Grabbing your Interest

Is it just me, or has the average count of the users online dropped by 10,000 or so over the last couple months?

I’ve updated my skill queues to allow at least 3 days of training to cover the update tonight.  Better to be safe than sorry.

A friend was offered a 3 day return to the game by CCP, so queued up a whole heap of blueprint research and logged off again.  (In the process destroying the industry slots in one poor station, which now has something like a 3 month wait for ME research.)

He’s noticed my renewed enthusiasm for the game – but can’t imagine returning to it yet himself.  He’s asked several times recently just what was grabbing my attention so much.

It is hard to explain why I am keen on it again, but there are probably two factors.  The first has been an attitude change.

To do really well at EVE you normally have to either work very hard at it, or be told or come across its sweet spots.  Most of the useful tips I have been given in game come after the big money has already been made on them, so for real success I would have to work hard at it.  The fact is though – I don’t what this to be a second job, and I don’t really care about success.  I just want to amuse myself and have some fun.

So I am doing lots of little things – with smaller goals that don’t become a grind; and results that frankly won’t make me rich.  I am having fun fine tuning fittings, or testing new and different approaches to the game.  I am enjoying reading forum posts about industry, wars, game changes etc – but don’t mind if I fall behind on threads or skip whole pages because of trolling.  The same goes for my PI and trading at the moment – if I am a few days late updating things, I’m relaxed about it.

The other aspect which is helping is this blog.  I did not mention that to my mate, as while I know people read this and I write as if I am talking to people, my mindset is very much that I am just talking to myself.  Just being able to muse over the game in this type of medium adds a dimension to my gaming experience.

It certainly isn’t much of a sales pitch though – my mate hasn’t been encouraged to resub.