EVE Blog Banter 16 - What Have You Got To Lose?

Welcome to the sixteenth installment of the EVE Blog Banter, the monthly EVE Online blogging extravaganza created by CrazyKinux. The EVE Blog Banter involves an enthusiastic group of gaming bloggers, a common topic within the realm of EVE Online, and a week to post articles pertaining to the said topic. The resulting articles can either be short or quite extensive, either funny or dead serious, but are always a great fun to read! Any questions about the EVE Blog Banter should be directed to crazykinux@gmail.com. Check out other EVE Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

The third Blog Banter of 2010 comes to us from ChainTrap of the Into the unknown with gun and camera EVE Blog. He asks us: “Eve University turns six years old on March 15th; six years spent helping the new pilots of New Eden gain experience and understanding in a supportive environment. Eve is clearly a complicated game, with a ton to learn, so much that you never stop learning. So, the question is; What do you wish that someone had taken the time to tell you when you were first starting out? Or what have you learned in the interim that you’d like to share with the wider Eve community?”

My first attempt at this Blog Banter business, and the topic seems quite fitting, given my recent return to EVE and the new approach that I'm adopting (or trying to, at least!).

In the good old days, I mostly sat in station, spinning my ships. The corp is running a mining op? I'll sit in station. The corp is running some missions to get standings up? Yeah, I think I'll sit in the station. Wait, we're moving to null-sec? Okay, I'll... sit in the station. The corp is having great fun in null-sec? Yeah, well these Level 1 missions are really important. And now I'm going to sit in the station.

I think you get the idea. Basically, I wanted to do all those things, but I was worried that I was too much of a noob, didn't know enough or didn't have the skills to contribute. So I ended up doing only what I was comfortable doing, watching all the new recruits with much younger characters than mine hop into a Rifter and head to null-sec to join the fun. Eventually the game got stale for me and naturally, I quit. Why didn't I just get involved?

What did I have to lose? A bit of ISK, perhaps a bit of pride?
What did I actually lose? A whole load of time, and I missed out on a whole load of fun.

So, fast-forward to the present day, and I'm attempting to put that approach behind me. This game is there to be played, and there are a number of ways to play it. But to do any of them well, you have to get involved. Join a corp, ask stupid questions, get blown up, get podded, lose some ISK. have some fun, have some banter and know that you're getting the most out of this awesome game. I fully intend to learn from my mistakes above, and hope to get out there and enjoy things a little more.

So, new players out there that might be sitting in station when an opportunity arises, ask yourself... what have I got to lose?

Fly safe folks, and when you pod me after blowing up my laser-fitted, hull-tanking Dominix, give me a 'GF!' in local whilst I wake up in a station with a warm, fuzzy feeling that at least I tried.

Other participants in this month's banter:

• Yarrbear Tales
• Rantuket
• Hands Off, My Loots
• A Merry Life and a Short One
• A Mule In EVE
• The Planet Risk Show
• Zero Kelvin
• EVE Opportunist
• Diary of a Space Jockey
• EVOGANDA
• Into the Unknown With Gun and Camera
• A Memoir From Space
• Death’s Sweetest Kiss
• Prano’s Journey
• Freebooted
• Learning to Fly
• Caldari Outcast
• Autopilot Disabled
• Finders & Keepers
• Kirith Darkblade – EvE Pirate
• Facepalm’s Ramblings
• Nullsec Carebear
• Roc’s Ramblings
• Flashfresh – A Pirate
• The Clan Oriana
• I am Keith Neilson
  
  More to follow...