Friday 28 May 2010

May musings (and moanings)

A few musings from the past 4 weeks...

Saturday 22 May 2010

X up for Pac Man! (OOG)

Ok, yes this is an out of game post, but I just had to share.

Now quickly. Go set up your afk mining alt and head over to Google... for a game of Pac-Man!

At the time of writing this post Google's logo has been changed into a Pac-Man screen to celebrate the game's 30th birthday.

Saturday 15 May 2010

A salute to The 8th.

I was very sad to hear that Gallente FW corp The 8th Order are to disband.

BacardiDesire, founder and CEO of The 8th, was one of the few people who would step-up and FC fleets when all others started to leave or close ranks. This was during a pretty difficult period on the Gallente side of FW, I think around 14 months ago now, which was made all the more challenging when several ex-alliance corps descended on FW and thus we found ourselves rather out blobbed by heavy pirate presence throughout Black Rise.

Much has been said about Bacardi and everyone who knows of him seems to have some sort of opinion. Personally, I always remember those difficult times and the struggle to find someone to lead us to death and glory. Bacardi's fleets were a lifeline for people like me back then and I always admired him for having the balls to step up when no one else would.

Bacardi went on to create his own corp, The 8th Order. It seemed clear he wanted a politics and drama free environment for small/medium gang warfare, and that is what 8th became all about.


8th has always been quite an independent corp. They did their own thing but still remained approachable and very much a part of the militia. They also served with the Minmatar militia for a time but I would guess are best known for being one of the most familiar faces on the Gallente side of the fence.
I am sad to see them end their chapter in the ongoing saga of Faction War.

To BD, and my other friends in The 8th, I salute thee. Good luck for the future and fly safe o/




Tuesday 11 May 2010

What's in a name?

I am curious about how people chose their Eve character name. Was it a random choice or did you name yourself after something more meaningful? Was it a humour induced decision or does your name have role-play or practical purposes? Does having a certain name in Eve make a difference to ones play style? Would you change the name of your main character if you could?

For me, Eelis Kiy was originally a slightly random choice. When I started my first online game, Star Wars Galaxies back in 2003, I found myself trying to pick something suitable to call my newly created Zabrack. I wanted something tomboy-ish so tried "Ellis" then "Elis" but neither was available. Impatient to get stuck into the game I shoved an extra E on the front there was "Eelis".

The surname was originally chucked out of the generator looking something like KIYLANDROSTONLY or some such nonsense. I liked the sounding of "Kiy" so simply chopped the end off. Huzzah, Eelis Kiy was born, forever to be wrongly pronounced "ee-lease" or affectionately changed to "eeleee" and invoking images of something wet and slimy.

Many people got to know me as Eelis after 3 years of SWG so I started to use the name everywhere else on the internet. Forums, browser games, other mmos and even offline games. It's truly become my "tag" or alter ego. Of course when I first created the character I hadn't realised that Eelis IS actually a real name for guys in Finland.

If I could go back to my Eve Character creation I would be sorely tempted to change my name strictly for pvp purposes. E is quite high up the alphabet list which can mean I am out of the fight whilst my f - z comrades continue to enjoy the fight. Then there is the thought of an enemy FC calling me out over coms with something more amusing, say perhaps PRIMARY IS... SECONDARY or PRIMARY IS AFKWIFEAGRO. Hindsight is a wonderful thing eh. Perhaps one day I will roll some specialised pvp alts and go down this route.

But after so many years with it I do feel quite attached to Eelis. The loveliest part about keeping the same name has been the odd random convo in Eve, from people who recognised the name from my SWG server. This has happened a few times now and one old SWG comrade actually flew with my previous Eve corp for a while after randomly noticing me local one day. I guess even the interwebs can prove to be a small world.

So, how did you pick yours?

Sunday 9 May 2010

A return to the field

Last night saw my return to space and oh what a night to rejoin the foray!

I hopped into my long-point Ares and joined a "BC and below" fleet part-way through the evening which was being run by an FC from Evil Doers. I tend to err on the side of caution with an FC I've not flown with before but was soon impressed with how calm and tidy things were. In particular there was clear definition between the designated scouts and the rest of the tackle which was a nice touch for me, feeling slightly out of my depth after almost 3 weeks docked up and thus clinging to the main fleet like lump of snot.

We had a little roam around Black Rise trying to track down a small fleet of Caldari war targets who were giving us quite the run-around. Time and again we moved to cut them off only to have them slip through the net, cue the Benny Hill music.

Wednesday 5 May 2010

CSM voting begins; Not sure who to vote for?

CSM voting has now begun.

If you are struggling to find the right candidate for your votes then take a look at Vote Match. Created by Dierdra Vaal it has been designed to help you match your own views with the views of the candidates.

I'd stress looking deeper into the campaign material of your potential candidate but it is certainly an excellent little tool for getting a quick first look at who is following your own train of thought, and of course who is not.

Saturday 1 May 2010

Alive... just

Yes I am still alive, but not in space at the moment. Have been knocked out by some awful virus which has left me firmly grounded in my Nisuwa quarters. Staring at a screen for longer than 20mins currently induces eye-bleed and headaches, which makes pvp somewhat difficult and so a lack of eve-ing = a lack of blogging.

In my absence I have been pottering around with 2 guides
which I hope to have up in the not too distant future. One is a big fat guide on Factional Warfare and the other is about recruitment and based on my own experiences with doing this in Eve, so watch this space.

Also I thought it prudent to mention the CSM candidates
and nag anyone reading this to make sure they vote. Personally I think a low-sec pvp focus will probably get my vote this year (having wasted my votes in the past by backing FW specific candidates).

I am also quite looking forward to the results of the Ladies of New Eden Blog Banter competition. There were an incredible number of entries including many new bloggers and the number of prizes has been increased too! I'm keen to see if CCP pay attention to any of the suggestions that came up, especially on the subject of mini-games which is something I agree could add a lot more depth to the game for women and no doubt the guys too.

But for now... it's back to bed I go *sniff*

o/