Yesterday was a weird day. Some days I can roam through 57 systems of Low Sec and barely find anything worthy of engaging. Other days, like yesterday, I can find opportunities only to watch them warp away at the last second. Or just slightly miss them. These are the types of frustrations that few people talk about. We spend a lot of time hyping up the big battles, the amazing kills, the genius traps - but Eve isn't just a game of incredible moments - it is mostly a game of insanely boring and frustrating emptiness. And anyone that tells you different is lying to you.
The trick, of course, is that those long stretches of quiet frustration are what make the moments of pure terror worth it. If Eve was nothing but high water moments we'd quickly get bored of it. Putting hours into roaming or planning or set-up is what gives Eve its unique power. It is not an easy game to love every single minute you are playing it, even for a long-term veteran like myself. There are many days when I finally log-off empty handed. And silently cursing the time I wasted. Only to do it all over again the next day.
Yesterday was a weird day. An hour and a half of frustration. Eventually I fitted up a new Astero and decided to go do some scouting up the pipe. I didn't have much longer to play and I hadn't been on this side of the neighborhood earlier, so I'd go see what was happening over there. A few jumps and I noticed the mining fleet on scan. Five Retrievers and a Porpoise on scan in a mining site. Not much I could do about that alone in my Astero, but I reported it in chat. Then I noticed the Venture running a cyno on the station. Now that I could deal with. But there were more people in local than I had on scan. So I figured there might be more going on than I could see. But essentially killing a cyno is pretty easy stuff. Uncloak, release drones, and then warp of when they engage, return, grab the drones, and finish the job. But then the Loki also uncloaked. By the time I returned they had taken my drones.
That's when Phoenix decided to come over and help with the mining fleet. So I warped in to get eyes on them and see where they were inside the site. All nicely clumped up. More than likely the Loki was also cloaked somewhere. Phoenix warped in directly to the site and managed to grab the Porpoise while the Retrievers ran off. I stayed cloaked waiting for the Loki to engage. Sure enough he uncloaked and started burning in on Phoenix's Sacrilege. So I burned in cloaked and got tackle on the Loki in my Astero. And then started using my web and remaining drones to chew down his drones. The Porpoise popped and we both started working on the Loki together. There were several moments when I thought I might lose the Astero, but I had a full complement of cap boosters so I was able to keep my reps running even under neut pressure.
It was only a manner of time before he also popped.
A great example of teamwork and another moment I'll remember for a long time. In my mind yesterday was just another example of why I keep playing this insane game. And why those long stretches of boredom, frustration, and emptiness are totally worth it. There is just nothing else like this. Moments when years of experience and skill come together in a perfect mix of opportunity and talent. When players on both sides are doing exactly what they should be doing and, in the end, you are the one that emerges victorious. There simply is no comparison to that feeling.
I'm an Eve junkie.