A little over a year ago the Eve Community offered to help me and my family in a moment of dire need. It isn't over-stating things to say that the community saved us at the exact moment we needed saving and made it possible for us to continue putting our lives back together ourselves. A course we had been on for years that suddenly and without warning started tipping in a dark direction. There are those haters out there that will never let this moment go, they keep bringing it up every chance they get. But I remain steadfast in my own belief at the inherent goodness of this great community.
I'm not interested in re-hashing the whys and details of that moment. Suffice to say that I have felt incredibly beholden to everyone that donated since then. I re-doubled my own efforts to provide creative support for the community in the year since. I've released hundreds of pieces of artwork, provided countless logos, banners, and helped develop projects that you are not even aware of. All in a dedicated effort to return something to the community. I worked with Eve-NT and Crossing Zebras, I produced 14 videos for the Alliance Tournament (and dozens of bulletin videos), branded the Arena e-sports, helped charities, started After Hours Podcast, created videos of my own, kept blogging, held a player event, and numerous other things.
All of which culminates with us attending Fanfest this year on our own dime. No help from CCP this time. Nothing to sell. In fact, we're bringing with us a ton of awesome FREE stuff to give away for FREE. As further thanks for all the Eve Community has done for us.
That stack of Stay Frosty stickers (250) is just one of three sticker stacks we'll be bringing with us. In addition I have a smaller stack of original Rixx Javix artwork that I am also bringing with me, I can't tell you what it is without spoiling the surprise, but it is awesome. I'm also having FOUR original Art Postcards printed that I will be handing out as well. Again, I don't want to spoil the surprise, but they are gorgeous. Not only that but each Postcard features lore-based art on the back. Each one different and featuring additional original art. Four color printing on both sides with a nice UV coating. In addition I think Liz and I are also getting some original Rixx Art t-shirts made, but those are going to be just for us. (Sorry, I'm not a rich person.)
All of which is available in limited quantity, so apologies up front about that. I'll do my best to spread things around, but we are certainly not bringing enough for everyone.
This is the culmination of my own promise to myself last year, to pay back the generosity of this great community of ours as best I can. But it also serves another purpose as well. It serves as a reminder of what could be a great store experience based around Eve, there is no reason why awesome stickers, cool Postcards, unique t-shirts and other amazing items are not available to the greater community STILL. After years and years of fighting the good fight for this to happen, I've finally realized that it might never happen.
And while I still can't sell you Eve based materials, I can provide the next best thing, which is what the Rixx Javix Store is all about. After Fanfest I will be re-doubling my efforts with the store and providing even more "gamer" related merchandise and a place for Eve Alliances to sell their own branded merchandise.
In the meantime, if you do get one of these items at Fanfest, be sure to show it around and ask, "Why can't we have things like this in our store!?!"
Why indeed.
PS: The word "FREE" is used in this post as a counter to the crowd of people that constantly accuse me of trying to profit from the Eve Community. I just wanted to be clear about it since these people do not tend to read the entire post and take things out of context. I'm being forced to dumb-down my writing a bit in response. That's all. I'm sure most of you knew this already.