 |
| Click for additional sizes |
This time last year we were all scrambling to make/get/adapt/exchange/whatever-it-took to get the new INCARNA Expansion to run on our computers, avoid graphic card meltdowns and enjoy a leisurely stroll thru our brand spanking new Captain's Quarters which led us to... Oh yeah, nowhere.
As I said last year I've never logged into the store and I only recently, by accident, entered the CQ for the first time since last summer. WiS is kind of like our appendix at this point, a useless thing that is down there for God knows what reason. But unlike our appendix it can't be cut out when it gets inflamed, our CQ seems destined to remain somewhere in the bowels of every station we dock in.
To what purpose? A year later I'm still asking the same questions I was asking two years before Incarna was released. What is the point of WiS? Although now we are forced to ask a new one, is there even such a thing as WiS anymore?
I'm naturally curious about such things. Often to the point of annoyance I guess. It is good to know these things about yourself. But I can't let it go. It impacts my game in no way, it didn't before last summer and it doesn't now. So why belabor the point? And what point are we talking about now? Lots of question marks in those paragraphs, so let's try and avoid them here forward.
Frankly, Walking in Station never happened. We, the combined subscribers to Eve, killed it before it was born. We all believe we did the right thing by aborting the creature before it could grow up and kill us all, but did we? ( grrr, question mark!) Like any sibling or parent, we can't help but wonder what would have happened had it been given a chance to grow up properly. We'll never know for sure, but one would think by now the stations would be a tad bigger than one or two rooms.
Once DUST is out I wonder if we'll feel the missing pieces, the stuff that CCP was obviously building WiS for in the first place. The crowded command centers instructing our DUST pawns in exactly what we need done down there on the mud. ( I am purposely leaving the question marks off now.) Will we notice the holes.
Funny, I didn't start out to end up there.
I don't regret killing CCP's baby. The things we got in return for its death have been awesome to behold and the return of focus to space is as it should be. But one can't avoid pausing for just a moment and wondering at what might have been. All the crazy naked avatars jumping up and down in the station pub, playing holo space strategy games, or whatever the heck else we were supposed to be doing in there. The EON Pub, the store fronts, the gathering places, ROC'S Gym, the virtual community places that may never be more than a vision at this point.
When I popped into my dusty CQ the other day, I could've sworn the door was open just a hair. I could almost hear the laughter, the hushed voices planning conquests, the fart jokes, the banter and the wind whistling thru the corridors. Almost.
Ghosts. That's all they are.