Yesterday according to Battleclinic, which I know is closer to being accurate of my totals than the other kill-boards, I passed 5,000 kills. 5,006 as of this morning. Truthfully who knows for sure? The various kill-boards vary by as much as several hundred kills, or more in the case of zKill (since they went bizarre and invalidated years worth of data, apparently I spent years in Null Sec doing nothing). Whatever, as I've said many times before I don't play for kill-board stats - they are simply a journal of activity. So we'll go with the one that remembers those years spent in Null.
I decided to go "throwback" yesterday and fly the ship I started the game with back in late 2008 - the Merlin. The Merlin lasted one fight before exploding under me, so that was 4,999. I then decided to mark the milestone by flying the ship I enjoy more than any other, so I recorded the 5,000th kill flying the Daredevil. I sent the guy 5,000 isk to mark the event. And a Vexor with my Garmur. After that I flew the Cormorant for awhile and killed an Algos with it. Then, feeling rather silly, I decided to jump into a Battle Venture and have some fun. Believe it or not people still ran away from me in a Venture!! But I did manage to catch a Kestrel and solo'd it. All in all a rather memorable evening of Yarrr!!
For some people 5,000 kills is nothing. My Corpmate Cervantes is closing in on 10,000 kills. I never claimed to be great at Eve, over the years my play-time has varied greatly. For years I never even played on weekends. (For the first two years of this blog I rarely even posted on weekends.) No excuses. Five thousand may be less than some but it is also more than most. It is telling that almost half of my kills have come in the last two years of being in Stay Frosty.
Eve is a game without a destination. It is the journey that truly matters and I've been on a rather remarkable journey over these years. And I look forward to what stories will be told by the next five thousand explosions I help to make happen.
Numbers are what numbers are. Make of them what you will. I play Eve my own way for my own reasons. And I enjoy it tremendously. And I'm not going to change. I rarely fly with drugs or links, I take fights I shouldn't take, I take chances I shouldn't take, I fly solo a lot when the meta is grossly over-balanced against it, and I fly to have fun primarily. Winning at all costs is not part of my game. I prefer to take a longer-view and win on my own terms. And lose on them as well.
Mostly I enjoy flying with my friends in Stay Frosty and ABA. Of being a part of a great community and watching Eve continue to grow and evolve. I am a very lucky man to be as involved in that experience as I am, and I appreciate that tremendously. To me those things are much more important than any number could be.
Although I will admit I do get a chuckle whenever local empties out when I enter. Or when some loud-mouth in local wants to prove his mettle by fighting me, or chasing me seven jumps in his linked Garmur. And then demand I blue his alts so he'll leave me alone. (True story, happened just last night.) Yeah. Those are the moments when numbers don't matter and when reputation is all you have.
Here's to the next five thousand.