Today is not only Eve Online's 21st Birthday, but also the 11th Birthday of Stay Frosty. This was not done on purpose, but it does make it easier to remember each one's bday. No question about that. So happy birthday to Eve Online and happy birthday to your friendly neighborhood pirates!
In the early days of Stay Frosty I would often sit down at my desk and pound out yet another post filled with grand statements and proclamations regarding our little band of proud pilots. Call it propaganda, call it marketing, call it whatever words you'd like - but back then I was simply trying to keep it alive and thriving. Those early days were rough as we fought to secure our place among an entire forest of already well-established groups around the neighborhood. Many of whom had long and well-established legacies of their own to fall back on. It was a challenge to stand out from the crowd and generate interest in a new group back in those days. But it worked.
It often worked too well. We grew to insane numbers in the early days and we learned many valuable lessons back then. Or at least, I did. I learned that 300+ members are impossible to keep happy in the environment we choose to play in. I learned that even the most trusted allies, pilots, and friends can turn on you in an instant. And I learned that the most important thing about leadership is being consistent and staying true to the mission. No matter what. Stay true to yourself.
Over the past 11 years thousands of pilots have spent time in Stay Frosty. And we continue to welcome new members to the group. We still have players who have been here since the beginning and players who just joined us this week. Around the universe you can find players with Stay Frosty in their history running other corporations and alliances in far away corners. And I will always think of them all as family. As we often say in our group, once a Stay Frosty pilot - always a Stay Frosty pilot.
We've managed to weather many storms over the years. And frankly, many storms of my own making. Like an 18 month stretch there when I wasn't playing very much because of real life work and my Directors essentially kept us going. We've survived low sec being boring, low sec being run by huge super capital groups, low sec being ignored, and low sec being swarmed by faction warfare. We've survived the Deathless. Wars. Threats. Harassment. Warnings. The proliferation of structures and the death of structures. We've survived thieves and spies. We've survived players with big mouths saying things they shouldn't have said in local. We've survived them all and more. After all, those events - the positive and the negative - are all part of the tapestry of the past eleven years.
It's easy to get nostalgic and it can be fun to think about all the things you've been through over the years. But I tend to always look forward and focus on what remains to be achieved. Stay Frosty has never been stronger than we are right now. We've never been a better team of players than we are right now. We work together more than we ever have before. Our roams are epic and so much fun. I can't wait for each week to roll around so we can get together and do it again. We're having a blast. And it has been this way for almost two years now. And I hope it continues well into the future.
Because we are going to need that. That forest of pirate groups I mentioned being up against back in the early days? They are all gone now. Gone or moved into another play-style, or diminished, or faded away, or folded, or simply vanished into the dust of time. Outside of a militia, we may very well be the last old-fashioned pirate group left standing. And that is a concern.
We continue to face new challenges. And we will do what we have always done. Face them with humor, with smiles, with Frigates, and laugh all the way into the explosion. And then do it all again.
Stay Frosty my friends. And happy birthday.