It is no coincidence that the past year happens to coincide with the most turbulent time in my own personal life in recent memory. In fact, the two things do go together. I won't bore you with all the details, but suffice to say the past 12 months have been pretty horrible out here in the real world. And the Tuskers, in so many ways, have been a great place to weather the storm in-game.
That isn't to take anything away from the guys I fly with, if anything it means more than that. But there is a significant correlation between my evolving real-world situation and the choices I've made over the years in Eve. In fact, in most situations, they mirror each other to the letter. It is easier to be in CTA dominated Null Space Alliances when your life is more stable, or to lead your own Corporation or found Alliances when things are going well. But children do get sick and need special care, or you sometimes have to manage the collapse of a company. All things that change the amount of time you can dedicate to in-game activities.
Beyond that however, The Tuskers have proven to be the perfect home for my imperfect play-style. A fact that they don't always appreciate, but one that is never-the-less true. Like many people over the years they often make the mistake in assuming my sometimes irreverent attitude means that I don't take Eve seriously - which is far from the truth. This has caused a few clashes over the past year, but we've all worked those out and moved on. It's called growth and it happens for the best in most cases.
Being unemployed lately brings some odd issues along with it. On the one hand I generally have more play time, but on the other hand I have significantly less dedicated time to play. My time usually comes in much smaller bursts at odd hours. And while the Tuskers are most active around 20:00 I am the least active around that time. This means I rarely get the chance to fly with them in organized roams, a fact I probably miss more than they do. And it means that I have to rely more on solo or very small gang activity more. Which also happens to fit well with what I want to do in-game. So it all seems to work out rather well.
I'd like to think I've helped the corporation in other ways, we have grown rather a lot in those twelve months. So perhaps me talking about them more here on the blog has raised awareness and helped in that way. At least more than my pitiful 274-52 record has over those twelve months. There are pilots in our Corp that get more kills in a single month!
But, as I've said many times, I don't play for numbers. I play to play. The numbers take care of themselves. One number stands out however, The Tuskers are #1 on BattleClinic. And that is one number we can all take some pride in.
Will Rixx be in The Tuskers for another year? I suspect so, but only time will tell.