Last night LeBron James broke Kareem's record for most points ever scored in the NBA, and while I haven't been a fan of the NBA for decades now, I can still appreciate something so monumental. It was a record that no one believed would ever be broken. Behind being simply a monster on the basketball court and a singular creature of talent, determination, and intelligence - LeBron's achievement was largely based on insane levels of consistency across twenty plus years of competition. It is an incredible record breaking career. No question. But it got me thinking about my own 14+ year career in Eve.
In 14 years of playing Eve I have four months in which I neither recorded a win or a loss in PvP. And while my activity levels inside the game have gone through four different cycles over that time period, I have largely remained consistent in my activity levels across that time. The four large cycles are defined by personal life changes obviously. From 2008 - 2012 I was busy running a large business and playing mainly on the weekends, or sometimes in the evenings. Those days I mainly followed my Son around New Eden and lived in Null Sec those first two years. Stay Frosty was founded in 2013 and that began the second cycle from 2013-2015. My business closed in 2012 and my personal life was going through some major changes during this time. I was doing a lot of work from home and also consulting work. As well as trying to establish Stay Frosty and grow the Alliance. Those were busy days in Eve. My first Fanfest was in 2015.
The third cycle ran from 2016-2018 and I refer to this time period as The Horror. No need to re-hash these years but they were the most challenging period of my entire life. I did not play much Eve during this time. At least compared to previous years. Everything suffered. It was not a pleasant time for anyone. If you want to hear more about this period, buy me a drink sometime.
And the last cycle started in 2019 and is still running. The Horror ended in 2018 and life returned to normalcy once again. Time to play, time to invest in the Corporation and Alliance, and time to focus on more important things in my own life.
These are not LeBron numbers here. I'm not fooling anyone. But 11,181 kills is also nothing to sneeze at either. That's an average of what? 64 kills a month? Or about 2 kills every day. Of course my goal has never been about racking up the numbers, but I do think after such a long time playing Eve you can take an honest look at the pure numbers and appreciate them for what they are. Not the most consistent. Not the largest, certainly. But, from another perspective, this is 14+ years we are talking about here.
And in that sense, it is something I'd like to take some measure of pride in. I'm never going to be the one with the most kills, or the highest scores, or the flashiest killboard - that isn't my game. My game is undocking every single day and engaging targets, stealing their loot, and laughing while I repair in a safe spot. And desperately trying to get better and better at what I enjoy the most about Eve - combat.
If I see anything in that chart above it is the increasing gap between kills and losses over time, and that is something that hopefully speaks to an overall improvement. I still lose a lot of ships because I take insane chances that do not always work out in my favor. I understand this. And I've proven before that I can turn that faucet off and on when I really want to. I've run those tests before and shared them here in these pages. But I don't enjoy those moments as much. I like taking chances. And pushing the edge. Taking on crazy odds, overcoming impossible situations. It feels great when it works and I always learn something when it doesn't. So that isn't going to change.
Plus it is, after all, just a game. And I prefer playing it like one.
I believe that attitude has served me well over the years. And while consistency might be LeBron's superpower - if I have one it is probably that - attitude. YARRR!