4,000

On February 5th of last year I wrote a post about passing the 2,000 kill mark. This weekend, 18 months later, I passed the 4,000 kill mark.  That is as many kills in the last year and a half as the entire 4.5 years that proceeded it. 1,739 of those, the vast majority, have been with Stay Frosty.

(And yes, I am aware that various kill-boards don't all agree on these totals. No system is perfect, and there are many kills lost to time. Plus - who really cares?)

4,000 kills is nothing when compared to a lot of Eve players. My friend Cervantes Marovinjun has double that with over 8,000 kills. And some have over 25,000 or more! On the other hand, it is yet another milestone on my Eve journey. This blog is also a journal in many ways, read back over the archives and follow the bouncing red dot.

I am never going to amass huge numbers. I am never going to be considered a great/elite/proper/excellent, or even decently good, PvPer. That is just not going to ever in a million years happen to me. And I'm ok with it. In fact, that isn't even remotely my goal. It never has been.

My goals are pretty simple. To enjoy logging in and playing Eve. There have been many times over the years when this was not the case. When the thought of playing Eve felt like a burden, or a weight on my shoulders. Or when real life became overwhelming and Eve had to take a seat in the back of the bus. I enjoy playing Eve and I enjoy writing about it. But there have been moments along the way when that wasn't the case. My goal is simply to avoid those moments and keep Eve fun for me.

As long as I can achieve that simple goal, then I will continue to play. And the numbers will just take care of themselves.

I know exactly how to get large numbers. I could. But, for me, doing so would squash what I find enjoyable about playing. It would remove the challenge and make the game simply about racking up statistics. And that (again, for me) is not something I am willing to do.

I'll just keep chugging along. And every so often I'll have to write another one of these "milestone" posts to mark the way.

Here is to the next 4,000 ships and pods exploded.

Onward and upward.