If you follow the Eve discourse on Reddit, X, Discord, or anywhere else that players and former players gather you'd think that everyone hates this game. It has been a gathering storm since the very, very beginning. But the vast majority of players do not actually hate Eve Online. In fact, we love this dumb game. We talk about it endlessly, travel to Iceland to talk about it endlessly together, set-up player meets around the world, share art, stories, blog posts, streams, and videos about it.
Is it perfect? Never. Nope. It isn't. And it never will be. It hasn't been perfect for the past 22 years and it won't be anytime soon. Is it frustrating? Often yes. Is it annoying? Of course. But, and here is the truth, we love it because of those flaws as much as we love it when it works. And, it mostly works. Most of the time. But being annoyed or frustrated is a huge part of being an Eve player and I don't think we'd like it as much if - heaven forbid - it was ever perfect. Perfect games get boring. Real fast.
When I started playing Eve in 2008 I often died because I was stuck on a rock and couldn't move. I once lost half my fleet because they were mysteriously transported 12 jumps away after we jumped through a gate. You could undock and multiple copies of your ship would undock with you. Often your pod would be located outside of your ship. My own struggles with the Mac version of Eve are legendary. I estimate that about 7-10% of my losses are either because of those Mac issues, or the fact that I live with a country cable internet connection several clicks removed from the servers. Just last week I landed on a station, without any flags, and couldn't dock. Lost a Mekubal because of it. It isn't unusual for my connection to not be connected. I could go on. And on. It doesn't always work. But that is part of the fun.
But most of the time it works gloriously. And I love flying with my friends. I kept playing Eve because it was hard, challenging, frustrating, and famously steep to learn. I passed 10,000 hours years ago and just decided to keep going. I often make up hardships for myself, just to keep things interesting. And I love it. I do not believe that any of this is shocking to anyone who has read this blog over the years.
Happy Valentine's Day Eve.
We love ya.