Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Blizzard morning

No, I'm not talking about World of Warcraft. And I'm not talking about Diablo III either, though I can't wait to get some news about this. I'm talking about the massive storm that hit most of North America and that is now dumping its load of white stuff on Montreal, mostly horizontally. Yeah, it's been a shitty walk to work this morning. Can I haz a taun-taun?

As Letrange pointed out in his last blog post, last Sunday we got a small RRBS gang to give a shot at the Sansha incursions. And also as he noted, this hit the limit of my patience when it comes to all things PvE in EVE. You see, if I do any sort of PvE it's because I have to more than I want to. ISK is needed in order to buy ships, mods, ammo, etc., and because I have no interest in all things industrial my choices are limited. And no, I don't have the luxury of being able to buy GTCs for ISK; I would if I could.

Exploration can be fun but you have to fly around a lot in order to get even slightly lucky, and with the better sites being in dangerous space doing PvE is basically asking for a gang-rape. Missions are boring and repetitive as hell but at least it keeps ISK rolling in. But yeah, you can only save the damsel so many times before getting sick of her, and if your agent goes into "courrier" mode because you refused some Faction Navy mission, things can get boring real quick as you have to haul around miners, garbage, scientists and exotic dancers. W-space sleeper sites, while they can be great fun and challenging (not to mention lucrative) require that one lives in a POS that needs a regular logistical train. But once the sleepers are dead things can go quiet quick, too quick for my taste. And now the incursions, where a small RRBS gang is overkill for the smallest sites, and way underpowered for only the next step up. And you're not even sure IF you've going to make ISK if there's competition out in space. And this is where my already short PvE patience fuse ends.

If there's one thing that's absolutely needed to get anywhere in EVE it's patience. Patience to wait for big skills to train up. Patience to make all the calculations needed to maximize productivity and profit. Patience to scan every cosmic signature in order to find the proverbial needle in the hay stack. Patience to hunt just the right target to maximize challenge and/or tears. Patience to lead a gang firmly but calmly. And patience to deal with all the curve balls this humongous game can throw. As the long-time twitch gamer that I am, patience is something that I know about more than something I use in every gaming session. The patience needed to learn a Quake map, learn a race track or fly a particular aircraft is nothing compared to the vast patience needed to populate the regular EVE session. Well, to me at least.

So where does that leave me in EVE? Frankly, I don't know. I have told my corpmates and fleetmates that as of last Sunday I will retire from PvE, but I realise that I will need ISK if I want to do the PvP lifestyle. I will keep from joining PvE gangs though because the last thing I want is to sour the gaming experience of corpmates, fleetmates, and ultimately friends. I do wish them luck in their endeavour because I know they will go at it again (I think). And as for my future in-game projects, I will have to do some deep thinking because lately with the fail wars and fail ops I've been less inclined to click the little "E" icon in my quick launch bar. Maybe losing a BC or two in glorious balls of fire will fix this. We shall see.

Fly because you want to

o7

2 comments:

bishopgwa said...

It's crazy how one's point of view can alter one's outlook on their own views/and opinions. Your back and fourth on your personal view of PvE vs. PVP.....pros vs. cons...personal satisfaction vs. utter boredom....even taking RL into account. I am by many aspects of eve a noob...but I feel I'm on the "other side of the looking glass"....PvE(mostly solo) is and has been up to this point 99% of my experience and I consider myself a pro in such (not talking low/null sec as that should be considered PvP in my book as you mentioned that anything worth flying in low sec will certainly have ambushes lying in wait). I have found my own niche in the market selling Faction mods at a nice profit....not ungodly amounts of isk....but enough to fit a few specialized and respectable ships/loadouts able to tank and blitz any lvl4 solo in my sleep thus making it inevitable that in time one begins to ask them-self whats the next step...how to break the boredom...break the same monotony the cycle.....

bishopgwa
(ganaway)

Benoit CozmikR5 Gauthier said...

Yeah I also have a cute trade alt to do the buy low/sell high thing. But kinda like in RL I suck with money (ask Let!) but I do my best and generate enough money to help with some purchases. But not at a HAC level or more. It does take some time off of the real game, but at least It's effortless.