You may or may not like what I have to say.
How you respond is more about you than it is about me. Why? Because what I am about to tell you is the truth, born out of a lifetime of lessons, experience and practical knowledge. It holds true no matter what you are doing, living your life, or playing a video game. You are only going to get out of those experiences what you are willing to put into them. In fact, the more you put in, the more you will get back. Until it becomes an exponential curve of increasing returns. Family, friends, children, college, work, sports, music, and video games. Everything works on this basic, fundamental premise.
It might surprise you to learn that I am not the most talented artist. I am certainly not the most talented writer. Or blogger. Or pilot in Eve. I have however, achieved a measure of success at each of those (and other) areas in my life. Not because I am the most talented, but because I've worked hard at them. I study them. I learn them. I practice them. And I work harder than most at them. And yes talent helps. I'm not working hard at becoming the next great ballet dancer, because I certainly have less than no talent at ballet. In fact, I probably have a great deal of negative talent at ballet.
Most people do not do this.
Shocking right? And you may be thinking to yourself right now that I am wrong. If you are then you haven't lived long enough to know better. Most people are willing to cruise along on the bare minimum, to wing it on the talents they may or may not have, to ride the wind and see where life takes them. This is how most people live. This is how most people play video games. And I make no judgements about other people. They are free to live their lives the way they choose. Good for them.
Because, in the final analysis, self-reliance and self-determination are yours and yours alone. They do not belong to anyone. Not your rotten Family. Not the neighborhood you grew up in, or the breaks life gave or took away. Not the economy. Or anyone, other than you. This is how life works and only you can choose to be overcome by obstacles, or to overcome those obstacles.
How does this relate to Eve?
The place you choose to play, the Corporation you choose to play with, the activities you choose to participate in - these things are not going to make your experience better. Only you can do that. You can be miserable anywhere. Any Corporation or Alliance can suck. Any group of people can be boring. It isn't them (usually), more likely it is you. You want to make friends, then be a friend. You want fleets, then make fleets happen. You want to be active, then be active. You want anything in Eve, then make it happen. And if you try, if you put the work in, the effort, and it doesn't? Then find a place, or better yet, make a place - where it will.
I did. I created the perfect place for me in Eve. It is exactly what I wanted out of my own Eve experience. And I've been fortunate in that it also seems to be something that other people were also looking for. I worked hard at it. I put a lot into it. And now it gives back much, much more than what I put in. It has to, because eventually, at some point, I will be unable to put as much in. Because self-reliance and self-determination are at the core of what it is all about.
If you want something, in Eve or in life, you have to make it happen. No one is going to do it for you. Others will help. And some will not. Even fewer may try to keep you from doing it. Or actively try to prevent it. The only way you will achieve anything, is by working harder than them. There are no shortcuts to overnight success.
Eve, more than any other game I've ever played, reflects back real life. Your experience in Eve will only get better if you put in the work to make it better. No matter where you are, or what you enjoy doing.
Go on. You better get busy.