What I’m Thankful For

Between botched CCP events and mechanics changes (and everyone can find something to complain about with every change), discussion about Eve in recent months has been filled with cries of “the end is nigh!”  With the American holiday of Thanksgiving happening today, it seems only fair I use this post to talk about the things in Eve that make it an experience to remember.

So here is a list of things I’m thankful for.

1. CCP Fozzie.  His work at ship balancing is generally insightful and well-considered.  Eve’s a better game for his efforts.
2. Ship Roles.  From the modules you use to the way you fly your ship, moving from an assault frigate to battleship is like playing an entirely different game.
3. Consequences. I played Lineage II for a few months, but deaths meant very little.  But in Eve, all the time spent fitting your ship, gathering the components, and traveling to your staging system could be lost in a moment.  And loss gives satisfaction.
4. Emergent gameplay.  Devs do as they will, but players continuously develop wasy to exploit an advantage.
5. Robust market.  Before playing Eve, I played a game called Federation, the chief feature of which was a very robust market trading system.  The game itself was text-based, but I joined Eve because of the player economy, which included not only “find loot, find buyer”, but also manufacturing and station trading.
6. Interdiction nullifier subsystems.  The safest way to travel.
7. Lazy ratters.  Local is overrated, amiright?
8. PLEX.  I haven’t paid for Eve in months, and probably never will again.
9. Tears.  There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as reading someone rage in local, for whatever the reason.
10. Damage Control II.  That little module saved me more times than I can count.
11. Overheating.  That little feature killed more people than I can count.
12. The in-game notepad.  I never need to count again, or remember anything.
13. FCs, Programmers, and diplomats.  From the app my alliance uses every day, to the people who have the time to dedicate to backroom deals to the people who lead our fleets, Eve is better because of you.
14. Dotlan.  Seriously, how did anyone survive before you?
15. Combatant counts on eve-kill listings.  At a glance, I can tell which fights were really good executions of strategy and which were just executions.
16. Razor Alliance.  You took me from a pilot of a mere 200 or so kills, added a couple titan kills, a whole lot of fleets, and a lot of friendships, leaving me the pilot I am today.  I appreciate your trolling of my losses, I appreciate your honest answers, and I appreciate the content you’ve generated over the years.  Well done, sirs, well done.
17. Water MEI.  She brightens up every fleet.
18. The bloggers who inspired me, both the brilliant and vapid.  I never thought I’d have enough to say, or anyone interested in hearing me say it.  But I found interest in the simplest things, and have improved my game and thinking because of all of you.
19. The gudfight.  I think I saw one once deep in a null-sec jungle.  But it could have been the solar wind.
20. And finally… the adrenaline rush from engaging an enemy, in any ship, in any situation, one on one.  You never know what’ll happen next, and there’s nothing quite like it.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks.  Eve is a frustrating, stupid, damnable, fantastic game, and I enjoy every minute of it.