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Over the past two weeks as I approached my 2,000th loss in Eve I started playing a dangerous game. I knew the milestone would come, one way or another, so I decided to lean into it and really go crazy with the engagements I started taking. This "trial" approach was like regular me on boost mode. Over that time I went 49-24 in fights which isn't horrible, but I also noticed a funny thing happening. As the 2,000th loss came closer and closer my record became worse and worse. In the last four days it was 10-9 for example.
This fits my long-time assertion that Eve is somewhat dependent on your mood in real life. Over the eleven years I've played I've noticed that my real life situation impacts my success in-game more than you would think. I can look back and find direct correlation between in-game downtrends and moments of depression, or legal turmoil, in my real life. The 2,000th loss became something I actually thought about, it started becoming a thing. And in my business, having a "thing" is not good. This is why most PvPers will tell you they don't care about kill-boards, because they can't. The moment you start thinking about them, or paying attention to them, it impacts your choices in-game. And that is never good.
So I'm glad that is finally over.
I had a good fight I want to mention without mentioning anyone's name. I had fitted up a ship with a new fit I wanted to try out and found this ship sitting in a Plex. As I mentioned it was a good fight and very close, I was just a few cycles away from toasting my reppers when it was all over. The details don't matter, it is just one of 10,000+ fights and yet it stands out because of what happened next. We spoke in local and I tried to encourage the pilot, as I often do. And then five or ten minutes later my inbox bleeps with a new mail.
"Greetings. I won't go on and on, and you don't have to reply to this message, but you are a bit "internet famous" with respect to this game, and when I saw you appear I was 99.9% sure that I was going to get probably the fairest fight possible in EVE. And it was. Thank you for not blobbing me. Thank you for for possibly the best 30 seconds of EVE I'm likely to get."
Y'know, it is moments like this that keep me playing this game. Back when I first started playing I wasn't that interested in Eve at first, sure it looked great and it was fun flying spaceships around, but it wasn't until I realized that real human beings were on the other side of those ships that Eve really came alive for me. And over the years it has certainly been the main reason I keep playing this crazy game. People. Often it is easy to forget those that are on the other side of the screen, especially those we explode. I try never to take them for granted, but even I can get caught up in the action, the speed, the thrill, and everything else that is going on around me.
Thank you for writing that and for sending it along. Even us "internet famous" people need a word of encouragement from time to time and I sincerely appreciate your words. Sincerely.
I did write back by the way.