300: My Fellow Bloggers

Despite what you may think, even the most verbose person has a hard time producing material on a regular interval. Everyone can write one or two coherent pieces; the challenge is in forming your thoughts consistently, both during boom times and droughts.

A lot of magazines and newspapers expect a writer to produce a piece every month for feature columns. For feature articles, it can sometimes be every couple months. TheMittani.com expects writers to produce every two weeks.  That’s a robust and difficult schedule to maintain, and it quickly separates dedicated writers from casuals.

Now, try writing 1500-2000 words every two or three days (and for some of my posts, that’s a bit on the conservative side!).  I’ve tried very hard not to include too many “filler” posts – I want readers to be able to leave with some piece of knowledge they might not have had before visiting. I can count perhaps a handful of posts that haven’t had this goal. No one’s perfect!

Writing a blog about a hobby – in particular – is a surprisingly demanding and difficult thing, because the same itch that makes me log in and play is what fuels my writing. That chunk of time dedicated to Eve gets split a couple ways. It’s a balancing act; playing gives me things to write about, but writing makes sense of my playing in a way that enriches the experience.

For Post 100, I recapped the highlights of my first 100 articles. Post 200 was a thank-you to all of my readers for commenting, sharing their opinions, and making the blog truly interactive.  Both of those were fun at the time, but to the right you can see a list of all my articles broken down by month (on a PC), and the “thank-you” isn’t something that should be contained to once every hundred posts. I sincerely thank every one of you. You keep me honest and sane, and you make up a part of the Eve community I’ve grown to respect and appreciate.

Rather, for this milestone, I wanted to talk a little about another aspect of the community I appreciate: the other bloggers I read on a regular basis. These folks all post regularly, present unique perspectives, and enrich my experience with the game. They wield true power, because they have the means of helping each of us make sense of what happens around us. So here’s my must-reads.

This list isn’t comprehensive, and I read a lot of other blogs than those I mention. But, I do want to give special mention to those blogs who I believe readers can learn something from – either through the direct words or the infectiousness of the passion within the words written.

Zosius, Cloaky Bastard (http://cloakybastard.blogspot.com/). Zosius is a patient, intelligent solo PvPer (well, he’s the only human, even if he has four or five accounts) that has an incredibly good sense about the flow and tempo about PvP. His blog is a series of chronicles about his PvP engagements, and he posts quite frequently. Making decisions on the fly while PvPing is hard, and Zosius demonstrates not only the ability to dissect his decisions, but also the evidence of the one true way to make them natural: practice.

Rixx Javix, Evoganda (http://eveoganda.blogspot.com/). What can I say? I love Rixx. He lives and breathes Eve and has a passion for the game, the aesthetic, and the community that makes him a powerful member of the blogging community. Rixx is also working on an Eve meet-up in Pittsburgh, my old hometown, the details for which I’m eagerly awaiting!

Eve Hermit, Eve Hermit (https://evehermit.wordpress.com/ ). I love Eve Hermit, which is a bit surprising to those who know me. I’m a huge advocate of MMO’ing it up in an MMO, and EH tends to play a more solo game. But while that difference does provide me with a different insight than my usual one, what draws me to his articles is the sense of exploration and search for understanding about everything in this insane game. We could all do to share his attitude!

Kirith Kodachi, Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah (http://www.ninveah.com/). Even though I always want to pronounce it “Nin-eh-vuh” like the ancient city, I love reading his blog.  Kirith is the Bartholomew Roberts of Eve; a filthy pirate with the most articulate writing and “in the trenches” perspective.

NoizyGamer, The Nosy Gamer (http://nosygamer.blogspot.com/). With my focus being on PvP, that leaves a lot of other territory, and NG picks up so much of it. From his regular reviews of isk sellers and the business of running Eve to his coverage of some of the community happenings, NG is THE place to go for insightful, well-researched news and insights about Eve; rarely am I disappointed when I visit, and his pages are not filled with dribbling ramblings or fits of pique.

Drackarn, Sand, Cider, and Spaceships (http://sandciderandspaceships.blogspot.com/). Long before I thought about starting up a blog, I read a number of Eve blogs including Rixx’s, Ripard Teg’s, and this one. I remember searching for Eve blogs, coming across a Thrasher in the desert, and was hooked. Yes, there are the guides and his fiction – both which are great. But then there are his posts about his experiences in New Eden, particularly the new perspective as he changed corps to join Rixx’s Stay Frosty.  Always an enjoyable read.  Oh, and don't forget about the those blog banters (sorry about that, Drackarn!).

There are plenty of others, of course, and not being included doesn’t mean I don’t read and enjoy them. These ones immediately came to mind, though, and show up most frequently in my blog roll. If you have a regular set you read, these should be on it! You could do worse than to add all of them to your favorites bar right now.

One voice is a sound. A hundred is a torrent. We’re fortunate to have so many Eve bloggers who demonstrate skill, passion, and dedication to this crazy game we play. Visit them; you may find that they shed some light on the game that changes your own perceptions of it.