Intangible Stepping Stones

I wonder how people can play a game like Eve and cling so tightly to a one dimensional picture. I understand lack of interest more than outright rejection. It may be a reflection of the constant goal of defining the game that consumes some players.  But it is hard to define what is important to each person. Milestones can be big or small and sometimes to personal to share even while deeply celebrated.

As I write this post, I'm sitting upon a personal milestone. It is one of great importance to me. I worked hard for it. I feel that I earned it. And for some it is nothing and for others it is incomprehensible. But, if I let myself and what I enjoyed be defined by others, I'd sit in endless frustration. I learned that lesson the hard it.

The Fluffy Stuff:

It seems that it takes many words for me to say that I purchased my jump freighter. Yet, when I looked at my account and realized that I had reached the goal point I wanted to reach when I hit buy and I stared at the prices and made my decision to buy.. I was overwhelmed by a deep thrill of accomplishment.  The goal was not just to buy the jump freighter. I have had the ISK to do that for a long time. The goal was to buy the jump freighter without dropping below my personal liquid ISK minimum level which happens to be five billion ISK.

Why five billion liquid? I could use that to do other things! Or make ISK?

Well... I may run a market but I have never claimed to be a high roller who makes ISK turn into ISK. My ISK accumulation takes some focused effort on my part. I like to have a pool of liquid to engage in projects. Things like my RawrCat Doctrine are products of my current liquid wealth. The same when I went into the booster business and the same when I created TCS. The pool of ISK is a font of future bursts of productivity as well as general maintenance for myself.

I also like having ISK. I like it. I like seeing the numbers in my wallet. It makes me happy.

Milestone stuff is important. It gives substance to the intangible sandbox. For some it may be kills and rankings but for me it tends to be those little personal accomplishments that I stared at as a newbie. I remember seeing my first jump freighters leaping into the distance. I remember when I learned how expensive they were. I stared at the price of the necessary skill books and I swallowed the horror at the length of time as I plugged in the skills.

A lot of people get jump freighters and find they will never need them. I'm someone who can use a jump freighter every day. I have been using them multiple times a week since April and for that I have a lot of people to say thank you to. That is the funny part of personal goals. They sometime can't be achieved without other people. Vov for making my project his project. Corwin, Wex, and Uber for letting me borrow Jump Freighters with a scary casualness if one is fixated on trust issues and ISK costs. Its the encouragement the boys gave by buying from the store and trusting that I wasn't screwing them over.

It may make me a scrub or whatever other derogatory term some use that I have had assistance and support in the tasks that I have taken on. But, there is something similarly fantastic in being able to say that I accomplished these things with help. Because that help is what keeps me here. It fuels my game play. It fuels the blog. And on the dawn of an accomplishment I find myself wrapped in a soft, pensive pleasure that people helped me to get to where I am as much as I helped myself.

So often do we say, "play Eve with people," but really it should be tempered with, "play it with a good group of people." Good is subjective to the individual. It is whatever motivates you and that you enjoy or maybe even hate if that is where the motivation comes from.

The technical stuff:

I chose a Rhea. Freighters are basically the same. They are slow. They carry a lot of stuff. They are expensive. Past that the stats roll around to a few areas such as tank and agility. At the end of the day you are going to be ganked. However, some ships are more gankable then others. The Charon carries the most and for that it is made of paper and slow like a boulder sitting still. I decided that I will move to a Providence for the increase in tank and agility. I never fill my Charon to capacity except the occasional mineral build and when that happens I still need two trips.

Jump Freighters are more better expensive versions of their freighter kin. The Rhea is big and that is why I chose it over the Ark. At the end of the day if I am caught in low sec I am going to be screwed. In high sec I do not fly my Jump Freighter around giggling and licking my fingers. That is what my freighter is for. Being a member of a culture with ganking creates a perspective on destroying stuff just because it is shiny and some people gank Jump Freighters just because they are there.

And the future:

Last night turned into an unexpectedly productive weekend with my finishing Large Lasers and buying my Jump Freighter. I suspect Sugar is going to spend a few months topping off a few skills and finishing off some random prerequisite to do some of the projects 7-2 cooks up for itself. I have a market project that I need to sit down and develop fully and Eve Vegas coming up in less then a month.

My Eve future looks rather full and interesting with low chances of bitter on the horizon.

Unless they do bad things to the Jaguar with the winter Expansion...