Diary of a Pod Pilot

Friday: Fanfest day 2

While I really like trading and creating stuff, and in any game I play I usually at some point get rich by playing the economy one way or another, I just couldn’t drag myself out of bed to attend the State of the Economy presentation. However, Ship Balancing was not to be missed, because EVE is about the spaceships! Sadly this isn’t on Youtube either (yet?), but there has been a dev blog which mostly covers what it was about. As I saw it but didn’t fully process it before I set off to Iceland, it was nice to hear what is in store here. Making all the ships useful, as they should be! It’ll be a great deal easier to understand and makes way for a lot more variety without adding ships that nobody will ever use. Currently only half the ships in the game really gets used, that’s just such a total waste, especially since some have really nice designs. What more delighted me is that the lore got some attention here and that T2 ships will fit in with manufacturers that suit their roles. It’s some shuffling here and there but it is little details like that which make my roleplayer heart beat faster.

Lag is nobody’s friend and CCP Veritas had lots of graphs to show again how it, or at least the server kind, is being dealt with. While that fight is not totally over with, focus seems to be shifting towards the client now. Actually being able to use brackets without slowdowns? Being able to run multiple clients without having to give up all the eye candy? Faster dealing with crashes? Yes please, make it so.

Then it was time for Factional Warfare. While not something I have ever participated in other than shooting the fuck out of the Militias back with Operation Bold Harvest, it’s been something that I’ve always kept an eye on. Especially because way back when CCP actually mentioned pirate faction warfare, and that is something I hope to see before I retire from the game. While last year was still an outright denial for it ever happening, this year it was said that it could be implemented as the system does account for more than a two-way fight, the issue just seems to be they first off want to fix up the current issues, and secondly they’re not quite sure how to make it all work. I may elaborate on my thoughts in a future post, but basically since the pirate factions form 2 blocs, you could have a 3-3 split just like Amarr + Caldari are opposing Gallente + Minmatar. And then make it so that all pirates are open targets to the Empires and reverse.

The proposed changes in the FW presentation are a bit of a shocker, and some things like cyno jamming or datacores being moved over to militia LP stores to me seem unrealistic to be implemented as they are presented here. I do however like the idea of a sov-lite kind of playstyle, the only downside being that only the Empire factions get to enjoy it. I suppose us pirate roleplayers will have to be content with playing mercs or infiltration for now, or simply opt for other non-FW styles of play. However, it is good to see that this is being iterated on, because it means people in lowsec, and that is relevant to my interests.

The Brave New Module presentation was a bit spoiled by not being led by the most engaging speaker, but I never realized modules had been intended to be like cards and the addition of new decks in Magic The Gathering. This is quite interesting however, not only because I have been making my ISK as of late by producing the (new) Tech 2 modules, but also because of how it affects tactics in both PVP and PVE. Finally drone damage modules! And webber drones of all sizes. And salvage drones make a return! And so much other interesting things. The plans for using alternative methods of seeding them into the game made me frown a bit though, I can see it work for those that are totally new like tactical warp, but drone damage should in my oppinion be the same as weapon damage modules and thus be a standard blueprint. However, as at the end there is talk of phasing modules in and out of the game, maybe buying blueprints and growing a large researched library is going to become a thing of the past? I can think of some unhappy industrialists though as some spent years growing a perfect catalogue which is invaluable due to the many years of research applied on them.

And then, of course, the EVE keynote. With the painfulness of the ‘failure’ of Incarna, and the 20% layoffs still fresh in mind, this was bound to be interesting, and the right approach was taken. Generally speaking, this entire Fanfest has been one of restoring faith and celebrating that EVE did not fall over and die. Loads of things that came up at the start here were basically fast repetitions of presentations already attended. But then, what is this? No, not the new stealth bombers, although those are mighty pretty as well. I’m talking about the missile launchers visibly on ships. Squeeh! Happy Caldari pilot at last. I recall talking about that with CCP Masterplan last year and he said with the old system it was just not possible, and it may or may not be with the new. So, I am quite happy to see that the new system does allow for this, and I hope eventually we will see all the high slot modules visible.

Being given a free Fanfest ticket, as a perk for being a fansite, I decided to end the day by making my way over to the Fansites & Apps roundtable. Unfortunately, it was the App developers that took over the conversation and I felt pretty lonely and awkward as a blogger amongst them. Gladly, I have a background as a programmer so I could at least follow the conversation, but I’ll be mailing CCP Alice some things as I just didn’t get around saying what I wanted to say. A bit meh, as there were several other roundtables I understand were more suited for this tech talk that happened, but then again with so many apps and so many new possibilities for apps, I can’t hold it against those developing them to be all fired up about it.

Being a little tired by now and having lost track of most people, I missed out on the quiz show, but caught up with Verone who was assisting CCP during Fanfest and really deserves props for all the effort he is putting in. We managed to get everyone together and went out for dinner and then secured ourselves a few tables at Islenski Barinn before the pub crawlers poured in.

Saturday: Fanfest Day 3

Ugh, even 11:00 is too early at this time of the week, so I got in at the end of Growing EVE’s infrastructure and the first proper presentation of the day for me was War Declarations. Wars are going to get a lot of love, and seem to be moving from a griefing tool into a proper thing. I really like that mercenaries will get a proper way to offer assistance. The war statistics are also very nice, and I hope in future this can be expanded upon for all corporate killmails, as it would make an ingame killboard possible which would let a corporation see how well it is doing.

The game design panel wasn’t much interesting other than Diedra Vaal shaking things up with the first question, though I believe somewhere in there someone asked about pirate faction warfare again. Not sure, and can’t immediately find it. As the next thing was the art panel, which I assumed wouldn’t bring much new (skimming over it, I feel I was right), I wandered over to the EVE vs the Real World presentation. This had caught my attention because it was an actual player presentation, and it was about security theories (political sociology). While normally I’d have been able to keep up with this easily, I struggled to keep up, but was none the less intrigued by this subject which I knew a little about and how it applies in EVE Online.

Next up was the World of Darkness presentation, which I was happy to see getting some attention still. While I’ve only lightly dabbled in the WoD setting, or more specifically I have played Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, it is a setting that captured my imagination long after. The game itself wasn’t that spectacular, and I didn’t know back then it was part of a greater setting, but it left a lasting impression. I do plan to look more into it in the future, as the Grand Masquerade seems like an event I’d like to attend at least once just because it seems so very cool. What mostly intrigued me about the presentation was the talk of a player politics system, with elected positions and city leaders. While they drew the connection to EVE Online, in my mind I immediately linked it to the text games Lusternia and Aetolia, both by Iron Realms Entertainment, which I have enjoyed dabbling in during the last few years. I do wonder if the WoD team is at all aware of the existance of these games and how studying their political system could be useful to develop an even better player politics system.

Bittersweet as usual, the last presentation of the day was CCP Presents, where we got to see a glimpse of what the future may hold. Got a bit scary when that fire alarm went off, but the new launcher and further work on EVE voice is something that bodes well, even though I currently skip the damn thing to get the Steam overlay on the main client. Tessellation looks pretty sexy, and nice to see what more is coming for Dust 514 — eSports and PVE and MTACs and non-temperate planets, oh my — but of course it is the EVE stuff that intrigued me the most. Ring mining sounds like it could be a lot of fun, not to mention finally allow the  ‘common player’ to take part in the moon mineral game. And modular POSes, ooh, I like building stuff, even though at times I bitterly hate taking care of my ‘space tamagochi’, as the POS gets so lovingly called. The new UI seems like it could work out really well, especially loving the camera close-up view and prettier explosions. What nearly had me jump out of my chair though was using avatar gameplay and combine that with exploring the insides of abandoned installations. If they put that in, and it will be as awesome as it sounds, I am so going to be all over that. I’ve always wanted the exploration system of EVE to be more interesting, but this just totally blew me away. And then, it could not have ended better, the story of Templar One turned into a new game trailer. Around the one minute mark it dawned on me what I was looking at. That’s just so cleverly done!

Gathering everyone up again, we went for dinner and then to prepare for the party. It was alright at first, but after HAM had performed and we retreated to the Fanfest lounge, it quickly grew terribly boring. We sat there quite a while until eventually enough people were bored enough that we packed up and left for the hotel. Settling down there was a lot better and we had a lovely evening, sitting around and talking. Keith Neilson, CCP Masterplan and some other folks dropped by as well.

Sunday: Brunch and Blue Lagoon

As per tradition, there was the Brunch on Sunday, this year at the Vox Restaurant at the Reykjavik Hilton. So many delicious foods!

With our tummies filled, we went over to the Blue Lagoon, which was a first for me. Quite nervous about this, I admit, I’m not a good swimmer and the etiquette at these kind of places always kinda worries me, I don’t want to shock people but neither do I want to come off as too prude. However, it turns out that for the women at least, it’s really quite relaxed, everyone just stripped down, headed for the showers wrapped in their towels, put swimming gear on after, and went outside. Ah, it was so nice to just soak for a few hours in the hot water, even though I had to make a bit of a detour through the shallower ends of the water to keep up with people. For once, being small really wasn’t handy! But later on taking up a little corner of the sauna, I was quite happy with my small frame again. What I really liked was that you could just use your bracelet to buy drinks, so I had a slushy. Kind of handy, this hot water, when it didn’t melt fast enough to keep drinking I just dipped the bottom in the water for a while.

After the Blue Lagoon, it was quite late already when we finally got home. Some people got pizza, but I was still quite full from the brunch, so I started to pack my things up and watched another movie, before we all headed downstairs and sat together the final few hours, joined by the excellent folks from Rote Kapelle. As my flight was late, and we had Damir Delon to take us back, I stayed up into the wee hours with the people who had early morning flights.

Monday: Travel again

It’s never fun to say goodbye, but good things have to end someday. This whole week felt like it just blazed past. Adrian Schultze, Lacrimae, Stranger (who had flown in just for the party and the events on Sunday!), that guy from Rote Kapelle who I never asked for his character name and me all were on the same plane, together with Diedra Vaal and his girlfriend. Once landed in Copenhagen, our party soon started to break up as everyone headed on to their final flights.

What a week it had been. Props to the Veto guys for letting me hang out with them again, so nice to meet some new people again, and see many old faces once more. While I was really fearful this fanfest would be marred by the layoffs and the negative events this summer, I must say I am feeling very optimistic again now. It wasn’t quite the same as the previous years, and I fear it may never be again, but it was very nice in a different sort of way. Big thanks also to CCP for providing the fansites with free tickets again this year, it does help in me being there and writing about all of this now.

Since I still do not own a laptop, or an iPad which seems much more convenient for these types of things, I’m writing this all well after the events. I’ve been more sloppy in my note taking this year, so sorry if I forgot anything obvious. Also, I’m only writing this now, as I needed some downtime after returning home. It’s like one of those vacations after which you need another vacation because they were so intense. Loved every minute of it though, and want to go back right now. Only a year and less than a month to go!

Tuesday: Travel, settling in and kicking things off

Started off with a delayed departure, which left me little time to change flights in Copenhagen. I was supposed to meet Adrian Schultze there, but we only met up once in Keflavik airport. A friend of his, Damir Delon, was kind enough to give us and the other arrivals — Mashie Saldana and Eomar — a ride over to Room with a View, the apartment hotel where the ‘Veto blob’ traditionally stays at.

After settling in we went to the Kex hostel for food and drinks. Really nice place, love the atmosphere and the food is great as well. There was a live jazz band playing, but as it was just too loud and erratic, we settled for something a little more quiet and had a nice night of drinking and socializing at Islenski Barinn (my favourite!).

Wednesday: Lazy day, chilli and beer

Ouch, alcohol resistance has greatly suffered under the fact I don’t tend to drink — save the occasional glass of wine with food — unless I go out / am with friends, and that had been a while again. No real hangover, but slept in until past noon. After enjoying a few hours of doing nothing (read: reading on my Kindle) I decided it was a good day to go and stock up on groceries, so Eomar and me went shopping.

Having paid attention, I knew about the awesome that is Skyr, and decided this was going to be my breakfast for the rest of the week. Excellent idea. Seriously, if you have not yet tried it, do it next time you’re there, or consider splurging on export stuff (US and Scandinavia gets it). It’s a kind of yoghurt, with a different texture and taste, and I think it may just have overtaken Greek yoghurt for me. Too bad it’s not yet quite as popular that it is available where I live.

In retrospect, it is good that I decided to relax and catch up on sleep, because a busy schedule was ahead in the evening. We returned to Kex for a big chilli dinner, and after that attended the beer monologues, an entertaining and informative show about beer, which of course included sampling beers. Learned that Iceland has some really fine white beer (Einstök Ölgerð), which the host managed to tell us is something that originates from Belgium (whoo!). Right up my alley, this beer stuff.

Having done our cultural duty, we set off for the Celtic Cross to join in on the #tweetfleetmeet. Tweeps represent! It was packed again, though unlike last year, we didn’t drink the bar empty. At least I think we didn’t. The end is a bit blurry again. I do remember talking to some Goonfleet people, alas didn’t manage to get a squeeky bee again. However, I did hug the lovely CCP Punkturis. I think she even knew who I was. Mission succesful there. Noticed Diana Dial from EveTimeCodes around as well, though I didn’t properly say hello to her. Probably a lot of other people as well. May order a t-shirt for next year, in order to properly stand out.

Thurday: Fanfest day 1

Since things started later on in the day, and people needed whiskey, Jinx Denton drove us to a shopping mall, after which we went for hamburgers. The important things sorted — food and drink, that is — we set off to Harpa.

What an excellent location! It does really look like a station, except with too much glass to actually work out in space. The downside of the new venue being so new is that decoration was limited, from what I heard being due to Harpa not knowing how big this was going to be and thus not wanting to risk damage that decoration may leave to the property. Considering the theme was going to be Minmatar, I can imagine they wouldn’t be amused by fake rust everywhere.

The first presentation I attended was Crimewatch. Not just because CCP Masterplan had insisted on Veto — which by extension includes me — attendance the day before, but also because this stuff is really interesting to me. While I’ve been laying low on the piracy due to various reasons, any changes to this are a must-know in my book, not only for when shooting other people but because they form the very backbone of stability within the game. Turn it off and you will have complete anarchy within minutes, I’m sure. Very interesting to get an insight in the current workings, and after seeing what a mess it is, I am pretty amazed it just works and so well too. I like the simplified flagging system, buying sec status, simplified travelling rules (so no more need for -1.9 to go into Jita, just be above -5) and of course UI improvements. I suppose sec status to +10 through ‘anti-pirating’ is also worth mentioning, as this could lead to it becoming a proper playstyle.

Then I moved over to the Crucible Roundup. Since there is no recording of this, the specifics escape me (I probably did some tweets about it, but :effort: to dig those back up), but suffice to say it was indeed a great expansion that came at the right time, and that it is a trend they want to continue on with. Also, CCP Soundwave mentioned how he rage-implemented the corp bookmarks. Later on during Fanfest, he did get called out for that, as it can be seen as developer favouritism. I personally think it is a tale that might have better gone untold, but it sure is a handy feature to have.

Since another CCPer, GM Radiance to be precise, insisted on attendance, I made my way over to the Ladies with Laz0rs roundtable. Got to meet up with Sindel Pellion, who I know from the #tweetfleet, but didn’t manage to catch at the Celtic Cross the day before. Also was nice to see Matariki Rain there, who I know from roleplay and blogging, as well as Tsumei Meyren, CEO of GIRL. Everyone got a chance to introduce themselves and talk a little about what they do in the game, which was nice to see how very diverse it gets, and how both old players as well as very new ones were attending. The general oppinion was that ‘women on the internet’ is slowly but surely becoming more accepted, although some still had horror stories to share, and others admitted that they sometimes took advantage of the situation. It is EVE after all, so if people want to give you ISK for that, why not.

And then, the Dust 514 keynote! I can see myself sitting on the first row, which while a bit of a strain on the neck was the best spot to be seated at that time. Especially because of seeing this. Hate or love what CCP is doing, but the whole orbital bombardment is just way cool. For me, and possibly for many others, that was the time where it really dawned on me that barriers are being broken here. It is one thing to have something like EVE Gate or the API to use other devices to interact with EVE, but these are two distinct games sharing one world. I got goosebumps.

Excited by what we had seen, we went out for dinner, passing on the Alliance panel. With the whole ‘Mittanigate’ incident, kind of glad I weren’t there, although that really spun way more out of control than it should have gotten, but was correctly addressed by CCP in the end. Most of the guys went for whale and other seafood, but I joined the smaller group that opted for Kex instead. I know it is totally acceptable in Iceland, and I tried a small sampling last year, but I wanted something a bit less controversial (by my ethics) on my dinner plate.

As there were two more days to go, the evening was spent leisurely watching movies and enjoying the drinks we had bought. Whiskey for the guys, and gin & tonic for me, as even after trying the quality stuff it seems I just ain’t a whiskey person.

Last year I had no internet at all and blogged my experiences once I got back home. This year I discovered that blog writing from an iPod Touch seriously does not work well, although I have a lot more reference material available thanks to Twitter and keeping better notes. Since this is bound to get lengthy I will blog the days before in this post, make individual posts for each Fanfest day, and then do a closing post on the days after. Despite writing down short notes a lot of this is done from memory, so I apologize if there are errors in it and will conveniently blame alcohol consumption. To those who’s name I cannot remember, if you see yourself referenced, please leave a comment! I am terrible with names and faces and met so many people my mind is still a little blown.

Day 1: Tuesday: Travelling and swear in ceremony

Nervousness all over. This year I am going to Fanfest alone, and even though I will join the Veto blob on site, part of this journey I am travelling alone. It’s kind of sad, since I used to travel on my own and got quite used to it, but being settled spoils a person with always having my significant other to fall back on in case of problems. So for me this will be a way to reaffirm I can still stand on my own two feet and get things done (and in the end, it was).

Ah, airport security, despite following all the guidelines I still get picked out. Learned why other airports ask everyone to take their shoes off, mine were just one of the many that set off the metal detector. My bag lit up like a Christmas tree as well. Carrying several bags with coins was the cause. Since I was transferring through Denmark, and I had a ton of change left from my previous stay there, I had taken that along to buy myself some food. Which resulted in a lot of frowning. Not like I could have put that in my luggage, I kinda needed it.

Ended up meeting Irusu at the Reykjavik airport rather than Copenhagen as his flight got changed. Wonder if the weather had a hand in that, there was a lot of turbulence on both the flights I was on. After some hassle with the Flybus (I ordered the wrong ticket) we were on our way to hotel Room with a View, which I can recommend to those who enjoy an apartment hotel.

Received some quizzical looks when I arrived at the main apartment (aka Goinard Impro station) and got to my room, but once I took the time to sit down and talk to people everyone soon remembered who I was again. Lots of fun was had at the swear in night, the obvious highlight being Verone getting mohawked (this is now a verb) by Lacrimae (I’m the girl with the flowery shirt in the front). Other highlights would be reciting the ode and getting fondled with a sword, receiving honorary dogtags, and meeting some of the special guests at the house: Dierdra Vaal from EVE University, CCP Dropbear ( <3 ), and that guy from F-CORD who’s name I didn’t quite catch (please leave a comment if this is you).

Day 2: Wednesday: Lazy start, #tweetfleetmeet and afterparty

No breakfast like pancake breakfast. Since the day before got late and travelling was more tiresome than I had anticipated, and I probably should have brought some warmer clothing too, I decided to skip out on the glacier trip. Probably for the best, as I’d have to drive, and I am a typical female driver. So instead the daytime was spent lazying about the apartment.

In the evening we went up to the #tweetfleetmeet at the Celtic Cross bar. The place was absolutely packed due to Goons joining in on it. Met CCP Zymurgist, The Mittani (I am “roleplayer girl”, in the absurdly small chance you read this), CrazyKinux, Laria Raven, and other people whos name I don’t remember, typically.

As we drank the bar empty they ended up closing early so we all headed back to the “Impro station” for an afterparty. Which was pretty interesting, because inviting just one person up resulted in a whole mob of people in the apartment. Luckily they all behaved very well and it was neat to meet some more of my blog readers (I forgot your names and corp, please leave a comment who you are!). One guy also found out why the first rule of the apartment is “You do not fall asleep in Goinard except in your own bed”. Photo evidence is here, and very much not safe for work. You have been warned.

Our rightful home

Been a good while again since my last update. Not for a lack of action, that’s for sure. I dare say things are busier than ever. And while they aren’t always easy, for the large part I am enjoying myself. That’s right, I love my job.

So what’s been happening? Well, the most important part, which I somehow always mention as last when catching up with friends or other contacts, is that we’re now basing primarily out of Curse. All of Naraka except for PRELI is, in fact. Well, and Aria, but Aria does as Aria likes and that’s alright with me.

We’ve grown quite a bit and I really like our new pilots. They want to be here, too. That helps, having people that share your vision, rather than cater to their visions. Ma’asei Merkabah likewise has taken in some solid pilots. We work together as a coherent unit.

Diplomacy has been intense. Some capsuleers down here can be so difficult. And I don’t do that. Why make things complicated when they can be really simple? Less room for error, more efficiency, and not as much headache and frustration. I understand it though, how thing sometimes become the way they are. But this fear of change and the clinging to the status quo? A strange thing in a region that is constantly changing. I hope it is a pattern we will never fall into.

I met up with Vincent Pryce the other day. It was good to see him again, even though things haven’t been good at all for him. He’s changed for the better in the face of terrible events. Even though he sees it as paying a price for all the bad things he’s done. I hope my words gave him some comfort, as I believe he is far stronger than he thinks he is at times. But I am not a professional psychiatrist, the best I can offer is the advice of someone who cares.

Vincent told me a little about how things are with Veto now. A tricky situation. Until word comes from Venal they are told to not fight back any Sansha forces. I wonder how my other ex-pilots are dealing with that. I can think of a few that must be dying to open fire. Yet they can’t. What if Venal decides to ally with the Sansha? What will they do then? What will Ethan do, even? I am also curious about the future of Veto, now that all forces have been merged into one central unit. In his latest IGS announcement he hinted at further details being released at the start of April — an unluckily chosen date, if you ask me — but even with holding top-level clearance for a while I can’t do more than guess. But those are worries that are best not to linger on too long. What is important is that we can strike down every last Sansha if we please to do so and we’ll even get a pat on the back for it.

Now that I mentioned the IGS, I had a little fun with what looks like to have been Revan’s last public event ever. Both Velarra and I made it through the first round even and I had a long chuckle as Koronakesh’s commentary. Milder than I had expected it to be, actually. A shame the second round fell right into a period my agenda was already overbooked. But then things took a strange turn when politics and love meddled into it all, the short version being that Jade Constantine — Revan’s lover — did not approve and used her position to have things called off. Must say I am disappointed, though not surprised in the solution Revan chose. Shame, at least an event like this brought some change to the ever so predictable back and forth arguments.

I’m sure I am forgetting a thing or two, but time is precious and I have to get back to work. Paperwork is nearly all done, luckily, so now we’re getting to the good bits like making ISK and enforcing our position within the region. More on that in a future post, I’m sure.

2010 has come and gone, and with being 11 days into 2011 it is a good time to reflect on what has passed and how it has shaped the present, in order to clear the road for a better 2011.

Leaving Goinard

The start of this year was marked by the search for a new home. The search was long, and lead us to many places, but ultimately wasn’t very fruitful. When you are established in a location that has nearly everything to make life in lowsec easy, and share it with a group large enough to keep others out, you’re in a pretty perfect situation. Any other places with similar combinations of being an highsec bordering system, having a sufficiently large market hub nearby, having access to most of lowsec space, medical facilities in your home base, good rats and so forth are bound to be taken by someone, who likely will run you into the ground in the defense of their perfect situation.

Our situation was further complicated by the fact that Naraka then existed of a lowsec piracy focussed group (PRETA) and a highsec industry focussed group (PRELI) and we wanted an ideal situation for both. Even when we eventually expanded our scope and were willing to give up certain benefits, we just could not make it work.

Operation Longshot

Since finding a new home was getting us nowhere, we opted for something similar yet different: Nomadic roams. One picks a location that looks interesting, sets up camp for a while, exploits the area and when things either get boring, or too hot under your feet, you pack up and disappear again, all thanks to the convenience of carriers. Operation Longshot was supposed to be the solution to our problems, and despite indeed solving them, it sadly was not in the way that was intended.

Veto

When faced with the choice of joining a big established corporation which does what PRETA did (lowsec piracy), or diving into the unknown depths of nulsec piracy with a corporation that is falling apart, well, it is pretty obvious what people are going to opt for. The great irony is that people leaving us for Veto was not really a threat when we were simply doing what we do best, but became an issue when we planned for getting away to eliminate the “danger” and put an end to the whole being called pets by certain groups. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20, I made the call, and it turned out to be a bad one. In the end it did clear the roster of people who’d probably be better off in another group anyway. Not that I hold grudges, I am happy they are now enjoying themselves, or eventually discovered that they were just done with the game.

Being a shadow CEO within Veto was educational. While it is not exactly positive, it was somehow reassuring they deal with the same kind of issues a small corporation deals with as well, and that there really aren’t that much differences other than more numbers. Summer inactivity? Yep, they got it too, and having more members might mean that more stick around through that period, but also means that more of them disappear. If you’d use percentages, they would be very similar. More was also learned by simply observing how situations are tackled, and even though ultimately Verone’s style of leadership is not one that suits me, it is one that gets things done and going his way. Respect to that.

As for what I did with my time besides lurking, I spent a while going on every possible operation I could go on, buying ships and training for them as needed, and good times were had. Over time however I felt my inner CEO nag, and set up my own operation “Platinum Halo” which brought myself and a few others to Curse to do mission work for the Cartel, and supply Veto members with Dramiels. I wasn’t quite planning on giving up my colors, after all, and made a pretty sum off of it. Alas, in the end nearly all my profits were destroyed when the Tengu I had invested in to run the missions with exploded due to ending up in a mission that was not quite speed-tank friendly.

Silence

Despite being the dream of many budding outlaws, life in Veto soon grew old. I think never intending to make more out of it than a temporary residence has a lot to do with that. So I simply fell off the grid for a while. Burnout and bitterness were catching up with me, too, and then there was the Tengu loss. Time for a breather.

Ghost Syndicate

Ah, Alexander Rykis, entering the roleplay community with a bang, shaking the foundations of just about everything, and having some ideas that seemed really good on paper. Had promise, too bad the execution did not live up to it. A shame he chose to lash out at everyone when things didn’t go quite as planned. Given more time and patience there could have really been something in the making here. In the end, it is not all his fault however, the roleplay community in certain ways is just way too stagnant for big revolutionary ideas to take liftoff within the span of a few weeks.

A slow restart

Ratting up my security status is one thing that took way longer than expected, even with help. Combine that with actually not being fully ready to lead a corporation again and not quite knowing what I wanted to do with it meant for a slow restart of Naraka. Not getting any members back from Veto other than myself and some alts — most play very casually these days — meant starting from square 1 again. Having all options open where to take PRETA next was actually not so good either, trying a bit of everything eventually gets nothing done. I am afraid I might have wasted the time of some good people there who joined to help build something.

But the end of 2010, and now the start of 2011 has things finally taking off: two new corporations into Naraka, differences of opinion within the Cartel community exploded with a bang which while not ideal does resolve a whole lot of headache, the second part of the Incursion expansion is upon us giving us many storyline hooks, and writing a year review has given me ample time to reflect upon mistakes made one final time, heed their lessons, and set off in such a way as not to make them again, but also not let them dictate me any longer. I now know what to not do again, and why. “Fail often”, they say, as well as “If it ain’t working, know when to quit, and then try again”. These wise words have made me realize that while 2010 may have consisted of periods of wasted time, they also served a purpose on a greater scale. I hope they will help in making 2011 a year of success for Naraka.