After Hours with Rixx Javix Featuring Ashterothi
New episode of After Hours is now available. In this episode I welcome Ashterothi to the Stay Frosty Lounge for a great conversation about Low Sec, Faction Warfare, and other topics of incredible intelligence!
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast thru AudioBoom, iTunes, GooglePlay, or your other favorite podcast listening app. Enjoy!
Reminder to Self
Sometimes I forget that people actually read Eveoganda. Lots of people. Including the ones I was talking about in my last post regarding their cowardly Recon Trap. And that, maybe, they might be waiting for me with an additional complication. So reminder to myself to maintain OpSec.
The funny part is just how rare it is for me to fly anything even close to being "blingy". The reason this happened was a few weeks ago these two faction scrams fell into my lap. The only other Lachesis I've ever lost was way back in April 2014 from a Vargur we had tackled in Isho. I once solo'd a Lachesis with a Svipul. zKill is so much fun to look thru for random stats. I've killed 26 Combat Recon Ships and lost 13 of them now. Not bad. 8 of those 13 were Curses.
The adventure continues.
Five in a Row
Eve sure can keep a Pirate Lord humble. Over the last few days I've lost five fights in a row. I'm not counting that Cyno ship I popped on station, that was just reflex. So I thought I'd be totally fair and talk a bit about each one. Just so my readers don't start thinking that I only talk about the good stuff that happens. Lol. Like anyone thinks that.
Firetail Vs Hecate
I knew I'd probably lose this one, but nothing gets the courage up like two hours of having people run away from you and avoid fights they probably could have won. Heck I had a Thorax run away from me not ten minutes before this fight. I did guess correctly that he would be blaster fitted and took the correct steps. And at first it was obvious he had the wrong ammo loaded, so things started off well for me. He quickly re-loaded to better ammo and things took a turn for the worse. However, I will give myself props for "almost" killing him, the fight was pretty damn close. Sadly however, I fat figured this one at the end. That is what I call it when my huge man fingers hit the approach key-stroke instead of the overheat prop mod key-stroke. I went boom.
Comet Vs Algos
If I fight 10 Algos with this Comet I'll win 9 of them. This just happened to be the one that I lost. Good fight and it was yet another close one. This one just came down to the things these fights always come down to. No mistakes, just a properly fitted and flown Algos. Which is rare in Low Sec. So all the credit goes to the other pilot on this one.
Slasher Vs Punisher/Firetail
I should know better. But again, another loooong stretch without a fight. Horse is a dishonorable pilot that likes to hang out and bait pilots into engaging, and then his partner(s) show up to save him. Usually in ships that are totally inappropriate to the fight. At least this time his partner didn't show up in a Battleship (which happens) or a Recon (also happens) or something else totally silly (which also happens).
Cynabal Vs Cynabal
I totally blame myself for this one. I should have known he'd be Artie fit from the way he'd been hanging around waiting to score some easy Frig kills. But I figured I'd get a good landing from the Probes and instead I landed right in his range. He was overheating away from the Probe ship and I landed right in his range. I could have warped away, but my Corp mates landed behind me and I didn't want them to get blapped. I go boom.
Breacher Vs Merlin/Rook
Nothing much to say about this one. Recon trap. The Rook got me jammed faster than I could get drones on him. So I just exploded. His name has been noted though, so I hope he decides to come back and try this crap again. I have several surprises fitted up now. Please come back.
Anyhoo. I freely admit that I get frustrated sometimes. But I set out to play Rixx straight thru and that is what I am going to do. So I have to take the good with the bad that comes with doing that. And I'm fine with it for the most part. I have plenty of ships to lose. Like any other streak this one will come to an end sooner or later. Until it happens again. And then the cycle will just keep repeating over and over again.
Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you.
Until next time.
Tristan Pop Art Poster
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| Click to download various sizes |
Something a little different. My Wife asked me to create a Pop Art Style piece for her to get made into a poster to hang, so I finally got around to getting it done for her. The art is 100% vector illustration, done the usual way I do these but with A LOT less detail in the drawings. Each ship is made up of only four color "plates" that I can select and change the color of. And then various half-tone patterns, and color effects round everything out nicely.
Can't wait to get this one printed.
Happy Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving from all of us in A Band Apart and our member corporations wherever you happen to be in the world. Even if you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, the spirit of appreciation still rings true. Some of my fellow ABA pilots got together this morning and showed their appreciation to an Astrahus this morning. I'm really sorry I missed that one. But I am also thankful for a good night's sleep.
For me personally I am thankful for so many things. I'm thankful that a incredibly awesome bunch of people who play this game of ours decided to play it with me in our Alliance, and in Stay Frosty. I am humbled by that idea every time I log on and there are actual people in the chat channels. And watching as our group comes together to solve problems, help each other out when needed, or just undock to have some fun. It wouldn't work without so many incredible people and that is something I will always be thankful for.
I always want to say a very special thank you to all of those that have stuck by me all these years and believed in me. Thank you. Both in-game, in the community, and also out here in the real world. The lines between those three things have only continued to blur over the years and I can count so many of you as friends. For that I am eternally thankful. Life is a journey and none of us know where it will take us, or how many jumps we have left to go - but having someone to share it with makes it so much more enjoyable.
Without getting into the weeds here, this year is so much different than last year. To be honest I don't really even remember last Thanksgiving. Those were dark days. I am thankful that they are behind us and that the wheel finally turned a bit more into the light. I can only hope it continues to spin back into the Sun and we can put the memories of those days even further into the distant past.
Onward and Upward.
1v1 Eve Comic #84
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| It's back! |
For those of you unfamiliar with the 1V1 Eve Comic they are all collected on this page.
It is about time to start these up again and I hope to do them on a more regular basis. But no promises. These last few years have been rough on my sense of humor and my enthusiasm, so hang in there.
Enjoy!
The Stay Frosty Wolfpack
There have been times when I've enjoyed pretty much everything Eve has to offer. Large fleets, Black Ops, Gate Camping, Raiding, Blind WH Incursions, Tournaments, High-Sec Ganks, Griefing Russians (just kidding!), at one point or another I've tried to participate in all of it. I even once mined in my Rokh for about 15minutes (even though it was bait, it did have mining lasers fitted). But my all-time favorite thing to do is what I refer to as Wolfpacks. I'm sure other people probably fly this way somewhere else, but over the past 4.5 years I believe we've perfected the art in Stay Frosty. These days it is the primary way that I fly.
And Sunday I spent a good chunk of the day enjoying the Hell out of it again.
So here is essentially how it works. When I log on I form a fleet, or join one that is already formed. Whoever is on-line at the time, unless they are far away, gets into this fleet. It doesn't matter where you are, if you are solo, or traveling together with someone, or what. Get in the fleet. Every swarms about doing their own thing, or following someone around, it doesn't matter. The idea is simple. Kll everything you run into, alone, in small 2-3 man groups, or - if the situation calls for it - the entire fleet will come to your aid. Simple, right?
The genius of this approach in Low Sec is that new pilots can learn small gang tactics without being left alone to die needlessly over and over. And more veteran pilots can continue to perfect their solo skills until they require back-up. Or just want to share the glory. When I'm flying in these Wolfpacks, as an example, I let my fellow pilots have all the loots. And if one of or younger pilots happens to lose a ship, I'll often send them some "boom-boom" iskies to help pay for a new ship.
I know a lot of people scoff at this approach. Mostly because we are typically not even on comms while doing it. Which in many corners of Eve is considered akin to a Mortal Sin. Again, this really only works in Low Sec. But essentially our communication during fights is boiled down to very simple commands. Chatter happens between fights. (We also do these on Comms as well by the way)
This system, and Stay Frosty in general, was created to solve what I consider a HUGE problem with Eve. At least in my humble opinion. I don't agree that Eve is dark, complicated, not fun, and takes a lot of time to play. I reject that idea. I cringe when I see players leaving the game because they no longer have time to play, or feel that it isn't fun. Or they get burned out having played in that insane charnel house that is Null Sec. That's why I created Stay Frosty in the first place.
Because I don't have time to play Eve either. So I created a Corporation, and eventually an entire Alliance, around this idea. That Eve should be fun to play. And that it shouldn't take more time than your real job to play it.
We have people in Stay Frosty that are down in Null Sec right now blowing up stuff for the fun of it. We have Wormholers, Industrials, Mission Runners, pretty much every playstyle you can image inside our Alliance. And in my corner of the world, I log on and pew pew. Most often in quick Wolfpacks that are a blast to be a part of.
We've been at this for four and a half years now. Shortly Stay Frosty will pass the 100,000 kill milestone as a Corporation. Shortly after that A Band Apart will also. Next year we plan on winning the damn Alliance Tournament. How's that sound?
If you are reading this and you are thinking to yourself, it is about time I started actually enjoying this damn game, then jump on one of our Public Channels and talk to someone about it. Or, how's this sound, just put in an Application to Stay Frosty and JOIN UP! We've been OPEN Application since day one! Everyone who applies gets in. Talk about crazy! Especially if you are USTZ you should join, because I need more people to fly with :)
It'll never work. That is what people told me back when I started this crazy trip.
lolz.
PS: Our Public channels are EVEOGANDA and THE FROSTY HAMMER btw
This Week's Fights
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| The Ship Without Fear |
I don't get to play much these days. Between work, the house, three kids (and all of their special needs), finding time to play is tough. I generally can eek out an hour or so some evenings and on weekends. But the evenings are USTZ and Low Sec is pretty sparse for the most part. Add to that the huge red -10 skull hovering over my name and it can be challenging to find fights. Not complaining here, just saying. I long ago gave up on my original goals inside of Eve and have slowly transformed those into new ones. My goals these days do not have anything to do with becoming a great solo pilot, or amassing a large number of kills, or anything like that. My goals are to run Stay Frosty as well as I can, have fun when in space, and try to help my Alliance do well in the Alliance Tournament. The rest will take care of itself.
So this week I went 4-1. I've recently realized how dependent I've become on the Comet (which I love) as my go-to general purpose roaming ship. So I've started forcing myself to fly other ships. I must mention that in a typical hour or so of flying I will often fly 7-8 different ships normally. So I don't ONLY fly the Comet, it's just that I get more fights flying the Comet. Make sense?
So I undocked one of my trusty Daredevils the other day, all my Daredevils are named Murdock (they always have been, its tradition) and went looking for a fight. As you can imagine most people ran away. Things were slow so I stopped into a Novice plex and waited. Sure enough eventually two pilots decided they could take me. A Tormentor and a Condor. Together they may have had a better chance, but for some strange reason they came at me pretty much one at a time. The Condor arrived before the Tormentor exploded, but just barely. Then the Condor died soon after. Good fights were given and I even said something about "trying". One of the pilots was very upset, apparently he felt that two T1 Frigates should have beaten my faction fitted Daredevil. I tried to give them some advice, but you never know if they really listen or not.
Another night Varaga and I were running around in Firetails. Which must be extremely scary to people, since we scared everyone away with them. Eventually we discovered a pilot in a Daredevil, which I correctly assumed would be blaster fit, and he came at me outside a gate. He died. I don't think he even landed a single blow. Scram kiters are not kind to small blaster ships. But thanks for the faction shield extender! Much appreciated.
And then tonight I went roaming in an Incursus. They other night I had a very interesting fight against another Incursus. We went toe to toe for what had to be at least ten minutes. Eventually I only had one cap charger left so I had to disengage. That was fun, you forget how tough this little ship can be with dual-reps. As I discovered tonight however, its tank is no good against a Socket Closure! Right smack in the middle of this fight. Oh well, at least I got my pod out safely. I name my pods, "They Got Me!" for the ride home. I don't care what anyone else thinks, I think it's funny.
There was a couple of Thrashers around tonight. So I undocked a Thorax to see if they would engage me. But they ran off. On the way home a Comet landed on station with me. A red Comet. So I started shooting him (duh!). I haven't flown a Thorax in a while, so I was a tad rusty in it. And he wasn't dying, and he was killing my drones. I actually got down into deep armor and a few red spaces into structure before he finally popped. Tansy was nice enough to undock behind me in a Caracal just in case I needed back-up, or revenge. I didn't. But I did warn him to warp his pod away, which he ignored to his own peril.
So that was my week of adventures in Eve this week. What will the weekend hold?
Let's undock and find out.
8 Years Ago Today (Maybe 7)
Way back in November 2010 I posted this COLOR version of my 1v1 Eve Comic (#28).
This was ill-advised. No one liked it, not even me. The color I mean, the comic itself was just as dumb as any of the others. I thought I'd try color for once, but it didn't work. For whatever reason the comics worked better as black and white art. When I first started doing the 1v1 series I would come into work (This was back when I owned my own advertising agency) and draw them in ink on the back side of a company memo pad. I would then scan them in, invert them in photoshop and publish them. That worked pretty well for awhile. But then I grew tired of doing them that way, so I started drawing them in Illustrator instead.
It's funny now, but this was the start of me drawing spaceships in Illustrator. Over the years I would bang around with doing it in certain projects here and there, but I had no real aspirations in regards to doing illustration work. I hadn't been an illustrator since I had started out in the comic book industry in my late teens and early twenties. Before my first wife forced me to quit doing it.
Sometimes I would draw a cartoon or something for work. I'd often doodle in my sketch pad at work. In those days I focused on becoming a designer and a photoshop expert. And then a video editor. And then a special effects 3d artist. Then a creative director. Then a card designer and sometimes illustrator. Then other things. I could never stop trying new things. I never could. My ex-wife instilled in me a belief that I was never a "real" artist. She believed that the computers I worked on did the real work. She never used a computer. I knew better of course, but years of that crap had an effect on me.
And then, one day, during one of our countless divorce meetings - in front of everyone - she said it out loud. I was not a real artist. It is hard to convey how horrible this made me feel. I knew it was silly and that I shouldn't take anything she said to heart. But I determined then and there that I would go out and create an opportunity for myself to prove her wrong. Not to "show" her, I couldn't care less what she thought. I still don't. But to prove it to myself.
Within a few short years of that meeting eight of my illustrations were produced by CCP and sold internationally. I sat in Harpa in the middle of the Atlantic ocean on the island of Iceland (of all places) and signed copies of my posters. They were the biggest selling item at Fanfest that year. We sold 1,100 copies.
I've never told anyone that side of the story before. Except my current wife. That little color cartoon made me think of it and I thought I would share it with you. Sometimes, when someone on Reddit or somewhere, slams my art for not being "art" I can get a little testy about it. This is one of the reasons. But it also makes me feel for all the artists, creatives, illustrators, and others out there whose work is often cast aside, by one group or another, as not being 'real'. I know a lot of these people. Multi-media artists, video artists, musicians, printers, so many that work hard and create amazing and fantastic pieces. I feel for them as well. Because many people don't consider what they do to be real either.
I'm no one special. I have my own faults and I have a long way to grow as an artist. But I've been a creative my entire life. And I will be one until I die.
Just thought I'd share.
Headhunter Typhoon Illustration
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| Click to embiggen |
Been awhile. Getting the skills back slowly but surely. You'd be surprised, but it has been almost three years since I stopped doing the spaceship posters. I've done other pieces since then, but mostly digital painting work in photoshop and not these insanely complicated vector illustrations.
These are all for me, I do what I like. And I was inspired by how awesome the Headhunter skin looks on my Phoon. I love the Typhoon, I think I've done more illustrations of that ship than any other one.
Hope you enjoy.
Eve-Breck Logo
As always, glad to help the community in any way I can.
The Enduring Mystery
One of the best things about Eve, for me, is what I like to call the "enduring mystery". I've been playing this darn game for nine plus years now and, especially during the last six years, all I really do is undock and fight other players. I like to believe that, while I continue to be 'terrible at Eve', that I've gotten relatively decent at Player vs Player combat. I don't brag. I don't really talk about it much. I don't follow my kill-board. I don't care if I live or die when I go to engage. I do care afterwards of course, I'm also not an idiot. (Those are two different things, the before and after engagement mindsets, not the idiot thing. We can argue that one, I have my detractors.)
But no matter how good I get every once in a while something happens that I can't explain. Sometimes it is losing an engagement I was sure I should win. Sometimes it is something else. I've long theorized, and mentioned to people who tend to nod politely, that perhaps the Eve server isn't as tightly wound as we are led to believe. Weird things often happen. Glitches maybe? Ghosts in the machine? It is a possibility. Not that long ago I remember jumping thru a Null Sec gate and coming out about 27 jumps away. I can still remember undocking to multiple copies of myself. Or having a ship on top of my pod inside the station. So glitches do happen. Or have happened. What if they are just more subtle these days?
I don't have a current good example to share. Last night I lost my recently fitted Stabber to another Stabber. Which is not a good example. While I feel as if I should have won that fight, it is always possible that I shouldn't have. I have to start by admitting that possibility. However, I did just recently slaughter a similarly fit Stabber with the same Stabber. Someone pointed out that perhaps the other pilot was using boosters. I don't typically use drugs myself. I will sometimes lug a Blue Pill around if I'm flying a larger shield boosting ship and I'm expecting a big fight, but generally I don't partake. That is also possible.
Another possibility is that I simply derped. This does happen sometimes. As those of you who have engaged in PvP have noticed, things happen rather quickly. It is a game of split second decisions compounded on top of one another. Don't let anyone fool you, sometimes one small wrong decision can escalate into a problem before you can fix it. And then... pod express. It happens to everyone. Even those that like to think otherwise. I will admit that I did make one error in that fight and that it might have compounded. My drones happened to be lights, left over from a Frigate gang that ran instead of engaging. A couple of Mediums might have helped.
Either way I said good fight in local as I always do. And it was very close. It isn't that specific fight that I'm really talking about anyway. The enduring mystery of Eve may not be technical. Or based on server glitches, or ghosts in the machine. The enduring mystery of Eve might just be unknowable. A complex pattern of tiny little decisions and constant updating that often seems weird.
Or this almost 15yr old constantly updated game has got some crossed wires somewhere. And every once in a while they catch you off guard.
Just a random ponder for a Tuesday. Nothing serious.
After Hours with Rixx Javix
New episode of After Hours featuring my special guest and A Band Apart Team Captain Jose Zampano.
Enjoy!
One Year Anniversary of the Rixx Store
A year ago, having become fed-up with waiting for the official Eve Store to finally open again, I decided to start a RedBubble store of my own. I had two goals in mind when I started: 1) To provide cool non-IP related merch, and 2) To provide Alliances a place to sell their Alliance gear. I also promised everyone that I would be transparent about the store as much as humanly possible. The store has done gang-busters in the past year and I am extremely pleased with how well it has done. The Alliance Gear section hasn't gone as well as I hoped it would, but it hasn't mattered. The Alliances that do participate are selling gear like hotcakes. So if you aren't participating you have no one to blame but yourselves.
I sell Alliance Gear at one percent mark-up, everything else at 5% mark-up. Our biggest seller this past year has been the Warp to the Dance Floor shirts, which Manic Velocity wore during the opening of Fanfest back in April. A very close second is the HTFU stuff. In fact store merch appears pretty much everywhere, during the recent Eve Vegas you couldn't see a crowd shot without seeing Rixx Merch in the group. That's something I am proud of. I don't make a ton of money off the store, on average the past year it turns out to be about $65 a month. I could make more if I increased the percentages, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to continue to keep them exactly where they are.
And while others continue to openly sell Eve IP on RedBubble, Zazzle, Amazon, and other places on-line (just do a simple Google search, it is insane how much there is out there!), I refuse to do so. Obviously the Rixx Store would be 1000x better if I could use even tiny wittle bits of Eve IP, but sadly I can't. And I know people are watching me like a hawk to see if I cross the line. Which is silly, because clearly I'm not going to do that. Duh. The more I sell and the more I don't use Eve IP, the more I continue to make my original point.
Not that it matters anymore. At this point I don't care about proving anything to anyone. It seems pointless now. So the only reason the store exists is so that the community has something cool to wear that has something to do with Eve. Since the real Eve Store seems diametrically opposed to giving us all what we want. If it was up to me we'd have spaceships on t-shirts and mugs and be done with it. After all, it ain't rocket science, that is exactly what we all want.
And if you run an Alliance in-game and want to provide your members with merchandise let me know. Remember you are allowed to sell things with your Alliance logo on them. The Bastion Alliance has sold 79 t-shirts with their logo on it in my store. And my Alliance, A Band Apart, has sold almost 100 items to our members this past year. So there is a demand out there and it is 100% legal to sell it.
I'll be adding a bunch of new original content in the coming weeks in time for the Holidays.
Onward and upward.
The Special Porpoise
I've seen Porpoise on scan in High Sec when I travel my alt around to conduct business. I even saw one on scan in Null Sec once during a raiding party. But I had never seen one in Low Sec until Thursday evening.
Thursday evening was typical of my current state of Eve playing during the week. I usually have about an hour or so, sometimes less, to undock and have adventures. I remain puzzled why more players don't embrace the Pirate Low Sec play-style. All I hear is complaining about how much time you have to dedicate to Eve. Even people who have never played Eve before believe this. The owner of the company I work for wants to try Eve, but his major complaint is how much time you have to invest in it. So yesterday I told him about my adventures this week. How I had twenty minutes to play on Monday night and I managed to explode two ships and get into a few other fights in that short time. And then I told him about my hour on Thursday.
I fitted up a new blaster Comet when I logged in and undocked to cause trouble. I formed a fleet and we had 3-4 pilots in local at the time. (A large chunk of SF are down in Null Sec right now blowing up Brave Newbies and others.) Sadic, Firesequence and Ciba were around mostly doing their own thing. Right off the bat I noticed the Punisher on scan. The pilot flying the Punisher usually has back-up in local, back-up which can range from another Frigate to another Battleship, so it is always a situation to be wary. Luckily Sadic was in a Thrasher, so I warped in and caught him. He didn't have back-up this time. Or they were late...
Because that's when the Wolf arrived as if on cue. I have never seen a Wolf die so quickly. Granted a blaster Comet and a Thrasher dish out serious dps, so no real surprise there.
We don't see a lot of Mining Barges in Low Sec and when we do they are either tanked bait or part of a larger group. So when we spotted the Retriever on scan we all figured it was bait. And, at first, the local traffic tended to support this idea. The trick about local traffic is always knowing who is with who, are these ships connected or not? The life of a Pirate is so complicated and full of unknowns. We managed to chase the Retriever around a bit, and he'd keep docking up and then re-appearing again. Eventually local quieted down and we spotted him in the Ore Site again. This time we had him. And strangely for a Retriever he went down pretty fast. It wasn't until we saw the km that we knew why - HE DIDN'T HAVE ANY FITS!
One thing you can always count on in Eve - it is full of surprises.
Case in point. So I was tired of flying the Comet and decided to re-ship into a Hookbill. I undock and there is a neutral Tristan on the station. In cases like that I watch to see what they will do. Usually that involves docking back up in terror or warping off somewhere. Rarely, and usually only when they have the better ship, does it involve attacking me. I wasn't surprised when the Tristan red boxed me and started shooting, I was more disappointed than anything. My Hookbill made short work of his ship. And I told him in local to never, ever do that again. I would have sent him some isk but then we spotted the Porpoise.
And then it disappeared. Must have just been passing thru. It happens. There is a High Sec gate in system and we get all kinds of weird traffic. But then it popped up again. I didn't even bother trying to scan it down, I took a chance and warped directly to the Ore Site at zero. Sure enough I landed directly on top of it and immediately got scram and two webs on it and started shooting. My fleet mates landed directly and we all made short work of the Industrial Command Ship.
That was only the third ICS I've managed to kill in Eve, the other two being Orcas. And one of those was in Null Sec. That is how rare it is to see one in Low.
After the expansion this week I fitted up some new ships. One of those is a new Stabber I've been wanting to try out. Luckily another Stabber showed up in local to help me. Raylan had been trying to get close to it, but it wasn't helping him do that. So I jumped into my own Stabber and warped over to grab it. Sure enough, when I arrived Raylan had already left and the Stabber had come down from its perch. It was a good fight, but the other Stabber couldn't break my tank and I had no trouble breaking his. I called Raylan back to get on the mail since it was his mark to begin with.
That was simply a case of his Stabber using 220s and mine using 425s. His was fitted for anti-frigate fighting and mine is fitted for killing Stabbers (and other cruisers). Yet another example of the rock, paper, scissors nature of Eve.
And that was my hour up.
How do you have adventures in Eve? It's simple. Undock, warp around, explore, engage, and try new things. Keep doing that and you will have incredible adventures. And remember, it is only a game.
Eve Los Angeles
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| Click the image to download various embiggened sizes |
They say if you live long enough you'll see one of everything. I don't know about that, but this is the second wallpaper I've made for an Eve LA Player Meet.
That one was done back in June, 2015.
Everything old is new again.
Answers and Question
TL;DR: There was no Card Game. It was only a concept for a Card Game that existed as paper, marker, and two JPGS. I was asking for permission. It was never intended to be sold for profit, it was intended as FREE swag to be handed out at Fanfest. A plan that was originally given to me by two (now) former CCP employees. In thirty plus years of my professional career I have never once sold anything for which I didn't have permission. And I wasn't going to start now. My reputation is much more important than CCP or Eve.
Read on if you'd like the details:
One of the most frustrating things about the Eve community is that it changes, evolves, and moves all the time. New people come around and veterans leave. While this is natural, it is also extremely frustrating for a journal writer like myself. I end up having to repeat myself over and over again, explaining my own history and my history with Eve. Simply because some people don't know about it, or forgot, or whatever. I know it can be annoying to my long-term readers, I apologize for it, but it really can't be helped.
Last Friday I was served by CCP legal with a Cease and Desist order to stop developing a Card Game or else face Federal Court. The letter was bogus because there was NO Card Game. I had written multiple emails, and several LinkedIn mails, to try and discover who at CCP I could talk to about bringing it as swag to Fanfest. I hadn't heard from anyone. I had to write multiple people because my contact at CCP left the company over the Summer. And my other contact was openly antagonistic towards me, having blacklisted me for speaking out about the Eve Store on Crossing Zebras earlier this year.
Because the card game I was thinking about developing, and which I had written emails to various CCP employees regarding, was always intended to be Swag. Swag. Handed out at Fanfest this coming April. At the last Fanfest I printed 400 postcards that had Eve IP on them and handed them out to both CCP employees and attendees. Over the Summer I printed 50 posters of my Sisters of Eve illustration and handed them out at Steel City Eve. The year before, same thing. Fanfest in 2015, same thing. And you can name any other Eve event of the past nine years and I probably created something with Eve IP on it as well. I recently designed t-shirts for Eve Dublin, as an example. None of those had resulted in CnD orders from legal.
To be clear - there was NO Card Game. It was only ever an idea, a concept, that existed as 95 hand-printed cards and two jpgs. It would NEVER have been printed without express written permission from CCP. Never. (Just to be clear, that is NEVER) The plan was to write someone for permission to get that process started while the game was being play-tested. That plan was exactly two weeks old when the email from CCP legal arrived. No one at CCP had returned an email or gotten in touch with me. Even though they have my phone number. Trust me, they've called me before. And Skyped. And Slacked. And Twittered. There are a million ways to contact me if you want.
I would also like to set the record straight that two employees of CCP are the ones that suggested this tactic in the first place. So this entire thing was a CCP idea. A few years back when I first suggested an Eve themed card game called "Blood of the Empires", which was back-burnered due to the upcoming Fountain War Kickstarter, that I should print up some test decks to bring to Fanfest. Which is a great idea! Drum up support, get people playing it, and see if it might be viable. Sounded good.
That's it. That is all there is to it. I can tell you that given what happened on Monday I would have cancelled plans for the Card Game regardless of this silly Cease and Desist letter. So the entire thing was a supreme waste of time. For them. For me it was a great learning experience and I had a blast play-testing the game last weekend down in Maryland with some of my Alliance friends.
I have other ideas for other card games and I may or may not do them some day. I also have books that need written, a couple of screenplays to finish, several comic book concepts, etc, etc. Ideas are not a problem, the problem is finding time to complete them.
It is obvious that someone on that side has a special purpose when it comes to me lately. I was blacklisted after Fanfest because of my justified criticism of the Store over on Crossing Zebras. Which is fine. I totally accept the fact that me speaking out about things I believe strongly in will have consequences. I'm cool with it. I also understand that such actions mean it is working. If it wasn't working who would care what I say? No one.
I'm not going to stop banging drums and expressing my opinions. I'm also not going to stop being super awesome and helping the community that I love. Not going to happen. And if sometimes that means pushing boundaries and causing trouble, then so be it.
I've been doing this for nine years here in the Eve community. But honestly, I've been doing that my entire life. The most amazing and wonderful moments in my career came about because I did what I thought was the right thing despite what other people told me to do. People who "know best" will always tell you to stop causing trouble, stop rocking the boat, quit being such a pain in the ass. And you know what, screw 'em.
I stood on a stage at Fanfest in 2015 and supported the idea that Eve was opening up to all of us. It was a dream I worked my ass off on for years leading up to that. It wasn't easy and I got two CnDs for my trouble leading up to that moment. It took two years of hard work to finally get to the point that CCP worked with me on the poster series. You might not remember that, but I do. I didn't do that for me, I did it for all of us. Especially the creatives among us. Heck, it was then that I set up the #Creatives channel on Tweetfleet Slack, which is still up and running today. I was happy to be the first, but I was extremely hopeful that I wouldn't be the last. For whatever reason CCP has decided to backslide since then and turn their back on that idea. I can't explain why they felt the need to cancel our agreement and yet continue to sell our posters for almost two years. I can't explain it. But I know it is wrong. And it is dumb. And it is bad business.
Even so, I can't help but remain hopeful. I'd love to work with them again and create something awesome. More importantly I'd just like to see more great projects happen, with me or without me. Either way works.
For further reading I suggest the following:
The Blood of the Empires Card Game (In which I talk about the FF strategy suggested by CCP)
The Eve Store Article on Crossing Zebras
My Eve Posters Go On Sale!
Fanfest 2015 - My presentation, roundtable and autograph session
More notes from Fanfest, Dinner with Seagull, lunch with Torfi, etc.
A Cease and Desist from 2013
Another one from 2015 for Drifter Wars
Eve Pirate Trading Cards (No Cease and Desist)
The Archives are deep and I could link articles all day, I highly recommend them. I've had nine years of adventures in Eve and I'm looking forward to the years to come. Who knows where all of this will lead?
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