I'm not one of those people. Even from the beginning, my time in Eve comes in random spurts of mostly unplanned time chunks. Managing to put together more than an hour at a time is a massive undertaking. Although oddly, because of the way my life works, I can often be 'on' Eve for 8-14 hours a day. But that isn't "play" time, but more of "social" time - time to chat, fix up stuff, fit ships, write in a blog, etc. Lately even that time has suffered.
But yesterday I managed to eke out an hour or so to "play". I log in and start talking, watching intel, catch up on the 57 mostly Alliance emails I've missed, and try to get back into the situation. Which given the rapidly changing war environment around Impass, isn't as easy as it sounds. I feel a bit detached at the moment to be perfectly frank, this can happen when you haven't been on in awhile.
Watching intel I notice that several reports of reds running around are coming in fast and furious. I watch, trying to determine if there is a developing situation that I might be able to do something about. And then, a few systems over, someone reports nine reds in one of our systems. Nine? That is a much better number than the usual 80+ we've been getting. But that isn't the best part. The best part is that they apparently have a Widow. A Widow?!? You've got to be kidding me. I ask for confirmation and sure enough, that's the report.
I can fondly remember a day when the report of a Widow, a Loki, a Rattlesnake, a Cynabal, heck any cool expensive bad guy ship would cause immediate action to erupt in Alliance chat. Someone would form a quick gang and we'd all go running after the chance to kill said bad guy ship stone cold dead. I mean really! How dare they!? This is, in my opinion, what it means to defend your space. You can call all the CTA's you want, but if you can't keep a nine man gang with a Widow out of your systems, then what is the point? Even if you don't kill it... at least you've tried.
Nope. Nothing. I raised a ruckus, but I kept my tongue bitten for the most part. Eventually I got so pissed off that I jumped into one of my Falcons and flew over there myself. Not only were they in the system as reported but they were ratting in one of our own hidden belts! I yelled at the reds in local, but otherwise there was nothing I could do alone.
More and more I miss the old days. More and more I wonder about what exactly my "fun" is in this game. Please DO NOT misunderstand me here, I am not quitting Eve. This isn't about Rixx, but more about his User. What am I getting out of this experience and where do I go from here? I don't know right now.
All I know is that the current state of affairs is frustrating. And what little time I have to play is often being wasted. That is not a sustainable combination.
Anyone looking for a good summation of the current situation should read this. Mord pays a lot more attention to politics than I do and sums it all up very nicely, and fairly.