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?

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.

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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.

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/

It's a woman's world (they just don't know it yet!)

CraxyKinux has at last announced the latest blog banter, and it's all about the chicks! The Eve Blog Banter Special: The Ladies of New Eden.

What could CCP Games do to attract and maintain a higher percentage of women to the game. Will Incarna do the trick? Can anything else be done in the mean time? Can we the players do our part to share the game we love with our counterparts, with our sisters or daughters, with the Ladies in our lives? What could be added to the game to make it more attractive to them? Should anything be changed? Is the game at fault, or its player base to blame?


So, how to get women into Eve? Well as far as the game itself goes certainly no changes are in order.

If you strip away the obvious first impression image of Eve being a space ship pewpew game and start to look under the surface you will see that it is SOO much more than that. Eve has a breadth and depth of possibility that far outweighs the game play available any other MMO or online game I have encountered (and I have seen quite a few).

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Skeletons in the hanger

Whilst cruising the blogosphere of late I have come across the "What's in your hanger" post pretty much everywhere but I'm not sure where it started out. I have a feeling it was on the delightful Eveoganda, but if the credit is wrong my apologies (and feel free to correct me).

I thought this was a fun light hearted topic and as I am in need of some light hearted typing this evening I decided to respond.

As a mature young lady, responsible parent, dedicated partner, experienced Eve player and dependable SOTF Director I feel I should apologise now before I share the content of my ship hanger. It's not the ships that are the problem, I feel that I fly what is right for my playstyle, player skill and environment. However my ship naming... well it does rather lend itself to the playground.

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All's fair in love and war

April is my favourite month of the year. The last threat of frost is over and the chill of winter replaced with fresh yet warm mid-spring air. The birds outside are “at it” like drunken Romans and everything seems to be growing. The world has gone green and suddenly feels like a much brighter place to be.

This month marks 2 special real-life occasions in my personal calendar. Firstly my birthday (feel free to send gifts to top station Villore) and secondly the anniversary of the day I first met my other half.

Rash (short for Rashmika Clavain, as he is known in-game) and I had our first date 5 years ago this month. We actually "met" about 2 years before-hand, in the mmo Star Wars Galaxies. Since then we have played several online games together including the one that stuck, Eve Online. The arrival of our wonderful daughter 3 years ago had a rather devastating side effect on our social lives, but Eve was a hobby we could both enjoy together at home and without the need for a babysitter. Thus our addiction grew.

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