Possibility space

I think EVE provides an ideal balance of possibility space vs. safety in its design. While you can hide behind CONCORD with reasonable safety in high sec, it is much more fun and rewarding to venture into areas with more risk. The mechanics allow for miners, traders, pirates and sovereign alliance wars. WOW!

The social dynamic is the secret sauce for EVE, and the game mechanics ensure that even Corps and Alliances are potentially full of intrigue given the ability for players to scheme, steal, and con their way to riches.  This leads to a paranoid feel when you are first getting to know Corp mates or applying for a Corp.  Trust is likely the most valuable commodity in EVE, there are even players like Chribba who make their living based on their trustworthiness.  

By allowing such varied interaction, EVE deepens the potential relationships and adds meaning to player interactions.  What other virtual world has inspired player run banks, investment schemes, mass territorial Alliance warfare, and a complex player managed market?  This depth and complexity of possibility distinguishes EVE from the alternatives and makes New Eden a virtual world like no other!

Mending pastimes

EVE has provided a nice diversion from pain and immobility after my surgery.  Since the ancient computer here is too slow to run EVE properly, I have been limited to playing around with trading within a station.  I am experimenting with buying and selling orders, and have trained some basic Trade skills.  So far, I haven't found any ultra-profitable trades, but it has been fun to start learning about the complex EVE economy by jumping into it!

Holiday Surprise!

My plan while hanging out at the family ranch in Texas over the holidays was to relax, spend time with family, and catch up on blogging about old ideas while exploring some new ideas in a quiet reflective space.  Away from my gaming computer, I would not be able to actually do any gaming, but it is always nice to read other's blogs and write about my own thoughts.

My body had another plan.   On Christmas night, I found myself in the emergency room experiencing the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced.  After days in the hospital following emergency surgery, I am glad to be alive, glad to be with family, and excited about my gaming possibilities in 2009!  While I can't move much yet, I am at least out of the hospital and on the mend.

As an aside, I managed to get EVE running on my parent's ancient video-cardless Dell.  Being logged in at a station is choppy and laggy, and you can't leave the station without triggering a crash.  However, it is possible to log in and change skills and place buy and sell orders.  This has been a nice development that has provided some welcome distraction to a painful and challenging vacation! 

Budding mogul, or the pains of EVE newbishness

Diving into EVE is very challenging due to the way CCP designed the skill progression.  While I am slogging away at my learning skills, I have also learned enough about the game to now have a sense of what I NEED to be able to play more efficiently.

I have realized the possibilities of trading on the markets as a way to maximize profits.  Of course, now I need to train new skills so I can have more than 5 open trades at once.  I also need new skills so I can pilot my frigates more effectively.

I am holding my edge on a slippery slope.  If I give in and keep cheating on skills at the expense of learning skills, I will be less effective in the long run.  It would, however, be much more instantly gratifying to work on more of these support skills.  My immediate compromise has been to train some of the needed skills to 1 or 2, while returning to the Learning skills for the bulk of my current development.

LOTRO MoM was supposed to save me from this issue, as I was planning to be playing it as my main game while I trained up the basics in EVE.  While MoM is very awesome, I have been finding EVE irresistible lately.  I think this is mainly because I have always played LOTRO with Sedona, who is currently binging on DDO and not available to hang out with me in Middle Earth.  

As the strength of MMO's lies in the social aspect for me, without my favorite gaming buddy even an excellent game may be less captivating. It is amazing how much the "regular crowd" impacts the fun level of an MMO.  Since I have less expectation of playing EVE with Sedona, it has been a good place to spend time on my own.  Hopefully, I will establish corp membership in the next few weeks as well and start making some new online friends!  I hear that corp life opens up new dimensions in EVE's gameplay.

Thankfulness

I am most thankful for a wonderful wife and a charming and delightful 7 month old son! Next comes family, friends, work that I enjoy, and good times.

In the virtual sphere, I am thankful for amazing choices and beautifully crafted games. Complexity and depth in EVE and story and ambiance in LOTRO are providing good gaming entertainment these days. I wish the best to the employees at CCP and Turbine, and am very thankful for the communities that have formed around the virtual worlds I frequent. A special shout out goes to CrazyKinux and Massively for turning me on to EVE and the EVE blogging community this year.

Last, but not least, I am thankful for a President that I can be hopeful about! It is the first time in my life of 33 years that I can say I am proud of my leader. I hope he doesn't disappoint too much!