Back on June 9th it occurred to me that the only real way to express my utter contempt for vanity items in Eve was to use the only visual tool at my disposal, the head and shoulders avatar. And what would I be able to do to it to express just how silly it all was? The answer, as all such things tend to be after the fact of inspiration, was obvious. Hats.
The mere idea of our seasoned, scowl infested, tough-as-nails avatars wearing silly hats was profoundly funny. At least in my own humble opinion.
At first I simply used Rixx as the target for the silly hats, along with my own Twitter campaign in the midst of the Incarna Summer outrage. Along with various posts here on Eveoganda, it seemed like the perfect way to straddle the fence on what I considered to be a difficult razor. On one side the obvious silliness of CQ/Incarna, Aurum, and clothes no one could see. On the other a passionate caring for an Eve gone wrong.
Towards the end of June the little protest of mockery took a turn in a slightly unexpected direction when Mark from Eve Travel requested a Dunce hat for his avatar. Neither of us can remember the exact reason why he wanted such a thing, but he started using it on his own Twitter account. And so was born the expansion of what would come to be known variously as the Twitter Hats, or the Mad Hatter, or other descriptions.
Six months have passed and almost 160 hats. And Eve has moved on from Incarna to Crucible. The universe isn't the same anymore. Many of the Twitter hatted avatars aren't even using their be-hatted avatars anymore. And it seems obvious to me that it is time to put that moment of Eve history to rest.
The hats have served their purpose. Perhaps to a small degree, perhaps more so, who can know these things. They were part of the process however, that cannot be denied, not when so many of CCP's own are proud owners of hats, even the big guy at the top with his fluffy Viking hat.
But it is time to put them behind us and move on. However, since I am such a nice pirate type person, I will still be-hat your avatar, but only on request. And while I will still do them for free I would consider a donation to Rixx a small price to pay, since he is a poor pirate that tends to get things exploded a lot.
The hats were a blast to do and I'm glad they made so many people happy. It still makes me smile when I see one of the hatted avatars pop up on Twitter.
So thanks to all of you that are wearing or have worn your hats with pride. That was fun.