I came up with this title "scared shipless" yesterday while roaming the vast wastelands of low security space and watching as countless local inhabitants ran for the hills and docked up when I enter local. This is my daily reality these days. My daily routine is pretty much unchanged. During the week I roam in a variety of ships, usually in one of our solo together fleets. And then on Saturday we all gang up together and I FC one of my Flying Circus Fleets. My weekly excursions are both intel gathering and opportunity based. We're all out hustling to score some solid good fights and maybe get involved in a truly epic fight. This is why we play.
Not that long ago there were others like us out there in the space lanes. Other pilots in other groups that also wanted to score good fights and sometimes be involved in something epic. Often we'd cross paths and test our mettle against each other. These were, in many ways, the glory days of low security space. And while low sec has evolved and changed over the years, these types of groups and players have rapidly vanished. Significantly vanished. And while remnants of some remain, there are less and less every day.
Many of those that once roamed have moved on, or joined factions, or vanished into the ether of real life. This happens. But there doesn't seem to be a new generation coming up to replace them. If anything, more and more groups seem to have adapted the more popular mantra descended from those in other areas of space - the group mentality of fleet actions and F1 monkeys. Safety in numbers. Hot-drops. Gate camps. Huddled plexing. Massive protections. Hugging citadels. And bling infested bait switching tactics. All of which are valid game play options. Of course they are. But where are the intrepid pilots looking to test their mettle one on one?
I run the danger, writing these words, of coming across as a bitter veteran. I'm not. And that isn't my goal. There are still those in space who want to fight. But they have become much rarer these days. More than likely this is all just another cycle in the long history of cycles in Eve's history. Maybe that new generation of pirates and solo advocates are busy right now training up their skills and bidding their time. Maybe the newest pirate group CEO is becoming tired of the same old null sec bullshit I once grew tired of - and soon will be planting their flag in low sec. Maybe the new Brave is only a few days away from forming up in some low sec corner of space. Or the new Tuskers. Maybe. I hope so.
Until then Stay Frosty will keep the torch lit. Us and the few remaining others who still see a ship on scan and race to engage - instead of race to dock. Those of us who aren't scared shipless of pixels in space.
Pirates Forever.