But alive and well and in warp back to the plex. A quick scan of the logs revealed the truth - my Jaguar had killed the Algos without me.

I wrote up a short description of what happened and posted it in our Discord. It was then that someone pointed out who I had killed. This player has been shared on our Discord many times over the past few months as he reacts - well, to be fair here - rather uniquely to anything that happens. That was a nice way to say it. Turns out a day later and I get a rather looooong mail in-game from him.

I won't share it all here, it is 13 paragraphs long. But I will share this section:

"true statement if you or your leaders jyst roam around chasing kills with alts with no course in the game then sadly you have been doing this for years and are lost thinking your playing a game but the only game you play is ZKILLBOARD which is not a game"

The rest kinda plays out as a long rant against our chosen play-style, I think. It is rather challenging to comprehend or to pull a logical conclusion from it. I think, like most people, there is a rather simple misunderstanding about our chosen play-style. For one thing I don't play with alts. I don't use a scout when I am solo roaming and my alt is a transport character that can go into high-sec space to pick up supplies. As I've said many, many times in these pages Zkill is a great tool for recording your activities inside of Eve - a record. Other than that function, few people who know anything at all use it to compare each other against. The point system is famously borked and has been for over a decade. I love zKill for what it is, but it isn't a game. It is just a recording.

I wrote back simply, "Sir, this is a Wendys." And let it go at that.

I really do try and avoid pointing out specific players in these pages, I really do. We all have our own things to deal with. But I got a response back to that humorous reply that changed things and made me decide to share this story here in these pages. I can give anyone the benefit of the doubt the first time, but once you've made the decision to escalate things - you have no one to blame but yourself.

I also won't share that response here. It serves no purpose to do so. At least not yet.