On September 21st, while I am in Iceland for Fanfest, Rixx Javix will become officially 15 years old. Yep, I've been playing Eve Online non-stop for 15 years now. Which isn't accurate. Non-stop is a weird word choice for me to use. Obviously I've had to stop playing for various reasons, like food, sleep, and other activities. While I have sometimes played for what seemed like days in a row, it certainly hasn't been non-stop since 2008. That would be silly. And no one reading this thought that - so why am I bringing it up?
It's natural to stop and reflect around anniversaries, I suspect that is just part of being human. Eve is celebrating its twenty year anniversary and I'm celebrating my own fifteen years in the game. My Son hit his own fifteen year anniversary yesterday and he has, quite literally, been playing Eve for half of his life. So yeah it has caused me to pause for a moment and reflect back over those years. Specifically on the question of time. I was in a different place when I downloaded Eve for the first time and created Rixx and a lot has changed for me personally, professionally, and in all other ways since that day.
Most of which I would never have imagined. Nor could I have. Most games up until that moment had been things you played, you finished or grew tired of, and then moved on to other games. And while many, many games have come and gone in the past fifteen years - Eve Online has remained. It took me two years to find my way in Eve. Those first two years were extremely casual for me. It wasn't until 2010 when I started writing Eveoganda that Eve really started coming alive for me. And even then, real life conspired to keep my play time at a very casual level. That all started to evolve and change with the creation of Stay Frosty in May 2010 and then A Band Apart alliance shortly afterwards. And then things really started kicking into gear in 2014 when I started working with CCP on the re-launch of the Eve Store. That project, which eventually grew into a partnership with CCP and QMx to sell my posters - opened up an entirely new world of possibilities. That was nine years ago.
Time. It just keeps flowing. A big reason I became a Pirate in the first place was because of time. Null Sec is a very time intensive play-style, especially if you are also involved in the leadership of corporations and alliances. Time I just didn't have. Low Sec was a welcome reprieve from those demands, even though I went and created even more demands by establishing Stay Frosty and ABA. We never learn do we? But time often drives decisions. Decisions about the CSM, or taking a break from the Alliance Tournament, or any number of other issues.
My own time to actually play the game has changed and evolved over the years. From weekends only, to evenings only, to weird end-of-day time jumps that I can consistently count on and work around. Time has its own dictates and we are wise to acknowledge them and deal with them as best we can. I couldn't have imagined back in 2008 that I would end up playing a single game for the next fifteen years. That I would travel all over the world and make friends in every corner of the globe. That I would work in gaming, not only with CCP, but with other companies as well. And I certainly would never have imagined that it would become impossible to imagine ever NOT playing Eve Online.
I can't even imagine actually stopping. And that might be the biggest revelation of them all.
Of course, one day time will solve that one for me as well. But until then, we fly on.