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

This month…(well I realise I have posted at the start of February…but it’s still January in my head – honest!) the fantastic Manasi hits us with something to ponder:  ”How do we, EVE bloggers, adapt to changes as they are thrust upon us (speed changes, no more ghost training, all the Dev blogs, etc), or as our lives make playing the game different (more time, less time)?”. It’s a question guaranteed to generate discussion and make us bloggers work a little harder so thanks for that Manasi!

Shameless Star Wars quote for the title…but, hey…no matter how many Jar Jar’s you throw at it in subsequent prequels, “A New Hope” is still a good piece of fun! But that’s precisely what is difficult about running an EVE Online Blog (or any blog) when you also have RL commitments. We all know the stories of this new generation of “professional bloggers” who carve out their earnings online through ad-revenue and click throughs but, for the average blogger their writings are a hobby, a past-time and a way to connect with other people. So, balancing the dreaded REAL LIFE BEAST!!!!!! and running your blog…AAAAAAAND actually playing EVE Online can actually turn out to be quite tough! So the question forces itself into your face like an annoying salesman – how do you adapt? What do you do? Well, I’m glad I asked…I try and set myself targets!

Now…before I continue, I’d like to point out that I don’t always meet these targets bang on time, but I set them and I do my damndest to work towards them but of course when caught twixt the jaws of the real life beast, flailing your limbs, you sometimes cannot make a time or day you wanted to post – we all know this feeling, us solemn bloggers – we heroic few!

Nonetheless, targets are set and with gusto I stride towards them…well, as much gusto as I can muster! Targets must be set and those targets must be flexible and you must be able to adapt to changes in your situation. My recent example would be my move. Unfortunate RL circumstances arose and it became clear that I had to leave Liverpool where I was living and return back to the city of my birth – Manchester. Suddenly I had a whole  new kettle of fish on my hands, which was odd – since there was never a kettle of fish there originally…hmmm…but yes….I returned to Manchester and was confronted with a whole lot of extra time on my hands whilst I was looking for work. So I resolved to better my blog! More time = more blog and gaming time, so I used that time to put the Fiction Pack into motion and gather cohorts around me to forge a new era of glory in EVE Fan Fiction! *Roaring Cheers and Applause from the Ampitheatre….* My point is, that every once in a while you get these little windows of opportunity – you must exploit them with all the ruthlessness and effort you can summon, as you can reap excellent dividends from doing so! Eventually of course, this window will close – in my case, I have had to step up my job search and hopefully within the next week or so I will be working again and thus, will not have ALL day to focus on my site. Good news is, I have done the hard work, now I simply need to keep providing the content I targeted and all will be well in my merry little world.

That’s how RL has affected my blog recently, but – how did it effect my EVE experience? A good question, well made! I would say it had two primary effects. Firstly, it enriched my EVE immersion – I made a few new friends, and I learnt a lot about the rich backstory and history that CCP. This inspired me to do a few things in-game – for example, myself and some corp mates have resolved to make the pilgrimage to the EVE Gate, where it all began which is bound to be a good event for us all as we sneakily slip through space and take in the sights along the way and maybe break a few hearts and make a few bucks as we go! I spent a lot of time thinking about how, in a year of playing the game I have seen NOTHING of it when I think about the big picture. This scared and enthralled me and I resolved to continue as I have, unveiling the EVE Universe piece by piece and step by step…

Secondly, through focusing heavily on my blog for several weeks, I found myself going through periods of very low actual in game time. Coupled with the remnant of the holiday seasons, this led to me being very unproductive for some time in terms of my wallet…which makes me think of opportunities lost! However, I’m not wholly convinced I could have done it any other way, so I will content myself with the knowledge that I have bettered my understanding of the game itself which slightly compensates my rather empty in game wallet…slightly!

Lastly, I’d like to address another facet of Manasi’s question…Changes to the game itself….

I have been playing just over a year now and in that time I have seen plenty of changes I guess…Although not as many as the likes of Winterblink and CrazyKinux! I was fresh off the Trinity boat, and now we’re rapidly approaching Apocrypha…which means that Empyrean Age and Quantum Rise have come and gone in the time I have been playing – introducing Faction Warfare, increasing levels of official fiction (including the first EVE Novel – Empyrean Age), new graphical touches (stargates, new ship skins), vast improvements to server structure and coding, a new ship class and many changes to game mechanics (speed being the most prominent I can think of!) All of these changes have impacted my gameplaying experience and thinking honestly, I can’t say that these changes have been for the worse, they have certainly increased my overall enjoyment of the game on the whole so from my perspective at least, CCP have done a good job in maintaining my interest in EVE Online and have continued to provide me with reasons to subscribe and even to create an alt!

All in all, life continually evolves and changes and we must follow its ebbs and flows, rising up and down as it guides us along. EVE Online is no exception, year after year the game has strengthened – I hope that this continues and I hope that the same goes for my blog and all the other wonderful bloggers and readers out there too.

Stay frosty folks, fly safe and *spooky voice*welcome to the wooooorrrrllllld of tomoorrrooooooooooooow *end of spooky voice*

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