Indeed much has come to pass in the meantime.
Old enemies are gone, new have arisen, and even planets are now being harvested.
Small and big alliances alike still have their moments of glory and retire or failcascade at the end, only to ressurect as something not quite something else, but still not all of the same.
Still I could follow the events unfolding, when I bothered to or needed to, but really, why would I bother.
Of course, I have checked out the odd MMO, and the even one too, in the meantime, but still none can compare to the sandbox that is EVE.
Grind NPCs, repeat, manufacture stuff, repeat, act like nothing other than a machine and do the robotic routines of the gameworld; watch your experience bar rise.
In EVE, I don't do any of that which we call carebear stuff: I kill people. PCs. Human adversaries are what online gaming has always been all about to me.
I hate "experience levels". Not in any tabletop rpg, computer rpg nor MMORPG have I been a follower of such unrealistic abstractions.
Always was a fan of skill progression and gradual development in areas of personal design, not the railroad to glory in which character classes (where "individuals" are still the same as the rest of the people in the same class) have to follow the same path for the same rewards at the same steps, and it annoys me even writing about that, so I'll stop.
Character levels was something brought along by the first generation of RPGs, and mitigated by the second generation of RPGs (like Traveller, GURPS, CoC, T2K, and so on).
I enjoyed Star Wars Galaxies immensely, until the Combat Upgrade (which dumbed down the game to 1st Gen)...
I enjoy Elder Scrolls games, with their version of levelling through skill progression.
And I fucking love EVE! Wayward as I may have been travelling throughout the realms of several other online games, they have never been able to give me that same satisfaction, that same... Je ne sais quoi.
No matter how old you are, how long you have been playing this game, a noob can kill you in the right situation. There's no "level", only the ship you fly, and the situation in which shit happens.
No need to bother with any rats (NPCs); PVP can be everything if you want it to be, and prey is everywhere.
Arkons of Myth may be no more, Imperial Republic Of the North may be gone, R E D E M P T I O N may be an abandoned pack of IT pet noobs alone from all the old guard now, but still, even though the pilots of old are now scattered across the galaxy, retired, or dead, the legacy will live on in the hearts of those who were part of it, whereever they are. And whereever the path takes me now, I am on a journey to hunt you down because you play this game.
...And if you're not blue, I'll fucking kill you. ;)
Nosec 4 Life, bitches!
