If you read this post you might think I had a terrible time at Eve Vegas. I did not. Not entirely. And only for large chunks of the time. You might even get the idea that I was miserable. And you wouldn't be wrong. Not entirely. But mostly I wasn't. Hopefully you will read this and understand that my feelings about Eve Vegas are complicated. And I hope you won't judge me harshly for being honest. Or, at least, trying to be honest.
This was our first Eve Vegas. It was my wife's first time in Vegas ever. And it was only my second. Although I've been in the Vegas airport a dozen times or more. My first time on the strip was a drive up and down with a few stops along the way. So this was truly our first significant exposure to the city. And let me be brutally honest here, for two people who have struggled their entire lives with social anxiety and depression - Las Vegas is possibly the worst place in the world. It is loud, obnoxious, unending, unrelenting, bright, noisy, harsh, and weirdly cavernous. It is unrelentingly oppressive. And I won't even go down the financial, corporate, stupid-tax, side of gambling. Or worse. Suffice to say that Las Vegas is not our happy place.
Our first two days on the trip we left the city and went off to the country. Those two days were awesome. More about those in another post.
I'm glad to hear that the event will be moving from The Linq because that was like having an Eve meet in a cave for three days. There are no windows. And it is dark and oppressive. For anyone that bumped into me during those three days and found me sour, or surly, or dark, I sincerely apologize. Just know that I was expending a tremendous amount of personal energy trying to be normal. And I'd be the first to admit that I wasn't always successful. I know my Wife had the same problems. The consequences for that expenditure of energy was manifested physically in my knees. So, lucky me, I was also in some physical discomfort most of the time. (Feeling much better now.)
God that sounds awful doesn't it?
But it also wasn't. As always we enjoyed meeting up with our friends and having the opportunity to meet and make new friends. As always we missed running into people we would have liked to have bumped into, or else ran into them at bad times. I also know a lot of people are dealing with their own social anxieties and I do always try to be aware of that as well. We can be a hot mess the Eve community. So it's all good. If we missed you just know that we hope to run into you again at another event soon. And if you didn't manage to grab some swag, you have no one to blame but yourself. Liz and I were practically throwing it at people towards the end there.
Top Golf was a blast and we both really enjoyed that much more than we thought we would. I sucked so hard at first it was truly embarrassing. But, as always, I struggled on and by the end I was doing much, much better. I even managed to sink an air shot into the furthest white circle near the far end. So I was pretty proud of that. Even though, by then, no one was paying me any attention.
We also enjoyed Drai's more than we thought we would. Although that was a hard place to talk without yelling at each other. Enjoyable and always good to see Permaband in person.
For a low sec Pirate Lord there wasn't much about the event itself to get excited about. Almost all the new updates are for Null Sec. Although I always appreciate updated graphics and the new Stargate effects are insanely awesome. And we get some new ships, which is always good news.
I tend to seek out and hang with the art department, so it was great to have some time with CCP Burger. Awesome guy and while he is still relatively new in the position (since July), I am very encouraged by what I've heard. CCP has traditionally been very silo oriented and it is encouraging that they are trying to change that and get different departments working closer together. That should have long lasting and positive impacts across the board going forward.
I also spent some time with him on the new 3D Camera. And I am pleased to report that this thing works like magic. And while it won't launch as feature-rich as it could be, the groundwork is obviously there to expand the capabilities of the feature in the future. For someone like myself who has been asking for something like this for a decade, this is huge. It works. And it is beautiful. Look for a drastic increase in the quality of Eve cinematics in the near future. I know I'm going to be purchasing a 3D mouse.
I also finally had a chance to sit down and talk with CCP Salvo as well. And while the Imicus is next up on the update line, I tried to convince him that the Thorax should be next. He also agrees with that assessment and hopefully that will happen sooner rather than later. I also stressed that the entire Battlecruiser line-up needs updated, especially the Hurricane, Cyclone, Myrmidon, Harbinger and Drake models. The important thing with those ships is to maintain the current model while updating the look and texture of each. They just need some TLC and updated to look more modern.
The Eve store featured one item with a spaceship on it, which sold out. A t-shirt with a white Rifter. I honestly don't know how many more years it will take for CCP to savvy to the point here, but at least that is some progress. Put ships on things! Duh. Remember Incarna? We like spaceships, it is the entire point of the game.
Speaking of spaceships we had several 3D printed models in the charity auction this year. I wish I knew who provided them, but I don't. (Enough said about that.) But they were amazing and they sold, I believe for a combined $1,200 or so. Proving once again that we like spaceships. Duh.
I was proud to donate a print of mine to the auction as well. And while I had to handwrite an information card for it and it had no way of being displayed (the less said about this the better), it still managed to bring in $360 for charity. I promoted the crap out of it myself and the guy who bought it was extremely happy. As was I. All told we raised slightly over $15,000 for Able Gamers and I'm proud to have been a small part of that success. Always feels good.
I was also happy to hear that Toronto will be an official meet next year. I know those people have been working hard on that event for years and they deserve the recognition. I'm sure that we will be going next year, it is so close after all. Once I heard that, I figured we wouldn't win the Fanfest at Home contest. And sure enough it ended up going to those nudists in Finland. Well deserved.
I could complain about more things. Or I could just shut up about it.
We're already looking forward to Eve London in less than a month. That'll make FOUR Eve Player Events for us in 2018. Fanfest, Steel City Eve, Vegas, and London. I doubt we'll do that many again next year. But you never know what the future holds.
Whatever happens just know that I'll always be over here trying to shame CCP into a better store experience, better merch, better game play and more better graphics all around. In the end all I want is for Eve to be awesome. Just like we all do.
Now I'm just looking forward to logging in and blowing something up.
Yarrr!